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One of Sega’s greatest franchises is set to take the west by storm when Project Sakura Wars (working title) launches for PlayStation 4 in North America and Europe in spring 2020! A cultural phenomenon in Japan, the long-running series defined the JRPG / romance genre with its memorable characters, masterful writing, and sublime music. Now, a completely new entry is set to grace our shores.
The Combat Revues Are Going to War
The stage is set in a romanticized version of 1940s Imperial Tokyo. 10 years ago, a cataclysm resulted in the devastating loss of the Imperial Combat Revue of Tokyo, the capital’s global defense force operating out of the Imperial Theater. The theater has since fallen on hard times and risks closure. As captain of the new Tokyo revue, it’s up to you to mend the hearts of your troops and restore the Imperial Theater back to its former glory!
With its strong emphasis on character-driven storytelling and relationship building, fans will find plenty to love with Project Sakura Wars! Get your first look at the game by watching the announcement trailer.
Key Features
Project Sakura Wars will feature Japanese voice acting with subtitles in English, German, French, and Spanish.
- The Most Immersive Story Yet – During your adventure, you will be able to interact with a colorful cast of characters through the dynamic LIPS dialogue system, where what you say and how you say it has a profound impact on these relationships both off and on the battlefield.
- A Rewarding Battle System – Armed with powerful mechs known as “spiricle armor,” the gameplay is augmented by a deep and robust combat system that takes full advantage of each squad member’s unique abilities.
- An Eye-catching Anime Production – Complete with gorgeous animated sequences and dramatic character arcs, the story will leave you hungry for what happens next.
Here are the first details, via Famitsu:
■ The Curtain Rises on a New Chapter in “Taisho Year 29” of the Imperial Capital!
The steampunk franchise Sakura Wars is set in the fictional “Taisho Era,” where steam-based technology has been developed. This game is both a legitimate sequel and all-new work.
The game is set in the Imperial Capital of Tokyo 12 years after the events of Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love. Due to the “Great Kouma War” 10 years prior, Tokyo, Paris, and New York’s Combat Revue’s were annihilated, but the cities of the world established new Combat Revues, and a competition called the “Great Combat Revue World War” was to be held as a result.
The player will experience the story of protagonist Seijuurou Kamiyama, who leads the “New Combat Revue” and clashes with the “Kouma” that threaten the city’s harmony, as well as with the Combat Revues of each country.
image: https://gematsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Project-Sakura-Wars_2019_03-29-19_001.jpg
■ Familiar Game Systems Return with Enhancements
The game system is a cycle of “adventure” and “battle” parts. Players will strengthen their bonds with the heroines, and the series’ familiar structure will return with enhancements.
During adventure parts, you can freely explore the Great Imperial Theater and streets of Ginza depicted in 3D graphics, communicate with the members of the Combat Revue, and enjoy various stories. Here, you will strengthen the trust between you and the heroines, which will not only influence the story, but also allow you to gain an upper hand in battle. Of course, the game is full of various elements, including anime movies and mini-games.
image: https://gematsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Project-Sakura-Wars_2019_03-29-19_002.jpg
image: https://gematsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Project-Sakura-Wars_2019_03-29-19_003.jpg
image: https://gematsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Project-Sakura-Wars_2019_03-29-19_004.jpg
■ Characters
Seijuurou Kamiyama (voiced by Yohei Azakami)
The protagonist of Project Sakura Wars. The leader of the “Imperial Combat Revue: Floral Division.” 20 years-old. He originally served as a special service ship captain in the navy, but was reassigned to the Imperial Combat Revue, where he was appointed the commanding officer of the newly reborn “Imperial Combat Revue: Floral Division.”
image: https://gematsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Project-Sakura-Wars_2019_03-29-19_005.jpg
image: https://gematsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Project-Sakura-Wars_2019_03-29-19_006.jpg
image: https://gematsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Project-Sakura-Wars_2019_03-29-19_007.jpg
Sakura Amamiya (voiced by Ayane Sakura)
A member of the “Imperial Combat Revue: Floral Division.” 17 years-old. She admires Sakura Shinguuji, the top star of the former Floral Division, and enlists in the Floral Division as a novice member. She has strong feelings for the Imperial Combat Revue: Floral Division that protects Tokyo, as well as the Imperial Opera Troupe that boosts the citizens’ spirits, and greatly desires the reconstruction of both sides.
image: https://gematsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Project-Sakura-Wars_2019_03-29-19_008.jpg
image: https://gematsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Project-Sakura-Wars_2019_03-29-19_009.jpg
image: https://gematsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Project-Sakura-Wars_2019_03-29-19_010.jpg
Hatsuho Shinonome (voiced by Maaya Uchida)
A member of the “Imperial Combat Revue: Floral Division.” 17 years-old. A shrine maiden of the Shinonome Shrine, passed down from generation to generation in the Imperial Capital. Born in the old town, she is a pure woman of Edo who loves the old town, festivals, and the town’s people. While she usually comes off as rude, she is a mediator who proves reliable to everyone in the Floral Division.
image: https://gematsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Project-Sakura-Wars_2019_03-29-19_011.jpg
image: https://gematsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Project-Sakura-Wars_2019_03-29-19_012.jpg
image: https://gematsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Project-Sakura-Wars_2019_03-29-19_013.jpg
Azami Mochizuki (voiced by Hibiku Yamamura)
A member of the “Imperial Combat Revue: Floral Division.” 13 years-old. The descendant of a ninja family that practices in the Mochizuki Style, she is a young prodigy that has mastered martial arts, strategy, weaponry, and the like. Since before she could even perceive the world, she had a strict upbringing, and strongly believes in the “108 Laws” passed down from the ancient ninja village. Protecting those laws are of great importance to her.
image: https://gematsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Project-Sakura-Wars_2019_03-29-19_014.jpg
image: https://gematsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Project-Sakura-Wars_2019_03-29-19_015.jpg
image: https://gematsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Project-Sakura-Wars_2019_03-29-19_016.jpg
Anastasia Palma (voiced by Ayaka Fukuhara)
A member of the “Imperial Combat Revue: Floral Division.” 19 years-old. A star who played an active role in European theater. She wandered from troupe to troupe before joining the Imperial Combat Revue. Her singing and acting abilities are top class, and given her looks, she can easily handle a wide range of roles, from male roles to sexy female roles.
image: https://gematsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Project-Sakura-Wars_2019_03-29-19_017.jpg
image: https://gematsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Project-Sakura-Wars_2019_03-29-19_018.jpg
image: https://gematsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Project-Sakura-Wars_2019_03-29-19_019.jpg
Claris (voiced by Saori Hayami)
A member of the “Imperial Combat Revue: Floral Division.” 16 years-old. She is from Luxembourg. She is a sweet literary girl who loves reading books. Through books, she is learning various things each day and is filled to the brim with curiosity. Her full name is Clarissa Snowflake. She is the successor of “Juumadou” black magic, which utilizes books and is passed down from generation to generation in the noble Snowflake family of Luxembourg.
image: https://gematsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Project-Sakura-Wars_2019_03-29-19_020.jpg
image: https://gematsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Project-Sakura-Wars_2019_03-29-19_021.jpg
image: https://gematsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Project-Sakura-Wars_2019_03-29-19_022.jpg
■ Staff
- Main Character Design: Tite Kubo
- Music: Kouhei Tanaka
- Story Composition: Jiro Ishii
- Original Work: Oji Hiroi
- Theme Song: “Geki! Teikoku Hana Geki Dan ” (lyrics by Oji Hiroi, music by Kouhei Tanaka)
The April 4-due issue of Weekly Famitsu wll have a 16-page feature on Project Sakura Wars featuring character information, comments from the cast, abd story and game system details not shared above, as well as a developer interview and a look back on the series.
Read more at https://gematsu.com/2019/03/project-sakura-wars-announced-for-ps4#28SrdbIKABVxlqhB.99
Famitsu published an interview with the new game’s producer and the series’ traditional developers: New Sakura Wars Producer Tetsu Katano, Sakura Wars series director and scenarist Takahara Terada, and Sakura Wars series Development Director Tetsuya Otsubo.
Here’s a summary of the interview:
As explained during the stage event, all of New Sakura Wars‘ story content and the BGMs are already done. The 3D modeling of the characters and backgrounds are done as well. The game’s dubbing is nearly complete too. But the game’s development rate as a whole is between 40% and 50%.
Concrete plans for New Sakura Wars started after the series won 1st place in the popularity fan poll of Sega Fes 2016.
The game is titled New Sakura Wars instead of Sakura Wars 6, as while it takes place after Sakura Wars 5, Sakura Wars 5 first released in 2005, two generations of consoles ago. The game feels more like a reboot, and has new core staff too, with Bleach‘s Kubo Tite as the main character designer for example, hence why the “New/Shin” in the title.
Kubo Tite was picked as the main character designer as the staff thought he was the best choice to depict Sakura Wars‘ Japanese styled clothes and katanas. Kubo Tite was really eager to work on the series and meticulously designed the characters’ weapons. He actively participates in the development and proposes many ideas for the game as well.
The world depicted in New Sakura Wars isn’t very different than the one shown in the previous games, even if 12 years passed since Sakura Wars 5’s story. No new technological breakthroughs happened during that timeframe and it’s still a Steampunk world. The only big thing that changed is how the world is much more aware of the Theatre Troupes, with many more Theatre Troupes existing in many cities of the world.
The “World Theater Troupe Great War” mentioned in the story summary is a sports-like tournament where the Theatre Troupes from around the world gather to test each other’s strength. At the start of New Sakura Wars‘ story, it’ll be the third time this tournament happens, and it’s held in the Imperial City, Tokyo. However, certain incidents will happen, and the tournament won’t be as peaceful as usual.
During the “adventure” part between battles, the game’s environments are fully explorable in 3D. The characters’ 3D models are used during dialogues as well, and basically, the 3D map you explore is the same 3D environment you see during dialogues.
Like in past games, combination attacks between the characters will be unlocked as you raise their trust. Each one of the girls also has their own endings as usual.
The LIPS system or Live ＆ Interactive Picture System is still there obviously. The “touch mode”, which is officially called “Click Mode”, is back as well. In previous Sakura Wars games, the LIPS system was how the player had many different ways to act in a situation. Most of the time it meant selecting an answer before time run out. However, the system tried to reflect the protagonists’ train of thought as realistically as possible, with new choices appearing as time passed. Sometimes, not selecting anything was the “correct” thing to do. Meanwhile, the Click System would let you “answer” by selecting parts of the background or a part on the 2D portrait of the character you talked to, like their eyes or mouth.
This time in New Sakura Wars, the staff is planning to add new elements to the LIPS and the Click System. The Click System’s new additions weren’t detailed in the interview, but one of the new elements the staff might add to LIPS is linking it with the camera. As the game’s characters and environments are in 3D during dialogues, this means you could “select” an answer using the way you move the camera. The 3D also means that protagonist Seijuro’s point of view can shift during the same scene.
The previous games had sexual fanservice scenes if you tried things like peeking at the girls in the shower, at the risk of dropping their trust levels. Using the 3D camera, they could do more than before now for these kinds of scenes. Producer Tetsu Katano joked saying they’ll try to go as far as possible while not making the game’s age rating go up.
As a reminder, games with the highest age rating (CERO Z/18+) get less store publicity in Japan as they can’t be sold without age confirmation. Unless it’s a huge franchise like Resident Evil, Japanese developers avoid getting that rating on their games at all costs. Developers tend to avoid getting the second highest rating, CERO D/17+ as well. New Sakura Wars‘ rating is still unknown as the game’s development isn’t finished yet. Sakura Wars 3 had a CERO C/15+ rating, while Sakura Wars 4 and Sakura Wars 5 had a B rating/12+. For comparison sake, Catherine Full Body got a CERO C, so New Sakura Warswill either get a B or C.
Some cutscenes will be “anime”, insinuating 2D animated scenes like in the past games will be included. Meanwhile, some other cutscenes will be in 3D. Animation Studio Sanzigen, which specializes in 3DCG animation that looks like 2D, is working on New Sakura Wars’ 3D cutscenes. There will be over 40 minutes of footage of these 3D cutscenes in total.
Besides the interview, more comments from the game’s staff, and from Sakura Wars‘ traditional staff, have been published on Twitter or by Famitsu. Some of New Sakura Wars‘ seiyuu have been tweeting comments as well following the game’s announcement.
New Sakura Wars‘ story writer Jiro Ishii said in his comments than when writing 428: Shibuya Scramble, he tried to surpass another legendary visual novel, Machi. Now with New Sakura Wars, he will try to surpass the original Sakura Wars series.
Sakura Wars‘ original creator Hiroi Ojii said he is looking forward to how the game will turn out.
Here’s a summary of the interview:
As explained during the stage event, all of New Sakura Wars‘ story content and the BGMs are already done. The 3D modeling of the characters and backgrounds are done as well. The game’s dubbing is nearly complete too. But the game’s development rate as a whole is between 40% and 50%.
Concrete plans for New Sakura Wars started after the series won 1st place in the popularity fan poll of Sega Fes 2016.
The game is titled New Sakura Wars instead of Sakura Wars 6, as while it takes place after Sakura Wars 5, Sakura Wars 5 first released in 2005, two generations of consoles ago. The game feels more like a reboot, and has new core staff too, with Bleach‘s Kubo Tite as the main character designer for example, hence why the “New/Shin” in the title.
Kubo Tite was picked as the main character designer as the staff thought he was the best choice to depict Sakura Wars‘ Japanese styled clothes and katanas. Kubo Tite was really eager to work on the series and meticulously designed the characters’ weapons. He actively participates in the development and proposes many ideas for the game as well.
The world depicted in New Sakura Wars isn’t very different than the one shown in the previous games, even if 12 years passed since Sakura Wars 5’s story. No new technological breakthroughs happened during that timeframe and it’s still a Steampunk world. The only big thing that changed is how the world is much more aware of the Theatre Troupes, with many more Theatre Troupes existing in many cities of the world.
The “World Theater Troupe Great War” mentioned in the story summary is a sports-like tournament where the Theatre Troupes from around the world gather to test each other’s strength. At the start of New Sakura Wars‘ story, it’ll be the third time this tournament happens, and it’s held in the Imperial City, Tokyo. However, certain incidents will happen, and the tournament won’t be as peaceful as usual.
During the “adventure” part between battles, the game’s environments are fully explorable in 3D. The characters’ 3D models are used during dialogues as well, and basically, the 3D map you explore is the same 3D environment you see during dialogues.
Like in past games, combination attacks between the characters will be unlocked as you raise their trust. Each one of the girls also has their own endings as usual.
The LIPS system or Live ＆ Interactive Picture System is still there obviously. The “touch mode”, which is officially called “Click Mode”, is back as well. In previous Sakura Wars games, the LIPS system was how the player had many different ways to act in a situation. Most of the time it meant selecting an answer before time run out. However, the system tried to reflect the protagonists’ train of thought as realistically as possible, with new choices appearing as time passed. Sometimes, not selecting anything was the “correct” thing to do. Meanwhile, the Click System would let you “answer” by selecting parts of the background or a part on the 2D portrait of the character you talked to, like their eyes or mouth.
This time in New Sakura Wars, the staff is planning to add new elements to the LIPS and the Click System. The Click System’s new additions weren’t detailed in the interview, but one of the new elements the staff might add to LIPS is linking it with the camera. As the game’s characters and environments are in 3D during dialogues, this means you could “select” an answer using the way you move the camera. The 3D also means that protagonist Seijuro’s point of view can shift during the same scene.
The previous games had sexual fanservice scenes if you tried things like peeking at the girls in the shower, at the risk of dropping their trust levels. Using the 3D camera, they could do more than before now for these kinds of scenes. Producer Tetsu Katano joked saying they’ll try to go as far as possible while not making the game’s age rating go up.
As a reminder, games with the highest age rating (CERO Z/18+) get less store publicity in Japan as they can’t be sold without age confirmation. Unless it’s a huge franchise like Resident Evil, Japanese developers avoid getting that rating on their games at all costs. Developers tend to avoid getting the second highest rating, CERO D/17+ as well. New Sakura Wars‘ rating is still unknown as the game’s development isn’t finished yet. Sakura Wars 3 had a CERO C/15+ rating, while Sakura Wars 4 and Sakura Wars 5 had a B rating/12+. For comparison sake, Catherine Full Body got a CERO C, so New Sakura Warswill either get a B or C.
Some cutscenes will be “anime”, insinuating 2D animated scenes like in the past games will be included. Meanwhile, some other cutscenes will be in 3D. Animation Studio Sanzigen, which specializes in 3DCG animation that looks like 2D, is working on New Sakura Wars’ 3D cutscenes. There will be over 40 minutes of footage of these 3D cutscenes in total.
Besides the interview, more comments from the game’s staff, and from Sakura Wars‘ traditional staff, have been published on Twitter or by Famitsu. Some of New Sakura Wars‘ seiyuu have been tweeting comments as well following the game’s announcement.
New Sakura Wars‘ story writer Jiro Ishii said in his comments than when writing 428: Shibuya Scramble, he tried to surpass another legendary visual novel, Machi. Now with New Sakura Wars, he will try to surpass the original Sakura Wars series.
Sakura Wars‘ original creator Hiroi Ojii said he is looking forward to how the game will turn out.
TRAILER
Oggi Sega ha annunciato anche per l'occidente di essere al lavoro su un nuovo titolo della serie Sakura Wars in esclusiva su PS4!
Dalle prime impressioni sembra trattarsi di un operazione di reboot e non di un seguito anche considerando la scelta di cambiare il character designer.con Kubo e il titolo giapponese Shin Sakura Taisen.
Ultima modifica da un moderatore:
Tu sì che sei un uomo che ne capisce... 
. Ero pro Tia Harribel da sempre 
. Non vorrei però che il senso di Reboot sia anche un modo per giocarci questa possibilità.
