Gaming’s eighth generation has seen franchises find well-deserved respect & growing fan bases by becoming more widely available in the west. “Sakura Wars” has been a celebrated franchise in its homeland of Japan by mixing visual novel presentation and tactical RPG battles. Though existing since the days of the Sega Saturn, “Sakura Wars” didn’t find any type of footing in the western hemisphere until 2010 with an unwise PS2 & Nintendo Wii release during the height of gaming’s seventh generation. For yours truly, “Sakura Wars” on any system just never came together until the 2020 North American release of “Sakura Wars” – the sixth mainline offering in the franchise. Coming in blind, I sat down with the intent of enjoying what seemed to be an interactive anime featuring one guy, multiple women, and several moments I hoped someone unaware didn’t enter the room while I was playing.
Did I Complete “Sakura Wars”?
Set in the year 1940 during an alternate time compared to reality where steam has become the main resource for power, Japan’s Taisho period has given birth to bright-eyed youngsters looking to turn their love of the theater into something beneficial for society. Between theatrical shows, these “Combat Revues” take on the greatest threat known to man: demons. As expected with a game featuring obvious visual novel influences there is a lot of dialogue leading toward decisions both large & small that can lead to one of five different endings. Following twenty-five hours of playtime, I saw my first ending featuring tough-as-nail Hatsuho gaining the spotlight.
Reloading my save made before a grand decision, I went back to attain each additional ending as well as redoing certain scenes to get the best choices; adding another fifteen hours to my overall time. But these achievements proved the least time consuming compared to the completion necessities I avoided including defeating every opponent in the “Koi-Koi Wars” card mini-game and achieving “S-Rank” in every battle scenario with every character (meaning one scenario must be played at least six times if every run goes smoothly). With a solid combat system and storytelling being the main draw, the urge to dump dozens of more hours into combating demons or playing cards just didn’t seem worth the effort.
Did “Sakura Wars” Live Up to the Hype?
After being hired as the new captain of Tokyo’s “Imperial Combat Revue’s Flower Division”, Seijuro Kamiyama is tasked with several jobs including bringing revenue up for the troupe’s performances and preparing them for victory during the biennial “Combat Revue World Games” tournament. It doesn’t take long for the player to discover how much Kamiyama has on his plate as he works alongside some rather aggressive, yet stereotypical personalities including his old childhood friend Sakura Amamiya – a would-be stage-stealer hindered by her lacking confidence. Each character a part of the Flower Division has a distinct personality & traits be it Hatsuho Shinonome’s aggressiveness to offset her protective nature, Anastasia Palma’s air of haughtiness to match her acting skills, Claris Snowflake’s obsession with books prompting her excitement for writing scripts, or a petite ninja-in-training in Azami Mochizuki who has no issues potentially injuring Kamiyama. Through the game’s dialogue choice system dubbed “LIPS” (Live & Interactive Picture System), the player will discover how each character reacts to Kamiyama’s words & actions.
For example, Hatsuho may become excited if her captain shouts at the top of his lungs in a rally cry before battle, but Anastasia will find it annoying. Reacting to Kamiyama’s fellow protagonists properly will build up the necessary trust to gain one of the aforementioned five endings. Trust also plays a role in romance as the player can enter “Love Missions” with each of the five main ladies, though only one will win Kamiyama’s heart by the story’s end – a narrative that isn’t the most remarkable; made so much better thanks to strong characterization and dialogue options. Though this is the sixth iteration in the franchise, “Sakura Wars” ignores a majority of what happened during the previous games and only references certain moments & characters in small doses including via collectible cards known as “Bromides”.
Mission structure isn’t remarkable with the player usually having to go through a series of events including traveling to one of the multiple beautifully crafted, semi-open world portions of Tokyo to talk to specific characters. Side missions also pop up that can be done at the same time as a majority of the main missions while providing minor trust-boosting moments including the aforementioned “Love Missions”. Unfortunately when it comes to making the right LIPS choice usually picking the most humorous option will lower trust levels; meaning the player will most likely have to play it pretty straight with Seijuro unless the player is constantly saving and reloading to earn the best choice possible to ensure those trust levels rise.
Usually near the end of each chapter are dungeons to exemplify the game’s combat system. Taking control of a large mecha – Mugen – players will control Kamiyama and up to two other characters through similarly or even identically designed maps for some hacking & slashing in an action-RPG style rather than the tactical RPG implementation seen in the previous iterations. By tapping the circle button, players will execute a standard combo of strikes & weapons attacks that can be capitalized upon via the triangle button as a high impact combo ender. Each playable character has their own “Special Attack” that can be activated once the bar underneath that character’s health fills up courtesy of crystals dropped by fallen enemies or broken containers. Character trust is also connected to the combat system as Kamiyama and his partner can pull off a “Team Attack” – an action that buffs the attack output & defenses of the protagonists.
There is no ability to block or guard, but the player can dodge incoming enemy attacks. If timed properly (right before the player’s character is struck), the active character will perform a “Perfect Dodge” that slows down time and gives the player a window of invincibility to land a slew of strikes including a one-button execution usable if an opponent is low on health. Enemies are rarely tough to overcome, though attacking some of the airborne enemies can be a little too unreasonable to hit even when using a lock-on system that struggles to stay oriented when facing more than a few enemies; something that is rare outside of a grand boss battle. Another issue in regards to the combat is the lack of difficulty. Not a single enemy poised a true threat right down to the final boss. And with no option for upping the difficulty, those hoping for a challenge when its time to fight will need to look elsewhere.
From a technical & presentation perspective, “Sakura Wars” is mostly stellar. The game uses various known anime & manga artists to add some distinct character designs; though a few definitely don’t look like they should be a part of this game. The usage of audio during dialogue is quite jarring with certain scenes being fully voiced, some are completely muted with static character models, and others feature no sound, but obvious lip movement to correlate with the text. There is no dub for those who don’t care for subtitles.
While it’s hard to believe “Sakura Wars” will gain a new rabid fan base hoping for each non-localized iteration, those who enjoy the mixing of visual novels and rather shallow action RPG mechanics will be as satisfied as Kamiyama telling his crew it’s time to roll into battle.
Should You Play “Sakura Wars”?
Though “Sakura Wars” mostly ignores all the events of what happened before it, completely changes the combat, and has some presentation issues, this sixth iteration in the franchise provides some satisfying character interactions as the story moves in a rather prototypical direction for people who’ve watched anime similar to this game. For those who enjoy more narrative & dialogue than combat in their anime style video game it’s hard to deny just how fantastic this offering is for gamers both knowledgeable and ignorant to the franchise; giving it a high recommendation. But the dedicated action RPG gamer won’t find much to get happy about – making this, at most, a rental. No matter what side of the fence you find yourself on as a gamer, enjoy life as best you can just like Kamiyama digesting a godly meal.
