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[Abriael_GN]

Unfortunately, the western press seems not to have noticed this game exists, despite the relevance of the series. The demo is available now on the Japanese PlayStation Store, 5.5 gigabytes.



I played it at TGS, and this is an absolute gem, so give it a try.

Also, as a bonus, new character revealed today, designed by Persona 5's Shigenori Soejima himself.

 

[KàIRóS]

Unfortunately, the western press seems not to have noticed this game exists, despite the relevance of the series.

Well only 1 game has ever been officially released in the west, you can't create a fanbase in the west like that.

 

[Abriael_GN]

Well only 1 game has ever been officially released in the west, you can't create a fanbase in the west like that.

That's not really an excuse to totally ignore a big release by a relevant publisher with stellar production values that is known to be coming west.

Helping people discover games they don't know about is (read: should be) a gaming journalist's job.

 

[Shantae]

Yeah that's totally an excuse to totally ignore a big release by a relevant publisher with stellar production values that is known to be coming west.

Get real. It's not like the industry is supposed to cover anything else besides games made by Western studios, or Japanese ones that are too big to ignore. Japanese games are only brought up when the press wants to talk about how sexist they are, or how they're just like all other "anime games"....because you know, western studios NEVER make games that are alike, or rehash the games for sequels in franchises. Nope, western devs may make flawed games sometimes, but they're totally worth the press putting dozens of hours in their games, but they can't be bother to pick up a JRPG or anything that might be outside of their comfort zone, because they're just "too long".

 

[YukiOnna]

Thought it was quite fun and nostalgic. Lot of care went into the technical aspect and animations, can see how they took notes from Yakuza and their other AA/AAA series. The Theater itself is fairly big to explore and interact with certain things which are oh so familiar and adds to it, load times were fast enough and the LIPS dialogue choices were fun as expected.

As for combat, it wasn't as Musou-y as I thought it was going to be, although aerial combat is indeed a bit of a pain without a lock-on button (unless I missed it?). Need a longer level and time with it to properly judge it though, but it's alright for what little I got to try and hope there's more sub systems to keep things fresh and aerial being easier with other characters in the complete battle system.

Shoutout to Sakura's room and Kamiyama's ringtone!

 

[Endless Fluff]

OP should've included a trailer or something about the game, now that I've seen some.... Mech action game with spectacle fighter combat mechanics? I'm down for this. Not going to download the demo, though... but thanks for bringing this to my attention.

 

[ranmafan]

Will be playing this later tonight. Was going to wait to play the full game first but I need my sakura Taisen now so I gotta try the demo.

 

[lyan]

Get real. It's not like the industry is supposed to cover anything else besides games made by Western studios, or Japanese ones that are too big to ignore. Japanese games are only brought up when the press wants to talk about how sexist they are, or how they're just like all other "anime games"....because you know, western studios NEVER make games that are alike, or rehash the games for sequels in franchises. Nope, western devs may make flawed games sometimes, but they're totally worth the press putting dozens of hours in their games, but they can't be bother to pick up a JRPG or anything that might be outside of their comfort zone, because they're just "too long".

I'm saddened by the fact that Sega is now small enough to be ignored

 

[plushyp]

That's not really an excuse to totally ignore a big release by a relevant publisher with stellar production values that is known to be coming west.

Helping people discover games they don't know about is (read: should be) a gaming journalist's job.

Has the company been sending adequate amount of press releases or news to journalists to keep it in the back of their minds?

 

[Abriael_GN]

Has the company been sending adequate amount of press releases or news to journalists to keep it in the back of their minds?

Sega sent a press release with the announcement that is coming west, which many didn't bother to report anyway.

Mind you, it's absolutely ludicrous that anyone who fancies themselves a " gaming journalist" would need press releases to report about games. The job isn't (or shouldn't be) just about regurgitating press releases, and this idea is exactly one of the elements that show how utterly incapable a lot of "gaming journalists" nowadays are of properly doing their job (and the bigger the outlet is, the worse is gets), which is informing people about things of interest they may not know about.

OP should've included a trailer or something about the game, now that I've seen some.... Mech action game with spectacle fighter combat mechanics? I'm down for this. Not going to download the demo, though... but thanks for bringing this to my attention.

Have ALL the trailers.

 

[KiteGr]

Unfortunately, the western press seems not to have noticed this game exists, despite the relevance of the series.

Don't blame the western press for the obscurity of this Big-In-Japan series.
The series's reach in the west can only be described as "super-botched".

If it wasn't for ADV releasing some OVAs back in the day, people wouldn't even know the name. The game's release in the west actually can't even be called spotty, as it consist of a single spot, and that's Sakura Wars 5 that was released with a ridiculous 5 year delay on the PS2 and Wii on 2010 (for reference the 7th generation of consoles started on 2005 with the X360). All the older tittles released in soon-to-die consoles so little effort was put into bringing them here and none of the series's older and later ports or spin-offs ever reached us as well.

And lets talk about the games them selfs. They can only be described as Visual novels that have tactical mecha battles instead of sex scenes. Of course once you dig deeper you'll see that they are very nicely done with lots of hidden depths and other gameplay aspects, but the truth is, it's very hard to market this thing in the west.

So as a result. I'll be very surprised if we ever see a port of this latest tittle as well.
The fanbase here has no logical reason to exist.

 

[Abriael_GN]

Don't blame the western press for the obscurity of this Big-In-Japan series.
The series's reach in the west can only be described as "super-botched".

Of course I blame the western press, and with reason. You shouldn't need a "big reach in the west" for a series to report about its reboot, especially considering the stellar production values and staff Sega has hired for this one. If media reporting is limited to what everyone already knows, what exactly do we have press for?

The bare minimum due diligence for a western journalist should be at the very least to keep an eye on what the Japanese press is reporting about and follow suit.

So as a result. I'll be very surprised if we ever see a port of this latest tittle as well.

Then be very surprised, because it's confirmed to be coming west next year, and it has been officially confirmed for months. You may not be aware thanks to that inept western press that ignored the press release and trailer about it, and that you're so funnily defending. You're welcome.

The fanbase here has no logical reason to exist.

Oh, it has one very relevant and logical reason to exist: The Sakura Wars games have always been awesome.

 

[KiteGr]

Of course I blame the western press, and with reason. You shouldn't need a "big reach in the west" for a series to report about its reboot, especially considering the stellar production values and staff Sega has hired for this one. If media reporting is limited to what everyone already knows, what exactly do we have press for?

The bare minimum due diligence for a western journalist should be at the very least to keep an eye on what the Japanese press is reporting about and follow suit.

What I'm saying is that it's very hard for them to know the significance of the series.
I, my self had to watch a 1 hour video to know what the fuz was about. Otherwise, the only other reference I have was seeing the OVA DVD lying around in some video store shelfs and the 5th game sitting around in a friend's Wii's hard drive as "backup" that even he didn't know what that was.

Gaming Journalism is mostly crap, but I can't blame them for not knowing this one.

Then be very surprised, because it's confirmed to be coming west next year, and it has been officially confirmed for months. You may not be aware thanks to that inept western press that ignored the press release and trailer about it, and that you're so funnily defending. You're welcome.

Cool!
Trust me, I get as sour as you do when we miss out on games. And I live in Europe where we where constantly left out on JRPGs on those days.

But let's be realistic.
The series's release in the west was abysmal after all...
They'll have to start from Zero here... The series's reboot was the right idea, but they can't rely on it's history. They'll have to do some actual marketing and push it.
After all, we are talking about a dating Sim here... The Nishe of the Nishe!

Oh, it has one very relevant and logical reason to exist: The Sakura Wars games have always been awesome.

Not here...
Beyond the 5th I can't even find an unofficial translation patch for the old games, and lets not forget that even that one wasn't received as well. I doubt that even you have played the old 4 games that you just claimed to be "awesome", and even if you did, then you should know how hard it is to actually do so.
So... the only fans of the series in the west could be:

1. People who know Japanese.
2. People who emulated, then and had gone through the tediousness of reading a translation through some text.
3. People who's life changed by the OVAs and that particular single much delayed 5th installment with low sales and mediocre reviews.
4. People who extensively researched the series's significance in Japan, and become hyped without even having played most (or all) of them.
5. Russians, who for some reason got a few extra installments apparently.

That's a very niche number of people.

 

[Abriael_GN]

What I'm saying is that it's very hard for them to know the significance of the series.

Knowing or learning about this kind of things is part of a journalist's job.

Keeping an eye on the Japanese press is, again, the bare minimum due diligence a half-decent game journalist should do. You see they're covering it a storm (and they are), you learn some very big names are working on it (Tite Kubo, Bleach's mangaka, is very famous even in the west), and you know it's significant.

It's really not rocket science. It's not hard. It's the bare minimum.

 

[Carna]

Can anyone give impressions so far?

 

[blackjon24]

Never played this series but was very close to trying one of them on the ps2. Are the fans ok with this being an action rpg now instead of a strategy rpg? It being sega i thought they could have done something more along the lines of valkyria chronicles instead of a musou.

 

[Abriael_GN]

Can anyone give impressions so far?

It's awesome. The production values are stellar for an anime-style game, the combat is great (with aerial being the only flaw so far, but that's secondary), and the dialogue is just perfect.

Never played this series but was very close to trying one of them on the ps2. Are the fans ok with this being an action rpg now instead of a strategy rpg? It being sega i thought they could have done somehting more along the lines of valkyria chronicles instead of a musou.

Perfectly fine with it. It doesn't really feel like a Musou at all, by the way. It feels like a normal action JRPG.

I don't normally get bent on mechanics, as long as they're fun, and this is. Sega's turning Yakuza into a turn-based JRPG, so it balances out.

 

[JunkerWoland]

Are the fans ok with this being an action rpg now instead of a strategy rpg?

I haven't played the demo, but I'm not particularly enthused by the change to the series' combat. That said, the Sakura Wars games tended to offer fairly moderate tactical challenges, so the overall reception to the new battle mechanics could well depend on whether the action remains entertaining for the game's duration.

 

[YukiOnna]

Can anyone give impressions so far?

Bit too lazy to summarize, but here's mine some posts above yours:

Thought it was quite fun and nostalgic. Lot of care went into the technical aspect and animations, can see how they took notes from Yakuza and their other AA/AAA series. The Theater itself is fairly big to explore and interact with certain things which are oh so familiar and adds to it, load times were fast enough and the LIPS dialogue choices were fun as expected.

As for combat, it wasn't as Musou-y as I thought it was going to be, although aerial combat is indeed a bit of a pain without a lock-on button (unless I missed it?). Need a longer level and time with it to properly judge it though, but it's alright for what little I got to try and hope there's more sub systems to keep things fresh and aerial being easier with other characters in the complete battle system.

Shoutout to Sakura's room and Kamiyama's ringtone!

Never played this series but was very close to trying one of them on the ps2. Are the fans ok with this being an action rpg now instead of a strategy rpg? It being sega i thought they could have done something more along the lines of valkyria chronicles instead of a musou.

I'm okay with it, it didn't really feel full on musou. I just hope they add enough variety and more difficulty so it doesn't get stale, they had some small set pieces on the level which I was cool with.

 

[JunkerWoland]

I played the demo. My immediate takeaway and request is that the finished game does something about all its shimmering edges, particularly during the adventure portions; the issue is especially distracting during dialogue sequences, where there's no camera control.

As for combat, the demo doesn't sell me on its action remaining fun for the potential length of this game. The overall mechanics are adequate, but need a lock-on feature; one hopes the additional characters and possible systems will add variety to its fights. Also, while I assume the combat is going to involve a lot of gated-battle arenas that need to be cleared in order to progress, I'm crossing my fingers the final game will feature its share of larger, open maps.

For those interested, anyone savvy enough to create a Japanese PSN account should be able to make it through this demo. Even if you can't follow the Japanese, there doesn't seem to be anything for people to get stuck on.

 

[manfestival]

I wanted to play the games in this series for forever. I think the big one that REALLY got my attention was on Dreamcast. Unfortunately I was never able to play a single title despite loving how it looked. Here is to crossing my fingers. I know the ps3/ps4 did no region locking which allowed me to import SRW games. I never got around to Sakura War/Taisen titles though.

 

[Danjin44]

I definitely giving the demo a try, I really like visuals design in this game. but just like Valkyria Chronicles and Dragon Quest it never will be popular in west.

 

[JunkerWoland]

I know the ps3/ps4 did no region locking which allowed me to import SRW games.

I may not be following your post, so apologies if my presumption is incorrect, but the game has already been announced for a western release in spring 2020.

 

[YukiOnna]

I definitely giving the demo a try, I really like visuals design in this game. but just like Valkyria Chronicles and Dragon Quest it never will be popular in west.

As long as they can carve out their niche like they eventually did with Yakuza, that's all they need I think. Just don't send it to suicide in March for the western release with FFVIIR around.