Japanator: So we're here to talk about Sengoku Basara -- I understand it's coming out for PS3 and Wii. A lot of American gamers happen to own an Xbox 360. Have you given any thought to porting the game over?

Kobayashi: Unfortunately, no. We're currently only planning on releasing the game for the PS3 and Wii at this time with no plans to release the game on any other systems.

That's actually quite understandable considering the target demographic. I realize the game ships later this month on the 29th --

Kobayashi: That's right, the 29th of this month.

I'm aware that the Wii version of the game will have a classic pro bundle with the controller. Are you planning on packing in any extras with either game that you're releasing for the PS3 or the Wii?

Kobayashi: Capcom itself doesn't have any current plans to release a special or limited edition of any sorts, but Animate -- a popular anime store in Japan -- will be doing a limited edition with various things bundled in.

Will the game have feature the same voice actors as the anime -- either the US or Japanese version?

Kobayashi: Unfortunately we wanted to make them the same voice actors, but we did the game first and then the animation studio went ahead and did their own thing.

Really? They hired their own studio then?

Kobayashi: Yeah, unfortunately we couldn't really sync up very well on that.

Well, that's fine. From what I've heard the voice acting is fantastic as it is.

Kobayashi: Oh, good! (laughs)

So, did the upcoming anime a factor deciding not to make this game Devil Kings?

Kobayashi: (laughing)

Did it?

Kobayashi: Well before, we were thinking maybe it was a better idea to have a different name but you know, now that it's such a big series in Japan, and now that the atmosphere is brighter in America, that people might be willing to accept a title and game like Sengoku Basara, so we decided to release it.

I'm really glad you guys decided to leave it that way this time, and I'm sure our readers would agree. So, Kou Otani did the musical score -- I recognize his name from Shadow of the Colossus. What was it like to have him on board, and was there any significance to choosing him to score the game?

Kobayashi: We wanted to make this game grander and on a larger scope than the previous games, so we wanted to get someone who was associated with that kind of grandiose and large scale music. So, we wanted to get him to do that. Also part of it is that we had a lot of people on staff who like Gundam Wing. So we decided to get him because we also like Gundam Wing. (laughs)

I know T.M. Revolution and Chiaki Ishikawa had provided an opening and ending theme for the game respectively -- will they also be included in the US release?

Kobayashi: Well, the opening will still have T.M. Revolution since his song was done in English, however with Ishikawa, the song would have to be done in English and it would end up costing money. We also weren't really sure if she was popular enough, or would be known to an American audience. So, we won't be able to include her song in the game, but we will at least have T.M. Revolution.

That's unfortunate, but completely understandable. So I've been told that Nobunaga Oda is a playable character in this game, but from what I understand, he's been killed off by this point in the series. Is he just a hidden character, or how will that work?

Kobayashi: As you guessed, he's actually a hidden character. It's not a particularly easy task to unlock him. You actually have to work pretty hard to unlock him.

Last question, so I'll make this a fun one. Why is Magoichi a girl? Traditionally he's portrayed as a man, so I figured I'd ask.

Kobayashi: Well, the reason we decided to make him into a her was because we had decided to make Tsuruhime who as you may know is this sort of cat girl, but we were thinking about balance and she's sort of tough to play as so we needed someone who was a little bit easier to play with and would allow you to just blow through enemies with. So we decided to turn Magoichi into a girl -- it was a combination of needing more female characters and balancing out the existing ones.

But the clan, the clan that she belongs to, historically did have prominent females in it -- so it sort of works out in a sense that if you're looking from a historical perspective, she could have been one of the women in the clan.

Well thank you for you time. We're looking forward to the North American release later this fall.