Sakura Wars Retrospect: An Ode To Lost Youth

the following is a retrospect of sakura wars 1/2/3/4, a beloved game series which i had grown up with from my childhood years to my adulthood years.

Disclaimer: from here on there will be SPOILERS, although these are very old games so i don't think it'd matter, but again SPOILERS from here on, so please keep that in mind before proceeding. also these are just my own personal feelings of the series, so please don't quote the stuff i said and post to anywhere else on the web. thank you.



Part 1: Sakura Wars 1/4 on SEGA consoles

back in the year of 1997 was the first time when i had played sakura wars 1 on my classmate's saturn console here in hong kong. during its last days as a british colony. the above image to the left showed the exact same hk model saturn console with VCD capabilities and natively plays NTSCJ games on 220v voltage. back then everyone who bought a saturn here had also bought sakura wars for the console.

by the year 2002 i had my own dreamcast console, with which i used to play sakura wars 4 which was released at the time. though most people here had bought the dreamcast for sakura wars 3 some time prior. anywho the hk model of the dreamcast console, as seen in photo, was just the regular japanese model but the orange box has english instructions printed on the back, along with coming with a 220v adapter.



back in 1997 my classmate friend was the one who let me play the game on his brother's saturn, and if it weren't for him, i'd have kept ogling at the poster of sakura at the gameshop without ever getting to play it.



after playing sakura wars 1 on the saturn, i also bought the figurines of it back in 1997, alongside the temjin figure from virtual on, which i also played on my friend's saturn.

sadly i never saw him again, as the british sailed into the night after the handover of hong kong in 1997, i too left for canada soon after.



the photo above was taken back in 2002 at a game shop here in hong kong, and you can see the online expansion disc for sakura wars 3 being displayed there, next to parapara paradise which was popular here back then.

at the time i had just returned to hk with my own dreamcat console, but the dreamcast was already dead here, since after sakura wars 3 alot of gamers had already traded their dreamcast in for the ps2. though i still continued to wait patiently for sakura wars 4 to come out.



when sakura wars 4 was finally released, i went to the gameshop in late 2002 and bought it, however i found out that the game only had 4 story chapters in the game, with 4 battlefields, and only 4 FMVs and very few CG artwork, along with only having one mini game which was majong. in the end it only took me like a day to finish sakura wars 4 after i brought it home, no joke.

as for the bundled sakura wars 3 extra disk, i only remembered it messing with my VMU and didn't seem to do anything.

back then i never bother with erica's ending on the dreamcast, because i just didn't like her at first, though after my dreamcast broke, that opportunity simply slipped out the window.

regardless, this game was truly the end of sakura and ogami's story, for even the logo of sakura wars 4 featured sakura and ogami's sword leaning on each other, tied together by a red string of fate that symbolized the final union between them.



the photo above shows two game megazines from hong kong back in the year 1996 and 2002 respectively.

the 1996 issue to the left featured sakura wars 1 on the front cover, while the 2002 issue to the right featured sakura wars 4 on the front cover, along with a preview for virtual on marz, right underneath erika.

as i recalled back in 1997, sakura wars 1 was immensely popular here, along with sakura wars 2 which came out soon after. both of the games were the height of the series popularity and the series was always synonymous with the sega brand, just as sonic and virtual on were back then. in those days, there were just as many copies of sakura wars sold as there were saturn consoles....though i only got to play the first sakura wars game on the saturn back in 1997, before i moved to canada where the games had no presence there.

after my subsequent return to hk, and later in 2002, the local game megazine above had ran a review on sakura wars 4, and warned buyers that due to the discontinuation of dreamcast, sega had rushed the game out into the market, which resulted in a VERY short length of the game. but it didn't matter to me because i'm an old sakura wars fan, and i wanted see the finale to ogami and sakura's story no matter what.

in any case, the slogan for sakura wars 1 back in 1997 was "romance in the taisho era". while the slogan for sakura wars 4 back in 2002 was "the curtains fall on the final stage"



back then the character design of sakura wars 1-4 was done by the artist "Fujishima Kousuke"

the above artwork to the left, showed the first artwork of sakura wars 1 from 1996, featuring sakura doing a "sideways weapons-hold" pose.

meanwhile the artwork to the right showed the front cover artwork of sakura wars 4 from 2002, featuring sakura doing the same sideways weapons-hold" pose as she did back then.

for sakura, she is the sword wielding, titular heroine of sakura wars series, who was also named after the beloved flower of the same name. back then, the iconic design of her character, strong willed personality, and graceful form had made her the gaming goddess for alot of teens here back in the day.



as for the steambots which are featured as battle units in the game, they are known as spirit shroud armor "light force" as its original japanese kanji was called, which were powered by steam and very big and bulky, and retro-futuricsically designed, with each one carrying its own unique of weapon corresponding to the pilot's armament to fight the other evil bots. back then there were even model kits of the steambots as well, and we had an old nickname "zaku" for the steambots because of its swinging monoeye like the zaku in gundam.



back then the main appeal of the sakura wars series had always been its unique historical appeal of "romance in the taisho era", that took place in 1912 time period which featured a unique culture and lifestyle of the times, with sceneries representative of the era of the old imperial empire of japan, along with steam power robots, vehicles, opera stageplays, along with everyone behaving and dressing in old fashioned clothes customary of the times.....all of which formed the olden days nostalgia that had resonated with, and appealed to alot of people back then



in sakura wars 1 back in 1997, sakura had slowly walked into the park which contrasted starkly with sakura wars 4 in 2002 when ogami and his steambot had dashed into the highly urbanized city streets at break-neak speed.

compared to the 2D city map and steambot sprite from sakura wars 1 however, the fully 3D rendered imperial capital and steambot in sakura wars 4 had looked pretty amazing for its day, while also demonstrated the power of the dreamcast console, as it continued to rendered ogami's steambot flying through the many streets and blocks of the imperial capital.



back in 1997 with sakura wars 1 on the saturn, you can issue commands to the steambots with the controller atypical of any turned based SRPG, though back then i enjoyed seeing the steambots clumsily walk around the map while gushing steam out of its back exhausts, as well as swinging its weapons to attack as a single unit or in coordination with other units.

then in 2002 with sakura wars 4 on the dreamcast, it became possible to control the steambots directly using the controller, to make them run freely around the map, and also to attack in real time with just the press of a button, which was a dream come true for me. that being the case, turned based combat was still retained as you can only attack when its your turn, and vice versa for the enemy, as long as the action gauge is not empty. also ogami and his girl's steambot would later be merged as a single giant steambot unit.




back in 1997 the premise of sakura wars had featured the imperial brigade concealing their identity as dancers, while they piloted their steambots to fight for the sake of "justice".

though by 2002 with sakura wars 4, the premise was still similar except it starred an evil spirit who had concealed himself as a dancer, while he piloted his own ancient steambot to fight for the sake of "vengeance".

hence why in the opening song both sakura and the evil spirit dancer were also seen back to back performing on the dancer's stage in the abyss of the netherworld.....this symbolized that sakura will face her final, unseen-able enemy who is not only a warrior, but also a dancer just like she is.



back in 1997, sakura had sung the opening song of sakura wars 1

while in 2002, ogami had sung the opening song of sakura wars 4

due to my sentimental attachment to the first game, i never liked ogami's version of the song even back then, though since the forth game was more about ogami, i always thought that was the reason why it was changed like that.



in the opening scene of sakura wars 1 back in 1997, the story began with sakura arriving in the imperial capital by train, and unsheathing her sword amidst a sea of flowers, representing "the bloom of youth"

in the opening scene of sakura wars 4 back in 2002, the story began with ogami rushing into the imperial capital following a train, and sheathing his sword amidst a clock tower in the background, representing a lamentation of "the passage of time", as echoed in the opening poem of the forth game which read as follows:

"life is fleetingly short, fall in love maidens

before the time when the red glow of your lips had faded away

before the time when the hot blood of your youth had turned cold

let not the days of your future pass you by in vain"



in the beginning of sakura wars 1, sakura was seen standing underneath a sea of flowers waiting to meet ogami.

in the ending of sakura wars 4, ogami was instead the one standing underneath a sea of flowers waiting to meet sakura, and also the girls

anyways back in 2002 when i reached sakura's ending, and as the credits finally rolled with a weepy song, along with a flashback of everything that's happened since the first game, i felt very sad at the time since the boy who played the first game with me back in 1997....was no longer there by my side. also both the dreamcast and sakura wars series was dead at the time as well.



in sakura wars 1, ogami would meet sakura underneath the sea of blossoming sakura flowers, and of whom would eventually become the love of his life.

in sakura wars 4 however, yoneda would meet the ghosts of the three people he dearly loved, underneath the same sea of blossoming sakura flowers, for the last time in his life.

thus the season of sakura symbolized not only meetings, but also partings and reunions; just as the verses in the "fall in love maidens" poem song had described, which in itself was also a sentimental lamentation, meant for not only sakura and the girls, but also represented yoneda's deep regret over his subordinate "Ayame" and her inability to find love before dying in the bloom of her youth; for just as the life of a flower was short, so was the life of Ayame.....the woman who also fought in her youth to preserve the peace just as sakura did, but instead was unable to find happiness with the one she loved, before meeting a tragic end.



in sakura wars 1, ayame who represented "unrequited love" had floated upwards into the sky, as she ascended to the heavens after letting go of her past human self.

in sakura wars 4, the evil spirit who represented "misplaced hatred" had also floated upwards into the sky, as he ascended to the heavens after letting go of his past human self.

interestingly, while ayame was a sister figure and a role model soldier who served as an "inspiration" for ogami in sakura wars 1, the evil spirit in sakura wars 4 instead served as a "nemesis" to sakura, in that he too was a dancer and warrior just as she was.

ironically it was also the evil spirit's last words to sakura, that had finally inspired her to start a family with ogami



back in 1997, the story of sakura wars 1 began with sakura walking into the sea of flowers.

then in 2002, the story of sakura wars 4 ended with yoneda walking out of the same sea of flowers.

thus at long last, the story in sakura wars 4 ended in the same place where it began in sakura wars 1. so in the end everything did eventually came full circle, for the story, and also for the series as well.

in some ways, ogami and yoneda were like two sides of the same coin, except that ogami was able to hold onto those he loved and eventually found happiness with them, whereas yoneda had lost them all instead, and could only find happiness with them in his memories.

symbolism had always been a part of sakura wars series story, which were poetic in nature, and meant to rhyme with one another.



in sakura wars 1 on the saturn, the flower petals of sakura fluttered in the taisho era. but in sakura wars 4, the fluttering blossom of sakura had finally stopped falling, and as the last flower petal gently landed in the dreamcast system menu's pool of water, so too ended the story of "sakura", as ogami chanted the final part of the poem song, which read as follows:

"the flower of my life......is the flower of you"



back then i also had soinic adventure on my dreamcast, which was my first proper sonic game, not counting "sonic spinball" on the megadrive i guess. anywho sonic adventure left a really strong impression on me, so when i played sakura wars 4 on the dreamcast....... i was thinking about how just as chaos in sonic adventure had kept growing larger and stronger until it reached a giant form, the evil spirit dancer's ancient steambot had also kept growing and changing its form, until it reached a gargantuan form, that was actually just the reanimated skeleton of the evil spirit dancer himself, which served as the final boss.

in any case, just as sonic had utilized a super sonic spin dash attack on chao's final form........ogami's steambot would also utilized a super sonic style spin dash attack on the evil spirit dancer's final form to finish it off.

so aside from all the parallelism that existed between 1 and 4, there was also this minor parallelism to sonic adventure as well



Part 2: The PC Ports Of Sakura wars 1/2/3/4

due to the dreamcast's windows CE and direct x hardware architecture, many dreamcast games were swiftly ported to the pc around that time, which of course included sega's sakura wars 1/2/3/4.

the pc ports of sakura wars games were ported and localized by the taiwanese company "DYSIN" and they are officially licensed and legitimate releases that were sold domestically in taiwan, and also in hong kong.



for the pc version of sakura wars 1, i also bought it in 2001 in order to replay the game after first playing it on my classmate's saturn back in 1997.

And for the record the pc version was ported directly from dreamcast version, because the 2d spirtes of the steambots looked alot better than the saturn version, also it said "overworks 2001" in the main menu screen.



anyways everything was the same as i last played it on the saturn, where the story began once more in taisho 12th year (1912) in the imperial capital, with the sounded horns of a steam engine train heralding the arrival of the iconic swordswoman "sakura" in a pink kimono, the titular heroine of the game, and her name of which was derived from the same sea of blossoming sakura flowers that she walked under.



afterwards, the protagonist of the story, navy officier "ogami" would have his fateful meeting with sakura, who'd later become not only his comrade in arms, but also the love of his life as well.



after sakura took ogami to the opera house, he joined the secret division of the army residing there, called "imperial radiant strike brigade", and soon rode on his steambot with the girls, as they strove to fight against this group of terrorist, headed by an evil old monk and his disciples, who tried to kill civillians and magic bombed the city, in their effort to break the cultural unity that existed between east and west. (they were like an evil version of the groupies from journey to the west, which was an opera that was also featured in the game).



once more imperial airship lifted off and crashed again into the holy demonic city, where after assaulting the interiors, the rest of the girls would subsequently died one after another, until only sakura was left with ogami. later on the other girls were revived just in time to fight the demon god, who was ultimately defeated, though by then both of yoneda's former subordinates "yamazaki" and "ayame" have died in the process, after respectively turning into a demon and an angel that ascended into the sky.



with this, the last of yoneda's loved ones have once again passed on, and yoneda continues to drowned himself in alcohol and sorrow while staring at his precious old photo of his former subordinates, just as he had done so prior to sending ogami to take their life in order to stop them from committing their acts of evil, which would bear a new meaning later in sakura wars 4.



once more, a saddened sakura tried to leave on a train in the end, only for ogami chased after her on his motor-bike and managed to caught up with her, whereupon she then apologized to ogami, as they made up with a kiss.



by christmas of 2002, i also bought the pc version of sakura wars 2 , which too was ported from the enhanced version of sakura wars 2 on the dreamcast, that featured better 2d sprites of the steambots, as well as additional 3D effects for their special attacks. since i immigrated to canada back in late 1998, the 2002 pc version of sakura wars 2 fulfilled my long time wish to play the game.

the slogan for the second game was "a storm of romance of the flower of sakura in the taisho era"



in a twist, the story of sakura wars 2 did not begin with the familiar swordswoman dressed in a pink kimono......but rather with a menacing looking male swordsman dressed in a blue kimono resembling the one sakura wore; for he is none other than sakura's father, who had fallen under the influence of his demonic mask, and sought actively to kill his own daughter, causing her much grief.



sakura's father however, took orders from his evil commander, who was symbolically meant to represent the moral of the story, which was "true evil in this world lies not in monsters nor demons, but in the heart of man".

unlike the previous game where demons and demonoids were the antagonists, this time around, the imperial strike brigade faces an enemy just like their own; a band of human soldiers who were part of a rogue imperial brigade called "dark demon congregation", which were the precursor to the imperial strike brigade. however the rogue imperial brigade was led by an evil commander who fights for his own twisted ideals, rather than a sense of justice like ogami does.



soon this led to confrontation between the two brigades as they clash in battle, with the rogue imperial brigade deploying their own improved variant of the imperial strike brigade's steambots, built by sympathizers within the imperial army's manufacturing arm, and their cohorts of which were also collaborating with the rogue imperial brigade, as they plotted a coup to topple the government, which will bring about a swift end to the peaceful taisho era......all for the sake of transforming the whole of japan into a belligerent military power, capable of projecting its ambition across the pacific, thereby igniting the first spark of world war 2.



after the evil commander raised the demonic airship to cleanse the filth which he called mankind, the imperial brigade rode on their own airship to repel it, and breached its interiors to seal the demons once and for all with the 4 sacred swords.



as for yoneda, he had his own ordeals to go through in sakura wars 2, for after his brief reunion with yamazaki, he had to witness him get killed again. later on yoneda was also nearly assassinated by the sniper from the rogue imperial brigade.

though after yoneda recovered, he found out that sakura's father had returned to do evil with the rogue imperial brigade, leaving him no choice but to sent ogami and sakura out again to take the life of his former subordinate, which greatly saddened him. though yoneda was relieved to learn that sakura's father had reverted back to the noble man he once was, and saved his daughter's life at the cost of his own.



in the end, sakura was seen clumsily learning how to ride a bicycle, before falling off it, only for ogami to catch her just in time again, as they both roll down a hill like sonic and started laughing with each other.

this scene however, was meant to metaphorically show that inspite of having faced true darkness of an evil man's heart, neither sakura or ogami's hearts have been tainted, instead they still retained their youthful innocence; playfully laughing, and having fun learning how to ride a bicycle, showing that in the end, the good in a person's heart can often prevail against its own darkness.



in the exclusive epilogue chapter "the horns have sounded for your sake", ogami would bid farewell to everyone, as he departed on a steam-liner headed for paris. although ogami tried to leave without anyone seeing him off, the girls still managed to catch up to him, by all running after him akin to what i saw in sakura wars 4 on the dreamcast only a short time prior.

after the ship set sail, while onboard, ogami would open and read a letter that sakura had wrote for him, and smiled very contently, knowing that sakura will always be with him in his heart, no matter where he goes.



back in 2004 i also bought the pc version of "sakura wars 3 - is paris burning", which was a direct port of the dreamcast version, with even a fully functional dreamcast VMU which can be summoned on screen by pressing F1, and it would function exactly as it did on the dreamcast.

still the pc version only had 3 FMV openings, compared to the dreamcast version which supposedly had 8 FMV openings, the quality of which were breath taking as they were at the time. also the erica clock mini game on the VMU was removed, though aside from these i don't think anything else was odmitted from the dreamcast version.

i didn't get sakura wars 3 on the dreamcast back then because i didn't like erica at first, but she grew on me over the course of sakura wars 4 on the dreamcast, hence i bought the pc version to give it a try.



anyways the story of sakura wars 3 was more like a re-trend of the first game, where this time around, the sounded horns of the steam engine train instead heralded the arrival of ogami in paris during the 1920s.

in all honesty, paris was a breath of fresh air, and also a long time coming. since the pc port of first game had alice talked about her former life in france, also paris was briefly glimpsed in sakura wars 4 for me.

anyways, the 1920s era of paris turned out to be a pretty interesting place in the end, and i even came to love the members of the paris radiant strike brigade. this time around though, sakura wars 3 was a full length featured game, with a engrossing story that was just as emotional, and bittersweet as the previous game was, whether it be erica's sorrow stemmed from her parental abandonment, or coliquot's plight as a orphan child migrant worker, or hanabi's grief over her deceased fiancee.....so on an so forth.

throughout the game, i also got to learnt some france culture. such as various foods, kan kan dances, and social etticates, or how that paris used to be known as the city of flowers, and that flower shops there give out free flowers to couples on certain days.



for ogami, his venture in paris began with him having another fateful meeting with a girl......underneath not a sakura tree, but rather a giant water fountain, of which the girl, erica fontaine's last name was also derived from.

with that said, erica was the de facto main heroine of sakura wars 3, and she is a clumsy apprentice nun who'd listened to people's problems in the confession booth, while trying her best to help everyone, but instead caused trouble and tripped over everyone, while running around with a cross-shaped machine gun.

to this day, i still remembered erika saying that the soft, bumpy area between our noses and lips a mark that angels left behind, so we don't blab out the secrets of heaven after we are born in the earthly plains.

curiously, "Ayame" from the first game would also return as a healing angel whenever erica uses her angelic healing spell, which showed that she watches over ogami still, even in a foreign land. as for ogami, he had re-adapted his blade skill to one of healing, due to being influenced by erika's healing power



after that, ogami would also transferred into a new unit, called "paris radiant strike brigade" where he would meet and fight alongside all the new girls in their more compact sized steambot, "light force F". as their backstory was also revealed one after another later on.

although compared to the dark story of the two previous games, such as the theme of death in 4, or the evil of man's heart in 2........compared to those however, the story in sakura wars 3 was more light hearted in nature. aside from the funny animal baddies, the main antagonist was just the evil spirit of a girl who resembled "nights", and of whom haunts ogami in his "dreams", with erica and the girls later revealed to be the descendants of her lost tribe, which possessed an ancient tree that was later summoned to destroy paris with its expanding foliage.



unlike the first two games though, there was no airship to ride in sakura wars 3, only the arch of triumph which can transform into a giant revolver to shoot the steambots into the sky, allowing for quick deployment of steambots anywhere in europe, including even japan when the firing station lifts its limiter, and forcibly over-raise the revolver's gun barrel to far exceed its maximum firing angle, thus allowing erika and the girls to even deploy to the imperial capital to save ogami in the nick of time, as was briefly shown earlier in sakura wars 4. though in the third game it was instead used to shoot the steambots into the trunk of the giant evil tree.

it's interesting to note that the gun emplacement was infact supposed to be a steampunk version of france's "maginot line" defense for europe. as for the paris brigade's armored train, it was based on a real one used by the french army in world war 1.



that being the case, as the game progressed, the opening will also briefly changed to one featuring sakura and the imperial brigade theme song, hinting at her eventual return, which occurred in the chapter "light from the far east" when erika took ogami to the world exhibition center in paris to marvel at the sole sakura tree housed there, only for them to see sakura appearing in person underneath the blooming flowers, leding to a reunion. later on sakura would also briefly show up in her steambot, abeit as an unusable unit, as she swiftly cut down enemies from the eiffel tower.



after the evil spirit girl was purified, peace returned, with ogami and erica sharing a tender moment at the foot of the illuminated effiel tower, under the night sky, where they reaffirm their love and promised to never forget one another, even as the day of ogami's departure drew near, which although was inevitable, would echoed the ending of sakura wars 1; where instead of ogami chasing after a girl leaving on a train, this time around....it would be ogami who was the one leaving on a train, and it would be erica and the girls who'd then tearfully chased after the train, in a last ditch attempt to stop him from leaving, which although was heartfelt, would ultimately be in vain.

while on the train, ogami would read a letter that erica had given him earlier, upon which gave him hope that someday he'd able to see her again. after which, both erica and ogami then gazed upon the same blue sky, knowing that no matter how far apart they are, they will never forget one another.



symbolically, erica and her steambot had grew angelic wings and swooped down from above to save the tormented spirit of a little girl in anguish.....this was infact the same scenery that the painting in her room had so depicted; of a winged angel swooping down from the heavens to comfort a lost child, the very angel of whom erica had came to idolized her whole life, and of whom erica was able to eventually become the very embodiment of, for the sake of those who are suffering, due to her kindness and willingness to help others, no matter who they are or what they've done.

so was the story of Erika, who possessed not only the wings, but also the heart of an angel, who enveloped and touched the lives of so many around her with love. Yet Erika herself would also be enveloped in the love that she had so sought as an unwanted child, though it would not be from an angel, but rather through all the people she's helped, and also from the man that she loved; for such was the tale of sakura wars 3, and the wings of which it had so symbolized.

after playing the pc version of sakura wars 3, i patiently waited for the eventual release of a localized pc version of sakura wars 4, which would allow me to replay the forth game again, in order to reunite ogami and erica once more.



in winter of 2007, sakura wars 4 was finally localized and released for the pc here. by replaying the game, this time around i was finally able to fulfilled my long time wish since the dreamcast days, to reunite ogami with erica once more.



after ogami made the choice to leave sakura to return to paris with erica, the two lovers then made their wedding vowes at a chuch, after erica had became a full fledged nun, reminiscent of "sound of music" back then.



that aside, the localized retail release of sakura wars 4 also gave a clearer glimpse into the theme of the story, which was "family". as throughout the story, ogami thought about settling down and starting a family with one of the girls, the opera stage-play was infact based on a classic stageplay about family. later on, yoneda even told ogami that he had always thought of him and the girls as though they were his own children.



thanks to the localization, i also found out that evil spirit dancer was infact the "founder" of the imperial capital, who after being murdered by the evil old monk from the first game many eons ago, eventually resulted in him haunting the imperial capital, as he piloted his own ancient steambot and plotted to destroy his descendants, aka his "children" out of misplaced hatred.

as for the evil spirit dancer's ancient steambot, more details were revealed in the localization, which revealed that it had originated from the edo era, and was buried in the deep earth of the imperial capital, alongside a mass production variant type, which a thousand years later, would all be re-powered and raised from the ground to help the evil spirit dancer exact his vengeance.

as for the hidden face of the evil spirit dancer, as revealed in the localized credits, he was infact none other than the "father" of the sakura wars series; the producer of sakura wars himself, who after inferring that "sakura wars 4" is a failure, was instead rebuked by sakura and ogami.



hence this was why the evil spirit dancer had tried to blow up the steam generator powering the city, and also flooded the city with golden steam to disable all machinery and steambots, before hijacking the imperial airship and attempting to smash it into the epicenter of the city, in order to kill everyone and destroy everything, including the beloved city that he had so founded.



finally there was also the poem song that ogami had dedicated to sakura in the end, which i finally got to see again, and concisely read as follows:

"the life of a flower is fleetingly short,

the days of our dreams,

passes in the blink of an eye

ah....such is the cruelty of time,

merciless in its nature

even so, that which resides in the depths of my heart

blooming ever so radiantly and proudly

is the flower of you....."



after finishing the pc version, i realize that sakura wars 4's final ending FMV scene on the dreamcast was more than merely echoing the opening FMV scene of the first game, when infact the true meaning of the scene, was that after yoneda had saw his current "children", which was ogami and the girls run past him, he was happy as a "father" figure knowing that they have found happiness for themselves.

next yoneda then turned around to longingly look at the ghostly mirages of his two former subordinates, alongside sakura's dad, all of whom had betrayed and died as his enemies respectively during the events of sakura wars 1 and 2....and yet yoneda had long since forgiven them, as a "father" would to his "children" who took the wrong path, for he had righted their wrong and returned them back to their true, rightous selves, even if it had costed them their lives.

Alas, as the "father" figure who had redeemed his "children", and upon seeing that they too, were able to find peace and happiness for themselves in the afterlife, yoneda was finally content, and disappeared into the sea of sakura flowers, chanting the following poem:

"life is fleetingly short, fall in love maidens

before the red glow of your lips fade away

bloom and wither

is the flower of sakura

sakura wars ah....."



in a sense, the story of the four sakura wars was also about lovers chasing after one another. since in sakura wars 1, ogami had chased after sakura as she was about to leave. while in sakura wars 2, it was sakura who chased after ogami instead, as he was about to leave.

then later in sakura wars 3 erika had chased after ogami as he departed, but finally in sakura wars 4, all the girls ran towards ogami as he awaited them under a sea of flowers.....except that this time, he wasn't going to leave anymore, and he would find happiness with one of the girls as well.

such was the poetic tale of enduring love in the taisho era, which enbodied a sentiment that preveiled against not only time, but also distance as well.



back in 2007 i remember crying into the night as a part of childhood ended once more.......i remembered playing the first game on my classmate's saturn back in 1997, and i thought about all the people i had met and parted ways since then.....just as the story of sakura wars had so depicted with its four games, for which the chrous of the poem song in the forth game, had also thusly sang "there are as many tears, as there are happpiness....there are as many partings, as there are reunions".



one last thing i like to mention is that the pc ports of all the sakura wars games can inherit save files from each other, to unlock extra senerios and dialogue and whatnot.

the image above showed sakura wars 4 pc in 2007, inheriting all my previous save files from 2001 to 2004, though i think something went wrong with it at the time, and i was trying to get help with it or something, but oh well.



Part 3: Coninuation of Sakura Wars on Sony's platform

back in 2004 sony released the "SCPH-70006" ps2 slim in hong kong, which plays NTSC-J games on 220v voltage, but was 3 times more cheaper than a fat ps2 and thus opened the doors for me to play the sakura wars 1 remake with a later revision of the slim (90006) which came out a few years later with the really cheapo laser. in any case, for those who never had a saturn and dreamcast, they could finally experience sega's sakura wars 1 which became finally playable on a sony platform.



back then sega had also announced that their "sakura wars world project" would continue the series on SONY's ps2 platform.

aside from comprising of the sakura wars 1 remake , along with sakura wars 5 which had not been renamed to "V" yet, the sakura wars world project was also mean to encompassed additional games, all of which have since been cancelled long ago, but of which i will now detail as follows.

- "Sakura Wars Story: imperial capital"

this was supposed to mark a return to the imperial capital after the events of sakura wars 4, presumably starring ogami and the girls once more in some kind of aftermath story. in any case, although this game was eventually cancelled, the "paris" one starring erika and the girls did ended up being released back then, along with the pc port of sakura wars 3.

(speculation): the evil commander in sakura wars 2 had warned ogami in his dying moments that someone like him will eventually inherit his ideals and rise up against the nation just as he did. i believe that the cancelled imperial story was supposed to delved into that.

- "KOUMA/Fallen Demon"

this was originally meant to be a prequel game which would've taken place during the time of the "fallen demon wars", starring the "imperial anti demon brigade" of which Ayame, Yamazaki, sakura's father and yoneda were a part of, as briefly shown in sakura wars 1, and the conflict of which eventually led to the monsters being coined "fallen demon" by the imperial army, who fought back despretely against them with conventional weapons, instead of steambots.

(speculation): i'm guessing the game was originally meant to star "yamazaki" as he meets "ayame" in a sea of flowers, bearing the same namesake as ayame herself, whereupon they would fight a grusome war, using only their sacred swords. the story would likely devolved into Yamazaki emotioanlly mistreating a young Ayame despite her unrequited feelings for him, due to his abrasive personality.

-"Princess Sakura Cotton Weaved Anecdote"

as its old fashioned title in kanji had suggested, the game was a planned origin story which would've taken place during the ancient fedural peroid of japan, namely the"Edo" era which was briefly mentioned in sakura wars 1/2, as the time period in which the 4 sacred swords were forged, and used by their original wielders as they fought with the samurai army to repelled the demonic onslaught. obviously, the story would've also starred the titular "princess sakura", who was likely the ancestor of sakura, and the precurosr to her demon sealing bloodline.

(speculation): i always thought the game would've been a hack and slash game with the theme of "romance in the Edo era", where underneath a sea of flowers, princess sakura would have a romantic encounter with a samurai who look like ogami, who'd then have to defend their villiage from the demon onslaught with his sacred sword, and then their descentdents would be sakura and ogami.

-"Sakura Wars 0"

this was the final entry added to the sakura wars world project, as the prequel story game which would've starred yoneda from when he was still a strapping young imperial soldier, and would've delved into the outbreak of the first fallen demon war.

other than that, nothing more was revealed at the time, though sakura wars 0 was most likely what KOUMA/fallen demon was being re-adapted as at the time. also the final boss of the fifth game was supposedly all that remained of sakura wars 0



back then the local game megazine here had ran an article on then upcoming release of sakura wars 5, which would soft-reset the sakura wars series, along with featuring a teaser image, which showed the black silhouette of many raised hands doing the "V" sign in times square, all pointing towards the reddish sky, symboling "V-DAY".

thus sakura wars 5 was eventually renamed as "sakura wars V", with "V" symbolizing america, and taking place in new york city, starring a new protagonist and sword wielding heroine, along with having steambots that can transform into F14 style jetfighters

(since the teaser image has been lost to time, i think i'm the only person left who still remembered the teaser image from back then)



still as i recalled, there was a huge backlash against the design of the red head cowgirl named gemini, that old fans decried as not being on par with the design of sakura.

anyways i never bothered with this one, since sony never localized this here back then. although the game was eventually released in north america which dropped the signature "V" numeral as it was the first sakura wars game to be released in the west.



in the end however, with sakura wars 5 flopping badly, the planned sakura wars 6 which would have taken place in germany was eventually cancelled, along with the possibility of more games which would've taken place in various countries from around the world. after that, the mainline sakura wars games would fade away for more than a decade, being replaced by valkyria chronicles in its place.

alas, after the sakura wars world project fell apart, old fans like me could only wonder to this day, of what could have been if the true vision of project was realized to its full potential.




anyways back in 2004, sony asia also localized sega's remake of sakura wars 1 for the ps2 and released it here in hong kong, after also relaseing it in taiwan first. though for me i skipped the game at the time because playing the original game TWICE was more than enough.

anyways by the time 2009 came around, i was reminded of the sakura wars series so much by valkyria chronicles, and also after seeing that beautiful poster of sakura wars DS, i finally bought the leftover copy of "sakura wars tide of hot blood" for the ps2 at the local gameshop, which i played in lieu of valkyria chronicles since i didn't have a ps3.



as far as i remembered, the sakura wars 1 remake was a fresh retelling of the first game with new content, such as redrawn character artworks, event CGs and background stills, along with newly remade FMVs mixed with old ones, and some new cutscenes on both 2D and 3D as well.

additionally there was also the two new story chapters, and additional plot elements added to the game to flesh out the original storyline, coupled with the sound tracks which have also been recomposed.

the localized ps2 version however, saw the removal of the mini games that were in the original japanese ps2 version which could be transferred from the ps2 to the cellphone for playing on the go, ala dreamcast VMU style.

still, i've always thought that the sakura wars 1 remake was really more meant for those who never experienced the series on the saturn or dreamcast, as ALOT of the stuff and dialogue felt abit repeatitive, even though it was supposed to feel like a new experence. also the ending for sakura just lazily reused the old FMV from the satrun version, except for the new credits sequence featuring a beautifully drawn artwork of her and ogami in the end.



that being the case, the 1 remake was little more amospheric than the original, since there were detailed re-drawn background artwork depicting the imperial capital of 1912, as well as various dynamic background effects such as glowing streetlights and fully rendered blue sky with puffy white couds drifting by, along with the signature sakura flower pedels fluttering across the screen, with 3d steam gushing out of dialog boxes and whatnot.

more importantly however, the 1 remake had also utlized the battle system from sakura wars 3/4, with the steambots, airships, and the battlefields being rendered in 3D just as the two previous games were, coupled with additional changes and minor adjustment to the battle system, along with the removal of some minigames, and the incorpration of QTE from shenmue. also the 1 remake allowed for direct control of ogami inside the operahouse as well

aside from the nostalgic appeal to old fans of the series at the time, the game also contained cut content from sakura wars 4 on the dreamcast, along with numerous refereces made to it, which i will now detail as follows.



firstly, in the remade opening senquence, sakura had walked into the sea of sakura flowers once more, echoing the ending of sakura wars 4 on the dreamcast where yoneda had walked out of the same sea of flowers, as the series concluded.

then as the first chapter of the story began, the sakura flower petals of the taisho era had too, begun to flutter and fall once more after sakura wars 4, before landing in the abyss's pool of water, which had turned from darkness to light.

even back in sakura wars 4, sakura had asked ogami if they would still have fallen in love if they had never met, however ogami assured her that they would eventually meet, even under different circumstance, and fall in love once more......yet sure enough, ogami and sakura would meet again under a sea of blooming sakura flowers, and fall in love....once more in the ps2 remake of the first game.

the title of the game "tide of hot blood" was actually derived from a segment of the poem from sakura wars 4's intro, which reads "before the hot blood of your youth had turned cold"



another connection that the 1 remake had to sakura wars 4, came in the form of sakura and ogami's twin attack, which would triggered a very dreamy film reel sequence, that supposedly took place right before the beginning of sakura wars 4, around the time when ogami had just returned from paris dressed in his military attire, as he was leaisurely strolling back to the imperial operahouse with his luggage, when he suddenly ran into sakura, who drove by him on her bicycle, that she finally learnt to ride after the second game, before stopping in her tracks to exclaim her happiness at ogami's return, whereupon she then joyously leaped into his arms as they reunited.

so in this sense, the 1 remake had also lopped back to sakura wars 4 in a symbolic way, though back then i was also inclinded to believe the aforementioned flashback sequence was infact, cut content from the rushed release of sakura wars 4 on the dreamcast as well, since that scene was obviously meant to be shown in the beginning of it.



aside from all that, the sakura wars 1 remake had also connected the series past....to its future, as in the new story chapter "wordless friends", ogami was shown a classified film reel on the outbreak of world war 1, or "european war", that saw disel powered tanks fighting against an advancing army of steambots, which was then repelled by the U.S deployment of their own experimental steambot mechinized force, headed by the young Rachet from sakura wars V, and her companions which included the two girls from the second game.

ultimately, Rachet's "star division" would serve as the precursor to the new york radiant strike brigade as seen in sakura wars V, of which the city of new york was also shown briefly near the end of the 1 remake.

in addition, ogami also received letters from his sister, who was briefly mentioned at the end of sakura wars 4, as she talked about her son who would later become the new protagonist of sakura wars V as well.

also while the reason why koran had tried to blow herself up in sakura wars 4 was left unexplained, it was instead elaborated on in the 1 remake's aforementioned extra chapter, which led to my belief that the whole chapter was infact cut content of sakura wars 4 on the dreamcast



in the second new story chapter "the dance of god descends", ogami could go on a date with the shop girl tsugumi, and later earning an ending with her, which was likely another cut content from sakura wars 4 on the dreamcast; due to the absense of a shop girl ending which was present in the third game but suspiciously absent in the forth game.



in the sakura wars 1 remake, ayame's backstory had also been expanded upon with more detail, depicting her time as a young woman who looked just like sakura in her youth, and whom had spent her days in the imperial military school, before meeting yoneda and fighting alongside yamazaki and sakura's father during the events of the fallen demon war.

however this was infact a setup to gerner player interest, in preparation for the then cancelled prequel game "KOUMA: fallen demon", which would've starred the the young ayame in the fallen demon war; though sadly the prequel was eventually cancelled as well, one can atleast still see traces of what could have been, as briefly glimpsed in the expanded backstory of ayame in the sakura wars 1 remake.



also introduced in the aforementioned new chapter were new variations of the upgraded steambots "god force" from the original game, which have been aesthetically and functionally redesigned in the 1 remake, with new armaments and weapons, as well as retroactively incorporating the steam jet pack from sakura wars 4. also the special attack animation of the steambots were also updated to the style of sakura wars 3/4 as well.

another aspect of the game i really liked was the real-time cutscenes of the staembot, which although sakura wars 4 had only featured a handful of, was instead in more amble abandunce of in the 1 remake.

one steambot cutscene i still remembered was when ogami's steambot had draw both of its swords, before lungeing towards the enemy steambot at breakneck speed, all the while rapidly straifeing and dodging its attacks, before getting close enough to swiftly cut down the enemy with its two swords swung in rapid successions.....that scene was actually supposed to mirroed a similiar scene in sakura wars 4, where ogami would also jumped out of his steambot as well. although in the 1 remake, sakura also did that in a later cutscene, which was not in the original first game, but had been added in the 1 remake as another artistic flair from the forth game as well.



in the opening FMV of the 1 remake, alongside the path that sakura had treaded underneath that same sea of blosseming sakura flowers, a flock of sakura flower petals was seen twirling in a counter-clockwise motion on the ground.

this alone symbolized that the sakura wars series which have ended before with the forth game, have alas begun once more with the 1 remake ; as time itself was symbollicly turned back to the beginning of the first game by the sakura flower petals twirling counter-clockwise in the opening of the 1 remake.

upon beating the game, and as the first game's ending song "maiden of the blosseming flower" had played once more, a golden pocketwatch was also seen spinning counter-clockwise, until the hand of the clock inside the pocketwatch had too, begun to turn clockwise once more to exactly 4 o'clock, signifying the coming of a full circle back to sakura wars 4 once more.

in essense, the pocketwatch itself was also meant to symbolize the passage of "time" itself, echoing the part of the poem in the forth game, which lamented on the cruelty and merciless nature of the passage of "time" itself; for life is fleetingly short, just like the flower of sakura.



in any case, as the story of the first game drew to a close once more, sakura and ogami was shown lying in a sea of sakura flowers whist holding each others hands, echoing one last time the ending of sakura wars 4 where ogami and sakura were also seen holding hands under the sea of flowers.

as i recalled, throughout the whole sakura wars 1 remake, there were numerous hints that remakes of sakura wars 2/3/4 had been planned back then, because ogami hear rumors of a rebellion being planned by the evil commander from the second game, also later on ogami was asked if he wanted to go to paris from the third game, along with the shop girl saying that she heard a wailing voice of an evil spirit dancer from the forth game.

though in the end, the sakura wars 1 remake was still strictly just a remake of the first game, which was a shame because we never got to see what a full length remake of sakura wars 4 would've looked like.

in any case, in 2009 my ps2 slim's laser died AGAIN after playing a few more games following this, so that was the end of that.



-Part 4: From Sakura Wars To Valkyria Chronicles

after the end of the main sakura wars series, sega created a new SRPG successor to it called valkyria chronicles back in 2008.

valkyria chronicles used a faster version of sakura wars V battle system, derived from the german term "blitzkrige", that featured actual soldiers and tanks fighting in a european war, in lieu of steambots. the game also featured sega's next gen cel-shaded graphics which originated with jet set radio, but updated with a waterpainting effect called "Canvas-3D"

so although sakura wars 6 never materilzed with its setting in germany, valkyria chornicles was able to eventually realized it in the end.

since enough things had been said about this game, so i will instead talk about valkyria chronicles in the context of it being a spiritial successor of the sakura wars series, as well as pointing out the more obvious similirities between the two series.



alicia, the titular heroine of valkeria chronicles who wielded the springfield rifle, was supposed to mirrored sakura, the strong and graceful titular heroine of sakura wars who wielded the samurai sword.

in the above artworks, alicia can be seen holding her weapon in a sideways posture, just as sakura did with her weapon back in the day.

in both games, the casts of characters are respectively a special division of the army. although in sakura wars the imperial radiant strike brigade was just a peace keeper force in the city, in contrast with valkerie chronicles, whose squad was a contential force deployed to the frontlines of an actual war theater.



in the two artworks shown above, sakura is letting sakura flower pedels flutter away from the palm of her hands.....conversely, alicia is letting edelweiss flower pedels flutter away from the palm of her hands.

even back when i saw the promotional image of valkyria chronicle, i immediatly knew that "Alicia" was going to be the new "Sakura", and that valkyria chronicle was going to be the new sakura wars.



back then, the main appeal of sakura wars was the theme of romance and nostaligia for 1912s era of imperial japan, with its unique culture and lifestyle of the times, along with steam powered mechs.

for valkyria chronicle it would instead featured the theme of world war 1 and nostalgia for 1910 era of europe, blending a unique historical culture with some nordic fantasy estetics, to go along with disel powered tanks.



in sakura wars , the protagonist "ogami" pilots a bulky, steam powered robot, as the commander who leads his unit into battle.

in valkyria chronicles, the protagonist "welkin" drives a bulky, disel powered tanks, as the commander who leads his unit into battle



back in sakura wars 1, the protagonist's older sister figure "Ayame" was shot by a gun, and subsequently died infront of him (her human soul atleast)

in valkyria chronicles 1, the protagonist's younger sister "Isara" was also shot by a gun, and subsequently died infront of him

as you can see in two character artwork from above, Isara was doing the EXACT same "one hand extended" posture as ayame did back then.

since ayame symoblized "unrequited love" in sakura wars 1, i believe that could perhaps also be applied to Isara as well, as i will explain below.

in sakura wars 1, the purple hair pigtail mechanics girl "koran" had fallin love with ogami, and in her ending, she took ogami out to fly the skies in her red bi-plane, as a show of affection and love for him.

in other words, when isara built that bi-plane and told welkin that she wanted to fly in the skies together with him, that was actually isara's way of showing affection and love for welkin, abeit only tragically in her dying moments

so taking in the context of the plane scene, and what had happened with ayame in sakura wars 1, i think isara might have held held deeper feelings for welkin than she lets on, but that's just me.



also back when i saw the disel power tanks shooting at each other in the euroepan war theatre, as shown briefly in the "war of europe" flashback scene of the sakura wars remake, it only affirmed my belief that valkyria chronicles was originally meant to be "sakura wars 6" before being readapted. most likely sakura wars 6 was originally meant to have transformable panzer type steambot, the prototype of which can also be briefly glimpsed in said flashback scene.



anyways back when i finished the sakura wars 1 remake, i also realized that the water-painting effect utilized in the ending credits there, was eventually adopted by valkyria chronicle throughout its whole game as well.



lastly, in the ending of sakura wars 1, sakura had leaped into the arms of ogami. curiously this feat would also be repeated again many years later in valkyria chronicles 1, with welkin's daughter leaping into his arms, as the story concluded.

also noticed how welkin's daughter had the same type of ribbon on her back, as sakura did back then, abeit in a different colour.



nearly a decade later, when valkria revolution was released, i also noticed that the design of the new heroine "orphellia" had beared a striking resemblence to sakura from sakura wars. then there was also the sight of a bustling, industrial city with old fashioned buildings, with the electirc trams going about, while an airship hovers in the sky just above. finally there was the appearance of the steambots like mechs, though only as an non-controllable enemy unit, and are very huge in size.....these aforementioned elements in the game, had infact all originated from sakura wars. so essentially, valkyria revolution had offered a glimpse into what a new sakura wars game would looked like on a modern console with HD graphics. (along with dark rose valkyrie, though it wasn't made by sega)

also when valkyria chronicle 4 had came out later for the ps4, i also noticed that the design of the new protagonist "claude" had also beared a very strong resemblance to ogami from sakura wars, not to mention that part in the end when they were trying to bomb the imperial capital, which was a subplot of the bad buys from sakura wars 1. also with the release of valkyria chronicle 4, i thought that perhaps the VC series was going to end, just as it was with sakura wars 4 back in the day, and it gave me hope that perhaps sega was going to revive the sakura wars series somehow.



Part 5: A Dream Revived Once More

even back in 2016 though, i also started to wonder whether or not sega will revive the sakura wars in some way, as the series has been dead for quite some time, plus there was a strong voice for the sakura wars series to be brought back as well, especially during the series' 20th anniversery at the time.

not long afterwards, the prayers of us old sakura wars fans would finally be anwswered by sega......



during SEGA-FES back in 2018, i saw the above teaser image showing the following information:

"taisho 29th year, imperial capital, tokyo"

i immediatly reconized that to be the timestamp format used in sakura wars, which indicated a date that took place some time after the end of sakura wars 4.

the significient of this is that after all these years.....sakura wars was finally coming back.....truly, there are as many partings, as there are reunions.

all throughout asia, and also here, there was an uproar of cheers and nostalgia for the return of sakura wars.

in all honestly, that day was one of the happiest days of my life as an old sakura wars fan.....at long last, a new spring has arrived for sakura wars.



alas, sega finally revived the the sakura wars series as "New Sakura Wars"

i bought the game back in december 2019, and when i held it in my hand, it felt almost like a dream to me, because i never thought the series would come back during my lifetime......but here it is, and this was what all of us old fans have been waiting for a very, very long time, so it just made me feel, really, really happy.........because after all these years, "romance in the taisho era" has finally returned once more.

by the way the front cover artwork of "new sakura wars", was supposed to mirrowed the old artwork from the 1996 game megazine i posted above, where sakura was also seen standing ontop of the opened canopy of her steambot.

the slogan this time around was "sakura of the taisho era, a storm of romance "



the heroine of new sakura wars is named "Amamiya Sakura", symbolizing not only the flower of the same name, but also the "BRANCH" of the tree, due to her broom and also the crossguard of her sword resembling as such.

although the character design of "new sakura wars", was not done by the old artist, but rather by the artist of "BLEACH"...........which alot of old fans seem to hate, however as the past decade have shown, it really is better to have something than nothing.



anyways some gameshops here are selling "new sakura wars" as "sakura wars 6", which was somewhat accurate considered that the fabled "berlin radiant strike brigade" had finally made it into the new sakura wars after al these years. so i guess that german army girl "Elise" was what the heroine of sakura wars 6 would've originally looked like.

also amamiya sakura would chanted the slogan for the cancelled sakura wars 6, which was "our destiny have begun to move once more!"



anyways here's something fun.........see the sega logo above? it reads as follows:

(S) for Sakura, (E) for Erica, (G) for Gemini, (A) for Amamiya Sakura.

together they made up the words....SEGA

so for us, sakura wars has always been a big part of sega, alongside sonic, virtual on and phantasy star back then.

though back when the sakura wars series had died, and replaced by valkyria chronicles, i thought at the time that the (A) in SEGA had porbably stood for "Alicia" instead........though that time has since come to pass, for the sakura wars series has finally returned once more.

as always, sakura symbolized the "flower", erica symbollized the "angel", gemini symbolized the "star", and now amamiya sakura symbolized the "flower" of the same name once more.



thus, as a new flower pedal gently falls into the eternal stillness of sakura wars 4's abyss, the darkness dissipates and time begins to move forward once more, as we return to the same sea of flowers, where the story of new sakura wars begins.

also the opening song of new sakura wars would also echoed the ending poem of sakura wars 4 on the dreamcast with the lyrics "the dream awakened once more!"



aside from "new sakura wars", sega had also in 2020 released "sakura revolution: maidens of the radiant blossem" for smartphones in response to the backlash against the heroine of new sakura wars.

the title of this game was actually derived from the ending song of sakura wars 1 which was "maidens of the blosseming flower".



the game takes place a hundred years after sakura wars 1, after the imperial capital was magic bombed again, which burned the entire steam civilization to the ground. as a new totalitarian government regime called "great empire of japan" rose to power, they formed a new imperial brigade called "B.L.A.C.K", which in turn wiped out the old imperial strike brigade who resisted them. thus began the revolution of "sakura shino", who fights against the evil regime while wearing her suit of mechenical samurai armor.

also instead of the old slogan "romance in the taisho era", the new slogan this time around is "reclaim the imperial capital".

still this smartphone game seems to be less "romance in the taisho era", and more of a "micro-transaction in the taisho era" where you need to pay to win, also i don't think the producer of sakura wars was involved in this.



unfortunately sega never released the smartphone game here, and i only saw the promotional OVA that sega put up on their official youtube channel.



the sakura wars series have been with me my whole life, so i dont want to see it die again like it did back then, and although new sakura wars wasn't able to ushered in a new golden age for the series, i still hope that sega will eventually make a "New Sakura Wars 2/3/4" just like how it was back in the day.

still i don't have much to write for now, since although i've bought the game, i haven't decided to get the ps4 or ps5 yet, becuase sega has filed two new trademarks for new sakura wars games for the ps5, called "sakura ishin" and "sakura wars black" so now i don't know if i should wait for those new games to come out and get the ps5, or just get the ps4 if sega has already cancelled the new projects, but oh well.

i still have abit more to write about the producer of sakura wars "Hiroi Oji" and also other stuff i remembered about the series, but i need to take a break now.



Part Extra: Other Memories Of Sakura Wars

back in the early 1990s though, when i was still in elementary school, "Hiroi Oji" had also made an anime series called "mashin hero wataru" which ran for 3 seasons, and aired on TV here from 1991 to 2000.

back then the series was very popular and i even had the samurai robot model kit for wataru's master, as seen above, though it was eventually stolen after i moved home.

still after playing sakura wars 1 back in 1997, i've always thought that some elements of sakura wars 1 were inherited from "mashin hero wataru", namely the dragon sword, dragon crown, super-deformed mechs with swords, and also the big floating mountain.

aside from these shared similarities, you can also see the influence of "Hiroi Oji" in both series, with the above artworks of "mashin hero wataru" and also "sakura wars 4", which both featured a tree branch of the flower of sakura.

also noteworthy was that "Hiroi Oji" had wrote all the poems, along with all the lyrics for all the songs from sakura wars 1 to 4



still back in 1997 there was a great war between the saturn with sakura wars, vesus the playstation with final fantasy 7. at the time there was a gameshop near me which literally had a poster of sakura wars right next to a poster of ff7's midgar city.



back in 1997 my classmate friend also had "chrismas nights into dreams" on his saturn, which i played occasionally alongside sakura wars 1. back then i thought that Eliot and Claris were blue boy and pink girl; just like ogami and sakura was, whist sharing a similiar haristyle as them as well.

ingame though, there was also a clock/calander feature to tinker with, and at the time i recalled asking my classmate friend when "taisho 12th year" was exactly, since the kanji word came up often in every preview articles of sakura wars from the game megazine. back then i recalled my friend asking me what year we were living in, and i said "97".........then he told me to replace "97" with "12", before asking me again what year that would be, so i answered "1912" which he happily affirmed to be correct. so this was also a pleasant memory that i had with him from back then.



the photo above showed another hk game megazine from 1998, featuring sakura wars 2 on the front cover. back then, there was a review for the game which talked about the evil of men's heart in reference to the evil commander in the second game. also the "virtual dolls" text was just a engrish way of saying "gaming goddess" back then.

on the front cover of the megazine, you can also see "toheart" being mentioned, i seem to recall reading about the ps1 version of the game being multi-disc and having mini games "just as sakura wars did" or somewhere along that line.



anyhow back in 1998, there was a really strong voice in the ps1 userbase for sega to bring sakura wars to their console, but the series was sega's baby so there was no chance. however sony did made their own cinematic romance game called "embrace the seasons" which featured FMVs done by the same animators who did the FMV for sakura wars. so the game was essentially sony's "answer" to sakura wars.



back in 1998 i also remembered reading from the game megazine about how sony had solicited the producer of sakura wars to make an RPG for them called "mars story", which sadly couldn't come out in time before i moved to canada.

though after i returned to hk, i finally got the ps1 game......which did follow sakura wars's formula, abeit its romance under a sea of stars, in a furturistic setting with time travelling to past, along with the tv show estetics, mini-games, airship, super deformed battle mech, death of elder sibling figure, evil angel, along with featuring a swordswoman resembling sakura, with even the same voice actress who also sung the opening song for mars story, called "wings of your heart"

so for those with only a ps1 back then, mars story was as close to experiencing something akin to sakura wars.



back in 2000 i bought "evolution" for the dreamcast, and when i got to the final boss, i noticed that it was infat a giant steambot very much alike with sakura war's steambot. since sega was listed as a producer of evolution, and had a heavy hand in its development due to it being a dreamcast launch game, i always thought that had something to do with it.



i recently recalled that in early 2001, as the console war between sega dreamcast and sony playstation 2 raged, the first character artwork of yuna from the then upcoming final fantasy x was released, with alot of sega fans here accusing yuna of ripping off sakura's design since yuna too wore a kimono.

at the time people in the sony camp defended yuna, claiming that the kimono was a common piece of clothing so it didn't matter, especially since sakura wasn't even the main heroine of sakura wars 3 anymore. funnily enough, a year later with FFX2, yuna would ended up borrowing angelina jolie's outfit from the tomb raider movie, while sega announced a remake of sakura wars 1 for ps2 after the dreamcast lost.



earlier i said i disliked erika.....that's because back in 2001, when i first saw her on the front cover of sakura wars 3, i was not very happy that sakura was not on the front cover of the game, and instead sega swapped her out for this new girl that i've never seen before.

a year later when the forth game came out, i was even more upset that erika was still on the front cover, and i literally thought "wow what is she still doing there?" however, after playing sakura wars 4, i started to understand that "Erika" was supposed to be the polar opposite of "sakura", of which the wings of an angel had symbolized her, instead of a flower. also erika wielded a gun, instead of a sword.

anyways the slogan for the third game was "underneath the banner" written in french, which was a reference to the french revolution



after finishing sakura wars 4 in 2002, i also bought "angelic vale" for pc which was essentially "sakura wars in medieval times". the swordswoman "Fio" had bore a striking resemblance to sakura so that was how i got into it and also its sequel "progress".

And just like sakura wars, the main character is surrounded by many girls, though the story of the first angelic vale was about thwarting a coup by a fellow instructor from the knights academy, while the second one focused on finishing off his cohorts in the royal dungeons.



in 2003 i remembered reading a review of the sakura wars movie from the local anime megazine, in which the reviewer had talked about how the movie was like "terminator 3 rise of the machines" and that rachet was a cold hearted killer like the "T-X".

at any rate, i never saw the movie or any of the anime series back then.



in 2004 i also got into the galaxy angel series on pc which was basically "sakura wars with spaceships", with each chapter being episodic and featured a commander surrounded by girls who won't stop hitting on him. also chitose looked alot like sakura with her hair down.



back in 2004, tales of symphonia's character design was also done by the same artist of sakura wars, hence why loyd had looked alot like ogami, while colette had looked like rachet.



back in 2004 i tried out PSOEPIII at a gamecube kiosk, and i noticed it's actually a turned based SRPG a little bit reminiscent of sakura wars 1/2, but with cards replacing battle commands. also Silfer and Break had reminded me alot of sakura and ogami respectively.



when sakura wars 5 had came out in 2005 i had also noticed that the gunslinger girl "rika" from sakura wars 5, had beared a very strong resemblance to the little ninja girl from "mashin hero wataru", as seen in the image above with the two of them jumping on people's heads like that. also they both loved to stuff food in their mouths, which i always thought was pretty funny.



that aside, back in 2005 i also bought "oriental blue" for the gba, becuase i read in the game megazine that "far east of eden 3 Namida" had flopped hard on the ps2, while the GBA spinoff was touted as being better, also that it was made by "RED" who helped sega develop sakura wars 1/2.

still i noticed at the time that the female protagonist of oriental blue, had looked alot like sakura from sakura wars, of which there was a remake of the first game on the ps2 around that time. still i didnt reallly like oriental blue though because i ran around not knowing what to do.



after playing phantasy star universe back in 2006, it turned out that the story of phantasy star universe was literally "sakura wars in space" containing a re-adaptation of the story of the first sakura wars game, with each chapter structured episodically similarly to it. also the guardians essentially served the same role as the imperial strike brigade.

back then i also noticed on the front cover of phantasy star universe, ethan was doing the EXACT same pose with his sword, as sakura did on the front cover of sakura wars 1.



back in 2007, i also bought the ps2 game "shining wind", which had actually incorporated some story elements from sakura wars as well.

for starters, kiria met xecty under a sea of sakura flowers. kiria is a duel wielder who can combo attack with his girl, also seena's design was based on the cowgirl gemini.

next everyone was part of "round pencil knight brigade" residing in a colonial style building, also the princess knight used a cross shaped weapon with cross target reticle like erika did, plus a strong emphasis on kanji (for matching orbs).

lastly xecty was a reversed expy of ayame, who fought kiria as a soldier, before helping him, then died protecting him from her lover, before ascending to the sky as "shining wind", with her first smile being fondly remembered by kiria, until his reunion with her. following her revival.



back in 2007 i also bought "virtual on marz" for the ps2, which featured a story mode that was heavily narrated in the style of sakura wars poem, along with each chapter being presented episodically, which i really liked, even more than oratorio tangram on my dreamcast. lastly marz also featured a cowboy, kinda like how sakura wars 5 had a cowgirl



back in 2008 when phantasy star zero was coming out, i also noticed that the default HUmarl girl had looked alot like sakura.



in 2009 i also saw the poster for "sakura wars because of you" at the gameshop, though not having an nds, i bought the remake of the first game on the ps2 instead.

around that time i also read a review of the sakura wars DS from the local game megazine, in which the reviewer raved about how it played just like his favorite "shiren GB2" remake on the NDS, or something like that.

though as far as i know, the game takes place after the non-marriage ending of sakura wars 4.



back in 2010, sega finally ported "virtual on 4" arcade to xbox360 in japan, with a digital release for hong kong xbox360 marketplace also. coincidentally, the ending scene of VO4 and sakura wars 4 was artistically similar, with both games serving as the finale of their respective series's narrative, as story database in MARZ indicated VO4 to take place at end of timeline, just as sakura wars 4 once was.

yet the xbox360 port of VO4 had only further cemented xbox360 as the true "dreamcast 2", with its strikingly similar white console/controller design, and sonic adventure 3 as Sonic the Hedgehog, amongst a slew of other Dreamcast ports/sequels released there; all of which made xbox360 compared more favorably as a "dreamcast 2", compared to OG xbox with JSRF.



back in 2012, precisely 10 years after the release of sakura wars 4, there was supposed to a revival of the series, in the form of a game called "sakura wars taisho romance school chronicle", though the revival failed and the series instead became dormant once more.



i recently recalled that in 2012, there was also a new sakura wars spinoff called "sakura wars concerto division" which manifests as a traditional japanese young girls romance comic, where one girl is surrounded by many hot dudes who hit on her.

a years later the comic was eventually localized here, though it only lasted 4 volumes before the story ended; which took place in sakura wars 1 timeline, with the the newly formed "concerto division" that acted as a support unit to aid ogami and sakura. though the kimono wearing heroine does not pilot a steambot, but rather is in the role of a "maestro" who conducts the performances, where dudes whip out their trumpets to blast spirit energy at demons, along with using their swords to vanquish them as well.

back then i only read one volume of the comic at the book store, for despite the well drawn characters, coupled with the story being cute and sweet, the sight of trumpets shooting at demons was too much, like the vuvuzela from around that time. also some fans were calling this "sakura wars BL"



back in 2013, the producer of sakura wars "Hiroi Oji" also came to hong kong and showed up at the animation/games convention to meet old sakura wars fans here, he also reportably signed posters at the venue, along with there being a screening of a new 3D cell-shaded sakura wars short film made by a local animation studio "nxTomo".

when asked about sakura wars 6, he only said that sega was still interested in it at the time



in late 2013, i also went to the local gameshop and bought a copy of "shining ark" for the psp, because i really liked the front cover artwork which reminded me of black matrix zero, and also for the fact that the game had ultilized the battle system of sakura wars 3, which made the game very enjoyable to play, along with it being the finale to the TEARS saga. also the main heroine would later grow white wings on her back after her emotional ordeal, just as Erica did in sakura wars 3 as well.

as seen above, my favourite character in shining ark was "kilmaria", the battle nun who not only strongly resembled erika from sakura wars 3, appreance and personality wise, but of whom had also poccessed a cross styled gun, just as erica did as well.



even in the previous game "shining blade" which was also released around that time, you can still see some of sakura's design in the character "sakuya".



i recently recalled that back in 2018, a new sakura wars game was being developed called "sakura wars a new promise" which takes place in 1920s shanghai, during the time of the nationalist government's peaceful and democratic reign, and featured the shanghai brigade fighting the city's many triads. likewise gameplay was more closer to the old SRPG aspect of sakura wars 1/2 rather than the ARM battle system of 3/4. unfortunately the game was eventually cancelled.



back in 2019 when i went to buy new sakura wars, i saw awhile later that there was a copy of FF7 remake nearby and it just felt very surreal to me......because who knew that two decades later, sakura wars and FF7 would appear on the shelf together again.




back in 2020 i went to the local branch of japanese department store here, and aside from seeing model kit lineup of steambot from "new sakura wars", i also saw a giant figure of the dragon god maru robot from "mashin hero wataru", apprently that series has been revived recently as well. so good news all around.



at the time, i was also watching a few episodes of jewel pets magical change, which was also made by SEGA, and i thought it was pretty funny how sega had put erika into the show, or rather an evil version of her with different hair holor and clothes, named laura. later on even ogami showed up, or atleast a child version of him.

anywho the show also has the clock/ideya from nights into dreams and also airi's brother is wearing the same pants as the red head protagonist of shining blade.



back in 2021 sega also put out some merchandise of sakura wars during the series 25th anniversary.



in 2022 i started watching the "demon slayer" anime on TV here, which takes place in the taisho era and featured demons vesus imperials like sakura wars. also Kanao Tsuyuri looked like sakura in her pink kimono, and the steam engine train in second season reminded me of the one in sakura wars, or the much older galaxy express 999.

however, alot of old fans of sakura wars here have compared it very unfavourably to the beloved series. though i think demon slayer is what the cancelled Kouma/fallen demon would've been like. at any rate, the young people seem to really like it.



in any case, the year of 2022 marks the 20th aniversery since i bought the dreamcast version of sakura wars 4 back in 2002, hence i decided to write this retrospect on this special occasion. after this i'm going to go play "new sakura wars" and maybe in the near future, i will write a little more about my thoughts on it.



with the upcoming release of the dreamcast mini, i have a hunch that sega will bundled sakura wars 3/4 with the mini console. so for the younger generation who never got to experience the series back then, i hope that this retrospect will raise your anticipation for the dreamcast mini abit more.

for any new comers of the series however, although i played the games in the order of 1/1/4/2/3/4/1, that was circumstantial on my end, so i don't recommend playing it in that order, rather just play from 1 to 4.



for me, although 25 years have passed from 1997-2022, my love for the series has not died, and i hope that this thread will help promote a newfound appreciation of the series, for old fans and new fans alike.

in the end, whether "romance in the taisho era" will continue on, or sink into oblivion, i leave the fate of new sakura wars in the hands of today's youngsters; as an old fan passing on the torch to the new generation of fans.



-Part Final: Farewell, the youth of yesterday year

in any case, for many gamers here in hk, including myself, sakura wars was a collective memory that had once defined our generation, and is still remembered very fondly by many older gamers here to this very day.

although sakura wars featured imperial japan, i had always thought that the series had represented a sentimental longinness for the taisho era to have endured and continued on, where japan never went to war and instead kept a peaceful unity with other nations, thus adverting world war 2 in an alternate timeline. with that said, the anti-war message that the series had embodied were as follows:

"may the taisho era endure, so the path of peace can be treaded, and change the future"

the sakura wars games were meant to be experienced in the bloom of youth, in celebration of life, and of love, in the precious age of aqua, when we hold hope in our hearts in anticipation for the future, as the hot blood of youth runs through our vains. for as we came to meet and part ways with those who've been a part of our lives, whether by choice, circumstances, or even tragedy and illness, we learn the preciousness of life and to cherish the brief moment of togetherness; for the passage of time is ever so merecilessly cruel, and our lives are so fleetingly short, just like the flower of sakura. in this sense, the sakura wars games told not only a story of its own, but also that of our lives, as human beings.

and so, at the end of this thread, i leave you with a sakura wars poem from those bygone days, of those precious seasons from long ago, when all things shimmered in a thousand radiance, in the springtime we once called youth, that have since sank into the dark abyss of the passage of time, never to return again.....except only in our memories, as an ode to lost youth;

"romance in the taisho era, fleetingly abloom is the radiance of sakura"