Anti-Climax Boss: In SB3, before the expansion, Muneshige is hard to beat even while weakened, but the Xavi tank can be destroyed in secondsnote otherwise, it's pretty much inoffensive if you stay directly in front of it, provided it isn't singing while you do that and Sorin himself dies after one hit.
Badass Decay: Thanks to Character Exaggeration. Imagawa Yoshimoto is much more doomed than his Koei counterpart, who at least has stayed throughout that series and is speculated to be Obfuscating Stupidity. Here, he's a 100% buffoon and cowardly, and because Nobunaga is a 100% SOB, he's more likely to die ignobly, and because this series run on Popularity Power, he's all but completely vanished since the second game expansion. That's some way to go for a competent daimyo before Okehazama.
Base-Breaking Character: Mori Motonari. On one hand, he's definitely one of the more popular characters in the game and has quite the personality and capabilities to back that up. On the other hand, it's his personality that made him quite hated, as being a selfish jackass commander, successful or not, is still going to leave a bad taste on people's mouth and even more, he probably is one of the people that strayed the most compared to his historical counterpart: A famous personal-event by historical Motonari was that he gathered his sons, told them to break off one arrow, they succeeded, but then he told them to break three arrows at once and they failed, intending to teach them a lesson of unity: One person is easier to break than a group of people banding together. Basara's edition of Motonari probably would prefer to DIE before giving such anecdote to anyone, as he's basically convinced that he's the only thing that matters in the world because of his genius that he'll have zero time for family and friendship.
Broken Base: In the eve of Yukimura-den, Word of God has it that there won't be a new female character... and the base spectacularly broke, with one camp saying that at least the extremely fun over the top gameplay factor is still in tact and it makes sense that female emancipation did not really exist in the Sengoku Period, and another camp crying out how Koba is just pandering to the yaoi fanbase and gives a complete middle finger for those who appreciates female character, and considering to jump ship to Koei, with claims that at least they're fairer to the opposite sex.
Ensemble Dark Horse: Which is one way to get promoted from NPC to playable character.
Motochika and Motonari were popular NPCs that got promoted into playable characters in the second game. From the second game to the expansion pack, Kojuro, Nagamasa and Oichi. But mainly Kojuro (the one who spawns the most fanart between those three). And there was much boo-ing when he got Demoted To NPC.
And special mention to Oichi. Mind you, this is a series dominated with pretty and manly boys, but the Oichi fanbase is very very solid when compared to other female characters, which includes her being the only playable female in the fighting game and returning in 3, as well as representing the series for Teppen.
Mitsunari, while actually being a main character in 3, proves to be so popular that he took over Yukimura as the poster boy as of Sengoku Basara 4.
According to popularity polls, the most popular newcomer in 4 is Matabe, despite the comparatively little focus he got in-game. In fact, one popularity poll had him rank 5th out of every playable SB4 character, behind only Mitsunari, Masamune, Ieyasu, and Yukimura.
'Katsu-Copter', again, for Katsuie, on account of his fighting style.
'Mototada' for Kasuga, because there actually was an Uesugi officer named Kasuga Mototada, and yes, that'
Game-Breaking Bug: Sengoku Basara X, the fighting game spin-off, probably has too many to list. The result is a game where almost every character has hilariously infinite combos that result in both characters flying off the top of the screen.
Sengoku Basara 2 Heroes is inexplicably the most popular game of the series, as well as genre, in Indonesia.
Ii Naotora is much better received in the West while she only had a fair popularity in Japan and her games were never released in the West. This is due to Values Dissonance carrying over from her counterpart in the game's rival series Samurai Warriors: Naotora over there is an apologetic, not-so-confident moeblob, whereas Naotora over here is a crazy-feminist, but most importantly, ball-busting Action Girl. You can easily guess which one hits better in the West.
In Sengoku Basara 4, Masamune has a DLC costume based on Dante◊ from the Devil May Cry series, who is voiced by Reuben Langdon. It just so happens that Reuben also voiced Masamune in the English version of SB3. Chances are that SB4won't leave Japan, but if it did and it was dubbed in English...
Ryotaro Okiayu, who voices Toyotomi Hideyoshi, would later go on to voice Admiral Kizaru from One Piece, a character whose personality is based on the real life Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
Ho Yay: Unlike the Dynasty Warriors series which has a good share of both yaoi and straight doujins, SB is practically flooded with yaoi (with Masamune/Yukimura, Kojuro/Masamune, and Motochika/Motonari being the most popular) with the occasional Oichi/Kasuga hentai. Makes sense as Sengoku Basara doesn't have many female characters.
Macekre: The first game was called Devil Kings in the U.S, the producer attempting (and failing) to make a Darker and Edgier version while also cutting out every trace of Japanese history and culture, with every single character given a new name.
IEYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!Explanation Mitsunari's particular brand of "Scream My Name" proves to be memetic to many people because of how over the top it is.
Masamune's Gratuitous EnglishExplanation Due to his tendency to spout Engrish phrases, those tend to define Masamune, making him a Fountain of Memes. But several Engrish stand out as some of the oft-used, such as "ARE YOU READY GUYZ??" or "PUT YA GUNZ ON!!" or "LET'S PARTY!!". These tend to memetically define Masamune... and the career of Kazuya Nakai, getting tons of Actor Allusion jokes in many places (especially since he's often pigeonholed with Samurai roles)
Narm: One example of a result of the Macekre on Devil Kings is one of Nobunaga/Devil King's quote directed to the enemy: "Bow down before me, you idiots!"... which made him sound more like a frustrated boss Surrounded by Idiots than a menacing devil king about to assert his authority to lowly beings beneath him.
Also, Takehito Koyasu voicing Sasuke is rather unsettling to some listeners, making it seem he was miscasted.
Nightmare Retardant: Oichi's static in the third game makes her sound more like a broken radio than anything actually scary.
That One Level: Sawayama Castle in 4 where you have to take 5 siege rams in total (3 at the first section and 2 at the second) to their destinations and each ram moves so atrociously slow and can't take many hits, forcing you to babysit them. Fortunately Sumeragi gives them a huge speed and health recovery boost, making the stage a lot less tedious.
That One Sidequest: From the third game, defeating and collecting all the fugitives. You have to equip a special bodyguard in order to find them, they have a habit of popping up out of nowhere and disappearing just as quickly, and hit surprisingly hard with a strong defense.
They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Shortly before SB3 came out, many fans were baying for Kobayashi's blood for overloading the game with NPCs. Some still are.
Things improved with Sengoku Basara 3: Utage where many characters (including Kojuro, Tenkai and Matsunaga of all people) returned as playable characters.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: In spite of Hideyoshi being villainous in this series as opposed to Koei's portrayal, Capcom made no mention about his eventual disastrous Korean Campaign, in a case of Everyone Has Standards where they agreed to leave the Japan's bad blood with Korea untouched.
Particularly "JAP" by abingdon boys school, the first anime opening which gives "Crosswise" a run for its money in popularity and, for many, has come to symbolize the whole spirit of the series.
Akechi Mitsuhide is depicted as a particularly depraved madman when he goads Nobunaga Oda's brother-in-law, Azai Nagamasa, into fighting the hotblooded hero Date Masamune. Mitsuhide diverts a squad of riflemen to fire on his own allies, having also brought Nagamasa's wife Oichi along. He ostensibly allows her to try to warn her husband before having him shot before her and relishing her pain. Mitsuhide is a vicious killer as well, serving Nobunaga only because it allows him to satisfy his bloodlust on the innocent and any warriors he finds. After the first season, he seeks to resurrect the Demon King, wanting nothing more than to watch the world burn.
And manly bonding sessions consisting of screaming names while punching each other in the face.
One-Scene Wonder: Kennyo, Yoshihiro, Xavi, and Itsuki in Season 1. The first three while they're slain by Nobunaga's men. Yoshihiro is back on his feet in Season 2.
Seasonal Rot: Judge End. The series is receiving a lot of criticism for its inferior animation when compared with Sengoku Basara and Sengoku Basara 2 by Production I.G. In addition to cutting the action back to a fraction of its former glory, introducing several annoying and useless characters and replacing the rocking soundtrack with vapid ear torture. The DVDs also got poor sales in comparison.
They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: There was a lot of raging when it turned out "Put your guns on!" was completely changed in the dub.
The same could be said for how Kasuga, Matsu and Oichi were portrayed as incapable in this show, in comparison to the video games.
A small part of the fandom was pretty confused by Yukimura's new hair style in the revealed character art for Judge End/Judgement.
As mentioned above in the Seasonal Rot entry, Judge End's animation is pretty much universally hated due to its drop in quality compared to the work done by Production I.G. for Season 1, Season 2, and The Last Party.
◊ from the Devil May Cry series, who is voiced by Reuben Langdon. It just so happens that Reuben also voiced Masamune in the English version of SB3. Chances are that SB4 won't leave Japan, but if it did and it was dubbed in English...
