Whoops.

Seems like I forgot about the 2H script book, but I can't seem to find it new anywhere. Hm. I may have to get that one used or place a special order, not that it matters much. Used books from that store are usually in pretty good condition, just like when I ordered Note of Naught. Still, would prefer it new. Moving on.

So, about that livestream. It was fairly amusing streaming it from campus. No dropping out of the window, but the video sometimes reduces to still images that required constant reloading. I liked chatting with some of the users and found some of them from the KW and GFAQs boards there. It was fun watching and making silly comments. Sure, the video feed wasn't that great because of the SD output and a cheap capture card, but really can't complain since I won't be touching the NA version until next week. I really hope that Amazon ships out my copy on the marked date because the page says that it would ship in 2~5 weeks. Well, so much for that. Won't be seeing it until next month. Guess that Capcom didn't print that many copies. It shipped 500K in Japan alone! Doubt it would reach even 10K considering the early reviews coming in, and biases from others screaming "RIPOFF!" Managed to convince one player to get 2 and 2H for the PS2. One little mention of Swap Magic, and there she went. Early on, I was the only one there that had "extensive" knowledge of the game, so I helped out a little bit here and there. He really likes using Hondam, and Hondam's joke weapon really is a tree. But the weapon description was... off? Haven't unlocked it myself since I'm not a very good Hondam player, but the translations on the KW boards say something else. Something about the tree growing big... "happiness!" It was supposed to be a cute description, I'm guessing. He seems to have switched over to Nobunaga ever since unlocking the Demon King. Not surprising since he's really fun to play as. Well, pretty much everyone is fun to play as, which is a little harder to say with the older entries in the series.

Gameplay, completely unchanged from what I've seen so far. About 10 hours worth of the livestream. Been reading reports that you don't have to unlock Hard (Extreme in JP) anymore, which is nice. I think. Unfortunately because of the renaming, some people are asking about Extreme mode when it doesn't exist in the NA version. The gameplay may have changed slightly, since there was one person claiming that the horse controls were a little better. I had no problem with them in the JP version, but they could have made the controls a little tighter and the turning a lot better. Well, that's all I've noticed about the gameplay for now.

The localization however... Never have I wanted to know who exactly was working on it. The fonts look terrible, grammar mistakes, typos or spelling mistakes, misleading translations and worst of all? THEY CUT OUT AN ENTIRE SECTION OF THE GAME. OK, so the Trivia section isn't integral to gameplay, but it usually hosts some interesting little tidbits about the generals, battlefields and battles that took place historically. For one, I never knew that Masamune liked to cook and created many regional foods that helped bolster his army's morale (from SB2H's trivia section). Seriously, they're missing out on this part. Guess that the localization team got lazy with the translations and decided to cut it. Actual translation work is all over the place. Even the English trophy data is more accurately and consistently translated than the game itself, which is pretty sad. Hell, they couldn't even decide if Shingen was dead during the game. Hint: he's not. He doesn't die either. He'll be perfectly fine in Yuki's Blue route, ready to punch him in the face again. For the accessories, they call the s-string "Normal Arts," which was bound to confuse a few people. It's the right translation, but "arts" implies a special. I don't like how they translated 固有奥義 to "Super Art." I really don't know what I would have translated it to, but definitely not that. Probably "Special Skill" since it's those are characteristic moves, like Masamune's WAR DANCE. Speaking of WAR DANCE, it's apparently been changed to "Six Claws." I can understand it being called something like that because of "claw mode"/六爪流 but seriously? All of Masamune's skills are already in English, albeit in all caps, so there was no need to change it. It's going to be a little awkward if the anime is going with what the games originally use. Way to be consistent with the franchise in the west, Capcom. Also noted that none of Magoichi's skills have the bird theme to them anymore. Yep. Picked all of that up just from watching the livestream. Pretty sure that there's more to nitpick on once I have my copy in mid-November. Shipment delay from Amazon. I'm more than likely going to get those books faster than the game.


I think I'll try to finish the rest of the stories from Devil Kings while I wait. And place an order for the SB2H script with the first 3 games. The amount of fail is beginning to hurt my head.

And a further note to self: Use Shimazu-don's tea-coloured route for the "Kill less than 100 in a story mode run" trophy. Most of the stages there don't require killing gate captains to progress. Bring along a lot of DEF, parry window up, parry damage up, base guard damage up?
Minimum number of kills:
Hetsugigawa - ~2 (ignore Muneshige, might take final base before Sorin?)
Noshima Castle - 2 (wait for the mech to be finished)
Saika - 1 (surprise her)
Mikatagahara - ~4 (gate captain, base, Hondam, Ieyasu on platform)
Kawanakajima - ~5 (Keiji, MUTEKI-SAMA, Keiji/Kasuga, Kenshin)
Oshuu - ~4 (base, Kojuurou, 双竜)
Osaka Summer Red - ~8 (Sasuke, 5 bases, Sasuke again, Yukimura. Or: Sasuke, 1 base (lower right), Sasuke, Yukimura)

Or use Gyoubu's Red with a 2nd player (preferably Shimazu with his PI):
Itsukushima (Gate captain, Motonari)
Ujou (Tenkai route: gate 4~, gate 4~, Tenkai)
Gassan-toda (1+1, Haruhisa)
Noshima Ocean (Tsuru)
Sekigahara (Saika, Tsuru, Kingo, Ieyasu)