Sakura Wars is the Coolest Game I've Ever Played

 

When I was around 16 years old I bought Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love for the Wii. I had heard it was a strategy RPG and because I was a big fan of those, I was very excited to check the game out. When I started the game however, what I got was not a cool strategy RPG but rather a visual novel/dating sim with very light SRPG elements. I quickly decided that the game was not good and sold my copy for a cheap price.

Over the years I've started to really regret that decision, not because the game is actually rather expensive now and I could've made a lot more money selling it, but because as I've gotten older I've become really interested in the Sakura Wars series specifically for the visual novel/dating sim aspect that I once dismissed, rather than the SRPG aspect that attracted my younger self. But to this day I have not been able to get another copy of So Long, My Love and thus I have not been able to re-evaluate this game I foolishly dismissed as a teenager.

However fast forward 14 years and I've finally gotten a taste of Sakura Wars again after all these years thanks to the fan translation of the first Sakura Wars on Sega Saturn. I already wanted to play it as soon as the translation was first released, but I kept putting it off with the excuse of "I don't know how to emulate Sega Saturn games". But with the encouragement of friends who also wanted to play Sakura Wars alongside me, I finally looked into how emulating Saturn works and turns out it's not hard at all (even if there wasn't any Saturn Emulator as nice and convenient as DuckStation) and now that I'm done with Sakura Wars I should probably play a bunch of other Saturn games I'm interested in, such as Panzer Dragoon Saga.

But that's enough about my personal history, it's time to talk about the game itself.

 

Imperial Floral Assault Troupe

Sakura Wars has a rather simple story. The year is 1923 and the main character Ichiro Ogami is a young ensign in the Japanese navy who has been assigned as the commander of the military's newly established Floral Assault Troop. However upon arriving in the Floral Assault Troop's headquarters, Ogami finds out there has been a misunderstanding and he was not assigned to Floral Assault Troop, but rather Floral Assault Troupe: a theater group run by the navy's former lieutenant general Ikki Yoneda.

But after Ogami has spent enough time working in the theater, the evil Hive of Darkness attacks Tokyo and the Troupe reveals their true identity as warriors of justice who defend Tokyo using giant robots. And this is also when Ogami receives his own robot and starts fighting the Hive of Darkness alongside the rest of the Troupe's members as their new commander.

But while the theater may simply be a ruse the Troupe uses to hide from the public, it is a legitimate theater and many of the game's non-combat sections revolve around Ogami working at the theater alongside its many employees and actors (all of whom are beautiful women for dating sim reasons). As you're playing Ogami's daily life at the theater you will become endeared to every part of his life, you will become attached to both the theater and its employees and you will want to protect this precious theater (and Tokyo itself) from the Hive of Darkness.

Sakura Wars' morality never goes beyond "Floral Assault Troupe good, Hive of Darkness evil", yet I don't think it needs to. In each episode Hive of Darkness sends a new minion against Tokyo, and while the individual minions get barely any characterisation, the fights against them feel meaningful because they always happen during moments of personal drama for the main cast. It's a bit contrived at times, but I think it works because the game makes you so attached to its cast you want to see them succeed in their personal struggles, and defeating the Hive of Darkness is just one step in that personal struggle.

It's a very classical hero tale of good vs evil, you could even say it's very cliched. Yet it is cliched in a very refreshing way. Sakura Wars plays all of its cliches straight and no matter how ridiculous it gets, it does not try to lampshade those cliches nor subvert your expectations at any point. You have heroes yelling about justice and the power of friendship as they fight demons who boast how great the power of evil is. It is incredibly ridiculous and in my opinion that's damn awesome.

I think Sakura Wars' cliched nature also pairs well with its theater motif. For a story that revolves around all the characters playing roles in a theater, it's fitting that the narrative also feels like a classical tale in its simplicity. 

 

A dating sim and a strategy RPG

Sakura Wars' gameplay is split into two distinct sections: there's the SRPG parts, which happen at the end of each episode and then there's the dating sim parts that are the rest of the game. However while these two different styles are very different, they complement each other more than you would assume at first glance. 

Dating sim is often seen as a dirty word among western players, but I think this is mostly because people do not understand what dating sims actually are. A lot of harem visual novels have you make choices that eventually lead to an ending with one of the heroines, and this is what a lot of people think of as dating sims. But these are not dating simulators, they are standard visual novels with a route structure where the route is simply tied to different girls. 

A true dating simulator makes you put real effort into getting the girl you want, you are presented with much more choices than in a standard visual novel, choices that do not impact the plot in any way but instead affect the affection each girl has for you. You need to consider your choices carefully as you might lower the affection of the girl you like or unintentionally raise another girl's affection higher than your favorite's. I'm no expert on true dating sims so I don't want to say more than that to avoid potential misinformation, but as you might have guessed, Sakura Wars is a proper dating simulator and everything I just said applies to it.

Sakura Wars presents you with tons of choices in each episode, and in many situations there is no correct answer. Some answers will please one heroine while upsetting another one, there are very few situations where you can actually please everyone, so you need to make your choices carefully in order to maintain balanced relationships with all of the girls.

However there is one additional mechanic to Sakura Wars' dating element besides simply saying the right things. Nearly every dialogue choice in the game has a timer, if you don't pick your answer fast enough you will instead be seen as a flustered mess and no one will be pleased. But there are also some situations where staying quiet by letting the timer run out is the right choice, as anything you say could simply worsen a situation. Likewise there are also moments where the timer runs extremely quickly and you simply need to say something before it runs out.

Sakura Wars also has moments when you get to wander around the theater through a point and click section. Nearly everything that happens in these sections is optional, but this is a core part of the dating sim sections. As you wander around the theater you can find hidden character events, some of which not only give a lot of affection for a character but also backstory that is never told during the main story. Some of these events also lead to unique mini games that are only playable in one specific moment, and if you miss them there you won't have another chance to play it. It's actually insane how much effort Sakura Wars puts into optional events that the average player might never see, but I think it's very respectable how the game doesn't try to shove these events to your face just because they put effort into them. 

You might be tempted to check a guide to see which rooms you should visit, especially since these sections often have a hidden time limit for how many rooms you can visit in one day. However I think part of the charm of these sections is simply checking what rooms you want. You most certainly won't find every hidden event without a guide, but you are bound to find something when you're checking whatever rooms you want, and when you stumble on something hidden on your own it feels much more special than if the game (or a guide) told you there's events in a specific room. 

I also think if the player knew what events are in what rooms, it could lead to the player only doing the events tied to their favorite character. Not knowing who is where made me do events from every character somewhat equally, compared to if I had the knowledge that would allow me to always freely pick and choose who I spend my time with.

Of course without a guide you might not get the girl you wanted, that's what happened to me after all. I wanted to get Kohran but by the time the game locked an ending, Kanna was the character with the highest affection. Was I disappointed? Id be lying if I said I wasn't. But I think each of the heroines is very fun in their own way, and in the end I was very happy to have ended up with Kanna instead. I really don't think you can pick wrong no matter who you end up with.

 

The strategy side of things

I'm going to be brutally honest, the combat is Sakura Wars' weakest aspect by a long shot and it's the main thing holding it back from being a true masterpiece. The combat's flow is sluggish and the interface is very clunky. Even SNES had strategy RPGs with smoother gameplay than Sakura Wars, despite being on the significantly more powerful Sega Saturn. 

There are some unique ideas in Sakura Wars' gameplay though, it's certainly not all bad. The most unique mechanic is that each unit (whether player controlled or enemy controlled) can perform two actions per turn. At first this doesn't sound too special, as movement and attack are both one action each and that's how all strategy RPGs work. Except you don't have to move if you don't want to. If your unit is already next to the enemy at the start of their turn, you can have them perform an attack and a block for example. But because this applies to the enemy too, maybe it's best for you to retreat after attacking, after all if you're next to the enemy at the start of their turn then they can spend their second action blocking or healing after attacking you, making it much harder for you to kill the enemy. 

Sakura Wars isn't a very hard game though and this dynamic of two actions per turn doesn't get explored very far because it's not something you have to consider too often. But it is a mechanic that makes Sakura Wars stand out among other SRPGs and I hope it's something you get to play with more in the following games in the series.

Another thing that makes Sakura Wars unique is that despite me calling it an SRPG all this time, it doesn't actually have standard RPG mechanics like level ups or equipment. Instead your characters' stats are determined entirely by their mood, and this mood is affected by the choices you make during the dating sim sections. As such instead of simply putting everything you have into getting together with your favorite girl, you should try to treat everyone well. A bad mood during combat can lead to the game being much harder for you, so you shouldn't neglect any of the heroines.

This is both a good and a bad thing as it means you don't ever have to grind, nor do you have to defeat every enemy on the map just because you fear you might miss out on valuable exp otherwise. On the other hand though, it does encourage you to simply rush past every enemy and go straight for the boss. Whether this is a good or a bad thing is up to you, but personally I do feel it's a shame engaging with some enemies feels like you're wasting a turn.  

It's also worth noting that while the game doesn't have anything like Fire Emblem's permanent death, any heroine whose HP drops to 0 in a map will lose a significant amount of affection, so if you're aiming for a specific heroine's ending you should not let her be defeated no matter what (also Ogami's death is instant game over so you should keep him protected too) 

However I think whatever praise I give to the game's unique mechanics are made moot by how unpleasantly sluggish the actual combat sections are. Every battle feels like they go on for 2x longer than they should, and that makes getting game overs an especially unpleasant experience because you have to start the fight all over again. The game is also not hard at all, so in addition to being slow, the battles are just kinda boring because they don't require you to actually think about strategies much. Because of these reasons I can't say I was having much fun at any point during the combat sections.

The battle segments are so unpolished it's pretty clear all of the game's budget went into the visual presentation instead of the gameplay. And normally I would criticise any game that puts its focus on its visuals instead of the gameplay but I forgive Sakura Wars for one simple reason: it makes up for the lacking gameplay by taking its presentation so far I believe it's one of the coolest game I've ever played. 

 

It's like playing a TV series 

The first thing you see when starting Sakura Wars is its iconic opening, and if there's one thing people know about Sakura Wars, it's this song. I too had already heard it years ago, but no matter how many times I'd heard it before, actually seeing the opening myself upon booting the game still filled me with awe. It is a powerful and triumphant song, one that is sure to grab your attention and create a strong first impression. The animation that goes with it isn't as impressive as the song itself, as it's mostly just showing off the main girls in different ways but I still like the way it introduces its main cast and shows off their personalities.

But its not just the opening that gives Sakura Wars a good first impression, everything about Sakura Wars is incredibly stylish. The moment I started the game I was instantly in love with it and it was all thanks to its presentation.

Sakura Wars presents itself like an interactive TV series. Every episode starts with a title card, there's an eye catch between every major scene and at the end there's a fully animated preview of the next episode's events. Each episode also follows a set formula where every episode starts with casual moments at the Imperial Theater until eventually Ogami's daily life is interrupted by the Hive of Darknesss like in a monster of the week anime, and after the episode's villain is defeated the status quo is restored so the next episode can once again start from a clean slate with the casual daily life.

At the end of disc 1 you even have two episodes that are presented like a two parter episode, with the first part ending in a cliffhanger and the second starting with a recap of what happened in the previous episode, followed by getting straight into the action without any of casual moments you normally see at the start of episodes. None of this was necessary, they could've easily just had one longer episode instead, but the way they split them as if it's a two parter episode reinforces the feeling of playing an interactive TV series even further by having the end of disc 1 be like the season finale that leads into the second season (disc 2). 

But if that's all Sakura Wars did to make itself feel like a TV series it would only be superficial. Despite being a visual novel it still makes its presentation feel like an actual anime. There's loads of unique character sprites, CGs and even fully animated cutscenes. When characters talk not only are they voiced, but the sprites are also very expressive to match the tone of the voice acting and have their lips synced with the voices. Each theater scene, no matter how short, still gives the cast unique sprites and costumes to match the characters they are playing.

Nearly every scene, whether it's a major story moment or something more casual, has a completely unique CG artwork accompanying it. One of my favorite examples of this is how every episode has the troupe celebrate their victory after each fight against Hive of Darkness by doing a victory pose, and every single one of these victory poses has a unique CG. Seeing the troupe celebrate like that at the end of each fight really makes your victories against the Hive feel like a major event. 

Even the fully animated cutscenes aren't reserved only for the biggest story moments, plenty of them are used for less important moments like the various theater scenes. These could've just been one or two CGs with some narration explaining what's happening, that's what most visual novels would have done. But Sakura Wars really went all out with the presentation, and if you didn't know any better you might think Sakura Wars is a licensed game based on an anime, and all these unique artworks and cutscenes are taken straight from said TV series, but that is simply another part of the illusion Sakura Wars creates to make itself feel like an interactive TV series.

And this is a game from 1996. Even most modern visual novels do not have the kind of variety in their visuals that Sakura Wars does, it is simply that impressive.

 

The coolest game I've ever played

I don't know if I've been able to properly convey just how hard Sakura Wars' unique vibes and presentation resonated with me, but it really did resonate with me incredibly hard. Sakura Wars is by no means the best game I played in 2025 and calling it the coolest game I've ever played is a hyperbole, yet it is what I was constantly thinking throughout the game. And I can say for certain that no other game I played this year has hit me in quite the same way Sakura Wars did. No matter how flawed its gameplay might have been, I can forgive it all because Sakura Wars felt special to me, it felt personal to me. 

Of course not everyone will feel as strongly about Sakura Wars' theatrics and presentation as I do, the weak combat sections might be a deal breaker for some and no amount of cool presentation will redeem it for them. But if you don't mind its weak combat sections, I promise you will find something special if you play Sakura Wars.

There really is nothing else I've played that's like Sakura Wars and I'm really looking forward to seeing how the following games in the series will push its ideas further, after all playing the first game has only scratched the surface of what this series has to offer. Sakura Wars is pretty much a dead franchise nowadays (even more so in the west, as only two games in the series have received an official English release) but in Japan Sakura Wars was a massive series in the 90s and early 2000s. In addition to the 5 mainline games (and the unsuccessful reboot from 2019), there's loads of different spinoffs and anime adaptations. I can't wait wait to delve deeper into this franchise and see everything it has to offer.