Sakura Wars ~ So Long, My Love ~

[SuperBeatBoy]

14 years I've been waiting for an english version of a Sakura Wars game. Was it worth the wait? Most definetly!

The game is like a japanese graphic adventure, in which is very heavy in the text and dialogue, don't let that put you off. You do get choices throughout these sequences of events too. Thankfully from what i can tell so far it retains the humor and emotion you would expect for this kind of game. Its quite funny and the translation does a great job of getting it across. As i said previously you will get choices which can vary the story quite a bit or how a person thinks of you.

You will get different gameplay types when it comes to certain choices, For example you will have to do motions with the analog sticks, hold the analog stick for a certain amount of time or move it quickly etc. Oh and you have to do them quickly before the time runs out, out of all the ones i've had so far theres been plenty of time to complete them.

Combat is very much a SRPG, where you move mechs in an environment. The gameplay is really similar to the excellent much later Valkyria Chronicles. You have free movement of the mechs depending how much energy you have left on the gauge, which also factors in attacks. You can team up with other units, do special attacks as well as standard attack combos.

Only problems i've come across are graphical glitches on the bg art, you can see faint lines etc that shouldn't be there. As its a quick port of the ps2 version, isn't suprising. 480i though. Nothing major really.

Really enjoying myself with it, its nice and refreshing to play. Its all nice and happy, no doom, gloom or emo in sight.

Well worth picking up!

[Strider]

Just want to echo zeros thoughts.
I've been given this to review and initially thought it was going to be awful. While it takes a little to warm to, it's a really charming title and quite rude as well. It's obviously going to be nothing new to those who have been following the series for the past 14 years, but I've gone into this a complete virgin and find the styling of it utterly refreshing. It's not a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination, but I've been really enjoying it and thoroughly recommend it if you're after something a little different.

[Eight Rooks]

Is the PS2 version getting a Euro release at all? I've had the Japanese release for years and I've never been able to play it given it's one of the few games which won't work with SwapMagic (dual-layer DVD). So a US release is also useless to me.

They were never great games per se, but as an experience there was very little to beat them. V episode 0 had some pretty ropy production values, but for the time, 3 was stunning, and the CG still looks pretty fantastic.

And yes, Strider, they are basically love sims without the sex, so... rude. After all, while it's all presented relatively chastely and doesn't exactly reward you for being crass, in one sense the underage - preteen - female characters are as much fair game as the rest of them. (Not sure if V's any different in this respect.) I was always amused by the interview with one producer for (I think) #3, where some average Japanese salaryman wanted to offer a comment about how much he adored the series and played through it with his little girl on his knee because he wanted to combine his console and his family time, and the producer seemed genuinely pretty shocked he'd let a kid anywhere near the game.

[abigsmurf]

Waiting on the PS2 one (got a US PS2 pretty much just for this and Tales of the Abyss), should hopefully arrive tommorrow. Zero chance of a PS2 release here.

[Eight Rooks]

That's what I figured. Oh, well. Not getting a Wii any time soon, so... guess I'll have to wait until PS2 emulators can handle it, then.

[abigsmurf]

Played through the first chapter, really enjoying it. If it continues like this, this could be one of the top games this year for me.

Playing through the PS2 version (with Japanese voice overs). Looks pretty good (models are typical PS2 era), the art and anime sequences are both surprisingly sharp through, looks pretty great upscaled. Haven't noticed any graphical glitches but the subtitles in the anime sequences look like they're poorly scaled and they're oddly broken and very slightly hard to read.

Also slightly jarring that they sometimes make no attempt to put the (frequent) Engrish into the dialogue. It's a bit odd hearing "LETSU GO" and not seeing it in the text although the vast majority of times this occurs it's because they can't really fit it into what the characters are actually saying with ending up with word soup.

The Special edition extras are ok-ish but not amazing. The case is thin card and the art is a bit bland (which is a shame given how much I like the AMG guy's designs), they've done up the art book like as theatre pamphlet in a fairly smart way (would've preffered a bound book).

Really, the only reasons to get the PS2 version are seemingly the progressive scan and the Japanese voices.

[SuperBeatBoy]

You probably won't see any problems like i said, they are the typical issues of a quick port. I'm still playing it myself and loving every minute of it, just got onto chapter 5.

Also at one point i did come across some untranslated text via the radio, it was no biggie though.

[wakka]

Wait, so the Wii version is 480i only in all regions? Well that's a bit of a kick in the teeth the only other Wii game I've played that doesn't support prog scan is Trauma Center Second Opinion.

[SuperBeatBoy]

Theres far more than you think. At least isn't as bad as Mad World being only 50hz.

[Eight Rooks]

Playing through the PS2 version (with Japanese voice overs). Looks pretty good (models are typical PS2 era), the art and anime sequences are both surprisingly sharp through, looks pretty great upscaled.

Not really surprising considering the money that goes into the series in Japan. I was more surprised that Episode 0 looked so awful. And seriously, few things in videogames have blown me away on first viewing quite as much as the CG sequences in #3 did.

[abigsmurf]

On the battle part of ep.2, damn Sagiita is hard to please, 2/3rds of conversations with her have 2 answers that piss her off and 1 she's indifferent to.

I hope this game is successful enough that we start seeing more games that were considered 'too Japanese' to get a release in the past. God of War, Mass Effect and Dragon age all feature more explicit and more leery elements than the majority of these games (at least the non-h ones).

[Sketcz]

I don't feel like getting the Wii version - will the US PS2 version work on a fat PS2 with messiah modchip?

[SuperBeatBoy]

Does the messiah play dual layered discs? I think this game is, i'm not sure though.

Just finished it myself, loved it from beginning to end. Took me roughly 15hrs to finish, went with Gemini in the end, her american southern accent and cuteness did it for me. Cheiron will be my next conquest! ;P

[abigsmurf]

Given how expensive PS2 mod chips are, it may be cheaper getting a US PS2

[SuperBeatBoy]

Hes already got a messiah PS2. Hes asking if it would work on it.

Forgot to mention just how great all the characters are in the game, they are all wonderfully lovable as well as the story. Hope this does good enough for them to think about releasing the remake of the original.