Devil Kings, known in Japan as Sengoku Basara, is a 2005video game for the PlayStation 2, developed and published by Capcom. It is the first installment in the Sengoku Basara franchise. The original game's theme song is "Crosswise" by T.M.Revolution. The game was followed by several sequels and, all of them using the original title and setting of Sengoku Basara only.
It is a hack and slash, action game similar in concept to Devil May Cry and Samurai Warriors. Some significant gameplay changes were made to the Western versions of the game. Four of the characters were made non-playable and various weapons were removed or added. The difficulty levels were shifted to make the game more difficult. The fighting system was also modified, adding an element called "Priming".
While releasing Sengoku Basara, Capcom attempted to appeal to the western audience, by removing all Sengoku and Japanese references in favor of a generic fantasy story vaguely connected with Capcom's hit franchise Devil May Cry. An extract from IGN interview with the game's producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi: These alterations were regarded as unpopular, as the Devil Kings version was a critical and commercial failure, and no more Sengoku Basara games were brought to North America and Europe until the release of in the fall of 2010.
Reception
The westernized version received "mixed or average" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. The Japanese version was met with "generally favorable" reviews from fans, critics, and consumers. Fans of the franchise seem to have given the Japanese version positive reviews and the westernized version negative reviews with one stating, "While Sengoku Basara was considered a cult classic among fans and gamers, Devil Kings was considered a terrible localization of a good game that should've been left unchanged for its western releases." The game received an 8/8/7/8 for a total of 31/40 from weekly Japanese video game magazine, Famitsu. The game was later re-released under the PlayStation 2 the Best label. The game sold a total of 88,711 units during its first week on sale in Japan and was the top-selling game of the week. The game has sold a total of 232,589 units in Japan.
Sequels
The first two sequels, Sengoku Basara 2 and Sengoku Basara 2 Heroes, were released in Japan for the PS2 in 2006–2007, followed by two spin-off games. The next main game in the series, , was announced for the PlayStation 3 and Wii and released on July 29, 2010 in Japan. It was released in North America and Europe as Sengoku Basara Samurai Heroes in October 2010.
