Developers: Sega/ Idea Factory (Wii)
Publisher: NIS America
Platforms: PlayStation 2, Nintendo Wii
Genre: Strategy RPG
Rating: Teen
Release Date: March 30th, 2010
Story
Set in 1928 New York, Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love tells the story of Shinjiro Taiga as he tries to earn his place as a member of the New York Combat Revue's Star Division. The city of New York is growing and quickly becoming the melting pot for the United States, but with the growth comes all of the sin and malice that comes from so many different people living together as the still young country and city are trying to find their true identity. With so many immigrants from many different places the city and it people begin to collect a large number of foreign relics and artifacts, as a way of giving its people a sense of where they came from. These new acquisitions however posses unknown dark energies and in a city so new and ever growing it gives these unknown entities a whole new place to flourish.
Young Shinjiro Taiga who has just finished training is excited to be joining Japan's Imperial Defense Force, until that is, he learns that he won't be joining them. Instead of being a member of his uncle's, Ogami Ichiro, team he will be moving to New York in order to assist the New York Combat Revue, Star Division. Upon his arrival though he soon finds that he isn't what the team was expecting and thus begins to question his place in the metropolis of New York. Players will take on the role of Shinjiro as he earns his place among the Star Division and battles the many evils that threaten the city.
Shinjiro will meet many new friends along the way, such as Cheiron Archer, a former gang member now turned lawyer, Subaru Kujo, a brilliant musician, dancer, entertainer who used to serve as a member of the Star Division's Europe branch, and Rosarita Aries, a young bounty hunter, all of which will join Shinjiro as combatants who pilot STARS, giant steam powered robots. Some of the supporting characters that will offer Shinjiro advice along the way are people like Ratchet Altair, former captain of the European Star Division who now serves as the captain of the New York Star Division, Michael Sunnyside, the New York Star Division's commander, Cherry Cocker and Anri Yoshino, members of the Rainbow Division which serves as assistance for the Star Division and Xingzhi Wong, the designer and mechanic of the New York Combat Revue's STARS just to name a few.
Players will make many of the choices that Shinjiro is faced with and each and every choice he makes will ultimately affect how the other characters, including his teammates feel about him. By making these choices they will slowly gain their allies trust and will increase in strength as they slowly begin to create their own ending as they complete each chapter.
Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love offers many different scenarios depending on the choices the player makes and can offer something different and even humorous at times for players to experience with each play through.
Gameplay
Much of the game revolves around the story, which is told using still images and chat boxes with anime cut scenes every so often. Players will spend much of the game reading the conversations between Shinjiro and the other characters and making the choices, by pressing "X", they believe will gain him favor with each one without affecting the others. A set amount of time is given for each choice, in which the player will have to decide to either give an answer or they can let the time expire, letting time expire can sometimes be the correct action, although most of the time there is a correct chosen answer. Along with picking out answers there will also be times where the player will move both of the analog sticks in the correct directions to build up an action bar before the time expires; usually keeping the level above 3 bars gets a positive response. Gaining favor with each character will affect how well they perform in battle, if they are "not motivated" they do not gain very much in bonuses, "fairly motivated" gives a small amount of bonuses to each stat, and "highly motivated" gives them the best possible bonuses, including extra attack damage, speed, and defense.
Although battles are spread very far apart, usually at the end of each chapter, each one is long and usually requires both a ground battle and an air battle, or sometimes it will require you to battle in both at the same time by managing your team properly. During each character's turn they will be able to move, heal, and perform a normal attack, super moves or joint attack until they run out of action bars, which are displayed at the bottom of the screen as the "Mobility Gauge". Using heal, super attack and joint attack all use up the character SP, "Spirit Points", but SP can be charged by pressing "circle" and using up some of your "Mobility Gauge". Super moves are the character's special attacks in which a large amount of SP is used as well as one section of the "Mobility Gauge", but deal a large amount of damage. If a character is close enough to an ally they can use the joint attack option which uses the same amount of the "Mobility Gauge" as super moves, but uses much less SP and that attack will do damage to every enemy between the two characters. Depending on the level of friendship between the two characters a joint attack has the potential to be much stronger than the super move.
Players will have to guide their team to complete certain conditions for the battle to be won, such as defeating all of the enemies on the field or destroying generators in different areas. Usually a character will have to be moved into a certain part of the battle area to select the "Area Move" option, from the command menu, to advance into another field. In the command menu players will also be able to see information about the current battle and allies, as well as choose from various commands that will impact certain elements of the team's statuses. By selecting "Help Me!" the player can summon a character of his choosing to join him at whatever spot on the field he is at. "Protect" will give the player the option to have Shinjiro protect any one of the girls to protect from any damage they might suffer during combat, and with each attack absorbed the level of trust between him and the girl grows. Under the "Stratagem" command the player can select a strategy for the team to use that will gain them certain status bonuses, "Shin" grants the team a stronger attack and allows them to charge their SP faster but takes away the option to heal, "Gi" allows the team a bonus in speed and allows all actions to be performed (this is the normal setting), and "Tai" allows the team less use of the mobility gauge to select "defense" and grants the player a stronger bonus in their normal defense but removes the option of the super move.
Finding a balance that works for the player plays a major part in battles and with how long they can be it may take some time getting used to. Losing an ally in battle does not remove them from the game however, which does lessen the strain of managing the team and surviving with every character. When an ally is lost in battle they simple cannot be used for the rest of that portion of the fight, but once the battle has ended they are back in action. An ally being lost does affect your relationship with them however, which will have to be brought back up before the start of the next battle to regain the bonuses.
During each chapter the player will have a few moments of free movement, which allows them to wander the various locations around the city and meet with their friends to help gain greater friendship. Players will select an area, with "X", and are then free to control their character in that area, as they visit different spots around the city, Central Park, Wall Street or even a Jazz club. Each location usually has a short dialog between Shinjiro and various characters. Most of the free mode is set on a time limit in which 5 minutes pass with each area the player visits, at times however, the player may see one of their teammates in a certain area and may engage in a non-timed free mode in which they have a small adventure and have the chance to grow closer to one another.
Much of the game is still images, which look very well done and detailed, as do the anime cut scenes. During the battles and free modes the game resembles Persona 3's level of graphics and while not impressive it still works well with the game. Each of the voice actors play their parts very well, though at times the accents can sound a little bit too forced, and the characters can seem a little over the top, but they go with the character's personality well.
Pros
-Intriguing story
-English and Japanese Voices
-Fun battle system
-Replay value
Cons
-Battles are few and far between
-Separate save files for the English and Japanese discs
Overall
Overall the game offers a lot of classic strategy RPG elements while also offering something close to a sim-dating game at the same time, as strange as that may sound for a western audience this game performs very well and has much to offer a fan of strategy RPGs. The addition of two discs for the PlayStation 2 version gives the player the opportunity to experience both the English voice over and the Japanese voice over, both of which are very well done, the one drawback however is that each disc has separate save files, so if the player wants to see how the voices of the characters sound in the other language they have to start over from the beginning.
The story was done really well and for the most part can keep the players attention as they go through life as Shinjiro while he is struggling to find his place. The game offers quite a few laughs with some of the character's back stories and each chapter brings the player closer to getting a feel for just who all of the player's teammates are. There were even a few moments when this reviewer found himself actually laughing out loud. The various options that the player can select offer a much more personal feel to the game's story, and depending on how many save files the player uses they could save themselves another play through in trying to get all of the different endings.
The battles in the game can offer a pretty decent challenge if you try and keep the whole team in the fight, when the battles involve fighting both in the air and on the ground it can be interesting to try and mange the team properly. Battles can be short, around thirty minutes, or they can run much longer, close to two hours, depending on how the player manages the teams and whether or not they received the best possible status bonuses.
Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love has a lot to offer a fan of strategy games or even someone who enjoys a visual novel. Although it does take quite a bit of time to complete it is defiantly worth the effort and offers great replay value to earn the multiple endings.
(This game was completed in roughly 26 hours on the PlayStation 2 English voiceover version.)
Score
8.5Get more detail about Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love.
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