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Playstation 2's JRPG Swan Song
I've made it no secret on the podcast that I enjoy weird Japanese games. The more bizarre the concept, the better in my opinion. I've heard about the Sakura Wars games well before this one was released, and I was always curious about them, but I had pretty much resigned myself to the fact that one would never be released on our shores. Well shows what I know, because NIS America took a chance and decided to release Sakura Wars: So Long my Love, which is the fifth game in the series. So was it worth the wait? In my opinion, yes it was.
At it's heart Sakura Wars is a text adventure game with a tactical RPG stapled onto it. The bulk of the game is spent reading text and making choices. These choices will alter certain aspects of the story, and ultimately the ending. As for the the tactical RPG part of the game, your decisions also effect the strength of your team mates. There is no exp or level system; the way in which you interact with your team during the adventure part of the game will determine how they perform in battle. This eliminates the need for long sessions of exp grinding.
It should be pointed out that you only have a limited amount of time to give an answer for when you're asked to make a choice, and sometimes giving the wrong answer will also produce unexpected results. During conversations there will times where you have to play a mini game of sorts, to mimic actions your character is doing. Basically you will be asked to move the analog sticks in different directions. These are also timed and may have a bearing on how well your team respects you.
Every chapter ends with a battle. You suit up in your steam powered mech and go kick some robot ass. There are usually two, maybe even three parts to every battle. Most of the time you start off fighting against normal enemies on the ground, then the boss shows up, usually in some sort of massive flying fortress robot. Your team transforms into jet mode and takes the battle to the sky. A character's strength is determined by how much they respect you, and how much you motivated them during the adventure part. Each one has a set pool of action points to spend on moving and attacking per turn. The more they like you, the more they have.
You can also spend SP to use special abilities, like super moves, combo attacks with your team, or to repair your mech. Supers and combo attacks are extremely devastating if used properly. Specials are pretty self explanatory: you rush in for a flashy all-out attack. Combo moves effect multiple foes over a wide area and get stronger depending on which characters are using it together. If two characters who have a strong bond use it, it will be more powerful than two characters who don't really care about each other.
The story is very much character driven, as each chapter centers around one of your team mates. Basically getting to know what makes them tick and why they trust you to lead them. Dialogue often comes off a little cheesy at times, but it actually adds to the overall charm of the game since it is mostly an action comedy of sorts. Most of the game is pretty light-hearted, but does tend to get fairly serious near the end. It never really gets heavy handed or anything. It just has your basic anime ideals: friendship, love and good triumphing over evil.
The game is a really good time, and as I found out, a lot longer than I thought it would be. Didn't think I would put nearly thirty hours into a text adventure game, but I did, and what a fun thirty hours it was!
There are also multiple endings, and a new game plus feature, so I could probably get even more time out of it. If you do pick this game up, I highly recommend the PS2 version. Yes, this game is also on the Wii, but it is the no-frills version of this game.
The PS2 has two disks, one with an English dub, the other with the Japanese dub/English subs. Also has an art book and poster. I'm a sucker for stuff like that, especially when it's free.
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System: |
Playstation 2
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| Genre: |
Tactical RPG/Text Adventure
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| Experience: |
Finished the main story, got one of many endings |
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