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SWOVA-All BD Box cover

The 3 main heroines of the first "Sakura Wars" series. Cover art by Hidenori Matsubara

Sakura Wars (サクラ大戦 Sakura Taisen) is a Japanese multimedia franchise created by Oji Hiroi, and is developed by Sega and Red Entertainment. The franchise began as a series of video games, first released on the Sega Saturn video game console in 1996. As the series grew in popularity it was expanded to other markets such as manga, animation, stage shows, drama CDs, food products, and various merchandise.

Overview[]

Sakura Wars (サクラ大戦 Sakura Taisen) is a Japanese media franchise created by Ouji Hiroi, and is developed by Sega and Red Entertainment.[1] It includes video games and other merchandise. The franchise centers on a series of fantasy and science-fantasy dramatic adventure video games, which consist of a tactical wargame and dating sim, but includes a motion picture, anime, printed media, and other merchandise. The series began in 1996 as an eponymous video game; the game was a success and spawned sequels. The video game series has since branched into other genres and platforms, such as portable games and games for mobile phones.

Video games[]

Main series[]

Side-stories and Spin-offs[]

Remakes[]

Compilations[]

Pachislot[]

Online Games[]

Smartphone Games[]

Non-game console/PC/Mobile entertainment programs[]

Cancelled / Partial scrapped Projects[]

  • Sakura Wars MMO (樱花大战 MMO) (暂定名) was announced on July 28, 2006 at the 4th ChinaJoy expo, but was canceled in June 2007 due to Sega's withdrawal from the online game business in China.
  • Hanagumi Taisen Columns online (樱花宝石) as announced on July 28, 2006 at the 4th ChinaJoy expo. The game was supposed to be developed for PC and had unique multiplayer features from the previous Hanagumi Taisen Columns games. A hands on demo for the game was held in October of 2007 at the 4th China International Network Culture Expo. The was canceled in June 2007 due to Sega's withdrawal from the online game business in China.
  • Sakura War Chronicles (樱花大战-历代记) was an ARPG based of the Sakura Wars franchise and held its Android exclusive beta on May 10th, 2017 at 11:00 a.m. until May 16th at 12:00 a.m. No new news has been released about the game's full release date.
  • Sakura Wars: New Promise (樱花大战 新的约定) was a Chinese mobile game based around the Sakura Wars franchise and announced around late 2018. The game was scheduled to be launched before the end of March 2019. It was cancelled due to Sega receiving their China publishing license for the game 2 years after the game was announced and by the time the license was approved the development team had already been disbanded.
  • Sakura Wars: Taisho Roman Gakuentan (サクラ大戦 太正浪漫学園譚) (online game) was an online browser game and to be focused on a "school" theme taking place at Grand Imperial Academy. No new information about the game has been released since late 2010
  • Sakura Wars World Project (サクラ大戦ワールドプロジェクト) The purpose of the project was to extend the franchise into multiple new genres and to revitalize the series falling sales numbers. 7 Sakura Wars related titles were announced to release in spring of 2003 including Sakura Wars Story Imperial City, KOUMA / Demon (tentative name), and Sakurahime Nishiki Picture Scroll. For several years, these titles were on SEGA's release calendar, but no subsequent updates were made, and was removed from the calendar.
  • Tomotoon! Sakura Wars Motion Comic (Tomotoon サクラ大戦漫画版) is a cancelled animated motion comic adaption of the 2003 Sakura Wars Manga. The Series was scheduled to premier later in Fall of 2013, but never did. The series would be quietly cancelled with only 3 episodes being made before production stopped, but were never released to the public.

Anime[]

Critical and Commercial Reception[]

Review scores and sales (Japan)
Game Platform Release
year
Famitsu
score
Platform
sales
Combined
sales
Sakura Wars Saturn 1996 87%[2] 359,485[3] 704,793
Dreamcast 2000 109,686[4]
PS2 2003 35/40[5] 235,622[6]
Sakura Wars 2 Saturn 1998 88%[7] 509,445[8] 600,115
Dreamcast 2000 90,670[4]
Sakura Wars GB Game Boy 2000 31/40[9] 132,568[4] 132,568
Sakura Wars 3 Dreamcast 2001 308,707[10] 360,270
PS2 2005 51,563[11]
Sakura Wars 4 Dreamcast 2002 36/40[5] 257,386[10] 257,386
Sakura Wars Story: Mysterious Paris PS2 2004 73,091[12] 73,091
Sakura Wars V
Episode 0
PS2 2004 71,807[12] 216,475
Sakura Wars V PS2 2005 37/40[5] 144,668[13]
Sakura Wars 1 & 2 PSP 2006 57,054[12] 57,054
Dramatic Dungeon: Sakura Wars DS 2008 30/40[14] 50,940[15] 50,940

The Sakura Wars series sold over 3 million units in Japan by early 2002,[16] and over 4.5 million units by 2010.[17] The original Saturn version of Sakura Wars sold 360,000 copies in Japan in 1996, and sold out within hours of its release,[3][18] recording the biggest sales as a Sega Saturn original title.[19] Sakura Wars 2 later sold more than 500,000 units in Japan during its first week on sale in 1998,[20][21] making it the second best selling dating game of all time in Japan.[22] When Sakura Wars 2 was released, it was the current number one most popular game in Japan according to Famicom Tsuushin.[23] The Dreamcast ports of the first two Sakura Wars games additionally sold around 100,000 copies each in 2000,[4] while the third and fourth Sakura Wars games sold around 300,000 copies each for the Dreamcast in 2001 and 2002, respectively.[10] The PlayStation 2 version of the original Sakura Wars also sold an additional 236,000 copies in 2003.[6]

According to Famitsu's 1996 top ten wanted list, Sakura Wars scored second place just below Final Fantasy VII.[24] The game went on to win the Game of the Year prizes at the CESA Awards and Semi-Grand Prix Awards in 1997.[19] Sakura Wars later ranked #13 place in the Famitsu's 100 all-time favorite games list.[25][26][27] The first four Sakura Wars games all made Japan’s “Top 100 Games of all time” as voted by fans.[28] Famitsu gave Sakura Wars V a 37/40 (10 / 10 / 9 / 8) score. In Japan, Sakura Wars V was the 91st best selling game in 2005.[13] In 2009, Sakura Wars scored first place in the Famitsu list of most wanted game sequels of all times.[29] In 2010, Sakura Shinguji ranked 17th place in Famitsu's reader poll of top 50 best video game characters. She is one of the highest-ranking female characters on the list, below Amaterasu from Ōkami and Yuna from Final Fantasy X.[30]

Video[]

Notes and references[]

  1. Kalata, Kurt. "Tengai Makyou: Ziria". Hardcore Gaming 101. http://hardcoregaming101.net/tengai/tengai.htm. Retrieved 7 September 2011. 
  2. http://www.famitsu.com/cominy/?m=pc&a=page_h_title&title_id=11556
  3. 3.0 3.1 "Video game software sales in 1996". Geimin.net. 1996-12-29. Archived from the original on 10 February 2012. http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&tl=en&u=http://geimin.net/da/db/1996_ne_fa/index.php. Retrieved 10 February 2012. 
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 "Video game software sales in 2000". Geimin.net. 2000-12-31. Archived from the original on 10 February 2012. http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&tl=en&u=http://geimin.net/da/db/2000_ne_fa/index.php. Retrieved 10 February 2012. 
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 "Famitsu Hall of Fame". Geimin. http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&tl=en&u=http://geimin.net/da/db/cross_review/. Retrieved 7 February 2012. 
  6. 6.0 6.1 "Sony PS2 Japanese Ranking". Japan-GameCharts. 2 November 2008. Archived from the original on 2008-12-30. http://web.archive.org/web/20081230005343/http://www.japan-gamecharts.com/ps2.php. Retrieved 2012-02-10. 
  7. http://www.famitsu.com/cominy/?m=pc&a=page_h_title&title_id=11559
  8. "Sega Saturn Japanese Ranking". Japan-GameCharts. Archived from the original on 2008-12-30. http://web.archive.org/web/20081230005343/http://www.japan-gamecharts.com/sat.php. Retrieved 2015-01-09. 
  9. http://www.famitsu.com/cominy/?m=pc&a=page_h_title&title_id=12786
  10. 10.0 10.1 10.2 "Sega Dreamcast Japanese Ranking". Japan-GameCharts. 1 February 2004. Archived from the original on 2008-12-30. http://web.archive.org/web/20081230005343/http://www.japan-gamecharts.com/dc.php. Retrieved 2012-02-10. 
  11. "Video game software sales in 2005". http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?sl=ja&tl=en&u=http://geimin.net/da/db/2005_ne_fa/index.php. Retrieved 2015-01-11. 
  12. 12.0 12.1 12.2 Sakura Taisen, Garaph
  13. 13.0 13.1 "Top selling games japan consoles". the-magicbox.com. 2008. http://www.the-magicbox.com/Chart-BestSell2005.shtml. Retrieved 17 December 2013. 
  14. http://www.famitsu.com/cominy/?m=pc&a=page_h_title&title_id=315
  15. "Video game software sales in 2008". http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?sl=ja&tl=en&u=http://geimin.net/da/db/2008_ne_fa/index.php. Retrieved 2015-01-11. 
  16. "Sakura Taisen World Project". RPG Fan. 2008. http://www.rpgfan.com/news/2002/1664.html. Retrieved 6 March 2008. 
  17. Gantayat, Anoop (2010-11-18). "Sakura Wars Becomes a Browser Game". Andriasang. http://andriasang.com/comrof/sakura_taisen_browser_game/. Retrieved 31 January 2012. 
  18. "Hardcore Gaming 101". hardcoregaming101.net. 1996-12-29. Archived from the original on 10 February 2012. http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/sakurataisen/st1.htm. Retrieved 17 April 2013. 
  19. 19.0 19.1 "About Sakura Taisen". Red Entertainment. 2008. Archived from the original on 2008-12-21. http://web.archive.org/web/20081221055452/http://www.red-entertainment.co.jp/eng/works/sakura/works/index.html. Retrieved 2 February 2008. 
  20. "Sakura Wars strikes the Dreamcast". [1]. 2008. http://dreamcast.ign.com/articles/071/071316p1.html. Retrieved 7 February 2008. 
  21. "Sakura Taisen 2". http://www.vgzone.com/reviews/saturn/sakura.htm. Retrieved 2007-07-26. 
  22. "Top selling galge of all time". [2]. 2008. http://zepy.momotato.com/2009/04/04/top-100-best-selling-galge-titles. Retrieved 7 February. 
  23. "Sakura Taisen 2". [3]. 2008. http://www.vgzone.com/reviews/saturn/sakura.htm. Retrieved 2 February 2008. 
  24. "Sakura Wars strikes dreamcast". [4]. 2008. http://dreamcast.ign.com/articles/071/071316p1.html. Retrieved 2 February 2008. 
  25. "Famitsu Reveals Top 100 Reader-Vote Games of All-Time". Gamasutra. 2008. http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=8378. Retrieved 2 February 2008. 
  26. "Famitsu readers choose top 100 games of all time". GoNintendo. 2008. http://gonintendo.com/?p=1241. Retrieved 2 February 2008. 
  27. "Famitsu Readers Vote For Their Top 100 games". [5] Kotaku. 2008. http://kotaku.com/gaming/famitsu/famitsu-readers-vote-for-their-top-100-games-158432.php. Retrieved 2 February 2008. 
  28. "Interview with Nippon Icchi". [6]. 2009. http://diehardgamefan.com/2009/09/09/interview-with-nippon-ichis-nao-zook-about-sakura-taisen-vs-localization/. Retrieved 8 September 2009. 
  29. "Famitsu lists mos wanted sequels of all times". destructoid.com. 2009. http://www.destructoid.com/famitsu-lists-most-wanted-sequels-of-all-time-in-survey-130852.phtml. Retrieved 17 December 2013. 
  30. Glifford, Kevin (February 10, 2010). "Snake Beats Mario, Is Coolest Video Game Character Ever". 1UP.com. Archived from the original on 2015-01-10. https://web.archive.org/web/20110622072101/http://www.1up.com/news/snake-beats-mario-coolest-video. Retrieved March 10, 2010. 
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