Sengoku Blade: Sengoku Ace Episode II
Encyclopedia
Sengoku Blade: Sengoku Ace Episode II , also known as Tengai (戦国ブレード), is a horizontally scrolling shoot 'em up
video game released for arcade
machines in 1996
by Psikyo
as a sequel
to the 1993 shooter Sengoku Ace.
-style system (the first Sengoku Ace was still scrolled vertically), but this time with a much more complex gameplay
system in which the player characters fly around on the screen by themselves instead of piloting various aircraft, in a way similar to the 1997 Psikyo game Sol Divide. Episode II was noticeably harder than its predecessor, and featured much better and for its time stunning 2-D graphics, including impressive parallax scrolling
effects and detailed and well-animated characters and backgrounds. On the other hand, its music soundtrack appeared to be a step back from the previous game. Just like the previous game, the sequel features multiple endings, different for various characters, as well as branching paths for the different sets of levels.
The characters were designed by the now-famous Tsukasa Jun (Tsukasa Kiyoshi, at that time still an "underground" artist), based on the works of Hirofumi Nakamura in the original game. Tsukasa also returned to design the characters for the second sequel, Sengoku Cannon: Sengoku Ace Episode III, released in 2005 for the PSP
. The Sengoku series characters, along with the ones from Psikyo's Gunbird
series, later joined up with several Capcom
characters in the crossover game Taisen Net Gimmick: Capcom vs. Psikyo All Stars released for the Dreamcast in 2001.
for the game has been released by Pony Canyon
and Scitron
on May 17, 1996. One of the new enemy boss characters was a sexy ninja villainess Kaen (火燕), who has became one of the symbols of the game and PVC
figure models of Kaen and several different of Koyori's were made.
in November 1996. This version was released as a two-disc double set, including a bonus omake
disc which featured hundreds of Sengoku Ace series artworks (including the official, guest and fan art
from a contest by Psikyo), and now is rare and expensive to obtain. Exclusive for the Saturn conversion was the implementation of voices during the brief cutscenes, and the addition of Marion from Gunbird series as a bonus hidden character.
In December 2004 the game was also ported to PlayStation 2
as part of the Psikyo Shooting Collection Vol. 2: Sengoku Ace & Sengoku Blade by Taito
; it also was re-released one year later as a budget-range title. The Japanese release contains both Sengoku Ace and Sengoku Blade, but in Europe the two games were sold separately.
) Taito website (Internet Archive)
Shoot 'em up
Shoot 'em up is a subgenre of shooter video games. In a shoot 'em up, the player controls a lone character, often in a spacecraft or aircraft, shooting large numbers of enemies while dodging their attacks. The genre in turn encompasses various types or subgenres and critics differ on exactly what...
video game released for arcade
Arcade game
An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...
machines in 1996
1996 in video gaming
-Notable releases:*January 29 — Duke Nukem 3D, successor to the simple side-scrolling originals, and a genre-redefining title for first person shooters....
by Psikyo
Psikyo
is a Japanese video game company started in 1992. Psikyo is an off-shoot formed from the staff that created the Aero Fighters series for Video System. Psikyo focused on arcade games, mostly vertically-scrolling shoot 'em ups and pornographic mahjong games...
as a sequel
Sequel
A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...
to the 1993 shooter Sengoku Ace.
Gameplay
Sengoku Blade marked a complete breakout of the Sengoku Ace series from the classic Sonic WingsAero Fighters
Aero Fighters is a vertical-scrolling shoot 'em up arcade game released in 1992 by Video System, ported to the Super Famicom in 1993 and the Super Nintendo in 1994....
-style system (the first Sengoku Ace was still scrolled vertically), but this time with a much more complex gameplay
Gameplay
Gameplay is the specific way in which players interact with a game, and in particular with video games. Gameplay is the pattern defined through the game rules, connection between player and the game, challenges and overcoming them, plot and player's connection with it...
system in which the player characters fly around on the screen by themselves instead of piloting various aircraft, in a way similar to the 1997 Psikyo game Sol Divide. Episode II was noticeably harder than its predecessor, and featured much better and for its time stunning 2-D graphics, including impressive parallax scrolling
Parallax scrolling
Parallax scrolling is a special scrolling technique in computer graphics, popularized in the 1982 arcade game Moon Patrol. In this pseudo-3D technique, background images move by the camera slower than foreground images, creating an illusion of depth in a 2D video game and adding to the immersion...
effects and detailed and well-animated characters and backgrounds. On the other hand, its music soundtrack appeared to be a step back from the previous game. Just like the previous game, the sequel features multiple endings, different for various characters, as well as branching paths for the different sets of levels.
Characters
- Tengai (天外) - a Buddhist warrior-monkSoheiwere Buddhist warrior monks of feudal Japan. At certain points of history they held considerable power, obliging the imperial and military governments to collaborate....
from the previous game, who becomes the main character in the sequel. - Miko / Koyori (こより) - a voluptuous ShintoShintoor Shintoism, also kami-no-michi, is the indigenous spirituality of Japan and the Japanese people. It is a set of practices, to be carried out diligently, to establish a connection between present day Japan and its ancient past. Shinto practices were first recorded and codified in the written...
shrine girlMikois a Japanese term that anciently meant a "female shaman, spirit medium" who conveyed oracles from kami , and currently means a "shrine maiden; virgin consecrated to a deity" who serves at Shinto shrines.-Word:...
(the series' recurring character and a popular fan favourite thanks to her increased sex appeal in the sequel). - Junis (ユーニス) - a spunky 12-year old ninja girlKunoichiis the term for a female ninja or practitioner of ninjutsu .-Etymology:The term is thought to derive from the names of characters that resemble the three strokes in the kanji character for ; said in the order they are written: ku - no - ichi...
with a pet lemurLemurLemurs are a clade of strepsirrhine primates endemic to the island of Madagascar. They are named after the lemures of Roman mythology due to the ghostly vocalizations, reflective eyes, and the nocturnal habits of some species...
named SocratesSocratesSocrates was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon, and the plays of his contemporary ...
; she is the younger sister of Jane from Sengoku Ace (Jane had disappeared at the end of the previous game, but Junis believes that she is alive and imprisoned at the Evil Castle). - Sho / Shoma (翔丸) - a young ninjaNinjaA or was a covert agent or mercenary of feudal Japan specializing in unorthodox arts of war. The functions of the ninja included espionage, sabotage, infiltration, and assassination, as well as open combat in certain situations...
who is in love with the kidnapped princess Futsu and wants revenge for the death of his family. During the game, it is revealed that his father is the lord of evil, Kiyatsu (the final boss of the game). - Katana / Hagane (ハガネ) - a samuraiSamuraiis the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
robot attempting recover its human body. KatanaKatanaA Japanese sword, or , is one of the traditional bladed weapons of Japan. There are several types of Japanese swords, according to size, field of application and method of manufacture.-Description:...
is really a swordswoman called Hagane and during his ending with Junis, she reveals her first name: Kirie. - Ayin / Kain (アイン) - a one-eyed archer samurai from the previous game, now as a secret character, who is looking for his sister Asuka again.
The characters were designed by the now-famous Tsukasa Jun (Tsukasa Kiyoshi, at that time still an "underground" artist), based on the works of Hirofumi Nakamura in the original game. Tsukasa also returned to design the characters for the second sequel, Sengoku Cannon: Sengoku Ace Episode III, released in 2005 for the PSP
PlayStation Portable
The is a handheld game console manufactured and marketed by Sony Corporation Development of the console was announced during E3 2003, and it was unveiled on , 2004, at a Sony press conference before E3 2004...
. The Sengoku series characters, along with the ones from Psikyo's Gunbird
Gunbird
Gunbird , retitled Mobile Light Force for the European and U.S. PlayStation releases, is a vertically scrolling shoot 'em up released in 1994 by Japanese company Psikyo. It was followed by a sequel, Gunbird 2, in 1998.-Story:...
series, later joined up with several Capcom
Capcom
is a Japanese developer and publisher of video games, known for creating multi-million-selling franchises such as Devil May Cry, Chaos Legion, Street Fighter, Mega Man and Resident Evil. Capcom developed and published Bionic Commando, Lost Planet and Dark Void too, but they are less known. Its...
characters in the crossover game Taisen Net Gimmick: Capcom vs. Psikyo All Stars released for the Dreamcast in 2001.
Merchandise
The original soundtrackSoundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
for the game has been released by Pony Canyon
Pony Canyon
is a Japanese company, established on October 1, 1966 , which publishes music, DVD and VHS videos, movies and video games. It is a subsidiary of Japanese Media Group, Fujisankei Communications Group.-History:...
and Scitron
Scitron
-List of Video Game Albums Released:A -B - C -D - E -F - G -H - I -J - K -L - M -N - O -P - Q -R - S -T - U -V - W -X - Y -Z-A:* ACECOMBAT 04 shattered skies Original Sound Tracks SCDC-00146...
on May 17, 1996. One of the new enemy boss characters was a sexy ninja villainess Kaen (火燕), who has became one of the symbols of the game and PVC
Polyvinyl chloride
Polyvinyl chloride, commonly abbreviated PVC, is a thermoplastic polymer. It is a vinyl polymer constructed of repeating vinyl groups having one hydrogen replaced by chloride. Polyvinyl chloride is the third most widely produced plastic, after polyethylene and polypropylene. PVC is widely used in...
figure models of Kaen and several different of Koyori's were made.
Home editions
Sengoku Blade was first ported to the Sega SaturnSega Saturn
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console that was first released by Sega on November 22, 1994 in Japan, May 11, 1995 in North America, and July 8, 1995 in Europe...
in November 1996. This version was released as a two-disc double set, including a bonus omake
Omake
means extra in Japanese. Its primary meaning is general and widespread. It is used as an anime and manga fandom term to mean "extra or bonus". In USA, the term is most often used in a narrow sense by anime fans to describe special features on DVD releases: deleted scenes, interviews with the...
disc which featured hundreds of Sengoku Ace series artworks (including the official, guest and fan art
Fan art
Fan art or fanart is artwork that is based on a character, costume, collage, item, or story that was created by someone other than the artist, such as a fan, from which the word is derived from. The term, while it can apply to art done by fans of characters from books, is usually used to refer to...
from a contest by Psikyo), and now is rare and expensive to obtain. Exclusive for the Saturn conversion was the implementation of voices during the brief cutscenes, and the addition of Marion from Gunbird series as a bonus hidden character.
In December 2004 the game was also ported to PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
as part of the Psikyo Shooting Collection Vol. 2: Sengoku Ace & Sengoku Blade by Taito
Taito
Taito may mean:*Taito Corporation, a Japanese developer of video game software and arcade hardware*Taito, Tokyo, a special ward located in Tokyo, Japan*Taito, also known as matai, paramount chiefs according to Fa'a Samoa...
; it also was re-released one year later as a budget-range title. The Japanese release contains both Sengoku Ace and Sengoku Blade, but in Europe the two games were sold separately.
Sources
- Hardcore Gaming 101: Sengoku Ace
- Official website (characters)
- The corresponding article in the Japanese Wikipedia
External links
Official Psikyo website (Internet ArchiveInternet Archive
The Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
) Taito website (Internet Archive)
- Sengoku Blade at Giant BombGiant BombGiant Bomb is an American video game website and wiki that includes gaming news, reviews, commentary, and video, created by former GameSpot editors Jeff Gerstmann and Ryan Davis in collaboration with Whiskey Media...