Sakura Wars, Can You Dig it!?

[Burnt Lasagna]

Anyone here a fan of this series of half breed strategy games that have gone relatively obscured in the west?


I got into this series back in 2010 when NISA brought out the fifth game in the series, in English, on the PS2 and Wii, which they dubbed Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love. I bought the game shortly after it came out for $40 purely because it was a new PS2 game (love that system!); even thought it had all the signs of a game that I would detest with a passion (cliche looking anime game that NISA published, oh joy).

After I started playing the game I immediately found out it was something more then that! The game completely took me off guard on how much of a sheer joy this game was to play and the funny thing was, in a sense, it was exactly what I thought it would be. The game is so cliche and unabashedly cheesy that it gets to the point that you just can't help but enjoy it since it's so passionate and sincere about what it does! After I finished the game for the first time I ended up importing the rest of the series,1-4, on the Dreamcast and playing through them all. Almost the same case with the rest of the series as well, but of course it's not in English so that's a big draw back.   

I highly recommend this series!
For all of you that have never heard of it I suggest you Google it right now since I did a crappy job at even describing what the game is.


 

[Ji-L87]

Hm...well, I have the first Sakura Taisen for Saturn, have only completed like two-three actual missions though. And my reading speed sort of sucks, so I'm not super happy with those time-based question-events that pops up every now and then

I want to like it, but it's not really my kind of genre...

I've seen some of the different anime as well. It's an interesting franchise anyhow - but I think I prefer the early entries, as it seems to become a bit odd when the focus shifts to Paris etc.

[SuperDeadite]

Sakura Taisen III is the best of the series.  I still play it through every few months or so.  The French cast is so much more enjoyable then the Tokyo cast.  I enjoyed the first 2 games, but they have a lot of annoying crap such as the troll named Iris.

STIV was a very satisfying ending, but that's all it really is, an ending to the first 3 games.  As a standalone game it is rather poor.

Now STV is just pure shit.  The game has a little bit of the "oh my god it's so bad I must keep playing" going for it, but after I got the one "secret" ending I'd been looking forward to since the movie, there was no more fun to be had.  A shame as STV Episode 0 was actually really fun.  XD

As for the anime spinoffs, the movie fills the gap between 3 and 4 and is excellent if you have played the first 3 games through.  The OVAs are ok but rather pointless and contribute almost nothing to the plot.  Now the TV show is a pure abomination, and should be avoided at all costs.  It's like a bizzaro version, almost every character's personality was reversed with huge amounts of stupid.  Don't watch it or you'll just get pissed off.

[SignOfZeta]

I'm a big fan of ST I-IV. I've haven't gotten every ending with every game, but I've seen at least half of them.

Part III was by far the best. Its one of my favorite games of all time. Part IV was, like SuperDeadite said, the ending of the series at that time. Honestly, the thing feels like the end of Sega as we knew it up until then too. Yoneda has some lines at the end that nearly brought me to tears. Ostensibly he's basically just saying, "Live youth while you have it, because some day you'll be over the hill. I know." but to me, and I think a lot of Sega fans, it seems like he's saying, "We at Sega did our damndest, but as soon as this game ends you'll never see us again. Thanks for playing." The fact that STIV was even made at all was quite a surprise, further cementing it as an intentional farewell from whoever cool was still left at the company at that time. In the decade since STIV came out you can count the number of good Sega games that have been released on one hand. During the DC days they were nearly a monthly a occurrence.

Both part Vs just looked like crap to me, much like new Sonic games. I haven't played them though.

[Burnt Lasagna]

Sakura Wars 3 definitely felt the most complete, had the best production values and had the most interesting cast. Though I played 1-4 using those famous translation guides, written by Kayama/Lando on gamefaq, so my experience with the first four parts was limited in that expect. 

I recommend the English version of Sakura Wars V for anyone who hasn't played it yet! If nothing else the combat was significantly improved in V and it is worth playing if you've played the rest.

[SuperDeadite]

I found the combat in 5 to be rather broken.  Just stick to team attacks only, and you will rape everything that moves half way through the game.  None of the games ever had challenging combat as it was meant more as a break from the story then anything else, but V's team system is just too powerful.

Oh and for any Sakura Taisen fan, I'd recommend the Galaxy Angel games as well.  Despite the insane characters, the actual love story progression is way more thought out and believable then the ST series.  And the combat system is really really cool.  The original trilogy was great fun, but damn Galaxy Angel II (4th game in the series) was just mind blowingly amazing.  Though you will need decent Japanese skills to really enjoy them.

[Burnt Lasagna]

My problem with 1-4's combat system was that every boss battle could be beat using the same strategy. Circle the boss and wale on him till he dies and if the boss does a hit everybody attack just wait till it's the healers turn then she can do her special heal everybody move (since everybody's so close together range isn't an issue). Five fixed this by introducing the airplane thing which makes the bosses allot bigger and impossible to circle and shook things up a bit I thought.

[SuperDeadite]

Depends how you play, each of the games is breakable more or less.  In one just send in the girl you want by herself the 8x protection will make her a killing machine in no time flat.   3  was actually fairly balanced and a bit challenging, like i actually lost a few times.

V had good ideas, but the team attacks get too strong too quickly and cost so little energy.  The individual super attacks are almost useless since they cost so much energy compared to the team attacks, which can hit multiple targets, and a third member can jump in for free everytime making it even stronger.  Plus girl-girl teams are not affected by love points at all.  Even if you piss off the girls like mad, those team attacks just get stronger and stronger with every use.

[SignOfZeta]

As much as I love SW, the combat is a joke in every one of them. Sakura Wars makes Super Robot Wars look like Advance Wars.

[SuperDeadite]

Well overall I'd say the PS2 remake of ST1 is the easiest.  Like I don't think you can die. Unless you just stand there for 2 hours.  Still fun to play though oddly enough.

[Burnt Lasagna]

I actually just got the PS2 remake and so far I'm enjoying it (even though I'm playing through it completely blind). The first game in particular I thought was the worst entry in the franchise, so this remake is very much welcome.

[SignOfZeta]

I always thought the second game was the most disapointing. It's EXTRMELY similar to the first game in almost every way. It adds two new characters, both of which are pretty horrible.

[Burnt Lasagna]

I agree that the second game was very similar to the first, only you can clearly see that it's now carrying the profit of the first game. That's pretty much what SW2 was, SW1, only bigger and with more money thrown at it. Which, in a way, made it better since I thought the first game was extremely under developed compared to it's sequels. However the new characters where still pretty...horrible. Reni in particular was like a zombified neutered brick.

[DragonmasterDan]

Yep, I've played through 1 and 2 on Saturn and bought SW V when it came to the US. On both Wii and PS2

[meka]

Can never get into strategy games