Since I can’t get out during quarantine I’ve instead been doing a lot more reading, drawing and gaming so today we’re reviewing a game set an alternate romanticized Taisho era, Sakura Wars.

Ready for the story-driven early 20^th century steampunk mecha fighting, 1990s adventure game, visual novel dating simulator that plays out like a TV show (complete with kickass theme song and next episode previews) you didn’t know you wanted? That’s Sakura Wars. It’s exactly as crazy and fun as it sounds.

Sakura Wars is set in an alternate Taisho-era (real world 1912-1926) where the Imperial Capital (Teito) of Tokyo is defended from demonic threats by the Teikokukagekidan (Imperial Combat Revue /Imperial Assault Force*) piloting steam-powered mechas. When not saving the city these protectors are also one of the city’s foremost theater performance troupes.

You play as Kamiyama Seijuro, the newly appointed captain of the team and theater ticket puncher. The Grand Imperial Theater’s best years are behind it, its current roster is clumsy and inexperienced on stage and other groups are muscling in on your protector of Tokyo territory. To regain the Revue’s prestige on stage and on the battlefield you have to build trust among your team and lead them to victory before they are disbanded.

This is a very story and character-interaction intensive game set up like a playable anime, slow paced and built around meeting people and communicating with them as you’re presented responses to conversation that have to be made in real time. This is primarily executed through adventure game segments where you freely roam the theater halls and Tokyo and visual novel story segments that are essentially long cut scenes you have to make decisions in. This would appeal to Fallout and Skyrim players who are in it more for the lore and story than the actual game play.

Though each “episode” or chapter has mech fighting action, most of the fun I had came from this part of the game and  taking the time to interact with its every colorful character no matter how seemingly insignificant he or she may seem. There’s a little bit of everything in these conversations from screwball comedy to drama and action, slice of life cuteness, world-saving decisions and even romance.  Overall, I often found myself redoing the interactions multiple times just to enjoy every outcome.

Seijuro at his most cunning.

You primarily interact with the five revue leading ladies who you gain trust from by positive conversations and taking part in their personal little adventures and side stories. While not immediately apparent, this pays off in the combat sections later as the higher your trust the better their performance in fighting alongside you.

The five leading ladies are the titular Sakura,  Kamiyama’s childhood friend Amamiya Sakura, Hatsuho is the wild tomboy shrine maiden, Claris is the pessimistic bookworm, Azami is the quirky ninja and Anastasia is the mature leading lady who’s seen it all.

Every victory depends a victory pose- it’s good form.

Seijuro can also be romantic with them as they get to know each other. A few points lead to dating sim scenes with rather tender conversations and non-risqué physical affection which if you’ve gauged their likes and dislikes right will make them happier. Later you can even date all of them if your trust is high enough and you’re man-whore enough, which you in fact are. (For some big laughs “forget” a date and watch the consequences unfold. Then go back to your last save, you don’t want to lose those trust points.) Though this, like most interactions you’re presented is optional so can be avoided if you’re not interested in it.

My only complaint is that whatever you do in these scenes doesn’t flow into scripted sections well as Seijuro can be very romantic with a girl in the dating sim portion and a week (in game) later she’s angry and Seijuro says in complete honesty, “She is just a valuable team mate to me. I don’t understand why she’s upset.” He is then surprised to find the girl may actually harbor feelings toward him. (In what office is spending time in a co-worker’s private quarters, whispering sweet nothings in her ear while stroking her hair just a regular part of building camaraderie?!)

Yeah.

During these parts you move around the re-imagined Taisho Roman-style Tokyo, which takes realistic Meiji and Taisho-era architecture (1868-1926 combined) and overlays it with steam pipes, cogs and a touch of Art Deco as this is the fictional year Taisho 29 (1940). I guess this version of Emperor Taisho used a steam-powered Chrysanthemum Throne to stay alive. (You Warhammer 40K fans know what I’m talking about.) Using real world places and items as a starting point makes for a better yet still fantastic retro-future than just making something up and putting goggles on its hat.

Exploring the re-imagined cityscape and the theater are something I wish there was even more of, it kind of reminds me of a Fallout game but pre-war Fallout. (I now want Japanese Fallout. Call it Shin Fallout-Kai or something) ) The lived-in wear on the theater itself is a nice touch in an otherwise gleaming world. The only improvement would be allowing more control of the camera as except for the theater you’re following Kamiyama from an annoying fixed camera.

Each of the game’s seven episodes climaxes with you and a partner climbing into your mechas and fighting demons. It plays very similar to Dynasty Warriors with you cutting through swathes of minions and demons. It’s simple to play and is great if you just want to smash your way to the heart of things, but there’s only four styles of combat arena and only a handful of enemy types to fight so it gets repetitive quickly and sometimes is just a slog to get it over with so you can go back to helping Komachi scheme up new merchandise in the theater store, getting ninja lectured by a deadpan little girl, having wacky misunderstandings in the bath and helping Claris find her notebook. (Which she wishes you would stop reading when you do.) Your decisions also lead to one of five endings, one for each girl, so there’s a little bit of extra play in this to see all of them.

The game is both a reboot and continuation of a series that has been going on since 1996 which means there’s a lot of built-in lore and back story to discover as you go. Like Seijuro you don’t need to know anything when you come into this game.

For those already familiar with the series there is a 12 year time jump since the last game and in-between Tokyo was nearly destroyed in another demon war. The original cast from Tokyo, Paris and New York defeated the threat but disappeared into the Shadow Tokyo created to contain the demonic threat and have been MIA ever since. The game also re-uses story beats and elements from the original game, though it is not a remake. They’re nice touches if you recognize them or groans if you didn’t like them the first time.

Personally I’ve been acquainted with the series for a few years thanks to Dave. I saw the manga on his bookshelf and was intrigued by the Yamato Nadeshiko in hakama with a sword on the cover, then was hooked once I saw the clunkiest steampunk mecha I’d ever laid eyes on. Since then I’ve read all the released manga and watched the 2000 anime, so I didn’t like that’s how they disposed of the original troupe off-screen but I was still excited to actually get to play the new game and see the story in its original intended format.

(My default “Taisho-era, colorized” image is from the anime adaptation.)

The new cast is reminiscent yet different from the originals, which worked out because all of them are very likeable and Azami is definitely an improvement over Iris. I also like how they made a “new” Sakura similar to the original by making her a fangirl inspired by Shinguji Sakura, which plays heavily into her story arc and character development as she learns to find her own path.

Our Heroine: Putting the Sakura in Sakura Wars

They are well voiced by some of the best talents working in anime today, but there are also some returning talents from the original series. It’s a shame the game isn’t fully voiced. The visual novel aspects are but the rest is hit and miss between voiced and unvoiced.

The current manager of the theater is Kanzaki Sumire, an original Teikokukagekidan member who’s mellowed with the years since being the original game’s prima donna. Her voice actress’ retirement also retired the character about 15 years ago but they lured her back for this and it’s great to hear that ojou laugh again.

Word of advice: What happened with previous protagonists is none of your concern.

The lead antagonist is the demon Yaksha, who bears a striking resemblance to original heroine Shinguji Sakura. Sakura was among those that disappeared a decade ago and through the story you uncover the mystery of who Yaksha really is. She looks like Sakura, moves and fights like Sakura and thanks to the return of Sakura voice actress Yokoyama Chisa sounds like Sakura.

Another little bonus are the bromides, which are what the Japanese called glamour shots in the early 20^th century. I’ve seen them in museums so it’s interesting the game actually calls them by their proper term and not just using modern terminology. These are shots of both your cast and all the Flower Division members from the past games adding another little touch of history.

Outside of the main game there’s also the koi-koi minigame. Koi-koi is played with hanafuda cards which are similar but different to Western playing cards. It’s not hard to learn and after referring to the game’s cheat sheet it became easy to play. Your opponents are all the game’s voiced characters and they feel to play the game differently, some are conservative and others risk takers.

My biggest complain with this game is saving, which is better than it was at release. You can save anywhere but once scenes start going you can’t pause and re-load to a previous point until after the scenes play out or you skip through them which means there can be three to five scenes strung together before you can go back and make a different choice. It’s a minor thing, but annoying when you want to experiment with reaction options. I also hope in the future it becomes possible to re-view previously seen videos and cut scenes instead of having to replay the whole game to get to them.

Overall I couldn’t get enough of Sakura Wars and powered through it in under a week putting in more than 30 hours before getting to the end, though some of that was feeding my koi-koi addiction. It has its flaws and annoyances, but they did little to diminish how much fun I could have interacting with the characters and world of Sakura Wars. If anything it feels like it should have been bigger and hopefully there’s a sequel that expands on the world and characters and player choice has a greater influence on it the story. The game wraps up nicely but leaves room for a sequel which I hope they don’t wait another decade to roll out.

Victory Pose!

While playing this game for era appropriate drinking I had Sakura-Beer. It’s perfect, the beer is named Sakura, and it was brewed by the Teikoku Brewing Company and debuted during the Taisho era (1913). A few years ago Mojiko Retro Beer purchased the old brewery and received permission to begin brewing the lager bringing it once again to bars and cafes in the Kitakyushu area. I’ll be reviewing this beer and talking more about its history in our next exciting episode of Wayfarer Daves Travel & History Blog.

Sakura Wars official website (English)
https://games.sega.com/sakurawars/lang/en/

*Over the years the name has been officially translated as Imperial Combat Revue, Imperial Fighting Troupe or Imperial Assault Force, all names which are equally accurate for the group. The ambiguousness with the kanji was intentional.