Sakura Taisen 6

Visual Novel Community Anime/Otaku Discussions
#1

…has not been announced yet. :stuck_out_tongue:

However there’s a major spinoff in the works.

SEGA has been really pouring on the ad campaign for this series, as I’ve seen some Sakura Taisen posters in the train stations here and there. Also the live stage shows are proving successful. Sakura Taisen 6 looks more and more possible now, from an investor point of view (i.e. there’s still a lot of interest in it).

I’d still ignore all those rumors about it being a Berlin title though… not without more proof. The reason Berlin keeps popping up, is because of the New York OVA mentioning it: that was the in-universe reason why Ratchet wasn’t in the episodes (she was help establishing a new branch there) - although it’s really because her VA wasn’t available for the OVA recordings (and also has been absent from the recent live stage shows as well).

#2

Funny, I thought they were making an online game of some sort

#3

This is the online game. :stuck_out_tongue:

Tapping into the Japanese MMO market (or rather, the tremendous lack of it) is a lot different from the Western and Korean. It’s got a 99.9% DOA rate, even with the best named titles. Everything to TokiMemo to Warcraft has failed to make an impact or get investor interest there.

#4

Looks like Sakura Taisen is getting a shoujo manga:

http://www.siliconera.com/2011/11/19/sa … -in-japan/

Could this mean Sega’s planning on making a Sakura Taisen otome game? That would be awesome

#5

It’s not like the western MMOs are doing much better. People are still waiting for something to be the WoW killer. If you’re not WoW, you’re almost DOA or shortly thereafter.

#6

I’m not quite sure on that… Sakura Taisen had an overwhelming male fan base. An otome release would not be optimal in getting them back. According to an old interview with Igarashi, Tokimeki Memorial got an otome version because the original TokiMemo reportedly had more girls playing it than boys – or in the very least a 50-50 split. Case in point, TokiMemoGirl:3rd sold better than TokiMemo4.

I’m not saying that an otome version of Sakura Taisen wouldn’t work (it would be an interesting spin IMHO)… just that it would completely abandon whatever ties it had with the original followers. The old fan base still strongly support the series – this is especially evident with the live theater performances – they just were not impressed with ST5. Game investors are all about making maximum $$$ with titles they finance. An otome version wouldn’t be the best investment given how ST is still a hot IP – making a high quality bishoujo ST6 with a live performance run in 2012 is a better bet. For the record, Nippon Budokan just had a live Sakura Taisen performance on October 7th focusing on the New York troupe. Full house with tickets sold out in a matter of days.

I would suspect a new ST6 will be on the PSP Vita or maybe Nintendo 3DS.

#7

They might make an Otome spinoff of some kind, but yeah, I see an otome Sakura Taisen going over about as well as Zelda 2. Actually, no, scratch that – Zelda 2 still appealed to the same primary audience, so I’d expect an otome Sakura Taisen to do significantly worse. It would basically not be Sakura Taisen anymore.

Of course, they could always try to split the difference and make the main character bi. I’m sure that would go over REAL well with the fanbase :smiley:

#8

Back in 2010, Red Entertainment created a PS2 game called Scared Rider Zechs. It seems to be a GxB game with a story about battling aliens. So unless fans create their own games, this might the closest thing to a Sakura Wars otome game.

Earlier this year, Red Entertainment was aquired by UltiZen Games. Not sure if which company – Red or SEGA – owns the intellectual property rights to the Sakura Wars franchise. Either way, it’s difficult to be optimistic about the franchise’s future.

#9

I wouldn’t write off the chance. Sakura Wars is an IP that still gets attention… on a monthly basis. Fun fact: it actually costs as much to make the live stage productions, as it does to produce the games.

In terms of ownership, it’s roughly the same setup as Pokemon is for Nintendo. RED has an exclusive contract to develop for Sakura Taisen, so long a relationship of good faith exists with SEGA, but SEGA “owns” the franchise. You mostly go through SEGA if you wanna make something with the Sakura Taisen brand (toys, food, manga, etc). If shit hits the fan and things completely collapse between them, SEGA keeps Sakura Taisen and someone else could make games for it. However RED would still get their cut from the profits and front page credit for inventing the series.

Sakura Taisen makes $$$ – mostly through merchandising. The real factor is if Ouji Hiroi has written a script for a game, and if he wants to be a producer again. To a lesser extent is Kosuke Fujishima, who’d need to be available for character designing. At present, Hiroi has been satisfied with the recent manga/live series he created called [url=http://www.double-heroine.com]Double Heroine[/url]. That and the live stage productions for Sakura Taisen. He also just got out of a tabloid scandal with idol Akimoto Sayaka, who it was reported he was dating (he’s over twice her age), but they claim is not true. Fujishima has been mostly busy with Ah! My Goddess and the occasional Tales of ______ with Namco.

Hiroi stated interest with making a new Sakura Taisen game, “if the fans really want it.” Going with Namco’s current production rate with the series, Fujishima’s next Tales should be in 2014 (3 year gap between flagships he’s involved with)… so his schedule for game hiring is most likely open til then.

#10

Aside from the stage shows, there don’t seem to be many new Sakura Wars products. Game-wise, it’s been a few years since the last console game (a DS spinoff called Dramatic Dungeon), and the last Windows version of Sakura Wars was published five years ago. I don’t know the status of the browser game. The two Scared Rider Zechs games have been published/ported on PS2 and PSP from 2010 to just a few months ago. There was a brief girls’ comics spinoff, and it sounds like some characters will get cameos in crossover fighting games…

Recently, I learned about a group of fans on Facebook who are campaigning to get the PC versions of Sakura Wars 1 through 4 translated, and on platforms such as Steam and Gamersgate. The Kiss Me Sweet campaign started a few weeks ago. Their goal is to get a company (more likely than not, NIS America) to license, translate, and sell the games online.

Does this have even a chance of succeeding? Good question. I don’t know how much the licensing fees would be. I believe its rights are still owned by SEGA and Red Entertainment. Furthermore, it was disappointing to hear that not many people bought Sakura Wars 5 on PS2 or Wii. Even if it’s becoming easier to sell games on Windows, I’m not sure if anyone will take the risk of publishing the older games.

If you want to support this effort, then I recommend writing a polite and on-topic comment for the Facebook group, and on NIS America’s bulletin board. Make sure they know that you would be ready and willing to buy these games.

(A slight disclaimer: I cross-posted most of the above message on two different forums.)

#11

A fellow who went by the online handle of Kayama did translations of Sakura Taisen 1 thru 4. He didn’t do everything, but a very large amount.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/dreamcast/25893 … aisen/faqs

http://www.gamefaqs.com/dreamcast/43157 … sen-2/faqs

http://www.gamefaqs.com/dreamcast/57728 … sen-3/faqs

http://www.gamefaqs.com/dreamcast/56535 … sen-4/faqs

Having said that. I doubt there is profit in doing an official translation of PC versions to Sakura Taisen. It will likely get pirated for the most part. Red Company, SEGA, and and NIS are already burned on the chances for Sakura Taisen in the west, after the monumental failure of Sakura Taisen 5. Western Galge gamers are also self defeatist with these “message campaigns” (I know the irony I’m doing). Lord knows I have first hand knowledge of it.

I wish you luck on your efforts, but I don’t see it succeeding. Galge without sex is a niche in a niche market. It would probably be better to use those translations I linked, ask Kayama for permission, and do a fan patch or something. He did a massive amount of ground work, so it’s a great start. Unlike a title for PSP or NDS, for PC’s there isn’t a “gatekeeper” that requires permission to have it work on the host device.

Had Sakura Taisen 5 succeeded, you probably wouldn’t have needed to even do this… the other games would have been automatically ported by NIS. But as it stands, there is no worthwhile fanbase for the series… or at least, one that would actually pay real money to have it.

EDIT
As for a Sakura Taisen 6… there was a lot of rumor in Japan, had ST5 succeded in the West, the profits could have been used to produce it. Obviously that was a total failure. The theoretical ST6 might have taken place in the US, or if you followed a few plothooks in ST5 and the OVA, might have been a new unit based in Berlin. Ahhh… what could have been if only people bought it… what a wasted opportunity…

EDIT 2
On a positive note, looks like the Sakura Taisen 5 Live Stage has something lined up for August and September:
http://www.sakura-taisen.com/event/ny_live2012/

At least the Japanese fans support the franchise and won’t let it die. They generally disliked ST5, but they’re willing to buy in and keep the hope going.

#12

A new Sakura Taisen game has finally been announced…it’s a card game :evil:

http://www.siliconera.com/2012/09/10/we … ps-system/