Sakura Wars Review

As I write this review, I'm less than three feet away from a Gemini Sunrise statue - the poster girl for Sakura Wars V: So Long, My Love. It's a small reminder of the dedication I have to this series, and how much it means to me. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Sakura Wars and I go back around a decade, and it was a series that helped me make some of the best friends I've ever had. Suffice it say, I'd wager that few industry peers were looking forward to a new game quite as much as me.

Which is why it pains me to say that Sakura Wars is, unfortunately, a misfire on every cylinder. From a rote story that fails to do its likable cast any justice, to shallow mechanics that are equal amounts odious and inane, and underscored by some truly gross romance options, Sakura Wars is💜 one of the most disappointing 💦games of the year.

It's Time To Play The Music

The game, at least, starts on an interesting foot. It takes place around a decade after a cataclysmic incident that seized Tokyo, after which every cast member of previous games was apparently locked in Shadow Tokyo - a hellish alternate dimension. The one surviving member of the Tokyo Combat Revue, Sumire, now leads the scrappy group and fends off constant attempts at defunding and disbanding. As war veteran Seijuro Kamiyama, it's up to the player to restore the Tokyo Combat Revue to its former glory and fend off rising assaults from otherworldly demons... which may or not be led by the franchise's former poster girl, Sakura Shinguji.

This is a fascinating conceit for Sakura Wars to pose the player with, and upfront, it definitely enraptured me. But as the game went on, that fascination gave way to frustration at how literally every aspect of the story is handled. There's a nationalist bent to the narrative, in that globalism is presented as a sinister threat that must be struck down by loyalty to nation. But even if you agree with those politics, they aren't depicted in an interesting way, and are instead bogged down by hackneyed storytelling and obnoxious anime hijinks. Whatever political ideology you subscribe to, Sakura Wars doesn't do it any justice.

I'm a lifelong anime fan, but the way that Sakura Wars blindly parrots contemporary genre tropes is truly exhausting. By the time the game presented me with its umpteenth gag about peeping in on women while they're bathing, I realized that this game has one bit, and it's one that Love Hina ran into the ground twenty years ago. That joke can honestly play for me, if done well, but Sakura Wars doesn't. It doesn't do anything well, actually, in the narrative department.

That's Not A Cardboard Cutout, That's My Wife!

But in no area does Sakura Wars fail more than its characters. This is a franchise that lives and dies by its cast, which can often carry the stories through their weaker parts. Unfortunately, Sakura Wars just doesn't have a good cast in comparison to the past games, instead presenting players with cookie-cutter anime lasses devoid of much meaningful development.

It's a shame, because the potential is there. Each character has loads of unique facets that should translate to nuanced, thoughtful characterization - especially the tragic mage Claris and orphaned ninja Azami. Unfortunately, their characterization is entirely reduced to having a problem that can only be solved by Seijuro's affection and attention. This game doesn't seem to think that the characters can develop outside of Seijuro, unlike previous entries, and the result is a plot that outright assassinates characters that could be interesting. The characters themselves, as well, just aren't as compelling as the previous games - they all feel like very safe choices.

Outside of one choice, that is: Azami. Azami is a thirteen-year-old girl who you can touch and pet in minigames, including one where you feed her food out of your hands. Speaking as somebody who loves "creepy" games like 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Senran Kagura and Gal Gun, this set off all sorts of red alarms to me. While you could read the relationship between Seijuro and Azami as more sibling-like, the fact remains that the game lets you do things to a minor that few people would feel comfortable with. It's also worth noting that most of the game's cast is in their mid-to-late teens, and Seijuro is twenty. It's a bad foot to lead with.

Mash To Win

Another bad foot to lead with is the combat. It's sluggish. It's imprecise. It's flat-out busted. The game cribs elements from 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Bayonetta and crashes them into 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dynasty Warriors, but fails to understand what makes those titles work, sacrificing any sense of depth for generous hitboxes and dodging that just busts the whole experience. Once you've done the umpteenth arena battle in the same arena, you start to understand that you only need to dodge, go into slow-mo, and "light-light-heavy" your way to victory. Every single time. It's exhausting. When Dynasty Warriors has evolved over time, and PlatinumGames has continually built on its signature style, there's no excuse for cribbing both of them and doing it this poorly. Also, the progression system is so simplistic and fundamentally meaningless that it could be summarized as: "number go up."

The same can be said of the level design, which is exhausting in how similar it all is. When the game isn't recycling one level, it's forcing players to trudge through drab factories and caverns. When your last game had levels set at the foot of the Statue of Liberty and in tight, daylight city alleys, stuff like this all feels like a bit of a downgrade.

The one part where this game shines is outside of combat. Exploring early 20th century Tokyo, talking to NPCs, getting to know your surroundings... these are the most rewarding aspects of the game. When I was most immersed in Sakura Wars, it was when it was cribbing 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Persona - which is tit for tat, I suppose, considering later Persona games are very inspired by the franchise. I digress. These parts shine, and I actively dreaded doing literally anything else. The combined effect of 🐼the beautiful visual style, the wonderful score, and the colorful background char☂acters give me a glimpse into what a better game could have been.

Box Office Bomb

Sakura Wars isn't broken, I'll say that much. It's a consistent and finish-able game, from start to finish. But is that enough? And is it enough when it belongs to one of the most prolific gaming franchises of all time? I don't think so. If Final Fantasy or Shin Megami Tensei put out a game thisꦐ egregiously sloppy, misguided, and dull, it would get savaged by the𝓰 public. So, too, should this.

Even as a diehard fan of the original, I can't let my nostalgia and hunger for a new game blind me: Sakura Wars is a dreadful entry in a fantastic series. There was a way to modernize this franchise, and this wasn't it. With cookie-cutter characters, a rote narrative, bad gameplay, and meaningless progression, it's a denigration to everything this series stands for and a blemish on its track record. Hanagumi Taisen Columns and Sakura Wars Dramatic Dungeon are better games than this.

If bringing Sakura Wars back means sacrificing tight, strategic gameplay, good characterization, and memorable storytelling for a sloppy heap of half-melted vanilla ice cream, I'd rather it stay dead.