Sakura Wars
(or Sakura Taisen as its known in Japan) is one of those things
where you either got into it or you didn't. If you were one of the
people who did get into it, you weren't disappointed, because it
just started spawning an insane amount of merchandise. I'm not sure
what came first, the game or the anime series, but also along for
the ride came a chart-busting single, more merchandise than you can
shake multiple sticks at, and a full fledged musical performed by
the seiyuu (voice actors/actresses) from the game and the anime. You
could probably argue that it may be the most culturally
significant/accepted video game ever. There's even a store I found
in Ikebukuro that sells JUST Sakura Taisen stuff. Outside the store
they have a Sakura Taisen Print Club Photo Booth, and other coin
operated nonsense.
However, with the demise of the Dreamcast, Sega, Red, and Overworks
were forced to find another platform to ply their wares. I'm
guessing the XBox folks turned up their nose at this one and instead
opted to cherry pick Shenmue. This may be one of the reasons that
the folks at Microsoft have a hard time cracking the top 30 in
Japan. (Even though the #30 game only sold 4,576 copies this week,
there are no XBox games in the top 30 in Japan.) So this game, the
first installment of the series, has made its way over to the PS2,
and vol. 5 in the series has been announced along with a couple
action titles in the franchise. While Shenmue gets a game made every
2-3 years or so, Sakura Wars will have 5 games in 6 years if Vol. 5
does indeed come out this year. So, for whatever reason PS2 owners,
rejoice...you've gotten the better end of this deal.
What's the Deal With All This Steam?
Sakura Wars is supposed to take place in turn-of-the century Japan,
in a time of steam, swords, and big clunky mech design. Japan has
just barely emerged victorious from the Demon-Human War, and is
looking to upgrade it aresenal with a bit more firepower, should the
need to meet such a threat arise again. So, they contract out
Kanzaki Industries to make a new set of a what end up being big,
garbage can suits that are of various colors. They're a combination
of steam and spirit powered assault vehicles called Kohbu.
Unfortunately for the army, they find out after they've been built,
that none of the army members have sufficient spirit to pilot the
Kohbu. However, Sumire Kanzaki, the heavily spoiled granddaughter of
the owner CAN get the Kohbu to run, so they find an assortment of
women to pilot them, and as a cover for the group, they also perform
as an acting troupe. This explains why you'll have to do things like
punch tickets, and why all of the pilots, save for you, Oogami, are
female.
As you start the game, you'll have 4 of the pilots present. Sakura
Shinguji, the girl in the main intro, Iris Chateaubriand, the damn
annoying little French girl with her teddy bear, Maria Tachibana,
the secretive Ukrainian, and the aforementioned Sumire. Together,
along with General Yoneda, and Kasumi, Yuri, and Tsubaki of the
Kazegumi, you make up the Teito Kagekidan.
Pilot #1, If You Could Be A Bird, What Kind of Bird Would You Be?
This game is a hybrid. One on hand while trekking through the plot
points that get you to the battles, you've got a Dating Simulation
where you're constantly trying to keep all your female team members
all happy, and interested in you. Your responses will determine what
special attacks your characters gets in battle. You'll have a
different "Taichou" (generic Japanese term for Lieutenant, Boss,
Chief, etc.) rating dependant on personality you've displayed
through your interactions with the other people.
If you're a serious, down-to-business type of leader, you'll rack up
a lot of Yellow points. If you're a stone cold playa, you'll rake in
the Blue points, and if you're a go-getter, you'll accumulate mostly
Red points. Each of these styles of leadership will give you a
different special attack in battle, and if you have a balance,
you'll end up with a 4th Special type.
While in the Dating Sim portion of the game, you'll have interaction
points with the girls. The makers of the game call the system
"LIPS". (I'm not sure what it stands for. My Japanese skills are
strongest in listening, not reading.) You'll have many different
types, ranging from you moving a cursor around the screen and
clicking to elicit a response, or moving the analog stick to
determine the amount of emotion you're putting behind a particular
statement or action. If you don't read Japanese, I highly recommend
going over to Gamefaqs and
looking at BlueJr's LIPS Guides. Otherwise, I don't think you're
going to be getting the full experience out of this game.
At certain points in the game you'll be walking around on night
watch, or just doing what a playa does. Generally you'll have from a
half-hour to an hour to try and communicate with the various staff
members. If you hit Square you'll see what kind of interactions are
waiting for you so you can best plan out the course of action you
want to take with your limited amount of time. Sometimes you'll run
into a room and get a timer, and various big headed polygonal models
of the girls. Walk to the girl you wish to fraternize with and hit O
to proceed with the event with her. Otherwise, you'll just be
encountering various flavors of the LIPS events to raise/lower your
level of Trust with each character.
There's also a mini-game called Koikoi that you'll play at various
points in the game. I honestly do not understand what is going on
here at all. The manual doesn't tell me anything about it, and I'm
not sure how you score points. All I know is that I keep losing.
You're supposed to get certain sequences of cards and those give you
points and stuff, but I honestly have no idea what's going on, and
there isn't a Koikoi FAQ that I can find that doesn't reference some
guide in the manual that I'm not seeing anywhere. So, if you can
figure it out, maybe it'll add to your enjoyment. I've just chalked
it up to bewildering language barrier differences.
Also, there'll be points where you wander around and can interact
with certain members of staff. Depending on who and where you run
into people you'll have a chance of improving their opinion of you
and changing what the dominant personality type you portray is. The
"dating sim" part will represent the majority of the game.
It's Fighting Time!
The fighting
portion of the game is done strategic turn-based style, although the
PS2 version is missing the grid that the DC one had. So, you roam
around with your vehicles, and if an enemy is close enough, execute
up to a 5-hit combo attack by tapping O, or unleash a Super move if
your bar is filled. If your Super Bar is not filled, you hit X to
spend two of your Action Units to partially charge it up. You can
choose to defend by hitting Square, which will end your turn pretty
much, or you can hit Triangle to heal your unit and the ones you're
adjacent to.
If you're attacking an enemy who is adjacent to another ally,
randomly you'll get a team attack with another character to deal big
damage to one opponent. Generally, you're only going to be using
this against boss characters because one 5-hit combo is usually
enough to take out any of the generic bad guys. By the way, the mood
your characters are in affects their performance in battle. Treat
them nice, and they're ready to rock. Get them disappointed, and
they're not going to be ready to support you quite as well.
The Dating part of the game carries over into the Strategy part, as
you'll be prompted with various questions if you end your turn next
to another member of your team. They'll ask you how you like the
set-up of their Kohbu, what you're thinking about in combat, and
what you think of other members of your party, because they're
getting jealous. Apparently, you're so suave that you can't keep the
ladies away with several tons of metal and weaponry.
Every time you execute a super move, you'll see a nice animation of
the pilot executing the move, and then the Kohbu doing likewise.
While the clips are nice, eventually, you'll get tired of seeing
them. You're able to hit Start to skip over them, so unlike Final
Fantasy, you're not always waiting for some 45 second summon to go
off.
Is It Live, Or Is It Memorex?
Some of the game is so crisp, I have problems figuring out if it is
just 2D hand-drawn or if they're just really nicely textured
polygons. Also, I'd have to say that Sakura Taisen does a fantastic
job of blending the 2D animation with the fully rendered works.
You'll see your 2D character running for their suit and hop inside,
and everything matches up perfectly. Very, very well done.
The artwork for the anime itself, is incredible in its own right,
and complements the game exceptionally. I like the look and feel of
this game as much as I liked it in Suikoden III, and that's saying a
whole lot for me.
Voice-Overs That Don't Suck.
Ask any fan of anime or video games and they'll all tell you that
the Japanese voice work is all better than the US voice work. Why?
Probably because of the stupid unions over here. So, instead of
letting in new talent who can put the old people out of work, the
people who suck are employed forever. Way to go! If I ever start up
a game company I'm doing all the voices in-house with the QA
Department.
All the voice talent for the game is done very well, and with the
large amount of speech in the game, that's definitely a bonus. I'd
have to be playing this game if Sakura or Sumire had a voice that
got on my nerves. I'd have to make sure they were pissed at my
character in the Dating Sim section just so I wouldn't have to hear
her speak anymore.
Music is also done well, and I believe is performed by the same
people who do the voice acting. I mean, if they're going to be part
of a musical acting troupe, they'd have to sing, too, right? So, not
surprisingly, they're all pretty good. Audio and graphics both get
very high marks from me.
Overall
I think this
one may be coming to the US, but don't quote me on that. If not,
grab a translation guide, and some other FAQs and enjoy a very well
put together and presented game. I'm disappointed that combat isn't
a bit more difficult or strategic, but this is more of a Dating Sim
than it is a strategy RPG. A game that's graphically easy on the
eyes, and fun to play...even when you can't really understand what's
going on. I can definitely see why this game got such a huge
following, and I've started trying to pick up the other volumes on
Ebay so I can figure out what's going on between part 1 and 5...and
maybe figure out how to finally play that damn Koikoi game.
If you are a BIG fan of the series, you can find the game in a
Limited Edition package, which comes with a DVD of the anime (which
I believe is a prequel to the game's storyline, explaining how
everyone gets together.) a pocketwatch, picture frame, and a nice
box. So, you've got options if you're looking for it on Ebay. I
recommend picking it up if you can find an import copy for around
$30.
