New Sakura Wars

Sakura Wars (2019) is a game about dating girls and fighting demons and both activities are split into two entirely separate sections and both sections have some issues but I would call ultimately pretty okay.

I'll start with the battle section because that's the easiest to talk about. It's a pretty standard 3D character action game. The combo system is virtually nonexistent. You hit the small hit button however many times then hit the heavy hit button and it will do one of a number of combo finishing animations. There is some light platforming between combat arenas although there isn't much consequence for falling. You're out of commission for like a second, I don't even think you lose any health. As such the combat sections tend to be pretty easy, semi-thankfully since they're also quite boring. At best I could say they get the job done. They're honestly pretty inoffensive.

Now the dating section is what takes up most of the play time in this game. It's done through a series of timed visual novel style prompts that will effect how various characters feel about you. These obviously have some level of effect on the 5 romanceable characters but also various other important characters throughout the game. Exactly what these choices effect on the non-romanceable characters was unclear to me while playing it. It may effect whether or not you get a scene with them in the final free time section but I only didn't have a scene with a couple of the characters and I thought I fucked up quite a few times so I can't say for sure.

I would say that the visual novel sections are in general pretty good. Even if you don't shape the main character in a massive way I do like the small level of choice in the narrative that just choosing my dialogue gave me. Plus, a good amount of the dialogue is voiced and while I sometimes found the choices a bit misleading in execution it never became a massive problem. What I DID have more of an issue with was the character ages. Your main character is 20 and all the romance options are like 16 or 17 with one being 13 and the oldest being 19. I don't particularly like the trend in anime games of needing a like, child romanceable character. Even in games I love like Trails of Cold Steel I don't like that you can romance the extremely young characters. I tend to ignore it but since it's like the bulk of the game in this case it can be pretty hard to ignore. Also, how pervy this game lets you/occasionally encourages you to be with the girls made all of their intended ages a bit weird. Hell, they made their "milf" romanceable character 19. Like, why, especially when you have legit hot older characters like Hakushuu. Why won't they just let me date Hakushuu? That's honestly the worst part of all of this.

Basically what I'm saying is that basically every element has an asterisk by it although whether you can deal with it or not is going to depend on the person. The story is melodramatic as hell from basically the jump but it also gets wild and I found the melodrama pretty fun if a bit silly. The characters are mostly enjoyable in their various archetypes and I found few if any entirely grating. The only element I think is unqualifiably fantastic is the cinematic cutscenes which look beautiful. I don't know if they're taken from an anime but they are very well animated.

Ultimately I'm glad I got to play this game. I'm not sure at what point Sega figured out they didn't have to dub their games to bring them over but I hope that trend continues. Sakura Wars was pretty alright.