I have to address the elephant in the room first. Sakura Wars is a game in which you, a 20-year-old military captain, date your teenage subordinates. I may be using the word creepy a lot in this review.
The Sakura Wars series has a strong history in Japan, but was never given a chance in the West, only one prior game receiving a retail release. This soft reboot is set in a steampunk version of 1940s Japan. Beset by demons, the world’s large cities are defended by military revues: mech-fighter divisions who must all have day jobs to keep the lights on, because anime. Tokyo’s Imperial Military Revue, based in a theater has fallen into a pitiful state so the city is largely defended by the Shanghai military revue, based in a Chinese restaurant. You are Seiji Kamiyama, the new Flower Division captain of the Imperial Military Revue tasked with putting on some great plays, telling teenage girls how pretty they are, oh and maybe saving the world from demons if you get round to it.
You have mech fights, demos, cheesy, eye rolling melodrama and girls squealing everywhere. It’s anime alright. I may be giving the impression I just don’t get anime – I believe that untrue. There are genuinely great anime movies and TV shows. Where the great shows generally try to avoid the worst tropes, Sakura Wars unapologetically revels in them. I can say unequivocally that if you love anime to the point you say ‘waifu’ unironically, you will love this game and everything about it.
The story of Sakura Wars is told episodically. There are eight ‘chapters’ each akin to an episode of a TV show. In between chapters there is even a ‘next time on Sakura Wars’ previewing what’s to come. Each episode tends to focus on one of the supporting characters while progressing the overarching storyline. While it takes some time to get going, things build to a tremendous crescendo in the later chapters with an excellent payoff.
As a game, it’s a mash-up of genres. The combat is a mech-fighting hack-and-slash and that again builds and becomes more enjoyable in the latter half of the game. You have a light attack, heavy attack, specials and a dodge to blast your way through hordes of mechanized enemies and demons. It’s basic stuff and the only nuance comes from timing your dodges to slow down time (essential in certain fights), but they’re a pleasant change of pace and are short enough to never outstay their welcome.
The vast majority of your time though will be spent walking around the theater running errands for the girls, getting to know them and taking them on dates around Tokyo. Among these young women are a world-famous actress, a ninja, an incredibly skilled sword fighter and a mage, yet they’re all utterly helpless if you don’t tell them how shiny their hair looks. No, really.
The creepiness is at its most egregious during ‘tete-a-tetes’. These are scripted moments in the game wherein you go to a girl’s room while they’re in an emotionally vulnerable state and get them to believe in themselves by telling them how beautiful and determined they are and by, ahem, stroking or kissing them.
The thing is, there are some genuinely endearing moments. There are some genuinely funny moments. This is self-aware anime to the max and there is so much that’s good here. You see the characters develop self-belief and grow as a team wrapped up in a well-paced, well told, if a little cliché, story. Again, there’s nothing here you haven’t seen in an anime show before, but that doesn’t detract from the overall experience.
The conversation LIPS system is also one of the best I’ve seen. You have a time limit in which to choose your response and the response you choose will determine whether your team members gain or lose trust in you. You’ll know immediately from hearing the relevant sound effect. It’s simple, yet extremely effective. Greater trust improves combat performance and opens up romance options in the late-game.
It’s also a visual treat, though again depending on your opinion of anime. It’s colorful, well animated and while there’s sometimes a bit too much going on on-screen during combat there’s little else to fault. The music is excellent, but get used to the main theme because you’ll here it again and again. It’s a good job it’s a nice piece.
Yet all that good cannot help but be a little overshadowed when you are an adult, commanding officer, sneaking to perv on girls having a bath (one occasion for each girl, plus one as a group). When you are literally tasked with stroking a 16-year-old girl’s face and rewarded with an increase in ‘trust’. When you have a choice between finding a book from the shelf or looking up schoolgirl’s skirt. Is it meant insidiously? Probably not, and you wouldn’t necessarily be wrong for taking it as just lighthearted fun. Certain aspects are just uncomfortable viewing and, to my mind at least, there was no real good reason for the developers to make them so as they add nothing of value other than perv points.
One must be careful not to judge a Japanese game by my Western standards. To that I would just add a) I believe I am acutely aware of not doing so since I live in a completely alien culture to my own and have done for a long time, albeit not Japan specifically; and b) this game came out in late 2019 and had a western release in 2020.
If you love your anime, tropes and all, there’s seriously good entertainment to be had here. Let’s make no mistake though: large sections of Sakura Wars are inescapably a creep-fest which undermine an otherwise excellent game.
