Developer/publisher: SEGA.
Platform: PS4
Official Site: https://games.sega.com/sakurawars/lang/en/
VNDB: https://vndb.org/v26147
Release date: 12/12/19(jp), 04/28/20(eng).
Okay so I played the lates entry in the sakura wars series for ps4, its known for being a vn with srpg
part, outside of this game only one other game was localized Sakura Wars V: so long my love.
Also this review is a quick and dirty attempt to keep the blog alive... I got this game because
they discounted the physical edition for 33$ (even came with stickers).
Enough about that this game is about the imperial combat revue that protects tokyo from demons
and during peaceful times they're a theatrical group who put on performances in their theatre.
Figting demons by night and performances by day?!
Or atleast try to because they can't really live up to the legacy...
Pro's
Likable characters, plot is alright.
Comedy.
Graphics/expressiveness of models etc.
Con's
Short, best played in short burst.
Combat leaves much to be desired.
Despite never having played a Sakura Wars before I still enjoyed my time with it
and its definitely not needed to play previous entries to play this one.
The grapics were nice, the models and the expressions of the characters
took a bit of getting used to which by the end was the case atleast for me.
I really liked the characters, the story was alright and there were plenty of funny moments
imo the adventure part was the best part of this game; sometimes being kamiyama must be suffering!
With the choice system you can be a good boy and be nice or just be a shameless pervert
but that might cost you peoples trust though there's enough room to be both.😅
There were only two characters that I couldn't win over; Yui and Margaret i'm pretty sure
those were the hardest since they (along with Kaoru I think) get the least opportunities to raise trust
while Sakura on the other hand is the easiest, that's the poster girl for you.
Story wise its best to go into this game knowing as little as possible, there's also an anime
but I do not recommend to watch that till after playing the game that is if you want
some more extra time with the cast as its apparently a sequel to the game.
If you are already are familiar with this series i'm sure you can pick up more cues and the bromides
you can collect have moments from previous entries in the series even those who weren't
localized, there's also koi koi wars which is a minigame were you can challenge characters.....
its a hanafuda card game, outside of the first match I didn't really play it as I was confused.
Nice there is a minigame to play and collecting bromides though collecting that is also tied
to sranking all the stages with all characters... but the difficulty of the stages doesn't improve.
I think completionists will really suffer with this game...
I liked the intermission system, I usually played one chapter a day except from ch6 to final
because I was extra motivated to see it through to the end.
That aside from my perspective this game is best played in short bursts, sometimes I wondered
if they designed this game for a handheld with all the frequent intermission breaks
or if its just a habit of the series from the old days.
Unlike its predecessors this game's battle system is not a srpg but action... everything else
is in the same spirit, it was easy to tell the devs put a lot of passion into this except for the combat
which I'd hate to say but this game has one of the most disappointing action type battle systems
i've ever had the pleasure to experience as its... too easy, there is no challenge whatsoever
the last stage; while suited for last confrontation felt like a chore and during it all I wondered if I even
wanted to do another characters ending or just settled for the one I had chosen which was Claris.
Yes, Claris is my best girl.
Not sure how I should describe the combat, think dynasty warriors but smaller
there's also a lot of gating/scripted encounter so you can never truly go crazy like DW.
There's no way to upgrade your units either so it never feels like you improve
not that there was a reason to but idk this wasn't a good thing imo.
The enemies ai are also nothing to write home about and if there was a boss encounter
it all came down to whether or not you can dodge to give even more opportunity to attack
some of the early ''bosses'' can go down in a single special attack, yea no effort was made here.
So... the combat aside I can say that I still liked this game, the characters were all likable
you could tell Sakura was the main heroine but if you liked anyone else of the main girls
you can just pick them instead, this game didn't have much harem nonsense either so that was a plus. Characters like Yui and Xiaolong grew on me, yes I disliked them a little at first.
Most importantly even if I had some problems with how they resolved things
this game knew were to end, its a bit on the short side but nothing ever felt like it dragged on
too long, this game might be short but I'd rather it be like this than have it pad itself out.
I had fun, most of the time I had a smile on my face and maybe got a little sad
at some of the plot developments, so overall this was an alright game in my opinion.
Its not easy to bring back a series from the abyss and I can tell the devs really tried with this one
and they did succeed even if the combat wasn't enjoyable the rest of the game was.
Unfortunately as much as I liked it I can say that this game isn't for everyone
from the weird humor to the casual combat, its hard to say who its aimed at.
Though if you like anime and dating-sim/VN in general then its probably for you.
There's not much else to say, this game was alright but completionist will suffer...
7/10
