Sakura Wars is a new follow-up in a long series of games that hasn’t had a new release in over a decade. My history with Sakura Wars is very brief though, and I’m sure that applies to many. I’m aware of the series, and also own a game from the series. That being Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love on the Nintendo Wii (also came out on PS2). Pretty much the only game from this series that has made the trip to the west. I’ve actually not completed the game though, and have only beaten the game’s Prologue. Even then, my memory of what I’ve played is very hazy. So, needless to say, Sakura Wars has a lot of history, but most of it is still new to me and will be very new to the western audience. With that said, this latest entry after a long hiatus looks to draw in that unknowing crowd, while keeping true to what made the series so well-loved.

Editor’s Note: An advanced review copy of Sakura Wars was provided by SEGA in support of this review.

To start things off. No, you don’t need to have any knowledge of Sakura Wars in order to enjoy this game. It will certainly help, but it is not required. Even with my limited knowledge of Sakura Wars, much of what I saw in this game was completely new to me. That didn’t hurt my experience in the game (much), but it definitely got my curiosity stirring. Anyway, for those who are interested but weren’t completely sure, Sakura Wars is a great time to jump into the series. It’s not exactly a remake, since the game continues the overall history, but it presents everything to the player as if it’s their first one.

So what is a Sakura Wars game? From what I gathered, it’s a series that blends heavy storytelling with the occasional battle sequences. In this Sakura Wars title, the game is laid out with the Adventure portion and the Action portion. For the adventure parts, you move your character around the environments finding characters to interact with. During these interactions, you’ll be given up to three dialogue options to choose from. The choices you make during these interactions will affect the trust levels you build up with the characters involved. Making choices that please certain characters will raise their trust, while ones that displease them will lower it. Much of these choice-making sequences are timed too. So you’re not given much time to fully think things out, and the story will continue on even if you don’t make a choice within the time limit. There’s also an interaction where you’re raising a meter low, medium, or high. This represents how much emotion you’re putting behind the given dialogue your character is saying.

Once you’ve progressed far enough into the story, you’ll enter the game’s Action sequences. These moments are where the battles take place. The battle systems of each Sakura Wars game seem to be different, and I remembered So Long, My Love being a sort of strategy game with air-mechs. In this new Sakura Wars title, the battles take place in a 3D environment and have you battling waves of enemies. If you’re familiar with the Dynasty Warrior games, I would compare it to that. It’s not a deep system though, it’s actually fairly simple. Pretty much a button-mashy combo system. You do have a dodge button though, and when timed right, you go into a Bayonetta-esque slow motion that will allow you to land many hits on an enemy. You’ll have the usual smaller fodder-type enemies, followed by the bigger, harder-hitting ones. With a big boss thrown in. The choices you made in the Adventure portion also comes into play during these battles. Raising high enough trust levels with certain characters will allow you to do a special Partner Attack with them. This back-and-forth between adventure and battling is the core part of Sakura Wars.

THE GOOD: Sakura Wars relies heavy on its story-telling. Even during battles, the story-telling continues. Lots of dialogue, and cinematic-type events. Most interactions are simple with two characters speaking, with others being full-on cutscenes. Even the occasional anime cutscene will appear. Sakura Wars wants to tell you a story and it does a great job in presenting it. The writing is great, the voice-acting is great, the character models are great, and even the music accompanying it all fits right in. Experiencing the story of Sakura Wars is definitely the highlight of this game, and the way they present everything kept me fully engaged and always interested to see what happens next. Each chapter of the game does act like a new episode for an anime too. Where you’ll get these brief intermissions in the story, and even a small preview of what will happen in the next chapter at the end.

I also enjoyed that you feel very involved in the story too. There are a lot of dialogue choices to be made and interactions to find. Many are optional too, as you’re given the main objective throughout the game and doing those will move the story forward. So it’s actually easy to just skip everything if you choose to do so. I wouldn’t recommend that though, since a lot of these smaller sequences are full of their own charm and really help you to get to know the wide cast of characters that Sakura Wars has. Building up high enough trust levels will also give you the ability to engage in several special sequences with that character. These unique sequences with the main cast are also choice-driven, but presented in a more personal way where you’re viewing the character from a first-person view. Some of my favorite moments of this game come from these more personal moments and you can miss out on them if you don’t make the right choices or interact with the characters.

Much of my enjoyment with the story comes from having fallen in love with its cast of characters. Sure, they are a bit cliche in there character types, but I think they’re all well-presented in the story. It didn’t take long for the game to capture me too. Pretty much in the first chapter of the game, I was hooked. I wanted to see where things would go with this interesting cast and I was constantly cheering them on as they battled the many hurdles they had to face. Can’t help but feel like parts of the story heavily reflect the current state of Sakura Wars in general. Since the story revolves around a new group of characters struggling to live up to the high expectations put onto them by the accomplishments made from past groups.

This is where that long history of Sakura Wars comes into play too. While I don’t have that nostalgia for the past, I certainly felt it throughout the game. Lots of references are made to the past stories, even past characters making appearances. You can’t help but feel like lots of things have happened prior to the story in Sakura Wars. For a somewhat new fan to the series, it definitely got me curious to really dive into the past games, just to have better context on everything. I’m not really sure how much of Sakura Wars recalls from past games, and how much is actually new. Nevertheless, if you have huge nostalgia for these Sakura Wars games, you’ll certainly enjoy many events differently.

THE BAD: For how much I enjoyed the story of Sakura Wars, the other portion of the game didn’t feel as heavily produced. That being the battle sequences. They can be repetitive and feel like a drag when playing through. Things do get changed up a bit later in the story, but even then the overall combat of the game doesn’t change much. It would’ve been nice if there was some progression to the combat. I understand that Sakura Wars games are known for not having levels to their battle system, and instead relying on the choices you make in the story having an impact on how strong characters are and not on how much you grinded out experience. Still, it would’ve been neat to see things change up more as the story went on, not only with the levels but with how characters played. Just felt like the battles were less thought-out compared to the rest of the game and that it was just some side thing thrown in. Not a complete mess by any means, since I think the combat system plays well enough. I just wish there was more to it and that I looked forward to it more. Instead, I mostly found myself just wanting to hurry past it and get to the adventure side of things. Which fortunately, doesn’t take long. The battle sequences are actually fairly short compared to the rest of the game. In some ways, I’m thankful for that, but also slightly disappointed.

One thing I will say that I was disappointed with on the presentation of the game is the constant on-and-off voiced dialogue. There is a lot of voiced stuff in this game, but there are still lots of moments in the game where no voices are present. It becomes even more weird when these moments still play out as if there should be voices present. Characters still make mouth movements and are constantly making gestures at each other. It feels like your typical cutscene, but the voices are missing. It can sometimes take me out of things when I encounter an event and see that no voices are being used. Major scenes are still voiced, so you still get that impact for the more emotional parts. Would have liked that consistency across the whole game though.

Also, I really would’ve liked an English dub tied to the game. While Japanese only is fine, it would’ve been nice to see Sakura Wars get dubbed, especially when the previous game did. Long-storied games like Fire Emblem and Persona have been well-received due to their English dub work, and with SEGA having that Atlus backing, I think a great dub could’ve been made. Just feels like a missed opportunity, when SEGA is hoping for this franchise to make a splash in the west.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Sakura Wars was a very interesting experience. I enjoying going through all the interactions with characters and was always curious to see where the story went. Battles can be a drag though, but they didn’t last that long for me to feel frustrated with them. It can still be a tough sell though since the game is Japanese only, and can feel like a visual novel with a really nice presentation. Don’t expect some grand JRPG experience to be had here. I’d be surprised if this game gets the same amount of recognition as a Persona, but I do feel that Sakura Wars will do better this time around compared to when the last game launched here.

I really didn’t know what to expect when I heard a new Sakura Wars game was coming. I knew it had been a long while, but I didn’t have that long history with the game. After completing this new Sakura Wars though, I’m actually very curious to see what the rest of the series was like. I even dusted off my old Wii copy of So Long, My Love hoping to finally play through it. I’d like to say that this new game has a lot to offer for returning fans, but I don’t have that experience with past games to compare it with. I can’t help but feel that that stuff is there though. For new players, this is definitely a great place to begin. While it does make lots of references to the past, it doesn’t present it to you in a way where you feel like you should know what happened. It gives it to you in a way that makes you curious, while also understanding the importance of what occurred. Much like how I felt with the characters in the story, I am heavily rooting for Sakura Wars be well-received in the west. I really didn’t want the adventure to end and I’m very happy that SEGA took the chance to bring the series back. It made a new believer out of me, and if my experience with this game is what Sakura Wars is, then I hope we get to see more Sakura Wars in the future.