Shin Sakura Wars : new info + gameplay

Tip_of_the_Hat said:
Guess that did pretty good then.
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To clarify, the PR concerns the series as a whole moving 4 million units, not just this newest entry. Without knowing sales of previous games and how many of those titles SEGA is counting, we can't infer much from this news. At the moment, this feels like part of SEGA's marketing plan, more than anything else.
 
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JunkerWoland said:
To clarify, the PR concerns the series as a whole moving 4 million units, not just this newest entry. Without knowing sales of previous games and how many of those titles SEGA is counting, we can't infer much from this news. At the moment, this feels like part of SEGA's marketing plan, more than anything else.
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Oh. The series. Well that still sounds pretty decent.
 
Well I've finished the first episode of Shin Sakura Taisen and so far it's been everything I wanted it to be. Lots of positives so far. First, pretty much everything that makes Sakura Taisen special is here. The story is good, the cast is great (especially the designs which are an insanely huge improvement over the horrible Sakura Taisen V ones). The lips systems and it's many dialogue choices is here in the same way as it always has. The music is as high quality as it has ever been in the series. I love the attention to detail particularly. So far in the few places I've explored, mostly the gekidan, it's fantastically brought to life. Exploring every part of the building is fun. Also I love how the game doesn't cheat when using mirrors like many games do. They work like mirrors in real life. Characters really come alive on screen, no longer left to static screens, many moments with the main cast are fully acted out and it gives a new life to the series with its presentation. I wish other games, like say the Super Robot Taisen series did this. I do have two complaints about the presentation but that will come later.

The battle gameplay is simple yet enjoyable. The switch from an srpg style to an action gaming style will be a sore spot for some fans of the series, but like the presentation it makes Sakura Taisen feel grander in scale. Controlling the Koubus in this way is a lot of fun. It will be interesting to see how the gameplay holds up in the other episodes.

As for negatives or downers, only a couple. Both in regards to presentation. First a small nitpick, although I know full well how difficult it can be to see the stage from a balcony in a classic Japanese theater, the way the balcony is designed In the game prevents anyone from seeing the stage. It's not really an issue with the game itself, but a strange design decision. Probably easier to program.

The big issue I do have however is the fact the game is not full voice. This usually isn't a big problem, and is fine when walking around talking to npc characters. However there are many scenes that are fully acted out between the cast with camera cuts and so on that are not voiced. It comes off as strange and out of place. Like the game has forgotten to load the voice track. There were many scenes like that and it was disappointing to see. Obviously doing a full voice version would've cost a lot but it would've helped the game on those points.

That being said, even with those points, the game is a blast so far. It's hits every positive point you want in a Sakura Taisen game. The final result so far shows SEGA put real care and love into bringing the series back. I wish I wasn't so busy this weekend as all I want to do is play more of it. If the game keeps being as good as it is in the future episodes as the first episode has been, it will be a true contender for game of the year for me.

Also interestingly the trophies are already in English with the title New Sakura Wars. I wonder if they went ahead and decided that will be the English title? I had a feeling it would get some subtitle of something since it keeps being referred to ask Project Sakura Wars in the West. I guess we will know soon.

Well that's my impressions so far. Still got a lot to play and a lot of bromides to collect. But yes for those who were concerned with the changes, it's still the Sakura Taisen you know and love. SEGA pulled it off!

Oh one more thing, the special edition set is awesome, but (while not surprising considering it's a short game with few vocal songs) the special CD for Sakura Taisen 4 having only two tracks while all the other games get like 10 or more, is quite a sad thing. They should've added some bgm tracks or something.
 
I guess it's time do watching and research on pervious Sakura War series. I know people said you don't need play pervious games to enjoy but I do want to get the feel for overall series.
 
Danjin44 said:
I guess it's time do watching and research on pervious Sakura War series. I know people said you don't need play pervious games to enjoy but I do want to get the feel for overall series.
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I will say as someone who has played through 1-4 (still haven't gotten to 5 for various reasons but I'll fix that soon), from what I've played so far of "new" it will be a good jump in point for newcomers. The nostalgia and legacy of the old games is there and mentioned of course, but thankfully new players will be able to quickly get up to speed with the world considering the path they took with the story.

Having said that watching up on the old games is always awesome. Also I really hope if the game is as big of a hit as it should be, that we get rereleases of the old games. Would love to play 1-4 again like on dreamcast. Would make for a great switch sega ages release (PS4 as well)
 
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Having played through about half the game I will give some of my thoughts.
Positives:
The atmosphere of the world is great. I love running around and seeing a mix of people in kimono and western clothing, to a background of steam technology.
The music is really well done.
There are a ton of dialogue choices, and many of them are very amusing. It is often hard to stop myself from choosing the bad choice, because I really want to see it.
The characters overall I think are well done, the protagonist particularly I like.
It has that 90s dating sim feel.
The mechs that the characters pilot look pretty damn cool. Especially when you are cruising around on walls and stuff.
Voice acting all around is pretty good. I especially like Sakura.

Negatives:
The character animations are... weird. They move around way too much, make random poses during scenes, etc. It's like the characters themselves are overacting every cutscene. It was pretty distracting at first, but at this point has mostly just become amusing to me.

Ranmafan brought this up as well, but the lack of full voice is pretty jarring. I don't have anything against games that are not full voiced, and many of the games I play aren't. However, there are many cutscenes that should be voiced, or I feel like they wanted to be voiced. Characters doing their animations and mouth flaps and everything, meanwhile the camera is moving around. Basically a lot of shit is happening on the screen. But you are supposed to be reading the text at the bottom, because the lack of voice acting. The text proceeds automatically (you do not press a button to move to the next line of dialogue), and then decisions for the player will pop up automatically as well, which are of course on a timer. If there was voice acting I think it would be a lot more enjoyable for those scenes. If they couldn't do full voice, I think they should've had a clear separation between voiced cutscenes and non-voiced. Non-voiced having 2D character portraits, with the player moving the text forward etc.

The story/writing can be pretty iffy at times. There are lots of things that don't make sense to me. Sometimes characters seem to do 180's on what they were saying before.

I also think the game would benefit from some sort of codex type feature. I've only played the first Sakura Wars game. And even if you had played them all, the last one came out almost 15 years ago, so you'd still probably need a refresher on lots of stuff. Who was that character, or what is that organisation, for example. Without this sort of thing, I'm honestly not sure how easy it would be for a new comer to jump in. They don't really explain anything, but throw lots of terms and names around and use established settings.

The battle gameplay. As I'm sure everyone knows, combat switches over to musou gameplay. I like Musou games, but I don't think the gameplay here is very good. It's not terrible, but it feels like it only exists because Sakura Wars needs to have separate combat gameplay. There is no real depth to it, you don't level up, you don't increase your moveset, you don't get new equipment, etc. There is no real thought required. It's just a shallower Musou experience, so if you already don't like Musou games, it probably won't be very fun. Now you could argue that the gameplay in the original Sakura Wars wasn't great either, but I don't think that means they couldn't make the gameplay here better. Who knows though, maybe it gets crazy in the latter half of the game.

Over all:
I think whether you will like this game really depends on if you like dating sims, especially older ones.
I do, so I am enjoying this game. If you don't though, then I'm not sure what there is here for you.
 
I'm interested to see how SEGA tries to market Shin Sakura Taisen in the West. Reading impressions from across the web, the general consensus seems to be the development team maintained the core experiential nature of the series, creating another entry that's really the sum of its parts. People come to the games for their atmosphere and characters and tend to enjoy the overall ecosystems surrounding each title, from the secondary media & entertainment to the merchandise.

I suppose the new anime will likely be streamed for Western audiences, but I'd be surprised to see the manga, novel, or anything else available, especially around the time of the game's release. Going under the assumption SEGA will be pushing the game and nothing more, I wonder whether they'll try to ride the action combat (and hope people don't call it shallow) or play things towards fans of visual novels and adventure games, by highlighting the character interactions. While I'm happy SEGA has committed to releasing Shin Sakura Taisen in the West, part of me thinks the game has an increased potential to leave people disappointed, particularly those who've never played any of the previous games.
 
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I've cleared the game and will be writing a review soon. Played all of the main series games and a couple but not all of the spinoffs.

Shin clearly prioritises being the first game in a new series more than being a game on its own, and it really shows with how a lot of stuff goes unresolved and obvious plot hooks are thrown at you near to the end. Most of the characters, even the main members, get little more than basic introductions.

Yeah the character animations and lack of full voice acting are kind of jarring. Some of the writing is inconsistent, with the Shanghai characters getting the worst of it, it feels like they're completely different people depending on the scene.

I do appreciate the switch to action making it so that the battles aren't extremely tedious when you want to choose all the funny dialogue options and make everyone upset with you, and the difficulty level is low enough that its problems are mostly negligible, but it does have a lot of problems.

The game also feels pretty short, the early chapters are longer but they get increasingly shorter by the end, and the content feels pretty thin.

It's like the characters themselves are overacting every cutscene.
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It feels to me like the motion capture was done with Japanese stage actors, which is a sound idea given the setting, but looks terrible. Stage acting uses exaggerated gestures because people are watching from afar and can't see facial expressions and such, so seeing it close up is kind of wacky.

Aside from that however there's also something really weird going on with people's heads, like they're using separate animations from their bodies'.

I'm interested to see how SEGA tries to market Shin Sakura Taisen in the West.
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That's something I'm interested in seeing, but I'm also pretty pessimistic about its prospects. I can't help but think that the general premise is too foreign and weird ("what if Takarazuka was a sentai in the Taisho period?") for western audiences. A lot of English language comments on the remake I've seen online since the announcement seem to come from people who watched the TV series (which was nothing like the game and is kind of hated by fans) or people who have no idea what it's about (the people complaining about how a "legendary strategy series" was "dumbed down" into an action game).

It would be one thing if it was really outstanding but to be honest it was kind of lackluster in the end.

The main character peeping on girls in the bath and trying to look up skirts and so on being played for humour also seems like it probably won't go down well with contemporary western sensibilities, especially in the western gaming media.
 
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ranmafan said:
The battle gameplay is simple yet enjoyable. The switch from an srpg style to an action gaming style will be a sore spot for some fans of the series, but like the presentation it makes Sakura Taisen feel grander in scale. Controlling the Koubus in this way is a lot of fun. It will be interesting to see how the gameplay holds up in the other episodes.
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How is the gameplay holding up? I heard there were concerns about flying enemies, are other characters more well equipt to deal with flying enemies?

I am a big fan of Valkyria Chronicles. while I was hoping for more SRPG from Sega I am glad to hear the battle gameplay is enjoyable. I have watched alot of livestreams of the demo and the actual game and that seems to be the consensus, that this part of the game is fun.. I was a little worried. When I saw Sakura's supermove it literally looks as fun as a perfectly timed tiger drop move in Yakuza.
 
JohannCK said:
The main character peeping on girls in the bath and trying to look up skirts and so on being played for humour also seems like it probably won't go down well with contemporary western sensibilities, especially in the western gaming media.
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that was also an issue in SW5 that got an English dub. Probably they'll edit some things in the localization
 
JohannCK said:
I've cleared the game and will be writing a review soon. Played all of the main series games and a couple but not all of the spinoffs.

Shin clearly prioritises being the first game in a new series more than being a game on its own, and it really shows with how a lot of stuff goes unresolved and obvious plot hooks are thrown at you near to the end. Most of the characters, even the main members, get little more than basic introductions.

Yeah the character animations and lack of full voice acting are kind of jarring. Some of the writing is inconsistent, with the Shanghai characters getting the worst of it, it feels like they're completely different people depending on the scene.

I do appreciate the switch to action making it so that the battles aren't extremely tedious when you want to choose all the funny dialogue options and make everyone upset with you, and the difficulty level is low enough that its problems are mostly negligible, but it does have a lot of problems.

The game's also pretty short, I think I'd place it at about half to 2/3 the size of previous games?



It feels to me like the motion capture was done with Japanese stage actors, which is a sound idea given the setting, but looks terrible. Stage acting uses exaggerated gestures because people are watching from afar and can't see facial expressions and such, so seeing it close up is kind of wacky.

Aside from that however there's also something really weird going on with people's heads, like they're using separate animations from their bodies'.



That's something I'm interested in seeing, but I'm also pretty pessimistic about its prospects. I can't help but think that the general premise is too foreign and weird ("what if Takarazuka was a sentai in the Taisho period?") for western audiences. A lot of English language comments on the remake I've seen online since the announcement seem to come from people who watched the TV series (which was nothing like the game and is kind of hated by fans) or people who have no idea what it's about (the people complaining about how a "legendary strategy series" was "dumbed down" into an action game).

It would be one thing if it was really outstanding but to be honest it was kind of lackluster in the end.

The main character peeping on girls in the bath and trying to look up skirts and so on being played for humour also seems like it probably won't go down well with contemporary western sensibilities, especially in the western gaming media.
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Oh cool cool, I'm jealous. I have a question. Is it possible to master the dodging mechanic and play as fast and smoothly like in this gameplay video from the :55 second mark to the 1:12 mark. or is the dodge button/controls too hard to time or too unresponsive to play like that all game?



I know it looks repetitive but I WANT THAT lol
 
Some thoughts on the combat

-Lack of lock-on makes some specials miss very easily (Hatsuho's is the worst because she spins the hammer around for a fire tornado which you're supposed to direct at enemies, but covers the entire screen with fire so you literally cannot see anything) and it's pretty annoying when there's only one or two enemies yet and you just want to take them out. Also Sakura's first strong attack and ranged attack characters do actually automatically target enemies, but you have no way of telling what they're locking on to, which would be a problem negated with having a manual lock-on

-The dodge/step system doesn't really match the battle system with it's musou-level numbers of enemies at all because there's too much visual information to keep track of on the screen. Enemies do have visual cues (red flashes) when attacking but audio cues would help a lot.

-Maybe it's just me, but I feel that having dash and dodge both as R buttons makes it hard to switch between the two. Having them as the same button (tap to dodge, hold to dash) would be better, and letting the player change the button configuration would also help.

-I also don't like the button configuration in general and wish they'd let the player change them.

-The platforming is just kind of annoying and being able to fall off the side of areas when there are so many attacks that send you flying in a direction seems like a very dumb move. It might be worth it if knocking enemies off platforms did damage to them but they just teleport back after a short wait and that too ends up being an annoyance.

The action sequences are very easy so none of this really matters that much in the long run, but the small annoyances do build up.

Kenshin775 said:
Oh cool cool, I'm jealous. I have a question. Is it possible to master the dodging mechanic and play as fast and smoothly like in this gameplay video from the :55 second mark to the 1:12 mark. or is the dodge button/controls too hard to time or too unresponsive to play like that all game?



I know it looks repetitive but I WANT THAT lol
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Timing dodging is pretty touch because there's too many enemies and seemingly no audio cues, plus I'm pretty sure that enemies attack you from off-screen as well.

You can however just mash the button to dodge all over and eventually into an attack and basically have infinite witch time.

The combat really isn't well thought-out.

All the ingredients for a great battle system ARE present however, so if they listen to feedback the sequel might have something really fantastic.
 
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JohannCK said:
That's something I'm interested in seeing, but I'm also pretty pessimistic about its prospects. I can't help but think that the general premise is too foreign and weird ("what if Takarazuka was a sentai in the Taisho period?") for western audiences. A lot of English language comments on the remake I've seen online since the announcement seem to come from people who watched the TV series (which was nothing like the game and is kind of hated by fans) or people who have no idea what it's about (the people complaining about how a "legendary strategy series" was "dumbed down" into an action game).
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Much will probably depend on SEGA's own expectations. Only going by what I've read online, the game seems to be a modest production, or at the very least wouldn't be considered a lavish affair, which is to say SEGA took a prudent approach towards development. If we assume they were cautious with the Japanese release, hopefully they won't have outlandish notions about potential Western sales. On the upside, they're dealing with something of a clean slate. While international audiences will likely be informed by the anime, many won't have actual experience playing the games; targeting those with some franchise familiarity will possibly serve better than seeking a more general audience.

petran79 said:
that was also an issue in SW5 that got an English dub. Probably they'll edit some things in the localization
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The audience for this game (at least in my mind) is the type that would balk at it being censored. I'd like to think SEGA will make every effort to avoid removing content, as those who'd complain about the bath & peeping scenes would never have purchased the game. This is one of those times, where you double down on the Japanophile consumer, but we'll see, either way.
 
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JunkerWoland said:
The audience for this game (at least in my mind) is the type that would balk at it being censored. I'd like to think SEGA will make every effort to avoid removing content, as those who'd complain about the bath & peeing scenes would never have purchased the game. This is one of those times, where you double down on the Japanophile consumer, but we'll see, either way.
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I trust Sega to do the same like they did with VC4, leaving the scenes untouched (ass grab, steam bath scene in the extra chapters, swimsuits). But one never knows
 
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JohannCK said:
Shin clearly prioritises being the first game in a new series more than being a game on its own, and it really shows with how a lot of stuff goes unresolved and obvious plot hooks are thrown at you near to the end. Most of the characters, even the main members, get little more than basic introductions.
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So it's a pretty obvious Part 1?

The main character peeping on girls in the bath and trying to look up skirts and so on being played for humour also seems like it probably won't go down well with contemporary western sensibilities, especially in the western gaming media.
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It probably won't so I hope they just aim for the niche market and not remove anything. Little benefit in aiming for people who won't buy your game anyway and I find that silly stuff fun.
 
Kenshin775 said:
How is the gameplay holding up? I heard there were concerns about flying enemies, are other characters more well equipt to deal with flying enemies?

I am a big fan of Valkyria Chronicles. while I was hoping for more SRPG from Sega I am glad to hear the battle gameplay is enjoyable. I have watched alot of livestreams of the demo and the actual game and that seems to be the consensus, that this part of the game is fun.. I was a little worried. When I saw Sakura's supermove it literally looks as fun as a perfectly timed tiger drop move in Yakuza.
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Mostly the same which is fine for me but as others have said has issues. I gotta agree that the lack of lock on is a bit annoying. Same with flying enemies. And the difficulty is quite easy. Although to be fair that was an issue I had with the original series as it's srpg parts were so beyond easy there never was a a challenge. I do agree if they address the issues everyone is bringing up in the future, they will have a great follow up. And yeah I gotta agree the button placements are a bit weird.

Also I gotta say I don't know how this game will be marketed in the west successfully. The days of it being "the greatest series you never played" from the Saturn/dreamcast era are long gone. Most of the people that bothered to try to get into it only got to through the various anime works. I feel sorry for anyone whose first exposure to the series was the tv series, which is one of the worst abominations of a adaptation I've ever seen, aside from the one episode about the kouma war which was quite good but the rest is utter trash. thank goodness the movie was good (although I hated the Rachete character so much.) And of course there was the fact the west only got STV which has as many detractors as fans. That combined with the fact that many of the games references to Takarazuka, Taisho era japan and so forth make it a daunting thing to market, even with the increased love of Japan and it's culture over the years.

I hope SEGA can pull it off, but I'm expecting its successes will be mostly kept to Japan. But I am glad at least they are trying themselves this time. Maybe they will have more success than anime and the video game companies did trying to bring over the series with success. But it will be an uphill battle. Not impossible but they will have a lot of work to do
 
YukiOnna said:
So it's a pretty obvious Part 1?
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Yes.

Major spoilers for the ending:

The final boss is just a servant of the true villain, whose goal is to unseal him- Think Ranmaru and Nobunaga from 5- But is stopped, meaning that the true villain never even appears. Because all the old characters were sealed away with the true villain they don't return either. There's also a huge plot hook in the reveal that Sakura's master previously worked with the villains.
 
The game's Japanese sales seem respectable (dependent on SEGA's expectations), although they probably won't move much, outside of some future, priced-down re-release. Even beyond the forthcoming international version, I'm looking forward to watching how SEGA handles the franchise, going forward.
 
YukiOnna said:
Does anyone know how the launch sales compare to the previous games
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The Wikipedia entries on each individual previous game all feature sales information, but people would need to verify their veracity. Going by the wikis, the approximate first-week sales of the initial releases of SW1, 3 & 4 were between 205k-216k, SW2 is around 355k, and SW5 was 112k.

In relation to other somewhat comparable, recent SEGA published games, first-weeks sales of Persona 5 were 264,793 (PS4 ver.), Yakuza 6 was 218,168, and Persona 5 Royal are 201,448.

At a cursory glance, SSW is in that slightly awkward space between mid-range titles that hit at around 50k-60k and larger franchise that immediately break 200k.
 
JunkerWoland said:
The Wikipedia entries on each individual previous game all feature sales information, but people would need to verify their veracity. Going by the wikis, the approximate first-week sales of the initial releases of SW1, 3 & 4 were between 205k-216k, SW2 is around 355k, and SW5 was 112k.

In relation to other somewhat comparable, recent SEGA published games, first-weeks sales of Persona 5 were 264,793 (PS4 ver.), Yakuza 6 was 218,168, and Persona 5 Royal are 201,448.

At a cursory glance, SSW is in that slightly awkward space between mid-range titles that hit at around 50k-60k and larger franchise that immediately break 200k.
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Nice. I think, in this industry and the lengthy gap for the IP, that's the the best case scenario they could have hoped for. This is probably going to be pretty front loaded, too.
 
YukiOnna said:
They have a new game update and it seems the biggest thing is the lock-on feature addition and a new Sakura outfit + finisher?
sakura-taisen.com

『新サクラ大戦』ストーリーのネタバレについてのお願い | 新サクラ大戦

「太正桜に浪漫の嵐」　好評発売中の『新サクラ大戦』(PlayStation®4用ソフトウェア)のストーリーのネタバレについてのお願い
sakura-taisen.com

My bad if posted in another thread.
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Will we also going get these updates once the game launches in west?
 
YukiOnna said:
They have a new game update and it seems the biggest thing is the lock-on feature addition and a new Sakura outfit + finisher?
sakura-taisen.com

『新サクラ大戦』ストーリーのネタバレについてのお願い | 新サクラ大戦

「太正桜に浪漫の嵐」　好評発売中の『新サクラ大戦』(PlayStation®4用ソフトウェア)のストーリーのネタバレについてのお願い
sakura-taisen.com

My bad if posted in another thread.
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That's look great. I hope we will get feedback on this and how it improves the gameplay.
 
I have this fear that this game might be last Sakura Wars game that ever gonna get release in west. It sequels will end up same as Dai Gyakuten Saiban series, never gets western release.
 
Danjin44 said:
That is weird, is this game not gonna be available digitally!?
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Along with the physical version, SEGA has solicited the game digitally, both as a standard release ($59.99) and as a Digital Deluxe Edition (price still unannounced). Info (sans price) on the Digital Deluxe Edition can be found on the website: link.
 
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JunkerWoland said:
Along with the physical version, SEGA has solicited the game digitally, both as a standard release ($59.99) and as a Digital Deluxe Edition (price still unannounced). Info (sans price) on the Digital Deluxe Edition can be found on the website: link.
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Then I don't understand why it's not available on PSN yet?
 
Danjin44 said:
Then I don't understand why it's not available on PSN yet?
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There's no digital pre-order incentive and the release-day price isn't going to change, regardless of when it hits PSN. For all we know, SEGA is still deciding on pricing for both the Digital Deluxe Edition and the game's DLC, which looks like it'll be available on--or right around--release. The game's current absence from PSN shouldn't be taken as a sign of trouble.
 
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