Sengoku Basara Retrospective: Sengoku Basara 2 Heroes

When Capcom makes a hit game it’s almost a compulsion for them to make an updated version of it later.  It’s a practice almost synonymous with Capcom and Sengoku Basara 2 follows that tradition with Sengoku Basara 2 Heroes, or at least it kind of does.

That is one of the best openings ever and it made me buy Blade Chord on the itunes store.

For the most part Sengoku Basara 2 Heroes is an updated version of Sengoku Basara 2.  The controls, stages and characters are all there with some additions and updates.  If that were all it was it wouldn’t get its own post, but there’s more to discuss with it that warrants more than a passive mention.

One of the first things to notice with 2 Heroes is the shift in art style.  All the 3D renders from the original menus are replaced with lovely and expressive 2D artwork courtesy of animation studio Magic Bus and the menus and UI were updated as well.

Every NPC from the original version of 2 has been made into a playable character for 2 Heroes, making for an impressive roster of 30 playable characters, but not all of them were given equal attention.  Kojuro, Nagamasa and Oichi were each given their own full-length story and Kotaro Fuuma was given one of the new Gaiden Stories, which are shorter and otherwise reserved for some of the returning characters.  The handful of other newly playable characters don’t get stories, have far fewer special attacks and a couple are moveset clones.  That makes them feel like afterthoughts, but they do still have their own victory animations, taunts and customization options like any other character so they can still be fun to use even if there isn’t a lot to them.

The replacement of 3D renders carried over to the new character stories, each of which opens and closes with anime cutscenes also from Magic Bus.  I like that this pure 2D aesthetic gives 2 Heroes its own identity, but the anime cutscenes are pretty cheaply done and short, the total opposite of the ones in the first game..  Magic Bus doesn’t have as many particularly notable anime to their name as Manglobe does, but they do have a history and would later animate the Yo-Kai Watch anime.  If nothing else the short cutscenes they do are more vibrant and colorful than Manglobe’s darker palette.

The stories themselves are some of the best yet.  Perhaps because Capcom only made a few of them to focus on, they have more cutscenes than the ones in Sengoku Basara 2, and because the Gaiden stories are shorter, they progress at a faster pace.  The stories introduce some of 2 Heroes’ new stages, especially Yukimura’s gaiden story and Kojuro’s full length story.  Yukimura’s is a linear gauntlet in Shingen’s newly-made Takeda Dojo, which contains all manner of traps, gimmicks and unique challenges.  Kojuro’s story sees him tangling with the game’s new non-playable opponent, Hisahide Matsunaga, and all the new stages that come with him.

Ironically, Samurai Warrior's Hisahide later on is more of a Sengoku Basara character than this.

Hisahide is also added to the game’s conquest mode.  In Sengoku Basara 2’s conquest mode, there was a chance of being interrupted by Miyamoto Musashi, who doesn’t have any particular loyalty to territory, and having to fight him.  Now in 2 Heroes, Hisahide, who also doesn’t have his own territory, can also invade the player’s conquest.

The new stories in Sengoku Basara 2 Heroes are the best yet, but came at a cost, and it’s why the game isn’t quite an updated re-release: they are the only ones.  All the stories in Sengoku Basara 2 are gone.  That’s over 20 stories from the original against 2 Heroes with only 3 full stories and 5 shorter ones.  Sure, all the stages used for SB2’s stories are playable, but those don’t account for the ways SB2’s stories would occasionally shake up the stages a bit, like the addition of allies or enemies with the unfolding plot, plus, obviously, the exclusion of cutscenes.

Replacing the stories of the original Sengoku Basara 2 is the only instance of omission in the upgrade to Sengoku Basara 2 Heroes though.  2 Heroes can share character progression data with Sengoku Basara 2 so you can level up a character in one to carry over into the other.  After you’re done with a character’s story in the original SB2 you’re probably not going to go back to it because 2 Heroes has more of everything else.

The preparation menu added a new spot for alternate costumes.  Every character has 3 they can unlock through beating certain modes and combined with the armor already in the original 2, there’s a good number of visual options for each character.

Those visual options are also made a little easier to obtain in this one.  As you play you earn lottery tickets that have the chance of giving you money or giving discounts to items in the shop, including a small chance of getting anything from the shop for free.  That reduces the need to grind to a crazy degree.

 

In the combat, 2 Heroes brings back something completely unexpected: priming!  Yes, the priming mechanic from Devil Kings was brought back for this one and is done much better.  Certain special attacks are given the additional benefit of being priming attacks.  Priming attacks cause enemies to stumble and in that moment they’ll take more damage from basic attacks.
Unlike Devil Kings, where a primed enemy is only indicated by a garish and distracting lightning circle around their health bar, here it’s visually indicated by the primed enemy being knocked down or stumbling and the health bar’s outline simply turning yellow.  It’s also better than Devil Kings by being purely optional.  The special attacks that were given the priming attribute still work the same with the same damage and you don’t even have to use them at all if you don’t want to, unlike Devil Kings that reduced their damage and forced it on you if you wanted any basara meter.  Here it’s just a little bonus, like getting an extra cookie in your take-out meal.

The biggest contribution Sengoku Basara 2 Heroes makes to the franchise is multiplayer.  Now a second player can join in with another character in split screen co-op play in anything but the story and free play modes.  I get why it’s not allowed in the mode focused on one single character, but I don’t know why free play mode isn’t an option.  You would think that would be the default designated multiplayer mode.  I can only guess that it’s because there are a few stages (like the Takeda Dojo) that were made with one player in mind and they didn’t want to bother programming in another free play menu that excludes such stages.  That means all the multiplayer fun is restricted to the conquest mode, the tournament mode (which has a new, harder one) and the bonus games, which contain some wacky minigames and challenges, including straight-up one on one battles.  Two characters designed for fighting several enemies at once in a one-on-one fight isn’t exactly Soul Calibur, but it’s a nice option.

It’s a big deal to be able to play with a second player, but there might’ve been a reason multiplayer wasn’t implemented sooner.  When playing it, the draw distance for both players dramatically drops.  It’s not as bad as the first Sengoku Basara’s was, but it’s still inconvenient you can’t see as far as you could before.  Certain stages were also not changed to accommodate the second player, namely the ones that utilize horseback because in stages with wide open spaces and tracks perfect for blowing through enemies on a horse, there’s still only one to mount.  That means one player blazes through the stage while the other one is left in the dust and has to go on foot like he’s chasing the guy who just stole his bike.  Despite the setbacks, this is a great game to play with others.  I’ve played Sengoku Basara 2 Heroes with people at game meetups and everyone loves its colorful style, satisfying action and easy to learn gameplay.  Anyone looking for a good co-op game should not miss it.

If there’s any one Sengoku Basara game to get from the PS2 era, it’s Sengoku Basara 2 Heroes.  It adds even more content to an already content-rich game and the addition of a 2 player option means friends can get in on all the fun.  That the stories of the original SB2 are omitted isn’t even that much of an issue nowadays because 2 Heroes was re-leased with the original in a double pack for the Wii in Japan and is bundled with it on the PS3’s Japan-only HD collection.  If you, for some reason, have a Japanese PS2, Japanese copies of both aren’t expensive either.

Of course, needing to use online translation guides for it is still a major burden and keeps the game from being as good as it could be, even if one were to ignore the still aggravating speaking style all the characters use in Japanese.  On its own Sengoku Basara 2 Heroes is on the same level as the original SB2, but if played with its predecessor for the complete experience, I give the overall package an 8 out of 10 that could have been a 9 if it were in English, which it makes no sense why it isn’t.

This game came out for the Wii in a time when the system was beloved by split screen multiplayer gamers and it had a minigame collection, which were all the rage at the time.  As a big Wii player myself, I would have jumped right on this!  They had the perfect opportunity to have an awesome, successful Wii game in English and they didn’t!  WHY?!

Oh yeah.

Captain Obvious entered Crappy Com’s office, which was unusually spotless without any white powder to be seen.  “Sir, Sengoku Basara 2 Heroes might be an even bigger hit than the first Sengoku Basara 2!  American Wii gamers are really looking for some quality Wii games to play!  Shall I get ready for a translated release there?”

After a moment of shaking with rage and frustration, and clearly not in his right mind, Crappy Com let it all out. “Thoseamericansdidn’tlikedevilkingsanddevilkingswasthebestideaweeverhaddon’tcomeinhereandinsultmewiththiscrapaboutamericanswantingsengokubasaraTHEYDIDN’TLIKEDEVILKINGSandthatmeanstheydon’twantsengokubasaraItellyoutimeandtimeagainhowmanytimesdoIhavetosayitfuckamericafucktheinternationalaudiencefuckenglishspeakersfuckthemoneyfu-“

After the paramedics left with Crappy in critical condition, Captain Obvious took his seat at the CEO’s desk, now in control.  “Let’s give Americans Sengoku Basara.”  He would proceed to do just that and begin the company’s redemption.