Sengoku Basara at it's best!
Plot:
Sengoku Basara Samurai heroes' plot follows on after the defeat of Toyotomi Hideyoshi (Daimyo) and the victory of Tokugawa Ieyasu.
In the game, Ishida Mitsunari seeks revenge for the death of his leader (Hideyoshi) and tries to defeat Ieyasu leading to the battle of Sekigahara.
Obviously, the plot isn't all about these two but involves many notable samurai's and Daimyo's. You can play many characters ranging from Date Masamune to Tsuruhime (around 16 characters) and you decide which states you fight against and what the outcome will be in the end.
Also, most of the battles are actual war's that have occurred in the past.
Gameplay and screen options:
As mentioned before you will be able to play around 16 characters but you will have to unlock them.
At the title screen you can choose between playing the story or play the "freedom battle" where basically you can choose any character and play in any battle where you couldn't in the story.
You can select the level of difficulty as well: easy, normal and hard.
In the story you play as your chosen character and select which battles to initiate in each round of the story. Before initiating the battle, you have the option of:
-Changing weapons and adding upgrades to the weapon, such as: HP up, MP up, Basara Gauge up, defense up, etc,etc.
-Add a support character that will aid you in battles, Special Basara technique selection (choose 1 of 3), a costume selection (1 of 2)
-Create upgrades by gathering the required materials during battles.
-Guide for controls,etc
-Save and BGM options,etc
Now for the attacks.
-You have your basic combo attack which is done by repeatedly pressing square
-Triangle gives you a special attack that can be powered up by holding triangle.
-R1 gives you another special attack that is more of a rush attack.
-L1 parry's attacks.
-L1+triangle gives you an attack that can be prolonged by holding the L1 and spamming triangle.
-L2 gives you the ability to slow down time.
-R2 enables you to use that special technique chosen in the weapon selection screen.
You then have 2 very important techniques the Basara attack and the Ultimate Basara attack. One enables you to use your signature move and the other is when you slow down time AND use the signature move.
With all these techniques used in battle the system will record HITS. If you get a certain amount of combo hits such as 500 you start getting more money from enemies and when you reach 1000 hits you get double the money from enemies gotten from 500 hits. Hits will vanish if you do not hit an enemy in about 3 seconds so be careful.
The map of the battle will show you where you and the enemy bases are present. You will have to defeat the commanders of the enemy bases to proceed to another zone (this will sometimes be a gate, etc.)
The blue marks are your warriors whilst the red ones are the enemy.
During battles you will encounter chests or other destructible objects. Red chests will often give you hp food and blue chests mp drinks. Some chests may give you money or treasure.
At the end of a war/battle a screen will come up telling you how much experience you have received leading to a level up, what materials you have gotten, special weapon upgrade or new weapon,etc. How much experience you get all depends on the amount of hits made, how many enemies have been defeated,etc.
During some battles you may encounter a horse which is available to ride on and attack enemy units. It's fast so saves time.
Also in the screen selection there is a gallery option where you can see short movies of the plot, character profiles, war/battle information,music,etc
Sound/BGM:
It's great and totally fits in with the game. You will hear some BGM's countless times but you won't get bored of them.
Camera controls:
Let me start off by saying the camera controls in this game can get really annoying. You use the L3 stick to move the camera but when you initiate in battle the camera will move its own way sometimes, especially in an intense battle.
On the other hand, it isn't a great issue.
May i add that Local/Offline co-op of up to 2 players is also available in this game. However, i have not tried it therefore i am unable to review this section of the game.
Please note that all the characters' game play in this game are unique, therefore it would be really hard to analyze them all here. Some are fast others are slow, others are long range others are short range...etc.
All in all, Sengoku Basara 3/ samurai heroes is a great beat 'em-up game that captivates the player into the Sengoku Era in a more "bizarre" way. It will bring you hours of fun and has great replay value.