''Sengoku BASARA Samurai Heroes'', known in Japan as ''Sengoku BASARA 3'', is a

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

hack and slash Hack and slash, also known as hack and slay (H&S or HnS) or slash 'em up, refers to a type of gameplay that emphasizes combat with melee-based weapons (such as swords or blades). They may also feature projectile-based weapons as well (such as ...

action Action may refer to: * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video game Film * Action film, a genre of film * ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford * ''Action'' (1980 fil ...

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

developed and published by

Capcom is a Japanese video game developer and video game publisher, publisher. It has created a number of List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being ''Resident Evil' ...

. It is the third major installment in the ''

Sengoku BASARA is a series of video games developed and published by Capcom, and a bigger media franchise based on it, including four anime shows, an anime movie, a live action show, a magazine series, a trading card game, and numerous drama CDs, light nove ...

'' game series and the second game in the series to be released worldwide. It was released for the

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on Novemb ...

and

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other Regional lockout, regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major ho ...

in July 2010 in Japan and worldwide in October.

Gameplay

''Samurai Heroes'' is a "hack and slash" combat style that emphasizes large battlefields and an element of strategy. The strength of the controlled character allows for superhuman feats of destruction against multiple foes, and the battles revolve around defeating large numbers of enemies. Additionally, missions are completed (in general) by defeating "gate captains" and eventually a

boss Boss may refer to: Occupations * Supervisor, often referred to as boss * Air boss, more formally, air officer, the person in charge of aircraft operations on an aircraft carrier * Crime boss, the head of a criminal organization * Fire boss, a ...

and/or mini-bosses. ''Samurai Heroes'' mixes up the gameplay by adding in other objectives, as well, such as guarding a castle or destroying an enemy's food reserves. The uniqueness of each character allows for different fighting styles, such as those which focus on hitting a large number of enemies versus those which focus on a few (excellent for killing boss characters). Combos can be easily performed, and characters have the ability to gain levels by completing stages, eventually unlocking skills and/or adding additional power to their existing ones. Weapon acquisition and customization is also an integral element of the game. The difficulty levels were named differently in the Western versions of the game to make the game more difficult (with the Japanese Normal becoming Easy and Japanese Hard becoming Normal). However this doesn't affect the EXP and spoils of war received after finishing stages, unlike

Devil Kings ''Devil Kings'', known in Japan as , is a 2005 video game for the PlayStation 2, developed and published by Capcom. It is the first installment in the ''Sengoku Basara'' franchise. The game's theme song for the Japanese version is "Crosswise" by ...

Characters

''Characters marked with (*) are unplayable NPCs (except for Takeda Shingen, who was only in cutscenes) in the original game that have become playable in its expansion, Sengoku BASARA 3 Utage''
''Bold denotes starter characters in the main game and Samurai Heroes''
''Matsunaga Hisahide (**) did appear in Sengoku BASARA 2 Heroes as an NPC but he makes his first playable appearance in Sengoku BASARA 3 Utage''

Regional Warlords

NPC characters that serve as bosses and/or mini-bosses with no role in the story, and aren't playable in any of the games (have made their first appearance in ''Samurai Heroes''):

Nanbu Harumasa Nanbu may refer to: Places * Nanbu, Aomori, Japan * Nanbu, Tottori, Japan * Nanbu, Yamanashi, Japan * Nanbu County, Sichuan Province, China * Nanbu Domain, a feudal domain in northeastern Japan People with the surname *, Japanese samurai and ''da ...

Satake Yoshishige was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the Sengoku period. He was the 18th generation head of the Satake clan. He was renowned for his ferocity in battle; he was also known by the nickname of . Biography Yoshishige (whose rank was Hitachi no suke) was t ...

, Utsunomiya Hirotsuna, Anegakōji Yoritsuna,

Amago Haruhisa was a ''daimyō'' warlord in the Chūgoku region of western Japan. He was the second son of Amago Masahisa. Initially named Akihisa (詮久), he changed his name to Haruhisa in 1541 after Ashikaga Yoshiharu offered to let him use a ''kanji'' chara ...

, and

Naoe Kanetsugu was a Japanese samurai of the 16th–17th centuries. The eldest son of Higuchi Kanetoyo, Kanetsugu was famed for his service to two generations of the Uesugi ''daimyōs''. He was also known by his court title, Yamashiro no Kami (山城守) or ...

Soundtrack

The opening theme is "Naked arms" by

T.M.Revolution is a Japanese musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, voice artist, radio personality, and businessman. He performs under the stage name T.M.Revolution (TMR), which stands for , stemming from the famous '80s pop electronic band TM ...

. The American version of the game uses the English version of "Naked Arms" as its opening. The ending theme is "Gyakkō" by

Chiaki Ishikawa is a Japanese singer-songwriter. She is also the lead vocalist of Japanese musical duo See-Saw. Many of her songs, both solo and with See-Saw, have been used as theme songs in various anime series. Since 2003, her popularity abroad as part of S ...

. The American and European versions of the game uses an instrumental track called "The Last Brave" by Rei Kondoh, due to licensing restrictions.

Reception

In North America, the game received "mixed or average" reviews on both platforms according to the

review aggregation A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

. In Japan, the game received "generally favorable" reviews. Japanese video game magazine, ''

Famitsu formerly ''Famicom Tsūshin'', is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the fo ...

'', gave the PS3 version a score of 9/9/8/8 for a total of 34/40 and the Wii version a score of 9/8/8/8 for a total of 33/40. Capcom announced later that the game had sold over 500,000 units in Japan by September 8, 2010, becoming the

best-selling A bestseller is a book or other media noted for its top selling status, with bestseller lists published by newspapers, magazines, and book store chains. Some lists are broken down into classifications and specialties (novel, nonfiction book, cookb ...

''Sengoku BASARA'' game and bringing the total sold for the series to 2.1 million. The game was later re-released under the PlayStation 3 ''the Best'' label (which means it is a best-seller in Japan). The game sold a total of 292,519 units during its first week on sale in Japan (PS3: 242,698 units/Wii: 49,821 units) with the PS3 version being the top-selling game of the week and the Wii version being the fifth best-selling game of the week. This would be the highest debut for a ''Sengoku BASARA'' game so far. The game has sold a total of 610,818 units in Japan (PS3: 422,765 units/Wii: 188,053 units).

References

External links

Official ''Sengoku BASARA 3'' websiteOfficial ''Sengoku BASARA 3 Utage'' website
* * {{Sengoku Basara 2010 video games 3D beat 'em ups Capcom beat 'em ups Crowd-combat fighting games PlayStation 3 games Video games about samurai Sengoku Basara Sengoku video games Video game sequels Wii games Cooperative video games Split-screen multiplayer games Cultural depictions of Oda Nobunaga Video games developed in Japan Video games scored by Kow Otani ja:戦国BASARA