"A remake worth playing again"

Introduction
Sakura Taisen 2 is the remake of the Sega Saturn classic of the same name and released as part of the Sakura Project 2000 to celebrate the release of Sakura Taisen 3. Sakura Taisen is the first truly successful game of its type mixing dating simulation, anime and strategy element together. It plays like an anime series with 10 episode each with a next episode preview. This review will mainly compare the difference between the Dreamcast version to the 1998 Saturn version.

Story
Set in the mid 1920s in Japan, you are Ogami Ichiro, leader of the Hanagumi and protector of the Imperial Capital. After the first battle (Sakura Taisen) peace was restored once again, but this time around new enemy forces are on the lose and once again threatening Japan. The Taikokukagekidan must fight to prevent the collapse of Japanese government. All 6 girls from Sakura Taisen returns joined by 2 newcomers armed with steamed powered mech they battle the enemy forces. That is basically a very effortless summary for this game, and sure it’s not going to win any awards for being original (i.e. girls in mech, fighting bad guys) but it sets the mood for this game. Both Dreamcast and Saturn version of this game have exactly the same storyline and no difference whatsoever.

Graphics - FMV
One major attraction for this game is the amount of FMV it has. All videos are done with hand drawn animation and spot a very high production value. The Saturn version of 1998 has one of the cleanest and sharpest video images, gone are the choppy and grainy videos from the past. The Dreamcast version improves this even more and the level of sharpness and colour is on par with DVD quality. Although the movies are still letterboxed and runs in a small window, anyone could observe how good the quality it now has. Also returning are the 3 opening intros, one for each of the disc. God bless Sega for keeping the game 3 discs still!

Graphics - Game
The characters are designed by Kosuke Fujishima of “Ah my goddess” fame, so you can expect it to be top quality. As for the port, pictures are now in high resolution and edges are now smooth and no more of that roughness from the Saturn version. One area that does not seem to improve was during battle. Battle is done in Final Fantasy Tactic style isometric view, and it looked no difference than the Saturn version. It is dull and colourless and it really showed its age on a Dreamcast console. However, the special attack sequence that switches to a polygon mech performing the attack looked so much better now. There is no break-up and there seems to be higher polygon count. Good job!

Music / Sound
Listening to the music of this game really shows how good the sound chip the Dreamcast has. Music sounded a lot louder and clearer now and keys and notes that could not be heard before are now present. Live recordings such as the opening song and ending song has the CD feel to it without the highly compressed and muffed quality of the original. Overall this is another great improvement. Likewise, voice samples are just as loud and cleared and not a single speech is muffed. Done by famous seiyuu (voice actors), their talents can really be appreciated now.

Gameplay
As the captain of the Hanagumi, it is your job to keep each one of your team members happy. This is where the dating part comes in. You interact with each of the girls on your team and answers a series of questions like an interactive novel. Answering the right question brings the moral of that girl up and giving wrong answers and her moral will go down. This interaction between you and the girls plays an important role as their moral will determine their battle stats and eventually the more positive message you give them they will develop a love interest towards you. This brings to the second area of gameplay, battle. Similar to Final Fantasy Tactic, player clicks and selects actions (move, attack, etc) until all enemies are defeated. This does get repetitive and battle seems too slow. Nothing during the battle are improved for the Dreamcast version except for the updated graphics during special attacks. It also has the same slowdown during enemy movements as the Saturn version. Overall, this is the most important area that needs to be improved but didn’t.

One extra feature that deserves a mention was a “speed up” option upon finishing the game. This is a Dreamcast exclusive extra and it allows you to speed through the game with the press of the right trigger. Text messages can be speed pasted, battle animation can be skipped, movement is speeded up and even story advancing segment can be skipped. Making it easier to play the game a second time through without watching all the same scene over again.

Final Thought
Sakura Taisen 2 does share quite a bit of improvements on the Dreamcast, although the game is technically 4 years old. Besides the updated graphics, sounds and a few extras, this is essentially the same game as the Saturn version, but the best version out there on the market. This game is as best as a port could be without totally remaking it. So for those of you that still haven’t tried Sakura Taisen 2, this is the game to get. For those of you who already owns it for the Saturn, give this game another shot, the pretty graphics is enough to draw you into this game once again.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/21/03, Updated 02/22/03