Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes
Sengoku BASARA Samurai Heroes, known in Japan as Sengoku BASARA 3, is a 2010 hack and slash, action video game developed and published by Capcom. It is the third major installment in the "Sengoku BASARA" game series and the second game in the series to be released worldwide. It was released for the PlayStation 3 and Wii on 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 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. 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, Satake Yoshishige, Utsunomiya Hirotsuna, Anegakōji Yoritsuna, Amago Haruhisa, and Naoe Kanetsugu. Soundtrack. The opening theme is "Naked arms" by T.M.Revolution. The  American version of the game uses the English version of "Naked Arms" as its opening. The ending theme is "Gyakkō" by Chiaki Ishikawa. The American version of the games uses an instrumental track called "Kizuna, Kokorozashi, Inochi" by Kow Otani, due to licensing restrictions. Reception. In North America, the game received "mixed or average" reviews on both platforms according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. In Japan, the game received "generally favorable" reviews. Japanese video game magazine, "Famitsu", 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 "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).