Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love

1. Official Site
2. Platform: PS2
3. Publisher: NIS America
4. Developer: Sega
5. Release Date: 03/30/10
6. Genre: Strategy

by Jason Ballew

Sakura Wars (or Sakura Taisen) has been around for a number of years, through five different games, a movie, anime series and quite a bit of merchandise.  It's high on the list of PS2 series that hardcore fans of import games have wanted to get brought to the US (followed very closely by Tokimeki Memorial).  When NIS America announced that they were bringing the series to the US, reaction was mixed.  While people were ecstatic to see Sakura Wars in the US, the news that it was Sakura Wars 5 with the title Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love (released in 2005) and not the original game was less appealing to some.

Let's take a look to see how the series translates to the west, and see if NIS did a good job in bringing it over, or if this was a series that should have been left on the wish list.

The story of Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love is set in an alternate universe in 1928, where instead of the Industrial Revolution, you have the Steam Revolution, and most industry is steam-powered.  Young Shinjiro Taiga (the nephew of the original game's main character) is summoned to Tokyo to join the Tokyo Combat Review, only to be told that he's being sent to New York instead.  Once he arrives there (and immediately gets into trouble and nearly arrested), it turns out that no one really wanted him, they wanted his uncle, and are ready to ship him right back home.   The game's story involves Shinjiro gaining acceptance and growing to lead the New York Combat Review to defend the city against their enemies, while also building relationships with the other members of the team.

That's right:  building relationships.  Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love is more about character interaction and story rather than combat with steam-powered mecha.  In fact, a solid sixty to seventy percent of the game's 'action' is talking to the other (almost exclusively-female) cast, performing various tasks with the game's LIPS (Live & Interactive Picture System) to build your relationships with the other members of the Revue, which directly translates to increased performance in battle.

Like many anime series (and a few games, such as Disgaea before it), Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love is set up in chapters.  Each chapter has its own small story, and the majority of each chapter is spent following the plotline with various prompts to use your analog sticks with the LIPS system in response to what's going on in the game, such as making various dialogue choices, looking at locations or characters (including 'naughty' bits from time to time) until it is time for the enemy to attack.  There is no real way to lose the game during these segments, poor performance will only lower the other cast members' feelings towards you which can limit combat effectiveness. 

Each chapter then cumulates in one (usually multi-stage) turn-based strategic combat as you fight off the Big Bad of the stage.  During the combat stages, you control all of the characters, each of whom has seperate introductions and special combat animations, which are very typically anime-like.  Once the battle is done, you get an epilogue for the chapter, and then it's time for the next.

The game paces itself very nicely, with each chapter broken up into four to six chunks each with a save point at the end.  Not only that, you can choose to suspend your gameplay and go back to the title screen if you need to leave at any particular point, and then can pick up from where you left off during the next play (or simply choose one of the other save points).

Graphically, the game looks like a PS2 game, with a mixture of 2D animation and 3D rendering during combat and while travelling the game world.  Most of the game is done with 2D anime-style portraits which change poses depending on the story, interspersed with actual animation cutscenes.  There are also clips of animation within the combat, notably the special attacks.

Given that Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love is a port of a five-year-old game, it does not support widescreen or progressive scan, although playing it on my HDTV and stretching the picture to fit did not cause any issues. 

One major difference between the PS2 and Wii versions of the game is that the PS2 version has both Japanese and English language-discs, while the Wii version is English-only.  This is a very distinctive difference to note, specifically because of the varying quality of the English voice acting.  The voice-acting ranges from the solid and passable (Sunnyside, Chieron and Subaru mainly) to average (Shinjiro and Rosita) to .... really, really bad (Gemini).  Speaking as a native Texan, there is a huge difference between a Southern accent and a Texan one.  Gemini, who is supposed to be Texan, has an accent that would put Paula Deen to shame and is the best reason for turning voices off, or at least switching to the Japanese disc. 

Honestly, though, outside of that there's really not much issue with the localization.  They changed the name of the theater from "Little Lip" to "Littlelip", even though it's obviously two separate words in the game, and changed a couple of character names completely.  Admittedly, one change that drove me nuts was how they pronounce Gemini's name.  In English, they're using the Japanese pronounciation, which makes it sound like it should be spelled "Gemiknee".  This is more of an annoyance than anything else, to be truthful.

The music in the game is quite good, although it's highly repetitive.  You'll hear the same snippets of music over and over again, both in combat and while in Adventure Mode.  It tends to blend into the background, however, so is not as intrusive as it otherwise might have been.  Still, it's another mark against the game as a whole. 

The controls are fairly simple.  In Adventure Mode you move with the left analog stick, while using both analog sticks to interact with the LIPS system.  X chooses your actions while triangle opens the Cameratron.   Most of your commands are kept on-screen for easy reference as well.  Combat makes it slightly more interesting by adding in the shoulder buttons although they're only used for minor features.  As the game is not twitch-based other than the LIPS system (and then only somewhat), the controls are kept very simple and easy to keep track of. 

Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love clocks in at around twenty-five to thirty hours for a standard playthrough.  This is extended, however, by the fact that the game has seven endings (one for each of the main female characters and a standard one), some of which may require complete playthroughs to achieve.  Also, once the game is saved at any point, you can go into Free & Easy Day in NY mode, which allows you to view pictures and movies that you've unlocked, enter codes (the US version has different codes than the Japanese version did, NIS has stated that they'd release these later), take photographs and other features. 

Given that the PS2 version comes in both languages, includes an artbook and poster, and runs you $40, this is not a bad deal at all.  Admittedly, this is a different game than most people would expect, with a majority of the game consisting of watching the story with some dating-sim elements.  However, Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love definitely is worth the effort of picking it up, and may convince NISA to port the earlier games over, perhaps on the PSP.

While I was turned off by some of the English voices and a few of the admittedly minor issues involving localization, overall the game worked its magic on me, and it was easy to see the charm in the storyline and in the characters.  It's not often that I play a game where I'm telling the main character what to do (something not in the story) because I'm so worked up by what's going on. 

Yes, it's campy and silly in parts, and yes, it's not something many western audiences are going to be used to.  However, I feel that Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love is definitely worth the look.

Gaming Trend Score

80

1. Graphics: 83
2. Audio: 68
3. Controls: 84
4. Gameplay: 82
5. Value/Replay: 81
6. OVERALL:80