During the Sengoku era of Japan's history, warring
states set the stage for constant episodes of war
and unrelenting bloodshed. As a general serving a
clan, players lead troops into battle and clash with
the opposing forces of another clan. In our first
game this morning, NCS chose the blonde ninja named
Kasuga who attacks with a set of kunai clenched
between her fingers. She slashes and cleaves entire
groups of enemy soldiers into ribbons and has with a
twirling attack which blows back groups of foes.
Kasuga may also perform a move where she jumps up
and showers down rigid strands of pink wire which
chops up everyone within range. When the blonde
ninja needs to travel a wide expanse, press twice on
the jump button and a white bird magically appears
to loft her over the battlefield and into range of
an enemy contingent.
Each mission begins at one end of a map and the
goal is to travel to the other end and confront the
enemy leader in a climactic battle. Each hero is
accompanied by at least one comrade who travels with
him or her and provides backup muscle. While
traveling through a level, containers and urns may
be broken open to uncover power-ups to recover
health and special items that are tallied at the end
of every level.
NCS Game Notes & Spoilers
» In the intro to the game, Maeda Keiji drinks from
a red bowl as he sits on a roof while cherry
blossoms fall. In the next scene, a blue-armored
rider named Date Masamune rushes through a
battlefield on a horse while cutting all of the
soldiers before breaking through a wooden watchtower
with both sword arms outstretched. Sanada Yukimura
spins and battles enemy soldiers and faces off
against Date Masamune who attacks with a vengeance.
Maeda Keiji joins the battle and blows both heroes
away with a rippling attack that breaks up the
ground. A stream of arrows or a quick sword flies
through the air and two other heroes pose in the
distance - Takenaka Hanbei and Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
Storm clouds gather behind them and Toyotomi starts
bristling with fiery power. Later, Maeda Keiji flies
through the cosmos destroying asteroids in outer
space with a blazing sword. That's believable. The
other heroes also fly through the heavens and
Toyotom faces off against heroes as flames erupt
around him. Soon afterwards, the title screen
appears. The theme song is "Dive into Yourself" by
High and Mighty Color.
» There's a large amount of fighters featured in
the game. You can view all of them in action if you
leave the game at the title screen alone and don't
touch anything. A cinema will play which shows off
every fighters in quick cut sequences as they battle
foes and blow out magical attacks. One girl pumps
her weapon with her foot and enemies explode in the
distance.
» In the option menu, players may select
vibration on/off, audio type, volume levels, and set
the controller configuration. To reset the
controller button to default, press the START
button.
» A Gallery Mode features an image of the
character on the left and a voice sampler on the
right. Select a character out of the first seven
available fighters and then listen to various
sayings that they utter. To change characters while
in the gallery mode, push the L or R trigger. Every
character has 30 sayings to listen to.
Other items in the Gallery Mode:
● Movie gallery - at the outset, the intro and 2
demo movies are viewable but 46 movies in total are
viewable eventually as you unlock them in the game.
● Soundtrack player - listen to BGM - three are
available at the outset but 60 total are eventually
available once unlocked.
● Historical primer on the Sengoku era with pages
of text to flip through - there are 25 selections in
total and all are unlocked at the outset.
● Ranking list - blank at the beginning because
no one's played the game yet
● Image gallery - pictures are hidden behind open
hand fans and must be unlocked.
» Seven characters are playable at the outset as
follows:
● Sanada Yukimura
● Oda Nobunaga
● Kasuga
● Chousokabe Motochika
● Toyotomi Hideyoshi
● Date Masamune
● Maeda Keiji
» There's a VS mission mode where you choose a
fighter and battle against another fighter in a 3D
battlefield. Before getting to the fighter however,
you run through his domain and destroy his troops.
There's a certain satisfaction to plunge deep into a
crowd of enemy soldiers and decimate their ranks by
slashing a few times.
» Enemy soldiers can hunker down and hide behind
wooden shields but they're easily splintered and
destroyed, leaving the soldiers behind them sword
fodder.
» When enemies surrender, they'll lie down or
crouch downwards face forwards and assume a docile
position. They'll still grip their swords however
which may signal the wrong intention to a brutish
attacker. We left them alone since they had
surrendered and NCS aren't complete animals. While
docile, enemies will also run forward and wail like
a hyena as they stumble in fear of your mighty
sword.
» Some enemies are brutes who carry massive
timber weapons with a mace on top which they bash
downwards. When you slash away at them, they'll spin
and stumble as they die and eventually fall down.
» When fighting a boss, attacking him
sequentially and not letting up with chain the
attacks together and dizzy him so that he can't
counterattack.
» When bosses and sub-bosses enter the fray, a
short cinema shows their entry into the battlefield.
» Soldiers don't fight back in the early levels.
There were times when we slashed hundreds of
soldiers in the thick of the battle but not one
soldier raised a sword or fought back. They just
sort of stood there, ineffectual as they raised
their swords in front of their faces as if shy and
timid. We want bloodthirsty enemies slashing away
with wild abandon when they sight us. When a soldier
later does connect and knocks hero down and soldiers
are all standing around him, they don't stab away
like a pig roast. They just stand there, waiting for
the hero to rise up again. In later levels, the
enemies present more of a challenge where giant
enemy soldiers and formidable swordsmen join the
ranks of the foot soldiers. The giants have thick
hides and powerful sword strokes that send a hero
flying if they connect.
» The first option in the game is Story Mode
where you choose one of the seven characters and
enjoy a unique character-oriented tale. If you
choose the blonde ninja Kasuga, she starts off while
standing on a tree branch. A bullet time sequence
commences where flying stars approach and she bends
backwards to avoid them. Later she creeps up on the
ninja that threw them and camera cuts away but the
scream of the ninja is heard as she presumably
slashes someone's throat. After the intro, a voice
over explains the situation with her and her
situation during the Warring States or Sengoku era
of Japan's history. She then runs off on missions
against various generals, heroes, and their
contingents of enemies.
» In some levels, a soldier with a horn can be
seen and heard blowing it to call for reinforcements
which appear in the blink of an eye.
» In one level, the mid-level bosses are a pair
of gold statues on tank treads who shoot out a
continual supply of their arms. They'll perform some
tai-chi moves and then shoot off arms as projectiles
at the player and cohorts. When defeated, the parts
of the tank fall apart as limbs and body segments
blow up in a slow rumbling of fire and smoke. The
boss at the end of this level gives out gold coins
in the middle of the fight to regain health and
curry favor from subjects.
» The battlefields are a varied lot that's miles
more interesting than the plain old battlefields of
the Sengoku Musou games that were basically flat. In
Sengoku Basara 2, players will scale buildings and
stairs to reach the top, run across wooden logs tied
together on a convoluted walkway to the goal, and
hilly fields where a far away distance cannot be
seen until scaled. Along with running up stairs,
there's also running down stairs.
» A sub-boss in the game splits himself into
multiple copies of himself and battles the hero like
a gang. He's fairly formidable but equal parts
defense and offense conquers him. A battle against
Kasuga played by a skilled player becomes a ballet
of strikes and parries as the enemy clones solidify
to attack and then blink away to evade attacks.
Kasuga twirls, attacks, and lets loose with light
attacks where wires are planted on the ground. The
master of the level is an old guy who attacks with a
ice spear. If he manages to stick it into the ground
in front of your hero, big crystal ice shards grow
out of the ground and cause damage. After the
attack, watch as he struggles to pull it out of the
ground. Although the boss appears with a contingent
of soldiers - they do nothing to help him and it's
basically a one-on-one battle. He's a patsy and his
clone-bodyguards were more of a challenge. Defeating
him consists of a few juggles where he's struck up
and then attacked simultaneously. Wash. Rinse.
Repeat. Kasuga's special attack is one where she
seemingly hyperspaces all around the enemy while
attacking like an avenging banshee. The attack ends
with a powerful forward thrust attack... which is
useless if no one's standing in front of her
however.
» After each level, the spoils of war are tallied
and level-up duties are performed.
» Suicide bombers exist in Sengoku Basara 2. They
carry a massive bomb on their backs with the fuses
already lit. They'll run right into the hero and
blow up to cause damage. To stop him, slash him down
as he homes in on your position and he'll spin, fuse
will go out, and he'll drop dead. We also spotted
human armadillos. Sort of. They wear spiky armor and
roll up into a ball and steam towards you.
» Sengoku Basara 2 doesn't bring anything
radically new to the Sengoku Musou hack 'n slash
thousands upon thousands of soldiers genre. What it
does bring is relatively exciting gameplay with
enough twists and interesting sights to keep a jaded
player going deep into the action. As the story
unfolds, new enemies are added to the game along
with tougher enemies bosses and tactics.
» Conquest mode (second option) is where you
select a fighter and then select enemies on a map to
battle. A short cinema precedes the action where the
enemy is shown and then the player has to fight his
way through the ranks to reach the enemy captain. A
map is shown on the upper right corner.
Sengoku Basara 2 Heroes
Update: November 29, 2007
