Sengoku Basara 4 Reference Materials (2024)

If I have time, I'll gather my Sengoku Basara 4 information here as a reference guide. News and article translations will remain on my main blog; this summary is just for the main menus and system details for the game itself. More detailed explanations of everything in the list can be found on the main blog.

This is currently a work in progress. Unlike my usual posts this one will be updated periodically. Please note that as this blog entry became too long for Blogger I have moved the later chapters to a second post.

The Sengoku Basara 4 Sumeragi additions are in a separate guide here.

Navigation
Levelling Up
The Basara-ya Shop
DLC (Downloadable Content)
Weapon Enhancement
Weapon Fusion
Inscriptions
Play Books
Stages
Character Profiles: Playable Characters
Character Profiles: Non-Playable Characters
Ranks
Fugitive Bingo
Trophies
Enemy Formations
Links

Sengoku Basara 4 (release date 23rd January 2014) is a PS3 game, billed as allowing the player to assist in the creation of a brand new Sengoku period Japan. The setting can be considered a parallel world to the earlier games in the series; it's designed to go right back to the beginning so newcomers can play without any prior knowledge, while the characters retain some of the development from their earlier adventures. It is not a prequel. At the start of the game, boss Ashikaga Yoshiteru starts the Sengoku period by deciding to relinquish his power as shogun; the rest of the story is down to the player. No English-language version has been announced at this time.

The very first time you start the game, you'll be shown a screen which explains auto-save (now on by default) and, if you have any saves from Sengoku Basara 3, Sengoku Basara 3 Utage or Sengoku Basara HD Collection on your PS3, a screen which presents you with some consumable items as a gift. Thereafter the game will ask you whether you want to check for updates to the Online Basara-ya shop each time you play; it doesn't matter which option you pick.

After pressing Start to begin the game, you'll reach the Mode Select screen. It includes Manual, the Online Basara-ya Shop, Sengoku Creation mode (the interactive story mode which contains the main gameplay), Free Battle mode, Gallery and Settings. I have annotated the picture to show the order in which the modes appear.

Sengoku Creation is the main gameplay mode this time, available for single players and two people playing cooperatively. After choosing your character from the list, you'll be asked whether you want to begin a new game or continue from your previous progress in Sengoku Creation mode. If you have previously cleared Sengoku Creation mode as the character you picked, you may see another option at the bottom. This lets you jump straight to the point in the game where you can pick your route: Creation, Drama or Anime. Only three characters have Anime routes, and some characters only have a Creation route.

You'll also be offered a choice of difficulties with the easier ones on top. There are four options: Normal, Hard, Extreme and Basara. The Extreme and Basara difficulties will not appear until you have cleared the final stage of Sengoku Creation mode in Hard and Extreme difficulties respectively.

Next, the main 'march' screen will come up. This is where you pick your next battle and also configure your gameplay.

I've noted that there's a sale running in the Basara-ya shop (indicated by the red ticket over its name). If there's a 'special deal' instead of a sale, the shop icon will look like this:

The main menu is on the left of the screen, with your stage selection at the top. Most of the rest is self-explanatory, so I'll go through the less obvious parts in detail.

Pressing Square takes you to the rewards area where you can see what the prizes are for victory on your chosen stage. The different ranks depend on your actions in the battle; please see the separate section of this guide for more details. The ranks are shown on the left side.

Some stages have a fugitive (otazunemono) icon above their name. This means that one of the fugitives for the 'fugitive bingo' books is hidden there somewhere.

Next, here's the mid-battle pause screen.

If you pick Controller Settings, these are your options.

Unfortunately I don't have any screenshots available for the main Settings page from the Mode Select screen when you launch the game. Here's a text-only translation of all of the options by popular demand.

• Environment Configuration
• BGM Volume
• Effects Volume
• Voice Volume
• HP Gauge Display
• Automatic Guide Skip (the help screens which pop up telling you about the missions on certain stages)
• Controller Configuration
• Exactly like the screenshot above. The options for Guard Button are Guard Priority (the default) or Dodge Priority.
• Shortcut Configuration
• Here you can assign shortcuts to the D-pad. By default, nothing is assigned and you can use the D-pad for movement. The list of shortcuts is:
• Switch your ultimate technique (R2) - forwards in the list
• Switch your ultimate technique (R2) - backwards in the list
• Battle comrade orders
• Tag to your partner
• Activate Maximum Style mode

Note: When you leave the menu, pick the leftmost option to save your changes otherwise they'll revert.

The next screen is what you're shown after each battle. You can see that the top rank is greyed out; the player didn't do well enough to earn that prize this time.

Levelling Up

Note: An inrou is a traditional box, shown as a floating gold object in the screenshots.

It's possible to pick up an item called an 'Inrou of Enhancement' during battle which adds experience points to a stock that you keep with you as you play. You can split this stored experience between characters however you like.

To spend your stored experience points, select Character Levelling from the Battle Preparation screen. Here's an annotated version.

Next, here's a screenshot of the Character Levelling interface.

Once a character has reached level 50, tag mode will be unlocked and a special red/blue tag icon will be visible. You can tag to your partner by pressing the R3 button (pushing down on the right joypad stick) during battle.

You can go to the Basara-ya shop from the march screen and purchase items with the money you've obtained in-game. Some weapons come with enhancements already applied; others can be enhanced with the weapon system. The shop sells enhancement items and Play Books as well as equipment.

At times, there are special sales in the shop. Sales marked in red are discounts, while those marked in green are rare 'special deal' items which are only available at certain times.

The shop has various sections you can browse, so this is what the next menu apparently looks like.

Next, the shop itself. I merged two different pictures together to show how the sale items and special deals appear.

The Online Basara-ya shop links you to the Japanese PSN store. You can also go to the store and search for the items outside the game; it's just a shortcut. Please note that there are two stores with content from Sengoku Basara 4 - the Japanese PSN and Hong Kong - so it may be worthwhile checking both to see where the DLC is cheapest. You don't need to play the game on the account which originally downloaded the DLC to your PS3, but if you have a DLC code you have to redeem it on an account from the correct region.

Although I've used the same naming system as in the rest of this guide for consistency, it seems that the Hong Kong PSN store has official English names for each of the DLC packs too. AdawgDaFAB has checked and posted a list. Items with a cost of "Free*" are currently limited to fans who purchased a first press edition of the game or through a particular store; they'll be offered on PSN for a fee later on for everyone else.

Sengoku Basara fan Gakupo has provided a full list of the music tracks in the first collection. It's very likely that the sets of 10 tracks being released in February 2014 will contain the same music.

If you purchase all of the DLC costumes, you'll be able to download and use the スペシャルカスタムテーマ, a free custom theme for your PS3 with twelve different monthly pictures.

This game introduces three new consumable items which can be used to upgrade your weapons in different ways.

Whetstones are a basic upgrade which raises one of the weapon's five core stats: attack, defence, Basara gauge, hit points or fighting spirit (your resistance to being staggered and having your guard broken). First you pick the stat you want to raise, then you choose the number of whetstones you want to use. Whetstones can be purchased in the Basara-ya Shop for 50 ryou.

Fortune hammers increase one of a weapon's stats at random. There are three tiers: a blessing (equivalent to 10 whetstones or 2 pieces of tamahagane steel), a middle blessing (equivalent to 50 whetstones or 5 pieces of tamahagane steel) or a great blessing (equivalent to 150 whetstones or 15 pieces of tamahagane steel). According to a simple test in Weekly Famitsu magazine, the chances of receiving each tier are approximately 71% for a blessing, 26% for a middle blessing and 3% for a great blessing. Fortune hammers can be purchased in the Basara-ya Shop for 2,000 ryou.

Tamahagane steel is used to level weapons up by increasing their 'Rarity' rating, shown by the number of stars underneath each weapon. When a weapon reaches a new level, you'll be able to increase its stats farther than before and it may be possible to attach additional Inscriptions.

Tamahagane steel can be purchased in the Basara-ya Shop for 3,000 ryou during a 'special deal'.

You can access Weapon Enhancement through the Basara-ya Shop using the menu screens above, or by going to Battle Preparation → Equip Weapon then pressing R1 once to switch screens. You can see which screen you're in by checking the navigation in the top left corner.

This next one looks intimidating but it's just a matter of learning the layout. Square controls the weapon's Rarity level, which affects its maximum stats. Triangle boosts stats by random amounts using your stock of fortune hammers, while the Circle button lets you increase individual stats with your stock of whetstones.

To add Inscriptions to your weapons, you need to use the Weapon Fusion system. It can be found in the same menu as Weapon Enhancement above. First, choose your weapon from the list as usual. The blue label means the weapon is equipped, the yellow label means you're performing the synthesis on that weapon (I'm calling it the 'base weapon'), and the red label is used for the weapon you're using as raw materials for the upgrade. Here's the first Weapon Fusion screen from the video with text annotations in English.

When you've picked the weapon you want to use as your 'raw material', you're taken to the main Weapon Fusion screen. You can move Inscriptions from the 'raw material' weapon to the one you're upgrading.

Selecting a slot which already has an Inscription gives the message 'Discard'. Be careful you don't do this unless you want to reclaim that slot!

Once you're done, you can press Triangle to complete the fusion, destroying the 'raw material' weapon in the process. Each upgrade has a cost, and you have to pay the total price when the button is pressed.

You can view the table of Inscriptions by pressing R2 when you're in the shop or on the main battle preparation screen, or straight from the Weapon Enhancement menu above.

Update: Tumblr user letterblade has kindly compiled all of the key information into a spreadsheet which might be useful to people who can't read Japanese. Meanwhile, Daviziu in the comments section put together a clickable chart for people who just want to quickly check what each Inscription does.

I've given each individual Inscription a number in this diagram:

To accompany it, here's the list. The Types are:

• Normal (Grey/Black): Obtained as a battle reward.
• Enhanced (Grey/Blue): Obtained as a battle reward or by enhancing a Normal inscription with Extreme.
• Fusion (Gold/Black): Obtained as a battle reward or by fusing two inscriptions (see additional table below).
• Enhanced Fusion (Gold/Red): Obtained as a battle reward, or by enhancing/fusing two inscriptions (see additional table below).
• Special (Green): These are obtained at random by using the Change inscription on any other. Treasured Sword is the one exception as it can be found on weapons received as battle rewards.
• Special (Brown): There's only one inscription in this category, Rust. It's randomly obtained by using the Change inscription on any other.
• Extreme (Blue): Used to enhance basic inscriptions. Obtained as a battle reward.
• Change (Light Blue): Used for creating the Special inscriptions. Obtained as a battle reward.

Fan AdawgDaFAB noticed that opening the R2 screen during weapon enhancement makes it very easy to check you have selected the correct Inscriptions as they'll be highlighted with red and yellow markers. Here's the list:

Certain types of Inscription can be placed on top of others to boost them when you're performing Weapon Fusion. The video shows the 'Extreme' Inscription being added to a basic type, making it stronger. The game divides these combinations into 'Enhanced' and 'Fusion' categories depending on whether you use the Extreme inscription to create them or fuse two others.

Some Inscriptions can be created in more than one way but none require combining more than two others. Here's a table with the combinations shown so far.

Play Books

I've mentioned the flat, rectangular items you can receive as rewards or buy from the in-game shop a few times now and they appear to be called Play Books or Game Books. In this case I'm going with the former for my translations since the word 'game' is used a lot elsewhere.

In the bottom left of the main march screen is a section labelled Play Settings which you can access by pressing L1. This will take you to your Play Books, allowing you to set up to three of them in the slots below. It looks as though they'll work like the accessories did in the previous games and you can build up a stock of them from the shop and battle rewards.

Here's a list of the regular, consumable play books and their effects. The icon column refers to the marker to the left of each Book's name on the screen.

Update: Someone has now created a much better list with pictures at the Sengoku Basara fan wiki. I recommend checking it out.

Different types of Play Book allow you to pick your music and dialogue options. You can equip up to three different music books and three different dialogue books at a time to affect the background music and the way that soldiers speak to you mid-game. This annotated screenshot shows the interface.

The music Play Books are red and look like this:

Here's the list (not including DLC):

In contrast, the dialogue Books are green and look like this:

Here's a list of the dialogue books spotted so far (the final two cannot both be equipped at the same time):

Stages

Here's a list of every confirmed stage in Sengoku Basara 4 so far. To see the bonus objectives which reward extra rank points, please check the Rank section of this guide. The final game was described as having more than 40 stages (the V Jump guide lists 39 stages with 3 additional variants and 24 one-on-one battles).

If you're wondering about the 'Type' column, stage types are a new mechanic introduced in this title. I'm not sure whether all stages are available in all five variations, so I thought it would be interesting to make a note of this information too.

Normal stages are the same as usual; fulfil the objectives and win the battle. I think most of the battles you'll fight in the first round of Sengoku Creation Mode will be like this. The newest video shows the rewards for a normal battle as the standard mix of weapons, money and enhancement materials.

Outbreaks have red backgrounds behind their names and suddenly appear depending on the actions taken by the armies in the game. They seem to be just like the special stages which traditionally appear mid-game depending on your performance. The rewards shown in the video looked similar to the normal ones only with some nicer enhancements on the weapons.

Omen battles appear on the map just like Outbreaks, except they have an ominous purple background. Going by the newest video, they reward the player with books and experience points. If you ignore an Omen battle it could change into another type.

The final type is a Derivation stage. These have a blue background, and a mixture of rewards.

The fifth and final type of encounter is a One-on-one match; a quick boss fight which is touted as being a good source of weapons. It appears that every single reward tier offers weapons, even the lowest rank.

The list of One-on-one stages is as follows (according to the V Jump strategy guide):

At certain points during a character's story, you might also see Drama Route or Anime Route encounters. They look very similar; Drama Routes are marked with a blue-edged scroll while Anime Routes use red.

This guide continues in part two!