Kotaro Fuma (RANK A)
Weapon: Ninja blades Skills: Spin Drive, Dash, Disperse, CounterSpecials: Seal, Shuriken, IzunaKotaro is another hero that I really enjoy playing, hence the high rank in my list. Early in the game, there’s one word that can be used to describe him – paper. He has the lowest defence and hp stats in the game, and when he jump or do aerial combo, it took him quite awhile to reach the ground, like a leaf /paper slowly falling to the ground. Because of this, I had a hard time when I first started using him, because minor blows hurt him a lot and I nearly got killed against some bosses even on Normal mode. Therefore it is best to find a 2 or 3-slotted weapon as soon as you start playing him, and slap a Turtle accessory or two to give him massive Def boost (Gray Turtle = +150 Def, Gold Turtle = +400 Def). As a ninja, Kotaro is a midair specialist – he can dash in midair after jumping and do endless air combo as long as the attacks hit the enemies. I love his alternate midair S-string attacks (by holding square button to throw targets to midair, followed immediately by mashing square to perform a series of slashes different to his normal air attacks), made it look like he's doing Omnislash. His initial skills were okay for initiating combo (Spin Drive -> Dash followed by air combo), but lack crowd control capability. Having Disperse made it easier to manage the crowd (eg Disperse -> air dash -> Disperse loop for easy air combo), though the damage it deals is rather abysmal on Hard. Then comes Counter, a skill I really like, albeit was a bit inferior to Sasuke’s and Kasuga’s version in previous SenBasa games. As the name suggest, Counter made Kotaro counterattacks enemies in all directions when they try to attack you (pressing the skill button just as the enemies hp bar is glowing). Pretty sweet against those annoying base guardian, and good for pissing some bosses off. Although if you got the timing wrong (like I did many times when I first use the skill), Kotaro will stand still for a few seconds and vulnerable to attacks.
Chain combo with Kotaro is even more fun after he learn Shuriken special – he throws a giant Shuriken forward, dealing huge damage to enemies in wide radius. Like his many other skills, throwing Shuriken put him in midair position so you can continue with midair chain loop as long as you hit the enemies, such as Disperse -> Shuriken -> Disperse/air dash or something. One funny thing happening to me is I managed to beat the stage bonuses on Tsuruhime stage (Noshima sea: have ally ships arrived twice by beating officers in first area in 40 secs, then beat Tsuruhime in final area in 15 secs) on Hard, something I doubt I could do with any other heroes (except Saica) by loop chaining Disperse and Shuriken. His first special Seal is another AoE attack that lunch the enemies to the air, and you can follow it up with his midair S-string combo. While the 3rd special Izuna is a straight superkick and ninjadrop that is hard to aim and better off performed in midair. All his specials were actually fun to use (well, except Izuna), but I prefer Shuriken because of its range.
Kotaro’s joke weapon is some kind of mini
windmill toy which as far as I concern didn’t have any special effect, while his personal accessories adds extra 3 hits for each air combo. Useful for farming money I guess. On a whole, for me Kotaro is like the air version of Mitsunari – fast, endless chain combo and more importantly, very fun to use.
Yukimura Sanada (RANK B)
Weapon: dual spears Skills: Ring of Fire, Flint Sprint, Flare Storm, Phoenix Fire
Specials: Blaze Kick, Tiger Cannon, Fired UpThe staple characters in Koei’s Samurai Warrior and Capcom’s Sengoku Basara franchise. And in most cases, he is mostly your generic hero that can combo well, making him easy to use for beginners. If fact in every Samurai Warrior/Sengoku Basara games that I’ve played, I’ve always started with Yukimura because, well, he’s a cookie cutter hack-and-slash type hero. One unique thing about Yukimura in SenBasa3 is his ability to retain his dash run even after using a dash attack, useful when you want to destroy boxes without interrupting his pace of dash run. His S-String attacks can be chained with any of his other skills easily, with a charged Ring of Fire -> Phoenix Fire made a decent ground/air combo. His R1 Flare Storm made him thrust his spears forward a million times, which then can be chained into a more powerful version Burning Flare Storm as you mash the square button. A cool skill, but it didn’t really stagger bosses (unless you have a really high attack stat) so I mostly only use it against normal soldiers.
His special, Tiger Cannon is a better and stronger version of Split Sprint (good high damage against base captain and bosses), and together with a Phoenix Fire or Flare Storm follow-up, these form my bread and butter combo for Yukimura. Blaze Kick is a somewhat the leg version of Flare Storm, except that Yukimura did spinning kick with his spear plunged to the ground, and as you mash the square button, it changed into a stronger, steerable spinning kick version, Burning Blaze Kick. Good against enemies that try to surround you, but since Yukimura generally lack a high damage skill to defeat base captain and bosses, I would usually go for Tiger Cannon. His third special, Fired Up is a buff skill that increases his attack and def, and made him instantly dash when he ran. The bonus damage and def is nice, but sometimes having this skill on can be annoying because the fact that he constantly dash made it hard for me to focus on immobile target (ie base captain). Yukimura’s personal accessories were also centered on this skill – it put Yukimura in Fired Up states permanently, at the cost of gradual health loss…do not want. His joke weapon is a pair of giant matches (lol?) that can be light up (and have 100% chance to deal fire damage) if Yukimura taunt, do high combo hits, Basara attacks or Fired Up.
There’s really not much for me to say about Yukimura because while he didn’t have any specific weakness, he also didn’t have a really spectacular thing that would put him in the same class as Mitsunari, Kotaro and Oichi (in my list). Nevertheless, he is still a relatively safe character to use on Hard mode.
Keiji Maeda (RANK B)
Weapon: Giant Niginata
Skills: Love that Binds, Diplomacy of Love, Conviction, Love at First Sight
Specials: Walking on Air, Love Letter, Love-struckUh..what the heck is wrong with the skill names? Anyway, SenBasa 2 player will know Keiji’s specialty as the “ultimate canceller” as his Diplomacy of Love (DoL) skill allowed him to cancel almost anything he did, and in case of his S-string attack and Love that Binds (LtB) skills, it cancels into another variant of attacks/skill depending on the timing of Diplomacy of Love. This means you can do many kind of combo with Keiji as long as you cancel his attacks/skills with Diplomacy of Love (eg slash his weapon a few times, DoL, more attack variants, LtB a few swings, DoL, more LtB variants, DoL, rinse and repeat). Another thing about Diplomacy of Love that made it special (or overpowered in a sense) is that it can even cancel Keiji’s DEATH (by pressing the skill right when Keiji death animation played), once per stage. Keiji’s R1 Conviction skill, a forward charge attack is one of the strongest attack in the game (almost broken I would say), the damage it deals is so huge that even on Hard mode, it took no more than 3 or 4 Convictions (or even less!) to kill a base captain, and if you play on Easy (with strong weapon+damage boost items), a single Conviction is usually enough to kill a boss….
Virtually all of Keiji’s damage output actually comes from his S-string attacks and skills, because none of his specials are meant for all out offense. Walking on Air, probably one of the most useful skill in the game will put Keiji to sleep (!), and slowly recovers his health. The only other hero in the game that can recover health (without using dark elemental weapon) is Oichi, but Walking on Air is a much superior skill. Combined with his death-cancelling ability, and Matsu as an ally (she will keep on throwing rice balls), it is near impossible for Keiji to die even on Hard mode. His other two specials are more of a joke. Love Letter made Keiji call his monkey companion Yumekichi, send him on errant and later the monkey came back with items like rice ball, slow jug or bombs. The last special, Love Struck made Keiji drunk, and counterattack any enemies that try to attack him, making them even more pissed off. On Hard, you’ll die pretty fast if you use this skill and didn’t have Matsu as an ally. Love Letter/Love Struck over Walking on Air? I know what my answer is.
His joke weapons is some kind of big umbrella that didn't have any special effect afaic, while his personal accessory increase more money dropped by enemies hit by his cancelled skills. So in general, I see Keiji as a survivalist (he’s the first hero I attempt Hard mode with at low level) with unique combo potential thanks to skill canceller Diplomacy of Love.
Kanbe Kuroda (RANK C)
Weapon: Chain ball
Skills: Ruffian Kick, Drop Kick, Depression, Aggressive Behaviour
Specials: Criminal Smasher, Rolling Attack, Bad BombKanbe is the kind of character I absolutely loath when I first unlock him. Why? Because he is stupidly slow when he run/dash, and his s-string attacks/skill are a pain in the ass to combo. I almost put him on my shit list until I learnt about the awesomeness of his first special, Criminal Smasher. I’ll talk about it later because for now, let’s look at his normal skills. His attacks and skills generally has slow startup, which made it a real pain when you face a quick boss like Tsuruhime and Kotaro. But against other bosses and normal enemies in general, Kanbe isn’t really that bad. Albeit slow, his normal S-string attacks and skills (eg Ruffian Kick into Drop Kick or Aggressive Behaviour) can be chained with ease to swipe most enemies clean, while Depression can send enemies in large area around Kanbe flying while dealing minor damage. Thankfully Kanbe’s slow attacks/end-of-combo delay is balanced by his ability to roll cancel (L1 button), which allowed him to immediately start a new attack/skill. Nevertheless I still hate the fact that he runs so damn slow, probably one of the two slowest hero in the game (along with Yoshihiro).
So what changed my mind about him that made him no longer in my shit list? Said it on the above paragraph: CRIMINAL SMASHER. With this special, Kanbe slams his chain ball to the ground, then do a series of German suplexes (hit square button as he’s about to hit the supplex for additional suplex, 10 suplexes maximum), followed by a final flying piledriver that create a tornado that damages nearby enemies. The damage it deals is massive that it took only 2 full Criminal Smashers to defeat a boss on Normal mode (4 to 5 Criminal Smashers on Hard). I just like this skill, it’s a great satisfaction when he catch the likes of Tsuruhime or Kotaro and slams them into the ground with this skill. Too bad it is unusable against the Honda, Yoshitsugu and machines (obviously, how do you grab something like Motochika’s Rising Sun?). Since I love Criminal Smasher so much, there’s no reason for me to swap it with his other specials. Rolling Attack turned him into a rolling bowling ball that rolls pretty fast and deal decent damage, while Bad Bomb made Kanbe looked like a dumbass as a bomb fall on his head, then he went flying as the bomb explodes. Rolling Attack is a good solution to his slow running speed, but having this special equipped means I had to sacrifice Criminal Smasher, which I would rather not.
His joke weapon is giant
kendama toy...really? And his personal accessories made him plant bomb each time he roll cancel, more or less just to add a little bit of offence to his attack. Overall, using Kanbe is all about L1 roll cancel to remove the delay after most of his attacks and skills, and despite being a generally boring character to combo, I had fun using his Criminal Smasher.
Yoshihiro Shimazu (RANK C)
Weapon: Greatsword Skills: Rolling Thunder, Hammer, Truth, Berserker
Specials: Power Surge, Beast Cut, Lightning SwordYoshihiro is your “power” type hero where most of his individual attacks deal huge damage at the cost of attack speed. He also has the most boring and pain-in-the-butt S-string attacks in the entire game. For starter, his S-string attack need to connect to its target before you can continue with the rest of the attack. His actual S-string combo itself is just simple multiple overhead sword swings. In fact, all his skills and specials (except Truth and Power Surge) are just variants of overhead sword attacks. See why I label him “boring”? There really isn’t many flashy chain combo you can do with him, because being a big muscled old man he is, it just didn’t suit him.
But like Kanbe, he has something, the x-factor that was enough to propel him from the mediocrity of no-fun hero to a wild card in my list. So what’s Yoshihiro’s X-Factor? His third special, Lightning Sword. It is an uninterruptible skill that made him drink his sake in the bottle, spew it on his sword, charge and does (yet another) overhead slash. And the best thing about this skill is, it will KILL virtually any enemy it hit without fail, even on Hard mode. Even the tough Honda and Muneshige cannot survive the extreme power of Lightning Sword. I’ve never use the skill on Nobunaga final form, so I don’t know if it will also kill him on Hard. But the fact of the matter is, Lightning Sword is the ultimate 1-Hit KO skill in SenBasa 3, because you can’t be interrupted while charging, and it will kill any target it hits. So the only thing you need to be mindful is to make sure that the skill hit your intended target (again, a pain to try targeting Tsuruhime at her stage unless you’re in Hero Time). If that was not enough, his personal accessory sets will cause him and enemies to die in one hit (!!!). Devil May Cry Heaven or Hell mode anyone?
His other specials aren’t really worth the talk, because in all honesty, Lightning Sword is miles better. Though if you want something cool from him, Beast Cut is a nice change – a skill where he slashes his sword forward, emitting a shockwave that travel a long way and deal great damage. His joke weapon is some kind of skewer with rice, squid and other meat, which seem to me has the effect of Gold Rice Ball – increase effect of heal items. Anyway to sum it up, “The Beast” is definitely the perfect nickname for Yoshihiro, because that’s what he really is – pure, brute strength and power.
Motochika Chosokabe (RANK D)
Weapon: Giant anchor Skills: Chain Shot, Heave Ho, Gone Fishin, Rigging Swinging
Specials: Nine Tails, Clap of Thunder, Surf UpCaptain Motochika on my shit list, are you serious bro? But seriously, like Yoshitsugu I really don’t have any fun using him on Hard. If my problem with Yoshitsugu is his underwhelming 1v1 capability, for Motochika I think he didn’t have interesting combo that can deal with the crowd and bosses efficiently. Note the keyword “interesting”. Sure he can chain a few good Chain Shot into endless loop of Heave Ho or something, and his Chain Shot -> Clap of Thunder combo is as nasty as it gets, but I personally never see these as fun combo. Ringing Swinging is a bit like Kotaro’s air combo (which you can keep on chaining as long as it hits the enemies), while Gone Fishin is probably the unique thing that separate Motochika than the rest of SenBasa3 hero, where he trapped the enemies with a hanging net for quite some time, allowing you to attack them, or just taunt to fill your basara gauge. If only the enemies/bosses trapped in the net didn’t have the damage received significantly reduced, I would probably had a bit more fun using Motochika.
Among his three specials, Nine-Tails is my pick. With this skill Motochika swings his anchor left and right (like Kanbe’s Aggressive Behaviour), dealing moderate damage, unfortinately it hardly juggle enemies/bosses. His second skill Clap of Thunder has the potential to be his most damaging attack, but you need to time it right for the anchor smash to give the best damage output (when his anchor flash). The last one, Surf Up is probably the coolest skill he has (and I really like the way he surf the field like it’s the ocean, while attacking/sweeping enemies). But. Sekigahara Intrusion, 6 Gold Lions (+200 atk each), weapon with 680 atk, a few fugitive stat bonuses, Hard mode. After a few sweeps with Surf Up, I killed ZERO enemies. Seriously this skill is underwhelmingly weak and impractical to use against small number of enemies. The only good thing about this skill is that it allow you to move faster than his dash, although not as fast as a horse to make you win the Oshuu horse race.
His personal accessory made enemies drop money if attacked by Heave-Ho. His joke weapon is a fishing /catching rod… or so it seems. Well probably the only joke weapon in the game that fit the hero’s personality. So to sum my thought about Motochika: He may be have some neat combo and all, but in the end, he’s just not the type that I had fun playing. Especially on Hard mode.
to be continued, final part: Oichi, Nobunaga Oda, Tokugawa Ieyasu, Tadakatsu Honda and Motonari Mori
Tales of Grace F
Warrior Orochi 3
FFXIII-2
