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This is the kind of game that really needs to be finished in order to do a proper review. I held off on playing it for a while, as I've gotten somewhat disenchanted with games as of late. But I finally got the time set aside to play and beat this one, at least through one ending.

Sakura Wars is not a new idea. The Sakura Taisen (War) games have seen numerous versions across the years, as well as DVDs of the same name. It's a broad reaching storyline, and even in this game, there are a lot of mentions and cameos from characters of the previous installments. Don't let that deter you; the game does very well as a standalone story, but just know that what you get here is just a fraction of the overall picture. In the grand scheme, this is kind of like a side story.

You're Shinjiro. Your uncle has just appointed you to a squad in New York to take a leadership role. Apparently it's a fairly new squad and needs solid leadership. Your uncle is a battle hero, and the squad was expecting him to be assigned, and is initially disappointed at your arrival. Eventually you prove yourself as a solid leader and member of the team, to the point the squad cannot function without your leadership. Once you develop your squad, there will definitely start to be a sense of Voltron flashbacks, from the outfit designs to the way they take the pulley down into the tunnel, to how they get into their STAR. The STAR is a steampunk mech that is designed around the person's fighting style and personality (again, definite Voltron flashbacks abound).

In the middle of all this is probably the most unconventional battle engine ever detailed. Instead of experience, your strength comes from the bonds of your teammates to you. During non-battle times you'll be introduced to a number of sidequests such as fetching goods, taking pictures, and even going on "dates" with the girls. Sometimes you'll be asked to answer a question or make a decision about something, and what choice you pick will determine how good or how bad the girls' perception of you becomes. These are all of course optional - you can blow every single one, but just keep in mind that if you do, the fighting abilities of the girls in battle will be low. Sometimes you'll be asked to press a series of analog stick combination motions before a timer runs out, simulating such things as unscrewing panels, moving control sticks, and swapping pipes. While you don't have to get perfect timing, you do need to get fairly good at it in order to get a good response from the girl who asked you.

In battle, you can perform simple combination attacks, joint attacks, and special moves with an action bar that goes down. The strategy element here is that the same bar that lets you move is also consumed for attacking, so you have to find a good balance between moving and attacking. If your bond with the girls is strong, you might get a longer action bar, allowing you to do a little bit more. In some situations you might get the girls to be "highly motivated", which garners them and you a bonus in stats for the duration of the scenario. Ultimately, I'm telling you that the dating/relationship part of the game is critical to your success; if you don't like games like that (Persona is the most recent that I can think of besides this), skip it please.

Generally speaking I had fun with the game. But I have the same complaint about this one that I have with all Japanese games in the genre that have relationship aspects: The flirting is extremely convoluted. Even if a girl says something blatantly inappropriate (chest massaging is a topic that comes up later), if you say something flirty back, they get pissed off. It REALLY bothers me. It's like the Japanese have no concept of "this"-for-tat...that's how guy/girl conversations usually go, people. That every girl in the game gets offended when they talk about how their master effectively molested them and you say that it was inappropriate, is absolutely infuriating at times.

There are multiple endings to the game; one for each girl and then a grand finale ending. When you beat the game you do get to keep your ranking (gained from previous relationships, so the second playthrough you can afford to play around a little bit) and the battle skills. However, the path to get there is just not fun because of the convoluted flirting I mentioned before. Also, while you can now skip cutscenes and certain text, you can't skip the analog stick sidequest, and those are the most annoying of all. Before you ask, no, you can't just save before a certain point and then pick a different girl - the development of the relationship happens over the entire span of chapters. Even for characters that haven't joined the squad, you're still creating bonds with them well in advance, and by the time you're at the certain point, you could choose to date another girl, but the bond won't be the same. No bond, no ending.


So....

=- What Sakura Wars Does RIGHT -=

- Anime cutscenes. Love them in games.
- Battle engine is easy to get into and quite fun, if challenging later on.
- Some of the dialogue is downright hilarious, such as the exchanges with Cheiron.
- No grinding (although, see WRONG below)
- That it takes place in the "real world" is a good thing (but see WRONG below).


=- What Sakura Wars Does WRONG -=

- Some bosses just plain cheat. There are times when you get knocked off a cliff and that character is out of action for the rest of the battle. No warning.
- Sticks to the old Japanese RPG rule that "girls can flirt with you but you can't flirt back".
- Not a very long game, even if you do dating and sidequests. My fastest is 15 hours for one playthrough, so I figure under normal circumstances...oh...about 25-30 hours. Not TOO bad, just not quite lengthy.
- Japanese disc is included for those that want the true Japanese voices, but the save file is incompatible between the two discs; meaning if you start Japanese, you play it all the way through. Won't bother some, but others it might.
- Getting the bromides and pictures and whatnot was too tasking. There should just be a point where you can get all the bromides automatically after beating the game.
- Joint attacks do pathetic damage - sometimes even weaker than standard combos.


So...do I recommend it? As long as you're cool with the relationship aspect being the dominant one, yes. It's a great game. The negatives I mentioned are valid ones, but the game itself is still fun. It'd be what you'd end up with if you took the school aspect out of Persona 3, took the merged Voltron out of Voltron, and married the two games. Not a bad game, just different, but well worth a try anyway.Get more detail about Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love Premium Edition.