Sengoku Basara Retrospective: Sengoku Basara 2

The first Sengoku Basara wasn’t exactly a big hit in Japan, but it was received well enough so a sequel was inevitable.  The first game had a lot of room for improvement, to put it lightly, so this was another chance to do the formula it established better and boy did it ever.  Sengoku Basara 2 is where the franchise really starts.  It’s like the Street Fighter 2 or Metal Gear Solid of Sengoku Basara.  Like those franchises, the improvements are so drastic, and the story so unrelated, that the first game can be ignored.

No T.M. Revolution.  We’re off to a… bad start?

TV Edits of the Viewtiful Joe anime: Episode 18

In this episode, Joe and Junior are in a futuristic city and one of the robot servants there washes the V-watch, causing Joe's mach speed to go out of control and function as a flux capacitor.  I'm pretty sure the film they're in is Metropolis, which is supported by the city being named Mechatropolis.  I can't imagine there's a lot that would need editing for this episode, but let's see.

Sengoku Basara Retrospective: Devil Kings

In a well-lit office building on the top floor, an executive of a major gaming company inhales a line of a white powdery substance through a straw up his nose.  We will call him Crappy Com.

Shortly after, Crappy Com’s subordinate comes in.  This subordinate knows a thing or two about game design and what people like in a game.  We will call him Captain Obvious.

“Sengoku Basara is a decent hit,” says Captain Obvious.  “We should get it ready for America.”

Crappy twitches and stares at nothing in particular.  “Yeah.  Yeah.  America.  Yeah,” he says.  “I have an idea though.  What if we, like, do that, but make it NOT Japan?  No Japan.  Americans hate Japan.  Yeah.”  Crappy then sniffs a dribbling nose.

“That’s a terrible idea”, says Captain.  “Being in Japan the entire premise.  It’s where the title comes from.”

“Glad you like it.  Let’s do it!”

And thus, Devil Kings was born.

No T.M. Revolution.  We’re already off to a bad start.

Sengoku Basara Retrospective: Sengoku Basara 1

Capcom has made some of my favorite game franchises of all time and there was even a time when I considered them the best company in all of gaming.  The Viewtiful Joe franchise is my favorite in both gaming and anime, Resident Evil is somewhere in the top 5 and Devil May Cry is somewhere in the top 15.  I already did a long series all about both Capcom and SNK’s accomplishments in the arcades, but just below Resident Evil and above Devil May Cry in Capcom’s portfolio is the greatest crowd fighting beat-em-up franchise ever and unfortunately one that Capcom has routinely squandered for anyone outside Japan: Sengoku Basara.

Sengoku Basara has an interesting history, particularly for the western world. What used to be a shining example of Capcom’s brilliance over a decade ago is now symbolic of why Capcom is now the worst company in gaming, but to understand how the franchise got to that point, you have to know where it came from up to where it is today.  Everyone who has ever held a controller who hasn’t already needs to play these games.

For this retrospective, I will go over each main game in Sengoku Basara’s history, what makes them so great (or rather, what makes the sequels great), what made/makes Capcom so bad or otherwise incompetent, and I have a lot to say about some of the spin-off media too, of which there is much.  I won’t go too into the production history because what matters to me most is the end result and the context of when they were released.

The starting point of the whole franchise is of course the very first game and its very first opening, performed by T.M. Revolution, who would come to establish themselves as THE rock band of Sengoku Basara.

TV Edits of the Viewtiful Joe Anime: Episode 17

In this episode, Joe and Alastor pose and Captain Blue and a made-up squid villain, respectively, in order to cheer up a little kid in the hospital voiced by Mona Marshall.  It's an episode that leans hard into the comedy aspect of this franchise so there isn't a lot that needed censoring.  When you don't need to cut for content, you cut for time.