LogFAQs > #962949217

9) Sakura Wars
Sega
PlayStation 4
Released April 28, 2020
Would make my top 100 list if re-written: No

Sakura Wars is an interesting case. Back on the Wii I played the only other localized game, So Long My Love, and it didn't really grab me at the time so I set it aside. Never went back to it. So here we are with the only other localized game in the series. It's a complete reboot, so none of the original story really matters here. You've got your main character drafted into the Imperial Combat Revue's Flower Division, led by Sumire Kanzaki, a returning character from previous entries.

The main combat portion of the game is completely changed in this game - instead of a turn based strategy RPG, we have an under-developed action game instead. You control the main character and one or two of the heroines in battle and beat up enemies as you traverse through a stage. The mechs never upgrade, so your character at the beginning of the game is the same at the end. The battles eventually get boring enough that you can pretty much just sleepwalk through them and finish. It's definitely the low point of the game, but thankfully there aren't that many of these sequences.

Where Sakura Wars shines is in the story and characters. The scenario draft was done by the director of 428: Shibuya Scramble, Jiro Ishii, and while it's definitely not comparable to that game it has its own charm to it, even if it gets very anime at times. Many different artists were also brought in to design the side characters of the game, and some of their characters really look like they came right out of different series - such as Hakushu Murasame, who looks like she just came over from a Persona game.

The characters are all well-presented and you have chances within the game to have multiple conversations with all of them - the five main heroines included - and raise your relationship with all of them. Characters that you have become friends with show up on a special screen in between story chapters and battle scenes. Your decisions use the LIPS system present in other Sakura Wars games, where you're given a number of choices with a time limit - usually with another choice that is auto-selected if time runs out. The only problem here is you might need a guide to get the character ending you want, as most people will end up with the main heroine Sakura as she has the most chances to interact with the protagonist. I managed to get a choice at the end with all five of them selectable, and got all their endings from that save.

I did get the platinum in this, but I don't recommend going for it unless you really like the game, as it requires multiple S-ranks on every battle mission in the game, and finding multiple collectibles in each exploration chapter that are highly missable.

But you can play koi-koi with all the characters in the game, including every side character and all of the villains as well. And that's important.

Soundtrack Links
Geki! Teikoku Kagekidan -Shinshou-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3pRL-IVlZg