This is going to a MASSIVE blog post because there is so much to say. Cybird has really pampered the otome game players. They have games like Ikemen Vampire, Midnight Cinderella…and then there’s Ikemen Sengoku. I NEVER thought I’d see the day when a game one ups Kamigami No Asobi. Don’t get me wrong, I love Kamigami no Asobi to bits…Sengoku however…. It’s an amazing game. Ikemen Sengoku is available Vita format AND phone app.

Just a little summary: The main character suddenly lands in the Sengoku period in Japan, (in the manga the character’s name is Mai.) after looking at a monument for Nobunaga Oda in Kyoto. There’s a massive storm, and she meets Sasuke there. Why is Sasuke important? They both end up going into some time slip. Sasuke actually arrives in the Sengoku period 4 years prior to Mai’s arrival.  Mai ends up saving Nobunaga’s life, and he looks at her as his “lucky charm”.

Mai doesn’t like being there, and since she was about to start a new job, this whole incident seems to have upset her (which is understandable). Her whole evening is overwhelming right from the start. Along with Nobunaga, she meets Mitsunari Ishida, Hideyoshi Toyotomi, and Mitsuhide Akechi. Mitsuhide is known for betraying Nobunaga, but in this instance, because of the time slip and Mai saving Nobunaga, this doesn’t happen. Once Nobunaga offers her to stay by his side and rule the world, Mai takes off running, refusing the offer. While she runs away she runs into Kennyo, a monk that hates Nobunaga, Kenshin and Shingen (who also hates Nobunaga), Yukimura, and then Sasuke! Sasuke manages to walk her away into the woods. Once they speak, Hideyoshi calls out to her, and with him is Masamune Date…who pretty much takes a liking to Mai right away.

The prologue of the game finishes up with Mai being taken to Azuchi castle, and has to spend three months there. Sasuke warns her not to fall in love with anyone, but in all otome games, it eventually happens. The Vita game is in Japanese, but thanks to the phone app version in English, you can pretty much follow along, AND the walkthroughs that are available actually do work with the Vita version. Except the game does not have the routes of Sasuke, Mitsunari, Mitsuhide (which the route is actually coming out very soon for the phone version).

I’ve been working on the Masamune route in the vita game, because frankly…he’s the hottest warlord in the game…at least in my opinion. He’s wild, reckless, dangerous (as in he puts his ideals in ruling above everything else, and tells Mai he would kill her if he needed to). BUT in that instance they didn’t know or understand each other that well, but once they do…Masamune is one of the most sexual, romantic, lovable men in that game. I’m working on Mitsunari route in the phone version, and he’s such a sweetie pie that it’s not even funny. The characteristics of each guy are extremely varied, and you are never really bored. The game definitely gets 5 stars!

Merchandise

Cybird definitely brings out the merchandise. I mean there is a lot out there. This includes Ikemen Vampire. But once I fell in love with the game, I wanted to get merchandise to add to my anime collection. I would focus on eBay for the majority of stuff, but when it came to the artbook, I had several issues with eBay with that. So
I ended up paying a whole bunch of money for it on Amazon. (I will say it was WORTH it.) There has got to be almost 200 pages of artwork, character information etc in it. It’s amazing. Cybird also released a book on Ikemen Vampire, which is just as good.

I tend to collect books, pins, figures and keychains when it comes to things like this. I was fortunate to find keychains, pins etc for Kamigami no Asobi, but when it comes to figures, Brocolli/Brain’s Base seemed to have given up on the game and merchandise. Which is a shame because there is still so much more they could do. Ikemen Sengoku was released in Japan around 2015, and 2016/2017 everywhere else on the App Store. So it’s actually been out for quite a while. Yet they are STILL releasing audio dramas, merchandise and even more storylines and events in the app version.

Audio Dramas

I’ve been able to pick up three audio dramas- one from eBay and two from Amazon, and they were all in the 25.00-40.00 range. Masamune’s cd is just him and Mai (or I’m assuming the listener…since there is no actual female voice 😉 . Kazuki Katou voices Masamune…and good lord, his voice is amazing. Kazuki brings the character to life, and he has the kind of voice that is alluring…and very flirty. He’s perfect as Masamune.  It’s all in Japanese of course, but if you know several words in the language, you can catch on to what’s happening. Kazuki Katou also speaks at the very end, like an interview and talks about the episodes. I could catch the words home and holiday so it’s pretty much Masamune and love interest taking a trip out of the house.  There is a whole lot of smooching from Masamune in it, which I was actually surprised about. This is one cd not to ignore if you don’t have it, and you love Masamune.

I haven’t seen many solo audios yet besides Masamune, but there are also group
audios. I have one featuring Hideyoshi, Nobunaga and Mitsuhide and the other is Ieyasu, Masamune and Mitsunari. And I only learned recently that the voice actor that voices Hideyoshi, voices Azusa in Brothers Conflict.  So I always get the giggles when I watch Brothers Conflict and suddenly think of Hideyoshi singing and dancing.  Anyway, this audio focuses on Hideyoshi while Nobunaga and Mitsuhide are the side characters. It’s not exactly easy to tell what is actually going on but there is obviously some conflict between Hideyoshi and Mitsuhide. Nobunaga does keep both of them in line, as he should.

And then there is Ieyasu, the grumpiest sourpuss in the game. He’s not as mean as Takeru in Kamigami no Asobi, but he is still miserable. He treats Mitsunari like
garbage, although later in Mitsunari’s route, he tells Mai that he does care for Mitsunari but his weakness or inability to stand up for himself irritates him. So he’s not really that mean inside. As for the audio, it focuses on Ieyasu with Masamune and Mitsunari. Masamune dominates with his thunderous voice, Ieyasu is actually calmer, and Mitsunari…is just adorable. He’s ditzy, which is strange because he’s an amazing tactician for Nobunaga.  He’s actually a very interesting character.

Artbook

I’m not sharing too many photos because there have been several manga sites that have been stealing images to use for story images, despite the fact that the stories aren’t even related to the franchise. So… hopefully these few will let you see how
nice the book itself is, and that it is well worth the money. Just don’t look to eBay for it because I had been disappointed at least two times.

The artwork is beautiful. I love how the armor looks on all the characters, and the different variations of clothing that they all have. They each have a color theme to them as well. As seen here, Hideyoshi has a green theme going on. Masamune is blue with gold, and his armor has moon pieces on it.

What’s really nice is that the book includes a character information page for Mai as well. Some of the CGS in the game you don’t get to see what she looks like, but because of the book, you have the ability to see her.

The book also consists of extra drawings, including one or two that had Napoleon from Ikemen Vampire in it. He had been drawn with Nobunaga, so part of me feels Napoleon is a major character for Vampire.

Finding merchandise for Sengoku is fairly easy, but a lot of it can be extremely pricey. I don’t understand how it could be so expensive because the game isn’t that old.  I don’t know if it’s because a lot of the items are coming from over seas, or people are price gouging because they think people will spend a lot of money on things they really like. But I can admit I spent more than I wanted to on the art book. But as I said, some of it is definitely worth it. Especially if you can’t find them anywhere else.

 

Random Goodies

 

Quite a few times that I looked on eBay, I’d find Sengoku and Vampire items that were special merchandise at Anime Expo. Cybird seems to attend that big convention and always has something new. I unfortunately can’t afford that size of a convention, but sometimes I hope they can make their way to Otakon at least once. Another place that I’d find Sengoku items, is Otaku/ Goods Republic located in Japan. The Masamune foil that I purchased came from Goods Republic, and Hideyoshi was from eBay.

Masamune pillow. This I found on eBay for an extremely reasonable price. It was 30.00 in total, and it was an item from Anime Expo as well. There was another Masamune pillow, the same as above, but the person was charging over 100.00 for it. I gladly paid the 30.00 for the pillow. It’s actually very soft and gorgeous, so I’m glad I got it when I did.

The manga is easy to find. Amazon will carry it a couple of times, eBay has it and now Manga Republic (related to Goods and Otaku Republic shops) carries it. It’s all in Japanese but with the images, it’s very easy to follow. That and a lot of the scenes are in the game as well.

Pins, Banners, foils and acrylic figures

Other items that are easy to find are the pins, badges, keychains and acrylic figures. Badges seem to be the easiest merchandise to find, but sometimes you can find other things as well. I collect a lot of Masamune stuff, like I did with Takeru in Kamigami no Asobi.

The foils are nice because a few of them are special edition items. Such as the idol foil featuring Masamune and Ieyasu. Another is Masamune in modern clothing with sunglass. I know there is a route in the vita game where he ends up coming to Mai’s time, but I am not sure exactly how to get that route. But I know the CGS have him in her home wearing a very modern outfit.

 

Badges, figures and banners are other things I’ve been able to pick up, and all of these are in the places I have mentioned. I always look for low prices and then compare them to say…if I was on Amazon, I would look at eBay and even Japan sites to see if they have them at a lower price. A lot of times it’s a hit and other times it’s a miss. Another option would be AliExpress, which is where I found the Masamune acrylic stand.

Overall, I have actually been very surprised at what merchandise is out there for the game. And seeing all this merchandise…it’s fantastic to find, because you don’t see much of this in the States. A majority of anime merchandise available in person, or easy to purchase is the really mainstream series like Naruto, My Hero Academia, and definitely Dragon Ball Z/Super/Broly. It’s nice to expand a collection to harder to find items.

I will be starting my anime reviews once again, seeing how much spare time I have at the moment. 🙂