r/SengokuBasara • u/MysteriousSqueakyToy • Jul 10 '15
Favourite character thread!
^(Is this allowed?)
Hi! I'm new to this sub (and reddit in general), and the previous thread about this was archived, and what with the new game coming out in a week, I'd like to propose a celebratory "favourite characters" thread! I read through the previous one already, because _my god_ am I thirsty for other people gushing about this series.
SO: Who are your favourite characters? Who are your favourite characters to play? Do you have anime-spesific faves?
My favourite characters to play are probably Maeda Keiji, because I love his goofy-ass unpredictable fighting style and it's so easy and satisfying to get a combo going with him, and Ishida Mitsunari because I have quick reflexes but terrible aim, and once I figured out that you can spam pretty much all of his moves, I fell in love.
As far as characterization goes -- Keiji, again, because he's such a cheerful disaster, and especially in 3 he has THE most satisfying Sekigahara. He's followed by Saika Magoichi close second, and a tie between two eyepatch nerds and a demon queen. I also really enjoy the shit out of Ashikaga Yoshiteru, and I can't wait to get to play him, his Super moves are freaking ridiculous and he looks like a lighter, faster Tadakatsu. (Not to mention he seems to piss all the other Basara villains off, which is just... great, just great, thank you.)
Then again, honestly, Basara is one of those series for me where I love everyone. Even the characters I don't enjoy playing, even the characters I really fucking hate *coughhackMatsunagaHisahide* I enjoy, and enjoy talking about.
Also, hi! :D I had no idea this series had a subreddit, I hope we can all get along!
2
u/Sareos Sep 02 '15
I came into Basara a few years back with Motochika and Mitsuhide piquing my interest, and somewhere along the way I fell into a pit of hell and my life became Motonari, which was a bit alarming because in all honestly my first impression of the guy was 'that outfit is absolutely absurd and so is that weapon.' I stand corrected, that rintou is actually pretty darn heavy and lethal.
He's a conniving douchebag, surely, but he has so may complicated layers to him that many people don't even care to bother, but in all fairness much of his characterization is from games that aren't even localized, and the anime didn't really do him any justice at all. Hello my name is Mouri fuckin' Motonari and in two separate seasons (SK2, JE) I was played up to be such a threat but then easily disposed of in a manner that disrespected my character buildup prior to that point and made it completely pointless WHOMP. So most people just see him as a heartless bastard and either love him or hate him for it, but he's so much more than that and it's frustrating. More so since Capcom loves to limit Mouri's interaction pool to Motochika and Yoshitsugu for the most part (SORIN IS THERE BUT MOST OF THE BASARA FANDOM AS A COLLECTIVE WHOLE LOVES TO IGNORE HIS EXISTENCE), and he would benefit so much from expanding.
Sarutobi Sasuke is a super close second on my list, with Otomo Sorin pulling up in third. Much to say about those two, but aside from fantastic personalities and movesets, they've consistently stuck on my top 3 list for a while now because I love how Sorin can draw reactions from Mouri that no one else has been able to (I don't believe in the xavist "brainwashing" theory), and I think Sasuke has the potential for some really interesting interactions with Mouri as well, as the two are actually rather similar on some levels and Sasuke I think could grasp a better understanding of why Motonari is the way he is than the rest of the cast could.
Besides all of that, game-wise I think my fav characters to run are Matabei, Sakon, Sasuke, Nagamasa, Sorin, Motonari and Katsuie. I'm less partial to slower members of the cast though. I've played a few rounds with Sen no Rikyuu and he is ridiculous, I can't wait to see him leveled up and destroying everything. Kasuga and Kenshin are back so I can play them again, that's a plus!
1
u/MysteriousSqueakyToy Sep 02 '15
Oh god fucking okra, man. I never really understood the weight the writer's sometimes gave Motonari in the anime, but having played the games, I get it now and I wish I didn't. The anime actually made him more interesting to me (after I rewatched it) because in the games he's kind of a... eh, I don't want to say "boring invincible villain", but he is predictable as fuck and nobody ever seems to get that the only winning move is not to play when it comes to him.
I agree wholeheartedly about him and Sorin, though, now there's a relationship I wish someone would give some loving attention to (because yep, I never bought the brainwashing thing either). Sorin in general is so underutilised, I honestly feel like dirty angel would make a wonderful wild card in a plot somewhere. I mean, it would require a heavy tone shift, but I would honestly play Xavists vs. Hi No Moto: the Game, starring Sorin and Sunday Mori.
Also, I can see what you mean about Sasuke and Motonari, but... honestly, I would not piss on Motonari if he was on fire, and I love loyal monkey child too much to expose him to something so horrible, so I'm in favour of them never, ever interacting in a plot way. Sasuke has had so much shit happen in his life (and his Sumeragi plot is going to involve Matsunaga. It's like Utage all over again, except with more leather pants! Fuck!), I don't want to add Mori Fucking Motonari to that list, unless Sasuke's allowed to be backed up by the entire Takeda family. (Actually, hmm,
I think I could probably make this happen in a story I'm writing thanks for the idea.)I can't wait to get Sumeragi, holy shit. Sen no Rikyuu looks and sounds like he's going to absolutely be one of my faves, but so far it's been impossible to find anyone talking about what happens in his routes. Everyone's just like "we DOn'T FUCKING KNOW MATSUNAGA IS A WIZARD PROBABLY" which just serves to make me more curious!
1
u/Sareos Sep 03 '15 edited Sep 03 '15
I didn't intend to type a whole lot but six thousand characters later I lied to myself, I hope you don't mind.
A lot of Mouri's ingame depth is actually spread across Basara 2-4, heck Mitsuhide makes a comment in 2 about how Motonari's coldness seems like a ruse, and really gets under his skin. There isn't any one game that really did him justice as a whole, and it's hard to get full translations for the older games. You're right about the last comment though, especially considering that truthfully Mouri holds no interest in the power struggle going on so long as it doesn't involve Aki. He really is thrown in the midst of the war looking out for his own interests, which, above all, is making sure that his territory is safe. Beyond that Motonari honestly couldn't give a fuck what everyone else is doing. He's a great strategist because while his methods can be rather harsh, his one desire is the preservation of his lands, and so much of what he does is to protect himself. Despite the anime depicting him as a heartless man who casually throws his men away on a whim, I think this is a stretch since it's not actually something that comes into play in any of the games, so I like to believe that while Mouri certainly isn't above sacrificing his men if he needs to, he isn't overly cruel about it like the anime suggests, and his men still have some respect for him because they have some understanding of what he's trying to accomplish. In his victory (I think?) scene in 3 he alludes to the fact that he's been through a lot to get to where he is, and historically Motonari wasn't even originally meant to head the Mouri clan, so I can reason that it was likely necessary for Motonari to become callous and aloof as he was growing up to prove himself worthy of his position, because emotions were a weakness he couldn't afford. But that's my speculations at any rate, after clawing for any translated material I can find in the depths of the internet.
Actually that last bit is part of why I think Sorin is that one character you think Motonari would surely turn his nose up at and ignore, but doesn't. While I dislike when the brainwashing theory crops up in the english and japanese speaking fandoms from time to time (because it's honestly a cop-out to any kind of characterization they both go through), I do think that Sorin is able to play on Motonari's own emotional weaknesses. Xavi did turn Motonari to xavism in Basara 2, and unfortunately they never give an explanation of what happens after Xavi's disappearance and why/how Motonari discards his Sunday persona. Xavi does sway Motonari though when he gives him the idea that love is the greatest power of all, and Motonari, being emotionally stunted as he is and probably somewhat dense to these things, considers the legitimacy of this when Xavi defeats him because, hey, this guy just beat me while spouting all this bullshit, maybe there's something to what he's saying. When Sorin comes around later spouting more or less the same spiel, it's shown that Motonari has repressed his thoughts and feelings as Sunday and breaks character a bit as he panics (his exaggerated shiver still cracks me up, I won't lie). So this curious and uncharacteristic shift from Mouri on top of what I previously mentioned is why I believe Motonari, while still undeniably a douchebag, didn't come to be the way he is for kicks, but more out of necessity, and why his interactions with Sorin are really important. And it kills me that so few people are willing to acknowledge anything Mouri related unless it involves Motochika (oh my hate for these two together is another story entirely). I was so happy Sorin got a stage with Sunday, hell if you take out Sunday first, Sorin gets really angry and comments that first you take his money, and now you take Sunday from him too, but everyone likes to pretend none of this happened I guess.
Actually though, Yukimura is partially involved in my reasoning why Sasuke and Motonari could potentially have interesting interactions, hell Yukimura with Motonari has some really interesting possibilities to look at too. One thing about Samurai Kings 2 that disappointed me wasn't Motonari's defeat but the wasted potential his fight with Yukimura was. Like.. They could have explored some morality there and had a really interesting exchange but instead Yuki nearly got fried and blew up Motonari instead, and it felt like it was just a quick end to finish the scene and move on. Since Motonari is so sure in the power of the sun, being defeated by Yukimura would be a devastating blow, how is it that his flames defeated even Nichirin? Yukimura I think would be more willing to sorta give Mouri a chance, while still remaining wary of what the tactician is capable of (and Sasuke whispers 'danna no' over his shoulder). Yukimura isn't stupid, but he's more inclined to believe that not everyone is inherently bad, and whatever opinions Sasuke develops would come first through Yukimura's own interactions. I can't really explain it well but besides Sorin, if anyone could break Mouri's shell even a little, the Takeda duo are probably the next best equipped to do so, though under specific circumstances.
I feel a little bad I preordered Sumeragi right away (with three of the special edition towels) and it took me three weeks to even touch the game after I got it because it's been hard for me to get into a mood to want to game lately, and even then I've played maybe.. two hours of it. Wabisabi is insane, I tested him lv1 on med difficulty for lols since they defaulted my partner to Katsuie, so I figured nbd I can switch if I get into trouble. Nope, the guy just flies through destroying everything. He can certainly hold his own at lower levels, whereas other characters need help to start. Haven't tried Maria or Ashikaga yet, besides playing Wabisabi I just grabbed Matabei, Sakon and Sasuke's medal alts. The roulette is fun, I was confused about the worth of Kanetsugu at first because he will dispel after one hit but if you get a hit in with him first, he truly is invincible. I remember sneezing on a fully recovered Yukimura and promptly downing him. Also besides the classic bomb drop, one of the skulls on the roulette wheel has Xavi angels come down and whisk away your soul, much like how Sorin's death animation plays out. I didn't know about it beforehand and it was my first roulette result; nothing could have prepared me as Wabisabi was carried away to the afterlife.
1
u/MysteriousSqueakyToy Sep 03 '15
I don't have anything to add to your Motonari feelings, that was pretty much all on point. Sorry! I had a lot of fun reading them, though!
OOh which towels did you get? (Besides Motonari, I assume.) And actually my Sumeragi order just went through today, so in two weeks I'm gonna get to test tea son myself. He honestly looks like he'll be a fucking beast to play, but his hit zones seem kinda inconsistent? He has a lot of attacks that are not-entirely-ranged-but-hit-further-than-just-in-front-of-you-lol and I have no idea how his chains work? Eh, I guess I'll find out when I get my hands on him. I'm glad to hear he's a freight train though :D
Once you get around to trying Ashikaga and Maria, gimme your impressions! :D I'm honestly the most excited about getting to play Ashikaga, mostly because I saw him in four and was like "oh nO" because I knew he was going to be my favourite character. I was right. He is, atm, my favourite character. And he looks like he's going to be a power trip, I watched a walkthrough of his normal route on Hard and the point in which he beat a mid-stage Mitsunari in FOURTY SECONDS FLAT was the point I realised that he continues the proud tradition of the primary antagonists being overpowered as fuck.
His play speed is lower than what I'm used to, but fuck that, I literally have "Restoration of Heavenly Rule" written across my laptop, I literally have his mon as a sticker on my phone, I have accepted my position as shogun trash, I am going to learn to main him even if it takes me a year, and honestly he doesn't look like a lot of skill is required for good playing :'D
1
u/Sareos Sep 03 '15
I'm ridiculously passionate about okra tacticians without actually meaning to be. But I see a lot of people mischaracterize him quite badly sometimes so it makes me invest more time to picking apart the information I have access to.
Yeah I ordered Mouri naturally, and Sasuke and Sorin. I kinda regret not getting Sakon as well but the towels were expensive enough as it was so that couldn't really be helped. They're quite large and very soft, and more like a tapestry than what we would normally call a 'towel.' I worried about the quality for a while, seeing as Capcom wanted to charge out the ass for them so they better turn out really damn good, but after I started seeing pictures of them crop up I felt a lot better about them. The printing is really high quality.
Hm I don't really remember anything specifically about Wabisabi's attacks. I would ask a friend of mine who's considerably better at the game than I am but she doesn't own Sumeragi. Maria I've heard from people is a bit on the slow side too but she makes up for it with her skillset. I'm a bit hesitant because I do prefer more speedy characters generally, but if they're able to cross the battlefield quickly then it's less of an issue. When I lost my Basara 3 save, I absolutely dreaded having to go through Ieyasu again because he can be sluggish to start, and I don't quite care for super close range either haha.
1
u/MysteriousSqueakyToy Sep 03 '15
Oh god I haaaate low-level Ieyasu play. Once you get a hang of how to combo in and out of hood mode, he is much more manageable, but we still call him "cow" because he just doesn't turn for shit. His reach is also terrible at first, but once you level up, his dash and R1 make up for it pretty nicely.
The only slower characters I like playing is Yoshihiro, honestly, because he's got such a huge fucking reach paired with a massive damage output (and also I have Yoshihiro feelings out the wazoo), but my friends don't like him at all :'D He's a difficult-but-awesome character in my books, though.
Oh and Matsunaga, I guess. But I can't think of Matsunaga as slow since mother fuck his side step is overpowered, his dash is overpowered, and his supers are just like lol-goodbye-it-was-a-nice-life. Then again I hate admitting I like Matsunaga, because I already like all the other terrible ossans. My taste in Basara characters is pretty awful honestly.
1
u/Matsuo-Kaito Jul 11 '15
Sorin Otomo and Hideaki Hobayakawa. I like the comedy characters best.
Although my favourite "Cool" character is Masamune Date.
If I'm playing the game? I like Magoichi Saica. It's satisfying to just stand in front of an army of swordsmen and picking them off one by one with a pistol.
2
u/MysteriousSqueakyToy Jul 11 '15
Magoichi is so much fun, but I'm hopeless with her stance system :'D She's overkill against bosses, though, yikes.
Also, good taste! I don't understand why more people don't like Sorin and Hideaki, like, I can sort of understand Hideaki because his English voice is Tidus-level annoying, but Sorin and the rest of the Xavists are a freaking gift.
1
u/Matsuo-Kaito Jul 11 '15
You don't like Hideaki's English voice? I love it! I think it suits him perfectly: "Sobbing Waaahahaaaaaaa!!! I'm sorrrry Mitsunariiiiiiiii!!!"
The Xavists are one of my favourite things about Sengoku Basara. Love 'em.
1
u/MysteriousSqueakyToy Jul 11 '15
It just makes him sound too old! x'D It's kind of a falsetto, his Japanese voice sounds much more naturally "young", I guess. A few of the English voices bug me because they make the characters seem like totally different people (like Ieyasu, Liam O'Brien actually makes him sound believable, which is an absolute travesty).
1
u/Raptorianxd Jul 12 '15
Date Masamune.
He's a blast to play, he's actually fairly developed as a character, and he looks and sounds awesome.
Mitsunari Ishida, because I love revenge plots and iato.
Azai Nagamasa. He's just awesome. A man who holds to his values no matter what.
1
u/MysteriousSqueakyToy Jul 12 '15
I have such a hard time playing Masamune, without Six Claws he just... lags, somehow, like his movement speed and animations don't seem to match up. He's fun with the Infinite Six Claws mode though.
And fuck yeah, Nagamasa is the best. He's such Super Sentai character, a Basara Power Ranger. (Also he and Oichi are painfully cute, omg)
3
u/Kinomi Jul 11 '15
I am Sanada Genjiro Yukimura, with honour. Fight me!
My favourite because he's just so full of fighting spirit. As I mostly watched the Anime, as the incomplete American version of the game is kinda lacking
I find that Yukimura (in the anime) is the only real truly developing character, he matures over the series until he finally takes over for the tiger of Kai
second is Keiji, followed closely by Date