Pretty? Absolutely. Accurate? Not a chance.
For the most part, NetEase has shown a lot of their work in the mythology department, but the historical accuracy department is a bit off. The game is supposedly set in the Heian period, but many aspects of Japanese culture in the game didn't appear until the later Sengoku Period, Edo period or straight-up modern times due to the spread of Western culture and values. Let's just say we call this game "Heian Basara" for a reason.- Clothing:
- Most characters wear clothes that do not reflect Heian period dress, case in point the obi sash as it's seen today, which only appeared in the Edo period. Aside from this, a lot of characters, male or female, wear outfits that would be too revealing by Heian standards.
- Shoyō wears a High-Class Glass in his Awakened form. The first monocle was worn in the 1720s and is still viewed nowadays as a distinctly Western accessory.
- The mere appearance of such clothing items as stockings, skirts, button-up high-heeled boots and panties.
- Hell, the MOBA game does this so bad it deserves a section to its own. Gems include:
- Two Qipao skins for Aoandon.
- A Punk Rock-themed skin for Kaku, with the words "Punk Rock" printed on the outfit, complete with tattoos, a choker and spikes.
- A Meido costume for Kyūmeineko.
- It goes both ways too: older kyonshī brother gets an Ancient Egypt-themed skin with a pharaoh sarcophagus.
- On the topic of Ancient Egypt, we have Hōōka as a Belly Dancer.
- Abe no Seimei was born in 921, Minamoto no Hiromasa was born in 918 and Minamoto no Yorimitsu was born in 948, which means in real life, Seimei and Hiromasa were 27 and 30 years Yorimitsu's senior respectively. In this game, all three of them seem to be in their twenties at the same time and Yorimitsu looks older and more mature compared to the other two's Bishōnen looks despite being the youngest in real life.
- In a rare case of the game going the opposite way, Himiko. Just Himiko. Who is a historical figure from the Yamatai kingdom era.
- Nearly everyone speaks modern Kantō dialect, with a few people using archaic vocabulary and regional accents as their "unusual" traits (though this is certainly for readability purposes, as Heian Japanese is as hard to parse for native Japanese speakers as early Middle English is for modern English speakers).
- Usagimaru's favorite food is carrots. The earliest appearance of carrots in Japan was probably in the Muromachi period and extended no earlier than that.
- Some characters (namely Menreiki and Hannya) are heavily fashioned after the theatrical art of noh even though it didn't come to form until the 14th century, in the Muromachi period.
- Energy tokens used to enter battlefields are represented as salmon roe gunkan maki sushi. Ignoring how the very name of the dish (which translates to "battleship rolls") makes it sound out-of-place, the actual history of the dish is that it was invented in 1941 in a restaurant called Kyubey in the Ginza, Tokyo.
- Parasols are a frequent occurrence, most notably the weapons of choice of Kagura and Ubume. Though wagasa did exist in the latter half of the Heian period, it was not a parasol – it was instead a hat with a wide brim and veil-like cloth, which oddly is included in the game as Ubume's Awakened headwear.
- The entire character of Aoandon. She is associated with a pastime originating in the Edo period.
- Many characters are seen smoking kiseru pipes, most notably Kamikui and his sister En'enra. Both tobacco and kiseru were introduced to Japan in the Edo period.
- The ukiyo-e painting Great Wave off Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusai is visible in one of the houses in the city background.
- Some of the characters blatantly insert Gratuitous English into their sentences.
- Shōji panels (paper screen doors) also feature prominently, most notably as the transition animation, though they didn't appear until the Muromachi period.
- Some characters are Ninja (Kainin) or ninja-themed in certain skins (Itsumade and Hone-onna in Kessen!). Ninja proper appeared in the 15th century.
- Jikigaeru's skin dungeon has a Mahjong mechanic, though the game was invented in the Qing dynasty.
- The game has had crossover events with series that clearly don't take place in its era, namely Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan, Hozuki's Coolheadedness and Bleach (modern time) Inuyasha (Sengoku period) and Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (the 90s). While at least Hoozuki is excusable by virtue of all three (technically four) characters being thousand-year-old oni who existed during the Heian era (and this is the only crossover that is part of story canon), one has to wonder whether Time Travel was involved in the other cases.
- Goes the opposite way with the Shéndōu Yèxínglù crossover, as that game is set during the reign of Wu Zetian, which is earlier than the Heian period.
- Played completely straight with the seasonal events and their associated artworks, most notably Christmas and Thanksgiving, considering how these were only known to Japanese people since the late 19th century, a good 700 years into the future as of the Heian period. Also, since Thanksgiving is not celebrated anywhere outside of the American continent, it doubles as a case of Creator's Culture Carryover.
- The collaborative events with Kumamon basically are this. Not only was the mascot invented in 2010, the Trip to Kumamoto event even has the player fly to the Kumamoto prefecture on an airplane that they can fuel daily.
- Hell, the fact it's called Kumamoto prefecture. Back in the day, it was called Higo province!
- Kumamoto Castle also features in this event. It was built in the Bunmei era of the Muromachi period.
- Many characters also refer to dates and times using modern conventions, especially months, such as Dōmeki and Yuki-onna in all three of their bios, while Yōko's naming them correctly is meant to make him look literary and learned. In the Heian era, months are named based on the astrological, social, and natural events that take place during them, and the old Japanese calendar followed the Chinese lunar year, making any sort of correspondence with actual modern dates irrelevant. The current method of naming months only became widespread starting from the Edo period.
