As mentioned in the introduction, the first Sakura Taisen game launched for Sega Saturn in September of 1996,
and sold out on all shelves the morning it went on sale. The limited edition (a Sakura Wars tradition well before such oversized boxes were a very common sight on Japanese game store shelves) included a standard Saturn mouse and a mousepad with one of two different designs.

The game opens with Second Lieutenant Ichirou Ogami arriving in Tokyo for his assignment as the leader of a secret combat squadron, the Flower Troupe of the Imperial Floral Assault Group. He meets his contact, Sakura Shinguji, at Ueno Park and is taken to the headquarters of the Teikoku Kagekidan or Teigeki. The first chapter comprises Ogami meeting the members of the hanagumi or Flower Troupe, trying to figure out why the heck he has been ordered to this place and demoted to the lowly ticket-taker of a musical theater. There are several puns involving homophones like butai, which can mean either "combat unit" or "stage", and kagekidan, which can mean "floral assault troupe" or "musical theater troupe". Finally he discovers that the Flower Troupe is a secret combat squad after all, and he needs to lead it against the occult threat of the Black Nest Society and their demonic summonings.

The first game establishes many of the hallmarks of the series, including the build-up to a false ending, after which the stakes are raised and the game goes on. At this point, the Koubu are upgraded to much more powerful models - in ST1, the Jinbu or "divine warrior". Massive, preposterous vehicles and mechanical contraptions are another recurring theme. The first game includes the Gouraigou (a Koubu-deploying bullet train that inexplicably spirals around the interior of its tunnel), and the Shougeimaru (a huge battle blimp).

Sakura Taisen is often described as an RPG, even by NISA, the localizers of STV. This is probably because of its tactical combat system, hit point gauges, and so on. But there are no experience points, levels, exploration, or equipment to be seen; every play-through of a Sakura Taisen game contains the same battles, with the characters following the same advancement. The only differences are dependent on the chapter-to-chapter motivation levels, based on the player's answers to LIPS interactions. The official genre listed on the game boxes, incidentally, is "Dramatic Adventure".

Character-themed minigames are another staple of the series that start here; if you discover the correct scene while wandering the environs of the theater, you may have a chance to test your reflexes helping Maria cook borscht, accept Kouran's challenge to a game of Hanafuda, or clean the theater for Sakura in a fast-scrolling obstacle run.

In May of 2000, the first game was rereleased for Dreamcast. It is a direct port of the original Saturn version, but with higher-fidelity graphics. This served as an opportunity for newcomers who missed the series on the Saturn. It also made possible the carry over of an unbroken line of save data through all four of the mainline ST titles that would eventually all be available for Dreamcast. The limited edition included a pink Visual Memory Unit, which nicely matches the pink Sakura Taisen controller and pink Sakura Taisen Dreamcast system that were also available.

Atsuki Chishio ni/In Hot Blood

In 2003, after the cancellation of the Dreamcast, a heavily revamped version of ST1 was released for PlayStation 2, with a new subtitle in keeping with the poetic style of the sequels: Atsuki Chishio ni or "In Hot Blood". The remake combines the original story with fresh UI, full-frame graphics, computer-assisted anime sequences, and other modernizations familiar from ST3 and ST4 on Dreamcast. Plus it added new scenes with characters from later games, updated the battle system to ARMS, and offered a new ending.

Backgrounds and character busts fill the whole frame during the adventure part, rather than occupying a tiny window. The character portraits in the dialogue box are rejuvenated with more expression and with animated backgrounds to convey emotion. Ogami's portrait even changes depending on the currently selected dialogue option during LIPS decisions. The theater is now a full-on 3D map, which you can run around freely like in ST3 and ST4, and it includes indications of where events are available, removing the guesswork from deciding where to go next. A big addition to the Long Day mode was a remake of Koi Koi Taisen (the hanafuda tournament minigame), subtitled Koi Koi Taisen: Atsuki Shoubu ni, replacing "Blood" with "Challenge". It includes several scenarios, each complete with its own little storyline and opportunities to affect the fortunes of other characters by responding to LIPS decisions. The limited edition of ST:ACN included a pocket watch with a display stand, and preorders came with a huge, pink, heart-shaped alarm clock. The most exciting bonus item, though, is the DVD titled Project S,which details the entire history of the series through interviews with the creators.

The PS2 remake was an initial attempt to introduce the series to people outside of the core Sega fanbase, and even to international fans. There were plans early on to localize Atsuki Chishio ni and the subsequent PS2 titles, in what was called the Sakura Taisen World Project, which would supposedly bring Sakura Taisen bursting onto the international stage. Presumably, if ACN had been very successful, which as you can see it wasn't, Sakura Taisen 2–4 remakes and localizations would have followed, thus bringing the entire series to the PS2 and to the world. But nothing came of this grand scheme, at least until NISA eventually released an English edition of STV in 2010. But that is a story for another time.

Not much changes with the newest version the PC version. Even higher fidelity graphics is the major selling point but that's it. I know very little of this version

Well it's hard to recommend this game and heck even any of the games that are only in Japan. I've actually never played any of the versions of Sakura Taisen 1 and all of this knowledge is coming off the internet. But from the two games I have, Sakura Taisen 3 and Sakura Wars: So Long My Love, I can easily recommend this game to anyone. Heck it's rated #13 on Famitsu's top RPG's of all time! The PC version is the way you should go. It's the better version of the original but i'm not sure if it is a port of ST1: Atsuki Chishio ni. You'll need to jump through some hoops to play any of the versions on American consoles so i'll but in some devices and links that will help ya.

Here are links to where you can order either of the four versions off Amazon:

ST1: Sega Saturn - http://www.amazon.com/Sakura-Import-Sega-Saturn-Taisen/dp/B001R2HY7W/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1364173938&sr=8-12&keywords=sakura+taisen

ST 1: Dreamcast - http://www.amazon.com/Sakura-Taisen-Japan-Import-Sega-Dreamcast/dp/B00006LJSY/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1364173997&sr=8-8&keywords=sakura+taisen+dreamcast

ST1: Atsuki Chishio ni: http://www.amazon.com/Sakura-Atsuki-Chishio-Japanese-Playstation-2/dp/B003OP503K/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1364174054&sr=1-1&keywords=sakura+taisen+Atsuki+Chishio+ni

ST1: PC: http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-49-en-70-1oq6.html. It's currently sold out for who knows how long so try the other ones.

Some devices and links that could help you:

Importer for Sega Saturn: http://www.amazon.com/Action-Replay-Plus-sega-saturn/dp/B000HFAWLU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1364175365&sr=8-1&keywords=action+replay+4+in+1

DC-IE (This is the one I use for Dreamcast. I swear it's black magic): http://www.amazon.com/SEGA-Dreamcast-DCIE-Import-Enabler/dp/B0036UHVX0/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1364175104&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=dreamcast+importer

Swap Magic for PS2: http://www.amazon.com/Swap-Magic-V3-6-2-Disc-Switch-Version/dp/B001EQ9KBE/ref=sr_1_2?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1364175196&sr=1-2&keywords=swap+magic

How to play Japanese Games on PC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5x7Ff5MBbo,

Social Plugs:

Sakura Taisen 3 Let's Play: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzL9-cVKzkcXNdMRs-tGbZjRS_ksYsN8h&feature=mh_lolz

Gaming Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/KataGnS?feature=mhee

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DirectorFischer

Tumblr: http://kpfmedia.tumblr.com/

ST1: Adventure part - Drunk Yoneda...

Sakura Taisen officially calls these scenes which occupy the majority of the game the adventure portion of the game. Sakura Taisen was part of the barrage of these console bishoujo games that followed in the wake of a game called Tokimeki Memorial. Most were straightforward interpretations of the same contemporary high-school dating troupe, with NEC Interchannel's 1998 title Sentimental Graffiti being the most successful. But Sakura Taisen fused the bishoujo and dating sim tradition with a conglomeration of other concepts: tactical RPG combat, a steampunk setting, and a dramatic, musical theme. And Sakura Taisen always reinvents everything that it borrows, so of course it implements its own unique dating-sim system: LIPS.

LIPS stands for Live & Interactive Picture System. It includes several types of interaction between the protagonist and the rest of the cast. The most basic of these is the typical visual-novel multiple-choice question, in which the player is asked to decide what to say or do next. But most of these decisions are accompanied by a unique countdown timer; if you don't make a choice in time, your character will either keep quiet or blurt something inevitably worse than any of the presented choices. This adds tension and consequence beyond the ordinary, static visual-novel decision point and can actual be helpful to do in certain situations.

Another basic LIPS scenario is a portrait view of a character in which you are given control of a cursor. You can

ST1: LIPS

move the cursor around the screen to interact with the character in various ways. Hover over the character's eyes, hair, clothes, possessions, and so on to turn the cursor into an eye, and press the button to look. Sometimes this yields an internal monologue from the protagonist on the qualities of the clicked feature; sometimes a brief conversation happens, and sometimes it gives you a "quit staring at me" from your the heroine your talking too. Stalker. Hover over the mouth for a talk icon, and push to continue the conversation. You can similarly knock on doors, pick up objects, or leave via exits. And yes, there is a blushing, glancing-sidelong icon for when you hover over a female character's chest. (Whatever you do. Don't press that button! You don't wanna know...)

Depending on your answers and actions, you may positively or negatively affect your relationship with the characters present; these effects are indicated by a rising, sharp jingle and a falling, bumbling jingle, respectively. Throughout the series, Sakura Taisen masterfully trains the player to have a Pavlovian reaction to these positive and negative reinforcements - every good jingle is a victory, every bad jingle a tragedy. A bad jingle with your favorite heroine? Epic Fail. Occasionally, you have no choice but to harm your relationship with one character in order to better your relationship with another you like. Other times, you may have the opportunity to improve the trust level of all of your teammates at once. During the adventure part, though, your trust level with each heroine is kept secret from you; you need to wait until the eyecatch to check on their motivation levels. Because the trust your squad members have for you directly affects their motivation, (otherwise known as battle stats), in battle, your understanding, kindness, and values in the LIPS parts are crucial to succeeding in the combat parts. Later games in the series introduce further variations on the LIPS system, which will be covered in the every games particular section.

The adventure parts form the heart of the series, unfolding at a slow, deliberate pace, gradually building up the player's willingness to identify with the protagonist, and gradually deepening the protagonist's relationship with the rest of the Teikoku Kagekidan, Paris Kagekidan, or New York Kagekidan. And of course, at a crucial point in the story of every game, you will be prompted to choose a heroine to pursue a true relationship with - the nature of this relationship is chaste but very meaningful, and can be developed over the course of several games.

The idea of intertwining dating simulation game conventions with traditional combat systems made its way into other titles. In the 1990s, this included RPGs like Thousand Arms and Langrisser III, where the protagonist's romantic relationship with one of several female cast members affected the storyline. Atlus's Persona series adopted a relationship system in its colossally popular third and fourth installments, with deeper relationships leading to more powerful summons in combat. Gust's Ar tonelico series fundamentally incorporates a visual-novel relationship system with an RPG combat system. And Sega's own Valkyria Chronicles is arguably the most Sakutai-influenced game of all.

ST1 Battle Saturn vers.

When Sakura Taisen was conceived, tactical RPGs had a long tradition on consoles going back to the 8- and 16-bit eras: notably, Nintendo & Intelligent Systems' Fire Emblem series, Koei's Nobunaga no Yabô series, Masaya's Langrisser series, and Sega's own Shining series (just to name a few). But the tactical combat system in Sakutai was supposedly inspired not by such console games, but instead by tabletop wargames.

Battles are fought with Koubu or "warrior of light", steam- and

ST1: ACN Combat

spiritually-powered robots manufactured by Kanzaki Industries. Each character has a Koubu of a distinctive color, with a distinctive weapon. The squad members pilot their Koubu against robotic and demonic threats in turn-based combat; in Sakura Taisen 1 and 2 this happens on an isometric grid similar to that of older styled strategy rpgs. This system is replaced in Sakura Taisen 3 by the more advanced, and unique to the series, ARMS system.

The original, isometric combat system allows each unit to perform two actions per turn, from a menu with options such as Attack, Defend, Move, Deathblow, Charge, and Heal. Each unit has a hit points gauge and a kiai or "fighting spirit" gauge. When moving, the destination squares you can use are highlighted in blue. When attacking, the shape of the character's attack area is highlighted in pink - making use of the various shapes of attacks possessed by your characters is a key part of mastering the combat system. Ohgami and Sakura's katanas can only reach one square in any direction; Sumire's naginata can attack two squares away; Maria's guns can fire several squares away in four directions, and so on. The kiai gauge can be spent to perform deathblows otherwise known as super moves, attacks that invoke a full-screen animation effect and deal lots of damage. When you have reached the moment of truth and chosen the heroine you like best, a gattai or unity technique becomes available in which the two of you team up to deliver an especially dramatic and powerful attack. This was later called a couple attack in the english translation of Sakura Wars V.

Upon completion of every game, each Sakura Wars game offers a new mode, called Teito no Nagai Ichinichi or "A Long Day". In this mode you roam around the theater, which has bonus activities located in various areas. You can see any of the movies or still event images you have unlocked, listen to music, play minigames, and so on. As the series goes on, these bonus materials get more elaborate, to the point that you can almost spend as much time with the post-game as you did with the game itself.

Social Plugs:

Sakura Taisen 3 Let's Play: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzL9-cVKzkcXNdMRs-tGbZjRS_ksYsN8h&feature=mh_lolz

Gaming Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/KataGnS?feature=mhee

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DirectorFischer

Tumblr: http://kpfmedia.tumblr.com/

As stated before, Sakura Taisen takes place in a romanticized alternate-history version of the 1920’s Tokyo and

Sakura Taisen 1: Uneo Park

other cities in the world. It takes place in the Taishou, which rests exactly between World War I and World War II. After World War 1, Japan enjoyed increasing importance and recognition in international affairs. Its urban citizens became more prosperous, cultured, modern, socially-aware, independent, and cosmopolitan. This optimistic romantic “Taishou Democracy”, to Hiroi, represented the starting point for an ideal future for Japan. He wished to rewind to that moment in history before Japan’s loss of innocence in World War II, to a time when Japan was an eminent member of the world community on its own terms, just as much as our culture and Europe’s; (even more actually, in the games Japan is the most powerful nation in the world). Especially in the teito or Imperial Capital.

Everything in Sakura Taisen is infused with a Taishou-Era flair. Text in the scene is written right to left, thankful for us Americans, as was the custom of the day. Even the game manuals are printed with their spines on the right since left-spined books wouldn’t be around for a while. In some of the games even numbers are written in kanji instead of the modern day Arabic numerals. This Taishou aesthetic permeates the design, typography, music, and dialogue.

What Sakura Taisen is slightly based on...

Noting says Taishou Democracy like a Western-style musical theater interpreted with a Japanese sensibility. The Teikoku Kagekidan or Imperial Revue is a musical theater troupe that serves as the protagonists cover while they are pursuing secret military missions. It is heavily inspire by the Takarazuka Revue, (google it), a re life theater troupe that has been performing in Kansai for the past century. Both perform spectacular Broadway-style musical theater. Both are ALL FEMALE. With some women specializing in male roles. Both are divided into sub-troupes including a hanagumi or flower troupe; this is the division that Ogami and the other 6, or 8 if your playing Sakura Taisen 2, heroines belong to. The flower theme that comes with the title pervades the series, with all of the main characters being named after flowers, except the New York Combat Revue, which are named after constellations, floral imagery appearing in most of the graphic design, and so on. Again the title is Cherry Blossom Wars with Sakura being what cherry blossoms are also called.

So you have a mostly-authentic Taishou Era setting. Now add with that the absurdly advanced steam-powered

The Koubu

machinery and reiryoku or spirit power or even “Pnuema” which NISA added into Sakura Wars So Long My Love to make it sound cool. Idiots. Otherwise these parts are what make this alternate-history thing, “alternate”. The steampunk setting is in some ways even more advanced then our modern day electronics and makes the modern conveniences of today possible then… mostly. Adding a supernatural portion in is what gives it even more flair. The mechs or koubu are powered by the spirit power that exists within the protagonists and enable them to fight off demons who have already attempted to invade the human world once, (watch the Sakura Wars TV series to understand that), and are about to attempt to do so again…

Structure:

As mentioned above, Sakura Taisen games unfold like an anime series in an episodic format, with each being divided in between 8 or 11 episodes depending on the game and a three act structure in the fourth game but that’s for another time. An episode typically starts with some day-to-day situation in the theater, presented in a cutscene style that could be familiar to any of you who have played a JRPG or even a dating sim. These scenes use Sakura Taisen’s trademark LIPS or Live-Interaction-Picture-System which is described below. The daytime scenes are generally a way to get to know the theater cast as a group, the way they behave professionally and as friends.

ST1: Eyecatch

Next comes an eyecatch, which I have stated before, just like when a televised anime is going or coming back from commercials. The eyecatch serves as a milestone for the chapter, gives the player a chance to save, and shows off a piece of character art.

At night, in ST 1, 2, and 4, the player is given some time to roam around and find more LIPS scenes for specific character, each whom tend to hang out in certain areas around the theater. These evening rounds are limited in time, shown as a literal clock which moves after every event which each takes five minutes, so you only get to see a couple out of all the possible scenes on a given night, enhancing replay value. The night scenes are usually one-on-one, and give you a chance to see the more personal side of each character; these scenes are when secrets are confided and promises are made.

Battle in Uneo Park

After the night rounds, some sort of crisis is guaranteed to occur, (no wonder why these night watches exist), and the Flower Division is called into action and suits up and heads out to fight the menace. Another eyecatch, another chance to save and you can check your squad mate’s yaruki or motivation. This statistic is how the heroines “level up” in a sense. Motivation is based your actions up until that point. Whether you’ve been nice, mean, silent, or just plain dumb factors into the point values. This doesn’t necessarily mean your done in if your heroines hate you it just means your in for a tougher fight in a relatively easy battle system. Now you get to see yet another side of the troupe, under pressure and in the heat of battle.

In the first two games, battles occur in a straightforward tactical robot combat simulation system. Basically it’s
your standard grid system strategy game with the addition that at times you are also expected to have meaningful exchanges with your squad members on the battlefield. Sakura Taisen 3, which I am playing through now, throughout the old system in favor of a brand new one forged specifically for the series with its own acronym, ARMS. The two battle systems are described in detail below.

Victory Pose!

After the battle is a concluding victory scene which includes the absolutely necessary, and always hilarious, victory pose. All of the characters played some part in the battle gather together and call out in unison, shouri no po-zu… kime!, or victory pose… go! The resulting group photo (no idea where the photographer is…) serves as a final image for the episode, and reinforces just how character-focused these games are. And it’s awesome!

Following the victory pose is the preview of the next episode. Anime standard, it shows little bits of what is going to happen next and invites you to tune in to the next episode. This pattern repeats, chapter after chapter, game after game. Gradually getting to know the characters around you in the character focused chapters, from all of these different angles, and coming to care about them over the course of the nearly 30 hours it takes to complete one of these many games. This is the core of the Sakura Taisen series’ appeal.

Social Plugs:

Sakura Taisen 3 Let's Play: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzL9-cVKzkcXNdMRs-tGbZjRS_ksYsN8h&feature=mh_lolz

Gaming Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/KataGnS?feature=mhee

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DirectorFischer

Tumblr: http://kpfmedia.tumblr.com/

Introduction:

Sakura Taisen is the Japanese cult favorite video game franchise in its purest form. It all began with one vision created by a dream team of accomplished creators, it survived through tough times as the development team took double its scheduled time in development, and then when it was released it sold out within hours. From that point on it spawned a multimedia franchise of sequels, spinoffs, anime, manga, albums, a café in Ikebukuro, (look it up), which lasted until five years ago, and yes even it’s very own stage show which lasted for 9 years. This isn’t your everyday, run of the mill dating sim spat out of Japan. This is a definitive franchise which I can actual call video games. But despite all it’s success in Japan, outside of there no one really has heard of Sakura Wars. Even I just got into it last summer after hearing of Project X Zone, a story for another time. I hope I can interest you guys in at least buying Sakura Wars So Long My Love or if you really get into this, the entire series. Don’t worry there are translation guides out there and my guide for Sakura Taisen 3 to help you along. There maybe a few of us but Sakura Wars fans do exist in America. Now with this let’s jump right into it shall we?

On the surface, the Sakura Taisen series is a hybrid of dating simulators or “visual novels” as some call them and a strategy game with a mecha combat skin, set in alternate-history Taishou era 1920’s, (the Taisho era was before Japan became a dictatorship near World War II), Tokyo, Paris, and New York, with masterpiece-level writing, voice acting, art, and music. It follows several troupes, Imperial Assault Force, Groupe Fleur De Paris, and the New York Combat Revue, which are composed of all-female pilots and include you as Ichiro Ogami or Shinjiro Taiga in Sakura Wars So Long My Love as they fight demons, also in mechs, and their evil magic under the guise of musical theater performers at their respective places, the Grand Imperial Theatre, Les Chattes Noirres, and the Littlelip Theater. It’s worldview embraces absurdity, sentimentality, nostalgia, and lots of stereotypes at the beginning of the games. It’s pride and joy, however, are and have always been it’s characters. It’s unapologetic Japaneseness has made it simultaneously aloof and exotically fascinating to audiences out of Japan and here in America.

Development:

The story of its creation begins in 1994, with a phone call from Shouichirou Irimajiri, vice president of Sega, to

Ouji Hiroi: The man who made Sakura Taisen

Ouji Hiroi, a well-regarded writer and producer and the founder of game developer Red Company. Irimajiri wanted to fill the adventure game gap in Sega's first-party lineup, (kind of like trying to compete with Final Fantasy), and thought Hiroi & Red Company had the sort of creative talents needed for such a project. Hiroi agreed and the two started working at a furious pace, building up a mountain of ideas. Hiroi's first contribution was a scroll of his own calligraphy, a poem to set the tone of the project. (That is just the sort of creative guy Hiroi is.) They dreamed up characters, and then imagined scenes for them. Upon seeing a tabletop war-game being played in the office, they decided to add tactical combat to their adventure concept. Anything was possible, and inspiration was everywhere. And yes they were inspired by something like DnD.

The people who make Sakura Taisen

Early on, they recruited legendary comic artist Kousuke Fujishima to lend his sentimental style to the character designs, and famous anime composer Kouhei Tanaka to provide an fantastical score. Tanaka finished the theme song early, and it served a similar purpose as Hiroi's calligraphy, giving the team an remindful symbol to take to heart. Fujishima brought aboard animator Hidenori Matsubara to help with the massive amount of in-game art and animated sequences. And I do mean massive, more then 80% of the games are hand-drawn! And Futoshi Nagata provided the iconic, retro-futuristic mecha designs. Continuing the all-star recruiting, writer Satoru Akahori was brought on board to start on the scripts. Because Akahori felt most comfortable writing anime scripts, he simply wrote in an episodic format, to the degree that at the end of each episode there was a preview of the next one. Think Pokémon, Hey Who’s That Pokémon? Also known as an eyecatch.  A process developed: as Akahori wrote, Hiroi edited, to make sure the script fit into his perfectionist vision of the game world. This led to the creation of four games' worth of scripts, which were then aggressively pruned down to the very best material. Development took double the planned amount of time, and the game was not released until September of 1996. What had at times seemed like a hugely over-ambitious project, doomed to failure, ended up being a huge hit, selling out on the morning of its release.

Voices:

The Stage Show

Securing a top-notch voice cast is crucial to the Sakura Taisen design. Because music and stage performance are central to its theme, Hiroi Ouji scouted many of the cast by going to live music performances and looking for women who could really sing, rather then just going through voice-acting agencies. He also sought out people who could “speak as if they were singing”; that is, peope who had a lyrical quality to their voices even when talking normally. This doesn’t apply to English voice actors’ seeing as none of them sing and when they do it sucks… terribly. Moving on… The importance places on the voice acting is evidenced by the precise synchronization of the onscreen portraits’ mouth movements with actual phonemes being spoken which is still not done in many games today and I still don’t understand how they even achieved it in 1996. (Sometimes I even imagine some poor, lowly interned, forced to program the timing of every mouth-flap for ever syllable of voice recording throughout every Sakura Wars game). (And I’m going to bash American actors now in that in the English version of Sakura Taisen 5 the lips don’t sync mostly and looks hilarious on occasion). (Except in animated cut scenes they have that down somehow). Another testament to the voice acting talent is the way that the voice-acting cast became just as idolized by fans as the characters were, and were even conflated with the characters in the live stage shows.

Social Plugs:

Sakura Taisen 3 Let's Play: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzL9-cVKzkcXNdMRs-tGbZjRS_ksYsN8h&feature=mh_lolz

Gaming Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/KataGnS?feature=mhee

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DirectorFischer

Tumblr: http://kpfmedia.tumblr.com/