So today I decided to start a topic about this even though I know only a few people (or probably no one) will view this. Sengoku BASARA's 15th anniversary will be on July 21, 2020. So it'll have been 15 years since the franchise started. It all started with the first Sengoku BASARA game on the PlayStation 2 (PS2), releasing on July 21, 2005.
It started off when CAPCOM was in a financial crisis, and a CAPCOM employee named Hiroyuki Kobayashi (known for his works on Devil May Cry, Dino Crisis, Dragon's Dogma, Resident Evil, and Sengoku BASARA) decided he wanted to create a new type of action game, one that he hoped would save the company. In November 2003, while in a meeting with CAPCOM's staff, he suggested about creating a new type of action game that would take place during the Sengoku period of feudal Japan and feature fictionalized versions of historical Japanese feudal warlords, and would target both casual and hardcore gamers. At first, most of the staff neglected this idea, saying that it wasn't a good idea and that it wouldn't save CAPCOM. Eventually, the person who founded CAPCOM, Kenzo Tsujimoto, said that it was a good idea and that it may possibly save CAPCOM. He ended up approving the creation of the game, which would be titled as Sengoku BASARA. Despite receiving approval by the founder of CAPCOM himself, most of CAPCOM's staff continued to criticize his idea, even as he went down the CAPCOM building's halls. While going down the halls to meet up with the very small Sengoku BASARA Development Team, he overheard a conversation:
"Put me on any team, just not 'Sengoku BASARA'."
"Right. I feel sorry for whoever's making that game, it will never sell."
Even though a few people supported his effort, comments and conversations like this still took an emotional toll on him. Despite the goal being to save CAPCOM from its financial crisis, he also had another goal in mind. His other goal was to create a Japanese warrior action game that anyone could play and enjoy, hence why he wanted it to target both casual and hardcore gamers. Halfway through development in August 2004, he had to change directors because the development team was losing its sense of unity and wasn't understanding Kobayashi's vision, and he knew if development continued like this, it would fail like what most of the staff was predicting. He decided to called an acquaintance of his named Makoto Yamamoto to be the new director because Kobayashi new Yamamoto had experience in all kinds of games before he joined CAPCOM in 2002. Yamamoto accepted the request out of a mixture of feeling bad for Kobayashi and the team, wanting to take on the challenge of a new type of game, and wanting to help Koabayashi realize his vision. Yamamoto became a major help for the team, encouraging numerous ideas to be implemented into the game. Eventually, the game would release and sell well, helping to save CAPCOM from its financial crisis. The CAPCOM staff would end up apologizing to Kobayashi and his team after all of the negativity they put on them. Even though this game started it all, it wasn't until the next game, Sengoku BASARA 2, which released for the PS2 on July 27, 2006, that would start the franchise's popularity and success in Japan.
After SB2, the franchise would become big and culturally significant in Japan. SB2 was the cause for the Sengoku Boom happening throughout Japan which was a re-ignited interest in Japanese history. The franchise would keep increasing in popularity with more video games, multiple anime shows, an anime movie, a live-action show, its very own magazine series, a trading card game, and numerous drama CDs, light novels, manga, stage plays, and merchandise. It would also be the first ever video game/video game franchise to raise awareness of elections, co-sponsor historical museums, and co-sponsor historical tourist sites. In 2010, it became popular throughout most of Asia. SB was going strong, despite only ever being a success in Asia.
Sadly, this would all start to die down in early 2017. With no new console games since Sengoku BASARA Sanada Yukimura-den, which released for the PS3 and PS4 on August 25, 2016, SB started to see a decline in popularity. Despite the continued release of new merchandise, manga, and stage plays, and continuing to promote historical museums and tourist sites, the series just wouldn't re-ignite its old popularity. An anime adaptation of the spin-off manga series, Gakuen BASARA, helped to slightly increase its popularity when it was broadcasted in Japan in 2018. And a new mobile game titled, Sengoku BASARA Battle Party, would give it a place in the gacha market when it was released in 2019.
In the present, this year will mark SB's 15th anniversary, and CAPCOM says that they have many big announcements, plans, and projects for the franchise to celebrate. Will this year mark the revival of Sengoku BASARA, or will it be the start of its last years? All we can do is hope because this isn't the end...
