Every console deserves one final, great send-off game right? Sure, sometimes there are games that come out for the console afterwards, but the send-off game is the last one that’s any good. The game doesn’t have to be the best game for the console. It just has to be a game that is better than anything else that’s come out in the past couple of months. Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love, is that game for the Playstation 2. Just from reading the premise on the back of the box, you can tell that this game is going to interesting. Interesting doesn’t necessarily mean good, however, and the first Sakura Wars to hit the United States has some significant problems. Whether its high points can overcome these problems is what we intend to discuss right now.
Sakura Wars really has two battle systems, because it is both a dating sim and a strategy game. We’ll start off by looking at the dating sim aspect of the game. You take the role of Shinjiro Taiga, a young ensign from Japan. Arriving in New York, you find that the unit receiving you is less than pleased with you. Apparently, they were expecting your much more famous uncle, who is the star of previous games in the series. All of the female party members pretty much start off hating your guts, and it’s your job to show them that you’re up to snuff. Whenever you get time off, you can wander around to various locations in New York City, where you might encounter one of your teammates. If you do, you’ll frequently be treated to one of this game’s mediocre minigames, or better yet, get some dialogue options. Do well enough, or answer right, and the girl in question will start to like you more. The dialogue is frequently hilarious, whether you choose the best option or not. It’s probably the best dating sim to hit the mainstream American market, not that that’s saying much.
The other battle system, the strategy part, isn’t so hot. When you get into a battle at the end of every chapter, your characters get into their steam-powered mecha and fight crime. In this mode, you have a certain number of energy bars, which are expended while you move, attack, guard, and charge your sp for special attacks. So long as you don’t do anything else, you can move around with no penalty, simply regaining the expended bars when you get closer to your starting point. You can normal attack up to five times as part of a combo, and if you want to start again (assuming you have enough energy) you’ll start a new combo. Special attacks are powerful, but mostly consume your sp, and you can only use them once per battle. Joint attacks attack each enemy in a straight line between you and your partner, dealing damage based on how close the two of you are. See, that random dating was worth something. As the leader, Shinjiro can declare three styles: all-out attack, balanced, and total defense. There are times when you’ll want to use the other two, but mostly the default of balanced is best.
The missions frequently take the form of “destroy x and y so that you can attack the main form before it retreats. Mince, slaughter, repeat.” While there’s a little variety, like a mission where you have to save statues or defend your base of operations from suicide bombers, the battles are frequently pretty dull, and no amount of enlivened voice acting is going to stop you from fervently wishing that the boss would just die so that you can get on with the story.
Speaking of the voice acting, there’s a fun little thing about the Playstation 2 version of this game. You can play with the original Japanese voice cast or the English dub. The Japanese cast is pretty good, but the American cast does a decent job, and gets various characters’ accents across better. This reviewer was particularly fond of Diana’s English voice, because it perfectly fit her role as the party healer. On the other hand, Mexican loli Rosita is absolutely awful, sounding nearly as Russian as Mexican. The music is good, with several pleasant, jazzy tracks, and some excellent, energizing battle themes. There are even some decent somber pieces, which help set the mood when the story takes a turn for the darker.
This game is not hard. At all. If you do even decently at the dating sim part, the battles should pose little difficulty. Occasionally you’ll run up against a tactical snag or make a bad decision, but it’s quite unlikely that you’ll want to start a battle over again more than once or twice throughout the entire game. If you don’t mind losing points with a character when you let them die, it’s even easier. The completion time for this game is barely over 20 hours, which is short, but not too short. Fortunately, there’s ample reason to replay the game, as beating it not only unlocks a dialogue skip feature, but there are at least five character paths to explore, and innumerable dialogue options. So, that’s a solid “one for the money, two for the show, three to go steady, and six for the lols.” You might end up sandbagging a bit through the battle sequences, but the dating sim might actually be enough to keep you going that long.
Well, there you have it. I loved the Playstation 2 as much as the next guy, and I feel this is a good game to think of as the last. It wasn’t the most original thing out there, and it certainly wasn’t challenging, but it had lots of heart. The sense of humor evident in its production helps to overcome a lot of the trite material, as it’s always amusing to see a game go totally over the top.My overall rating for this game is 8.5 out of 10. It’s hilarious, fun, and pretty well localized. The voice acting is solid, with the exception of one character. The gameplay isn’t the best around, especially for the mecha battles, but it does pretty much everything else quite well. With this game, I feel I can truly say “So Long, My Love,” to a great old console.
How I Broke Game: Well, once I figured out that you could move as much as you wanted before you attacked, I used Subaru’s first turn to rescue two of the three statues you need to during her chapter’s first mission.
Quick Tips: Some times the best option is to say nothing! When you don’t like any of the choices, or you’ve tried them before and they didn’t work, try letting time run out. It occasionally is the optimal choice.
If you liked this game, you might want to check out one of these games. Persona 3 and Persona 4 almost have as much dating sim in them as this game does, and the RPG parts a much better. The humorous approach are remarkably similar to those found in Disgaea: Hour of Darkness and Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories. I guess Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria has a somewhat similar battle system, though it’s much more difficult.
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