PixlBit

The Sakura Wars franchise is a series that I had no knowledge of, but long story short, the entire series was exclusive to Japan. It’s a strange predicament because the franchise is developed and published by Sega & Red Entertainment, but it’s Nippon Ichi Software who brought the game to the English market for the Nintendo Wii & PS2. It took over 13 years and five main games in the series for a chance to be able to play a Sakura Wars game in English. Another amusing fact is that Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love was actually out in Japan since 2005… To put that into perspective, the game was localized for us western audiences in 2010. That’s a hell of a difference, but in the end was it worth it? Well I'll discuss that today in this weeks rendition of Bargain Bin Buys. This week I present Sakura War: So Long, My Love. A game I bought for $10!

Sakura Wars is a unique game with an odd combination of strategy RPG mixed up with a dating simulation. The dating simulator takes up the majority of the game before each battle that commences. There are 10 chapters and a prologue, so there is only about 11 or so actual fights you'll participate in. The scale is tipped considerably in favor of the visual novel dating portion being about 85% of the game, 5% exploring New York City in a few parts, and 10% for the battling.

Sakura Wars is set in a steampunk alternate 1920s, where people use giant robots to fight off enemies. You are put into the role of Shinjiro Taiga. Shinjiro is a young male who at the start of the game is being transferred from Tokyo to New York to help the New York Combat Revue, which is a new defense division that has just been set up.  Shinjiro Arrives to a crowd of displeased people (The New York Combat Revue were expecting Shinjiro’s famous uncle, and they let it show) Shinjiro has to prove himself he’s just as capable as his uncle and he gets to prove this when he becomes Captain of the New York Combat Revue at the start of the game, which puts you in control of the five main girls you’ll be trying to get closer to.

All the characters have a very distinct personality. Take for instance Gemini Sunrise, who is a clumsy redhead cowgirl that I guess also knows samurai sword techniques. You  also have your typical hard nose tough girl Cheiron Archer. She’s a former street thug turned lawyer who follows everything by the law. Subaru is a bit weird. The characters discuss that she identifies as only Subaru and dresses like a boy to confuse people, as she believes sex shouldn’t affect judgement on someone. Lastly you have crazy hyper little girl Rosarita, medically wheelchair bound, but has the best healing aspect of the game Diana, and ex-captain Ratchet Altair, who you go to for advice in your newly promoted position and can court for a secret, but hinted at romance.

Behold the horrors of the enemy known as... THE FENCE!!!

Each chapter of the game usually follows a certain pathway for a certain character. A crisis happens, you talk to people, explore  the town, talk to more people, try to make the girls happy, and then at the end fight things with your huge mechanical robots. Making girls happy is something you’ll need to concentrate on. Sakura Wars doesn’t follow traditional strategy RPG's. Normally you fight to gain experience, level up, and repeat. Instead, the power of your characters depends on how your relationship is with the girl. If a girl is happy and has a good relationship with you then she will gain stat boosts for the fight. If she’s unhappy then it works the opposite way and that character will have downgraded stats making the game a lot harder. The best way to get through battles is by making all of the five girls happy so the team is balanced, but I really shouldn't have to explain that...it is kind of obvious.

As the story progresses you’ll be in situations where you are prompted to answer someone’s question or do an action. There’s a time limit of five seconds to give your answer and your choice will affect the characters involved. If you succeed you'll hear a chirpy tune. If you fail, the sound of a dying trumpet will let you know. To keep from being too monotonous,  you aren’t always selecting an answer from a list, sometimes you'll be prompted to do quick-time events. Using the analogue sticks on a classic controller (or nunchuck) you perform a specific input or do something. For example, you’re in a library in one scene and you have to get someone’s attention, so if you select 10% your voice will be quiet and she won't hear you. 100%  and you'll be shouting so everyone can hear you. Some  QTE's also require you to use the pointer and click things on the screen to examine them.

Outcomes of the events effect things further into the game, even going as far to open secret dialogue options that you wouldn’t normally get. This adds quite a substantial amount of replay value because you aren’t going to see all the possible outcomes unless you play the game through at least 6 times for every romantic partner. The game also has multiple endings, so if you didn’t get your favourite girl the first time round, you can always try again.

Okay so onto the other aspect of this game: the battle system. Battles are turn-based on a character basis, but you can move freely when it’s your turn to move. The mechs have a blue meter that is split into sections or bars I guess, and is used for moving and attacking enemies. When you attack or defend, it will cost one bar. Moving a certain distance will reduce the meter by one bar as well. Special moves use a special meter, but require the usage of your meter if you want to recharge it. Team moves are also available and are buffed up if you have good relationships with characters and they have good relations with each other.

Fighting on land isn’t the only thing you do however. Usually your robots transform into flying planes and battles become  more about moving vertically and horizontally allowing you to find the enemy’s weak spots to attack with a barrage of missiles.  If there’s a downside to the battles it’s that you have to normally wait till the end of a chapter to get to them. Because of this you usually have all the fights together, and this can be a bit exhausting. Thankfully, a save feature is included so you can save and return any time you like with multiple files. I think there are 36 different files in all.

Sakura Wars is a long read and features a stupid amount of text. Thankfully, NIS has done a first-rate job of translating the game. They’ve kept the quirky Japanese story intact which gives you some highly amusing scenes. It definitely helps if you like anime and are used to it, otherwise you'll sit there for hours just clicking through options until you get bored. Voice-over work is mostly good, but there is no lip syncing and the Wii version also missed out on the dual audio with the original Japanese VA's. As a game that is10 years old you know that you aren’t going to get something that looks stellar. In fact you can clearly tell it's a game from 2005 when running around town or in battles.  But one thing Sakura Wars really has going for it is its  presentation in terms of the anime cutscenes.

This game isn’t going to appeal to many people who hate visual novel/dating sims. It’s also not the deepest strategy RPG. However, If you like strategy RPGs mixed with a goofy visual novel romance sim, then you owe it to yourself to check this game out. 

Personal Opinion: 8.1/10- I played this game to get every character ending. Something I didn't mention is the game does let you skip through text and cutscenes after your first play through, so it helps in getting the multiple endings. Also I really enjoyed it.

Critical Opinion: 7.5/10- It's a really niche game. So it's hard for me to recommend this for everyone as I mentioned above. The game can be really boring if you aren't into this style of game, the graphics are outdated, and the strategy aspect is a little barebones for anyone super hardcore into it. However, it's hard for me not to recommend it for it's desired audience.

Overall Determination: 7.8/10- What a bargain!