Trivia / Sengoku Basara

• Bad Export for You: The first Sengoku Basara was released in the west as Devil Kings. At the behest of producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi, this release removed all references to Japan's Warring States period: the setting was said to be a "Devilish World" rather than feudal Japan (as a way of loosely tying the game in to Devil May Cry), character names were changed to more generic names such as "Azure Dragon" and "Scorpio" for Masamune and Yukimura, respectively (although the names were still made in consideration of their general themes. For instance, Masamune wouldn't be called "Azure Dragon" if he didn't have massive dragon motifs and having a majorly blue color scheme), and several changes were made to the game's mechanics, including altered difficulty, weapons being removed or added, and a "priming" attack to weaken enemies. This version of the game was poorly received, and as such, the second game and its updated version were never released outside of Japan. Thankfully, the third game's localization was much more faithful.
• Cash-Cow Franchise: The sheer amount of merchandise that this series has produced is just staggering.
• Casting Gag: Combined with Fridge Brilliance. Considering how much this series like to pick up Gundam alumnus to voice their character, assigning Daisuke Namikawa as Miyamoto Musashi and making the latter as obnoxious as possible may be an acknowledgement to a recurring meta gag that Namikawa's voiced characters in Gundam tend to generate (un)expected hatedom.
  • Another slight example tends to be that a majority of the seiyuu have voiced other Sengoku portrayals, with some VA's paralleling Samurai Warriors as a result. One such example is Johnny Yong Bosch voicing Yukimura in both Samurai Warriors and Sengoku Basara.
• Crosscast Role: Visual Kei band Disacode frontwoman Akira played Uesugi Kenshin in the stageshow adaptation.
• The Danza:
  • Kasuga was called "Venus" in Devil Kings, and voiced by Venus Terzo.
  • Sayaka Ohara voices Magoichi. Guess what her real name is.
• Franchise Killer: Sengoku Basara: Yukimura-den. The game was not well received due to a rather lackluster addition (only adding the rest of the Sanada family, Masayuki and Nobuyuki, with Nobuyuki's gimmick coming off rather similar with Hideyoshi's), the only playable campaigns are of the Sanada family (which are short) and a Darker and Edgier feel with character deaths. But the most damning one? It's priced like a full game when the contents were sufficient for more like a side-game. Even the Japanese were not that pleased with how Yukimura-den performed, and for once not bringing it to the States might sound like a good idea. At that point, no more mainline games were made, and the franchise was reduced to stage plays, High School AU spin off (Gakuen Basara/Basara Academy) and, a mobile gacha game which sadly, according to those who played it, were also underwhelming when compared to other mobile gacha games (and also drains much more money compared to the others). Said mobile gacha game was shutdown on December 21, 2020, with no announcements for a fifth game, or another spin-off. Their only recent appearance was just in Teppen as usable cards (though that was before the announcement of the gacha shutdown), and after the mobile gacha game was shutdown, Oichi became a full-blown hero in the following month. Unlike the gacha game, TEPPEN is available in English and released outside of Japan, once again giving the franchise another shot of international exposure.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Following Tomoko Kawakami's death in 2011, Itsuki was briefly voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro.
  • The anime's English dub has several replacements (Robert McCollum replacing Reuben Langdon as Masamune), but does manage to keep a good chunk of its cast from Samurai Heroes. However, End of Judgment has this suddenly in play for Mitsunari when Troy Baker is replaced by Matthew Mercer. Justified for Ujimasa in the same season, as Jerry Russell had died in the interim between seasons 1 and 3 and was replaced by Sean Hennigan.
  • During the development of Gakuen Basara/Basara Academy, Tōru Ōkawa was in the middle of a hiatus to recover from illness. So, Toshiki Masuda filled in for him as Tokugawa Ieyasu. Funnily enough, shortly after, Okawa announced that he's back into voice acting since his illness was already over. Naturally, Okawa reprises his role for Battle Party.
• Dueling Games: Capcom created this series as an answer to Samurai Warriors, and surprisingly, it both sold better and was critically praised (in Japan, anyway) for being considerably more unique than the leader it was following. This probably explains why the new officers in Samurai Warriors 2 and beyond have much more wacky powers and personalities than their predecessors, and why the mash-up dream-match game Warriors Orochi was even created in the first place. They're also very aware of their yaoi followings, therefore feels more open in cramming in their Ho Yay elements and lessening the prominence of women in their game. It's also noted that both series also has some sort of 'competition' in bringing historical officers in their roster, if there's a character who's exclusively in Basara, only a matter of time until Musou gives out their own rendition. To wit, on the Basara side:
  • Maeda Keiji, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Oichi were in Samurai Warriors 1 before being added to Sengoku Basara 2
  • Fuuma Kotarou, Azai Nagamasa and Miyamoto Musashi were in Samurai Warriors 2 before being added to Sengoku Basara 2 (and technically so is Naoe Kanetsugu)
  • Saika Magoichi was in Samurai Warriors 1 before being added to Sengoku Basara 3 (as a woman)
  • Ishida Mitsunari was in Samurai Warriors 2 before being added to Sengoku Basara 3
  • Kuroda Kanbee/Kanbei and Tachibana Muneshige were in Samurai Warriors 3 before being added to Sengoku Basara 3
  • Shima Sakon and Shibata Katsuie were in Samurai Warriors 2 before being added to Sengoku Basara 4
  • Ii Naotora was in Samurai Warriors Chronicle 2nd before being added to Sengoku Basara 4
  • Sanada Nobuyuki was in Samurai Warriors 4 before being added to Sengoku Basara Yukimura-den
  • Katou Kiyomasa was in Samurai Warriors 3 before being added to Sengoku Basara Battle Party
  • Komatsuhime (as Inahime) was in Samurai Warriors Xtreme Legends before being added to Sengoku Basara Battle Party
  • And if the character stays exclusive with Basara, chances are, they are meant to be 'off-shoots' or 'semi-Expy' to existing archetype within Musou:
    • Sarutobi Sasuke (debuted at Sengoku Basara 1) is Basara's 'top ninja' to Musou's Hattori Hanzou (debuted at Samurai Warriors 1). That is, before Sasuke himself got announced for Sanada-Maru
    • Kasuga (debuted at Sengoku Basara 1) is Basara's 'token fictional kunoichi' to Musou's Kunoichi (debuted at Samurai Warriors 1).
    • Tsuruhime (debuted at Sengoku Basara 2) is Basara's 'archer princess' to Musou's Inahime (debuted at Samurai Warriors 1 Xtreme Legends)... that is, before Inahime (as Komatsuhime) is introduced in Battle Party.
  • The two companies ended up duking it out with their Yukimura-centric expansion based on the popularity of the NHK Drama Sanada-Maru. Capcom went first with Yukimura-den, but it ended up as a bomb that put the franchise on life-support, as opposed to Koei's Spirit of Sanada. Despite so, Capcom cared enough to still give out continued support for a mobile game, until it's eventual shutdown in December 2020.
• Executive Meddling: The anime's second season is designed to bring the anime story into line with the game's Canon, leading to almost half the cast coming back to life for no adequately explained reason.s a guy.
• Fan Translation:
  • The fourth game of the franchise is undergoing an attempt to do so, over an decade since the last translated english game.
• No Export for You: Only the first game (in the form of "Devil Kings") and the base version of the third game have been released outside of Japan so far, with Capcom having no plans to bring over any more games. Averted with all three seasons of the anime as well as The Last Party, which were licensed and brought over to the States by Funimation.
• Posthumous Credit: At the announcement of Battle Party, it was revealed that Kouji Tsujitani managed to finish the voicelines necessary for Azai Nagamasa to be featured in the game, shortly before the former passed away.

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