News roundup: Reports from this weekend's events and the lyrics for Heavenly Blue

Gaming websites post their reports from the final Sengoku Basara 4 Sumeragi demo event

Today marked the last of the Sengoku Basara 4 Sumeragi in-store demonstration events held in five gaming shops across Japan. Famitsu, Dengeki and Gamer have all posted their reports from the final event held in Ikebukuro so we finally have some confirmed details (and pictures) explaining what took place there. Famitsu's article was written by reporter Giant Kuroda who has been covering the game regularly in the magazine; I used his version with a few details from the other accounts for this summary.

• The Ikebukuro event was very popular with fans of all three of the games being demonstrated; KobaP posted a photograph showing that all of the tickets had been reserved within an hour of the doors opening.
• There were around 100 fans at the talk show with the two producers (Kobayashi 'KobaP' Hiroyuki and Gyakuten Saiban's Kojima Shintarou).
• The first topic at the talk show was DMC4 Special Edition. Each of these demo events has showcased a short video about a different character. This time, they unveiled a clip where Vergil was dressed in red and moving like Dante, even using similar techniques. KobaP couldn't reveal more details about this (yet). He's planning on sharing the DMC4 Special Edition clips shown at these events prior to the game's release date.
• Back to Sengoku Basara 4 Sumeragi, they played the same video which was used at the other events to show off the first three sets of crossover costumes. Ieyasu in his T.M.Revolution costume was a big hit and made the audience laugh.
• KobaP drew attention to Yukimura and Nagamasa with their NJPW tie-in costumes, jokingly reminding their fans that it was the first time they could get a look at the characters' thighs.
• The new video for the Ikebukuro event was an '(Approximately) 10-second Theatre' clip featuring a cool animated scene where Masamune crosses swords with Mitsunari. It made the large number of female fans in the audience cheer. The Gamer article has the best pictures of the video.
• KobaP appreciates attending this kind of event because he can watch the live reactions from the fans; it's a different experience to releasing an ad or magazine article and he doesn't often get the chance to speak with the players directly. Apparently the reactions from the fans can vary across regions.
• The reason this series of regional events took place was because KobaP tried something similar during the promotion for Sengoku Basara 4 and it was well-received. He'd like to be able to organise more relaxed events like this in future.
• They've created a lot of video clips for Sengoku Basara 4 Sumeragi and they'll be releasing them online from time to time.
• KobaP apologised to the fans who had travelled to the shops just to watch the special videos but he really wants to share them with everyone else as well. So that those fans don't feel cheated, he's going to start off with newer videos and post the event ones later on - but they're definitely going to be shown eventually.
• Incidentally, there were four short videos played at the earlier events. So far I've heard that one had a Shingen versus Kenshin theme, one used Sasuke versus Yoshiteru and a third highlighted the Setouchi characters. The other one from last weekend is still a mystery, though it's possible that it was the Masamune versus Yukimura video which Capcom published a few days ago. I personally think it was something else based on KobaP's comments.

Bonus: Lyrics for Ishikawa Chiaki's Sengoku Basara 4 Sumeragi ending theme

I still can't get enough of Ishikawa Chiaki's beautiful Heavenly Blue so I tried transcribing the lyrics from the short version which plays in the game's second trailer. There's no official version of the lyrics yet so it's very likely that I've made some mistakes.

--

Ichirin no asagao no utsukushisa wo omae nara
Dou tatoeru no darou, dou sawaru no darou

Damarikomu utsuwa ni kuchibiru tsukete
Fukunda keshiki wo watashi nara, dou yomu no darou

Heavenly blue... heavenly blue...
Bonpyaku no mono ha kirisutete yuku

Heavenly blue...
Youshanaku furu tetsukuzu no mai
Soko kara yuiitsu no suijin dake wo nokosu
Kyuukyoku no sue

--

I don't usually like to write full translations because it's hard to get the nuances right, but the song has obviously been written especially for the series using Sen No Rikyuu as inspiration and I couldn't find any other attempts. I think some people might find the lyrics interesting, partly because they reveal a little about Sengoku Basara's version of Rikyuu and partly because they fit the visuals in the video wonderfully.

Note: The morning glory or asagao flower is closely associated with the real-life Sen No Rikyuu. The 'heavenly blue' of the title is also the name of a type of morning glory.

--

The beauty of a single morning glory flower
What might you liken it to? How might you touch it?

Falling silent, you place your lips to the vessel
The imagery in your mind, how might I glimpse it?

Heavenly blue... heavenly blue...
To go ahead and cast so many things away

Heavenly blue...
A relentless dance of scrap iron
After which only a lone man of culture remains
The ultimate conclusion