The first SenBASA isn't actually anything special, other than the crazier flair it had over the Sangoku/Sengoku Musou series. Very simple game with 16 characters, 2-skill system, not many secret objectives, straightforward stages. It could also be considered the hardest entry simply based on how much damage each character can take on Extreme. You can die within minutes of starting a stage, or maybe I just suck at it. But it was great fun because of the combo potentials from the different skill and equipment set ups. The hit counter was just there, mostly for decoration since I don't think there was any extra EXP rewarded for hit counts. 2 and 2H awarded EXP based on exactly the highest hit count achieved on the stage, whereas 3 awarded only 10% truncated. Not really a problem since it's very easy to get 99 999 hits with certain characters and a good chunk of the EXP should come from completing stage objectives anyways.
So. Devil Kings. Really, the only good thing to come out of that game was the emphasis on keeping the hit count going. But, I was already doing that before the game came out with SenBASA because I was amused with the "バサラ！！" label popping out once you get to 100 hits. And playing it with the DMC mindset. The priming system was a complete mess. With some characters (Masa... Azure Dragon and Scorpio), they gain an entirely new attack string. Others have one of their moves shifted to a priming move. One of Kenshin's moves was changed into a priming move (which was kept for SB2/H), but it was quite unfortunate that it was one of the slower ones. Sure, it hits a large area, but it's slow to come out and end because he twirls during his jump. AD lost War Dance as a normal move as it replaced his original Basara. So really, his Basa-- Fury Drive is potentially the most useless one in the entire game. All it is is War Dance with invincibility that blocks using other skills. If the player is good, they won't get hit during War Dance in the first place, and would pair it up with Magnum Step. Screw it, I remember the JP names more than I could ever recall the renames. And because of that change, Masamune no longer has his personal item in the game.
The mechanics were changed as well. In order to fill the Basara gauge, you need to "prime" the enemy first, get hit, have really low health (red) or find those purple stones. The enemy damage seems to have been increased quite a bit. Masamune took rather extreme amounts of damage with a defensive weapon equipped on Normal, against Ninjas. The amount of swarming they did was almost a bit more noticeable, and how they synchronized their attacks. It was a little weird. That's a really lazy way to make it harder. A better way is to have smarter enemy AI (they really haven't improved on it other than bosses...). The difficulty increases were pretty much uncalled for.
The thematic direction was changed for a bunch of areas... So it looks like a mish-mash of Japanese, Egyptian and demonic. What. The amount of HoYay/FoeYay in the game is also near non-existent, which I guess is OK for those who don't want it. It would have been fine if the team actually put forth the effort to explain the why everything was the way it was. SenBASA, we could understand because it was easy to look up the various locations and people as they were based on historical events and people. Masa and Yuki's rivalry was one of the main highlights (until 3, where they're joined by Mitsunari and Ieyasu) of the series. DK really only had Nobunaga/Devil King selling his soul and becoming evil. OK then. Wasn't really elaborated upon, unlike the massive amounts of HoYay you can squint at during all the dialogue.
On the topic of voices. I actually like Frost's voice. Reaper's... well, Tenkai sounds almost as bad. I don't understand how I managed to sit through Azure Dragon's and Scorpio's for so long. Well, at least long enough to get AD to Lv.20 and Scorpio to Lv.10. Didn't/Couldn't replay for long enough to make a judgment on the other voices. The real kicker is that when I looked up all the VAs, they were Canadian. Uh... yeah. I really have no idea what to say about that.
The hilarious thing about the localization is that everything still looked and felt blatantly Japanese. The armour, weapons, structures, music. There were one or two exclusive tracks, but they were annoying. Might have more stuff to say once I either play it again (PS2 needs replacing/fixing), or actually finish the damn game. I think I have a higher chance of finishing 2 and 2H than finishing DK. That's how much I don't like it.
Addendum to the previous post: Found an interesting tag on Pixiv: デビル名倉イ
Read the same way as デビルメイクライ (debirumeikurai). The amount of hate seems to have died down, but people still don't like it very much. I have a real issue with the gritty urban when the entire series has had an air of elegance in the building designs. Just... look at the art books. It's a pretty stark contrast. It only gets gritty when it gets to end-game, when stuff starts getting hellish.
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