#ikesen anniversary

[daeva-agas]

New illustration for Ikesen’s 8th Anniversary in JP!!

[toreii]

Special 8th Anniversary Message - Kichō

“It’s often said that months pass by fleetingly, and that’s true. But, all of them are lovely and seem irreplaceable. It’s all thanks to you, you know.”

[hazelldhy]

✨ Ikemen Sengoku ✨ Official Art

Ikemen Series 10th Anniversary

[the12thnightproject]

The Challenge

Title: The Challenge

Requested by: @ikemendaniel

Prompt: Kabedon

Characters: Ieyasu & Sasuke (background, Masamune, Mai)

Spicy but SFW

Word Count: 1200

Heat.

At the end, that’s all there is. A fire in the blood, flames that radiate outward from the core. Lips tingle, numbing to sensation. Sasuke and Ieyasu are both bathed in sweat, breathing heavily. Panting…

Brown eyes meet green ones, without the barrier of the glasses that Sasuke tossed aside moments ago. There is pain, and through the pain a hint of euphoria. “Yield,” Ieyasu manages to find the breath to gasp. “Tell me you yield.”

Sasuke stays as expressionless as always, though a sheen of perspiration covers his face. “More,” is all he says.

How did we get here? Was it half an hour ago, when the heat was still merely a pleasant burn? Was it the moment when Sasuke had Ieyasu kabedon’d against the castle walls, and pleaded for one tiny favor? Or was it earlier that day when Sasuke was seized by a desire…

Earlier that day…

“You want Ieyasu’s… autograph?” Mai couldn’t prevent herself from gaping at her friend, who had dropped in on her (literally) and announced his quest.

“I er, might be the founding member of the Tokugawa Ieyasu appreciation society at Kyoto University. An autograph… and perhaps some personal item, such as a scrap of material, a lock of his hair…” Sasuke’s eyes had a faraway look in them. Mai cleared her throat. “Yes, a lock of his hair.”

It wasn’t the craziest thing she had ever heard of, and since she needed to deliver a kimono to Ieyasu anyway, she allowed Sasuke to accompany her.

That might have been all there was to it, but as it turned out, Ieyasu was not in the mood to sign a piece of paper, let alone allow Sasuke to touch his hair. In fact, after accepting the kimono from Mai, he thanked her and strode off without a word.

Sasuke followed.

Ieyasu walked faster.

As did Sasuke.

The situation mushroomed from there, with Ieyasu breaking into a run, and Sasuke chasing after him. Alarmed, and worried for both their sakes, Mai hurried off to find Masamune, in the hope that he could arbitrate a settlement.

By the time Masamune and Mai caught up with them again, Ieyasu was backed up against the castle wall while Sasuke loomed against him ominously. “Just a tiny snip of hair. I’ll take it from the back, and no one will be able to tell.”

“As if anyone could tell anyway,” Masamune said quietly to Mai. “The lad’s hair resembles a lionfish, even in the best of circu- oof!” He rubbed his stomach where Mai had just elbowed him. “Kitten!” He glared at her reproachfully.

“Help them out, please! I don’t want this to escalate.” Mai doubted that Sasuke would dare harm his idol, but Ieyasu was unpredictable.

Masamune waded in and soon had the two separated. “Lad, Sasuke’s request is a bit odd, but harmless. Just give him some hair, and he’ll go away.”

But Ieyasu’s stubborn mode had been activated, and he was in no way interested in giving anything to Sasuke. “Don’t be ridiculous. I won’t even give him one hair. Who knows what he’s going to do it?”

Meanwhile, Sasuke, having gotten this close to Ieyasu did not want to waste the opportunity. “I’m willing to work for the chance. We could spar for it?”

“No!” The objection came from peace-loving Mai.

Determined, Sasuke threw out desperate suggestions. “Ground spike hopscotch? Ceiling races through the castle? Throwing star dodgeball? Hot sauce challenge?”

“No. No. No. N- er…” Ieyasu paused, his interest caught.  “What is this hot sauce challenge?”

“The Hot Sauce Challenge is a popular game from our… village.” Sasuke paused to find a non-anachronistic explanation. “It involves the consumption of increasingly spicier foods.”

“Um, Sasuke?” Mai tapped his shoulder. “You should probably know that-“

But it was too late. Sensing a chance to be free of the pesty ninja forever, Ieyasu agreed to the competition. “If I win, you promise to never bother me again? To never look at me again?”

“I promise, Lord Ieyasu.” Sasuke bowed to him.

At that, Masamune willingly offered his services as sauce provider. He spent the afternoon in the kitchen, in his element, as laughing to himself he crafted wicked (and yet still tasty, if he said so himself) bowls of hot sauces.

The contest began slowly at first, with neither challenger even needing to resort to the milk that Keiji (who still had those goats) had provided.

As each container of sauce was set in front of them, they stared into each others eyes, drank the sauce straight from sake cups, then slammed the cups back on the table as if they were doing shots of liquor, rather than liquid death.

“Refreshing,” Ieyasu remarked early on the in the competition, as he downed a cup of sauce that was more than fifty percent karashi.

Sasuke gulped his own sauce without even a twitch to betray the fact that his esophagus was on fire. Although the mist in front of his eyes was slightly concern- oh. His glasses had fogged up. Carefully, he set them aside.

The sun set, the room darkened. Wasabi sauce… yuzukosho… shichimi togarashi… Then the first casualty - it was neither Sasuke or Ieyasu, but kitchen-helper Mitsunari, who accidentally rubbed his eyes and had to be attended to by Mai and Hideyoshi.

But neither competitor would yield, even after a dish made almost purely of sansho pepper.  The sauce’s delayed response caused Sasuke’s lips to tingle, and he was certain Ieyasu was suffering the same, for he was rubbing his thumb across his lower lip. He could feel sweat trickling between his shoulder blades and his nose had been running through the last four sauces.

And so, now… we return to the beginning, which is also the end…

“Yield,” Ieyasu says, and for a moment, a brief hopeful moment, Sasuke thinks that Ieyasu is yielding to him. But the man continues, “Tell me you yield.”

Not today, Satan. Sasuke hasn’t endured four years of Kenshin’s training, four years of pickled plums, four years of sake-soaked nights to be defeated by hot sauce. “More.”

“Are you certain, lads?” Masamune stands over them – both men are red faced, sweating, breathing through their mouths. Brows and faces are mopped with hand towels, milk is sipped, determination is renewed.

Ieyasu slaps his hand on the table. He can no longer speak.

Masamune sets the last dish on the table. “I call it… Dragon’s Breath.”

There’s a long … long… pause…

Before with barely a tremble to their hands, they dump the sauce into their mouths, swallowing it as fast as humanly possible.

It’s like drinking lava. The molten shot races down their throats, like a scorpion on a water slide.

Neither speaks.

Neither screams.

Neither can scream… their vocal cords have been temporarily cauterized.

Instead, they only stare at each other in mutual agony. And… maybe… mutual respect?

“That’s it.” Masamune clears away the dishes. He worries that anything hotter might literally rip out their guts. “I declare this competition a draw. Congratulations.”

Without a word, Ieyasu gets to his feet, bows to Sasuke, and walks away.

When Sasuke can move again… it’s to grab the hand towel that Ieyasu has left behind. Carefully, he folds it up and tucks it into his kimono.

It’s been a good day.

[misohsoup]

I just realized the order of the the free chibis for this year’s anniversary is in the order of 2021 overall ranking

🤔🤔🤔

This year’s participation was ridiculously embarrassing due to Cybird’s inability to meet our expectations. Instead they were so far off the bullseye that they pretended like they were not in the wrong and two (maybe three days in, don’t quote me since I was half absentminded during the whole event) days into the Sengoku showdown 2022,

They “offered” more prizes because of our “love and dedication” to the warlords

When really, they were experiencing extremely low participation and a tremendous amount of email complaints.

Some of the most baffling points of this event are:

The large button and handwritten letter were originally for top 3 overall rankers ONLY

How unfair can it be right?! In 2021, the top 3 rankers of EACH warlord ranking had received a tiny 1.5 inch button. That’s a total of 51 buttons. It wasn’t even a grand unique button, mind you! It was a regular CG that could be found and seen in game all the time plus the “name of event~ Yes, my warlord” 😑😑😑

Then they had to extend the large button to top 4-10 overall rankers ~~ honestly, should have been this way to begin with. So from last years 51 buttons down to only 10 buttons needed to be made. (It would be irritating if the button the rankers receive is that EXACT sample image during the event though…. This will be pending an update once my friend receives a notice 🫣🫣)

The handwritten letters remain the same, only for the top 3 rankers. Which is only fair, since they’ve worked hard to stay up there.

The large modern wedding dress was made as the overall top 50 rankers ONLY.

Okay, I see …. Let’s see what the overall top 100 rankers receive then. 🧐🧐

My eyes must be playing tricks on me, I don’t see the tab for overall top 100. 🤨🤨

NOPE, they decided to give the dress to only 50 players out of the whole event. Something we’ve never seen before WITHOUT a prize for top 100 at least.

We are English version players.. we do not compare to the Japanese version player base!!! 😡😡😡

I don’t believe they did overall top 50 for Japanese version last year though… (I have check my screenshots)

The top 1 wedding frame for each warlord rankings, I had no problems with this until they released their revised prize list …

The best thing about trying for top 1 for each warlord was because it’s going to become a custom frame with the top 1 players name in the frame.

But they went ahead and offered the same exact frame to top 2-3 as well just WITHOUT the custom name of the player.

This would have changed the way players started this event if they had known right at the start of the game… maybe they would have tried harder

But they’ve already missed the ECB bonuses … to me that feels so bitter when they know they’ll spend more coins but don’t get all the items the event has to offer. 🥺🥺

Lastly, I wouldn’t be as annoyed and disappointed if they gave a simpler frame for the top 2-3 such as ONE or NO chibis part of the frame because that’s literally half the reason why I fought for top 1. 😡😡

Another huge disappointment was the musical chibi’s of our boys in suits playing English instrument with their pets was only available to each warlords top 50 ONLY. Yet another thing we’ve never seen!

Last year the chibis were made available for top 100 players of each warlord rankings. Which is COMPLETELY fair. Great job last year cybird 💪🏽💪🏽

This gave chances to players that don’t usually get a chance at receiving cute chibis

This also meant that many of the F2P players were able to play comfortably.

Yet, they pull a stunt like this but no reconsideration was made for this when they released a revised list of prizes. 😤😤

~~~

As a business owner myself, this was a complete disaster.

For disproportionate allotments of prizes

Continuous influx of the price packs

Drops in items RECEIVED per price packs

Ridiculously high glamour requirements in story events for VERY LITTLE RETURN

Ridiculously high ballet/vote/ticket/heart requirements in collection events for chibis or “bonus” stories

Comparing English player base to the Japanese player base

Skipping events without notice and explanation

Skipping BIRTHDAY FESTIVALS without notice and explanation ~ plus when reached out to they sent an automatic/repetitive response of “we are unable to discuss and disclose information in regards to current and future events. We thank you for playing Ikemen Sengoku.”

To continue in regards to birthdays, they decided to

SKIP KEIJI AND HIDEYOSHI joint birthday festival in March,

SKIP MOTONARI AND SASUKE join birthday festival in April,

BUT RELEASED A TWO WEEK, I REPEAT TWO WEEKS, THAT’S FOURTEEN DAYS, for Nobunaga’s birthday festival

Now we’re back again, they SKIP YUKIMURA Birthday festival in July

Which is extremely concerning since Yukimura’s birthday is the “reset” or “start” of the new versions of birthday events.

August is literally around the corner now, then comes Masamune’s birthday in September it will not be a surprise for me to see his birthday festival releasing without a hitch as he is top ranker in the game just like Nobunaga.

However, once they release him, it almost confirms the fact that they are pulling favourites and only releasing the guys that they KNOW bring them profits.

I can already see the downfall of the English version of Ikemen Sengoku. 😤😤😤

I will hope for a next year but I will not be the only one surprised that the end is near.

🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

[shamylicious-blog]

Happy 10th Anniversary @cyikemen 

Yukimura was my first Warlord.And hes still my nr 1 ,thank you for giving him us.İ love my peerless warrior 

[ana-thedaydreamer]

HAPPY 7TH ANNIVERSARY OF IKEMEN SENGOKU

My teddy bear looks so soft 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

PV

[annicaax]

so it's been 5 years of Ikesen

also 5 years of me playing this game. (I installed this game on 30.6.2017,4 days after the game release lol. but it's no joke. it's a habit of mine, I keep track of the dates whenever I start something) looking back those were some glorious, fun days I had playing the events and main stories as they came out. the journey makes me nostalgic as I'm here today waiting for my prickly samurai Kanetsugu's route to come out (and also anticipating Kicho's main story release eventually, and the sequels and eternal routes of my other favorite guys besides Nobu-- Sasuke, Motonari)

thank you for the memories cybird... definitely this game gave me one of my best otome game play experiences ever ĺ

[lucyw260]

This sounds great, we get absolutely zero pet content so I can’t wait until I can get my hands on all these stories!!🥰😍

[redheadkittys]

...8th anniversary of ikesen and my men look very fine...

[reccyls]

Spoilers for future Ikesen content

Part of the anniversary announcements

Act 3 is going to be happening

And this year's election theme is going to be Harem/Inner Palace

[daeva-agas]

Ikesen JP anniversary election event theme: Gentlemen Thieves

Team Sapphire:

Papa Nobu Mama Hide, their baby, and the neighbours

Captions:

Nobunaga: “Tonight, I’ll steal you away. Then come dawn, I will cherish you, my most precious treasure.”

Hideyoshi: “I’m going to steal you tonight. Then I'll take care of you and spoil you for the rest of your life.”

Mitsunari: “I’ll come by to steal you away tonight. When I steal your heart, and I’ll dedicate mine to you.”

Ieyasu: “I’m going to steal you tonight. I won’t be letting you go after I got you, so be prepared.”

Shingen: “Tonight, I’m going to carry you off. After that, I’ll whisper words of love until morning comes.”

Yoshimoto: “Tonight, I shall be carrying you off, hm? If all goes well, I’d like to be wrapped in our own little world, just the two of us.” 

Team Ruby:

Hogwarts vibes

Masamune: “I’m going to steal you tonight. Once you’re mine, I will give you the utmost pleasure.”

Yukimura: “I’m going to steal you tonight. When I’ve taken you, I promise to always protect you.”

Sasuke: “Tonight, I’m going to carry you off. When I have you, I’ll tell you my feelings under the starlit sky.”

Kanetsugu: “I’m going to steal you tonight. Come dawn, I’ll lavish my feelings on you.”

Keiji: “I’m going to steal you tonight. When I’ve taken you, I’ll show you the most incredible dream.”  

Ranmaru: “Tonight I’m going to carry you off, so be sure to wait for me, okay? I’m definitely always make you happy.”

Team Diamond:

Team doom impending. Kennyo is the sane one of the group. 

Mitsuhide: “Tonight, I’m going to carry you off. When morning comes, I will love you as my partner for the rest of my life”

Kichou: “Tonight I’m going to carry you off. I will steal you without fail, and I swear to protect you no matter what it takes.”

Kenshin: “I’m going to come to you tonight. On the dawn after I’ve retrieved you, I'll hold you in my arms and love you for the rest of my life.”

Kennyo: “Tonight, I’m going to steal you. In the morning, I promise to always make you happy.”

Motonari: “I’m gonna to snatch ya tonight. When I get ya, whatever may come I won’t let ya escape.”

[toreii]

I did it😭😭😭 I think I’ve had enough of spending my money on Cybird. I can’t believe I did it again, but it was all for my man❤️😘 I’m just so in love with Kichou. Since he was first revealed🥲🤣

Well, I was already invested in this, so I completed the gacha. Mitsunari was my last pull😭

Also, I’m a little curious. Is this enough tickets to read a complete route? Since the campaign election is finally up and running, I want to speed run through Kichou’s route and give him all the votes I collect for him. I dont plan to rank or anything like that myself. I just want to do my part to help him climb higher in the ranking this year.

[ga-yuu]

I know some people are going to argue about me putting ikegen in every where but listen....do you think Cybird would take a bold move and produce something different in the future?

Let be honest here. No hate no bias. Ikesen, Ikerev and Ikevamp all have similar base story but in different setting.

Ikesen: Sengoku setting

Ikerev: Alternate magical London

Ikevamp: 19th Century Paris....or is it 18th?

And all the three titles have two things in common: 1. A MC who is from a different timeline/universe and, 2. Time limit. When I played these three games, I didn't care much about these two things because I was still relatively new to the Ikemen series. But later I got tired of the Time limit bullshit condition because it just feels forced and I don't think two people will fall deeply in love in just one month. (hey at least ikesen had 3 months). Some players had their problems with this setting but overall everyone enjoyed it because this is what cybird was mainly known for? Cybird trope.

The next two titles, Ikelive and Ikegen, brought changes. MC is from the same time line as the male characters and there is no time limit. This brings a breath of fresh air as the MCs can take their sweet time to understand and be friends with everyone and also she doesn't have to worry about whether she could stay with the male lead or not (because there are no bad endings). So the main focus of the story can be something else. But unfortunately Ikelive ended before it could even celebrate its 1st year Anniversary and Ikegen....well...at least it was on life support for 4 years, right? IDK much about Ikelive, but people loved Ikegen because it was something different from the regular Cybird games.

Next are, Ikepri and Ikevil, probably the most successful games after Ikesen. I feel like Ikesen, brought them success and Ikepri and Ikevil are the current most successful games. Ikepri...let just accept it, it really benefited because of covid and it was a fresh game at that time so everyone was excited including me. Ikevil well, again it's still relatively new. Both these games have MCs from the same timeline but they did kept the annoying 'time limit' aspect. When I saw that, I was like 'why?' because I thought Cybird is making changes. You know, bringing something new and fresh and bold. I really hoped that both the games contained the ridiculous, brain-dead and nonsensical humor of Ikegen for fun but no. Both games are good on their own and players are enjoying it. Good!

But, after seeing what happened to Ikerev, Ikelive and Ikegen, do you think Cybird would try and do something bold like Ikegen in the future thinking that it won't be successful? Or do you think they'll slowly go back to being the old cybird, where their next game will have MC from a different time line and there will be time-limits in their story lines?

Also Ikevamp fans....giving you guys a heads up, because it seems like you're going to be the next target...

[the12thnightproject]

An anniversary, of sorts…

So many stories these days start out, “well, it was a pandemic and…” but, yeah, it was the pandemic and….

Anyway recently, I was poking through some of the files on my phone when I realized that two years ago this month (after three months of quarantine/WFH), I was playing a puzzle game on my phone, clicked on a free advert, which turned out to be for Ikemen Sengoku. I normally just click through these things… I’d tried to play a couple other romance/story apps before, and none of them had held my interest. This one looked more intriguing, and I thought, “what the hell… if it sucks, I can always delete it.”

Two years, many new friendships, and about 300,000 words of fanfic later… (I didn’t delete).

So, here’s to some of my favorite Ikesen men:

Takeda Shingen… that smart, strategic, sneaky, flirty, emotionally intelligent hunk. Come for the beefcake, stay for the brains. I’m a sucker for a they-rescue-each-other trope, and at the core, that what his story is. The adult amongst all the Kasugayama crazies, the one who knows how to solve everyone else’s problems, but ignores his own until it’s too late. Thank you, Shingen, for being the best muse I’ve ever had. Or, well the best muse since Luke Skywalker (but that’s another story). Maybe I just like a man who can swing a big sword?

Ishida Mitsunari … ok, if there’s a theme here, it’s the attraction to smart guys, although Mitsunari’s tactical and book smarts have a negative correlation when it comes to EQ. But how can I resist a sweet guy who does everything in his power to figure out how to make MC happy… and who, once he accesses his emotions, catches up fast. Mitsunari always thinks positively of everyone – he’s just a ray of sunshine. Once I got to know him, he turned out to be almost as great of a muse as Shingen. So, thank you, Mitsunari for the sweetness, the support, and for trusting MC with your feelings.

Sarutobi Sasuke… who doesn’t love a genius physicist/moderately awesome Ninja… who is still trying to figure out what to do with his emotions. But those catch up to him eventually, and they do they’re dialed up to 11. As a modern man in ninja clothing, Sasuke, more than any other warlord, understands the concept of consent, respect, and agency, and has an MC who can go quip for quip with him on the cultural riffs. Thank you, Sasuke, for the fun, and the laughs, and oh yeah… that scene in the woods.

I cannot forget my “gateway drug,” the whole reason the game stayed on my phone after I downloaded it. He presents as a prototypical wild boy, until you get to know that sensitive side underneath. His route was a wild ride, but what kept the game on my phone, was the slow reveal of what was underneath, and his protectiveness, not just of MC’s body, but of her soul. Even as he was helping her grow and discover her courage, he never let her lose her core. Thank you Masamune, for the bravery, for the understanding, for being that guy who will give me a push on the swing set, stand back as I learn to fly, but stay close enough to catch me if I fall.

And this one...…. I sense that underneath that slightly-above-it exterior is a lot of pain and a potential for self-sacrifice greater than Shingen’s. Wherefor thou route? You’re going to break my heart aren’t you? Yoshimoto, thank you for loving art and history, and a worried thanks in advance for what I expect is going to be another cathartic crying session.

[misohsoup]

If anyone was wondering when we will start receiving our anniversary promises of 2022.

Look no further, remember to check them out in your mailbox if you had voted at least ONCE for these three warlords.

😊😊😊

Last year they gave us a schedule but let’s see what they decided to do this year.