There have been some additional details on Project Sakura Wars from the Japanese magazine Famitsu recently. There isn’t any major reveals or news here, just interviews with the developers sharing some details. First off, the games development began with Sakura Wars winning first place on the Sega Fan Fes 2016 fan poll. They share their experience working with Tite Kubo, author artist of the manga series Bleach, as character designer. They also shared that an artist that worked on the anime adaptation of Bleach is working on designing visual settings for this game. The setting of the previous games combining “steam civilization” and “taisho era romance” will remain intact.
A little bit of insight into what the story will be was also given. An event known as The Great Combat Revue World War, a sort of sports festival featuring mechs known as Combat Revues is being held. Something sinister seems to have happened during this event. The game is going to be in full 3D, and you’ll be able to walk around environments. The Sakura Wars series is known for it’s LIPS system during conversations, which is returning here. In past games, this was a feature where you had to make critical dialogue choices under a set time limit.
There will be a “trust system” between you and the other characters, and this will affect your battle parameters and opens up access to new skills. The protagonist is a flexible character who can be either a lover or comedian depending on player choice. Not sure what the latter implies exactly, but it seems like you’ll be able to form relationships with other characters. There will be 40 minutes worth of anime cutscenes, produced by studio Sanzigen. Mech design is being done by Mika Akitaka, who most notably worked on various Gundam series.
The creator of Sakura Wars, Oji Horoi, shared that he was excited to see a new entry to the franchise being handled by new staff. The writer for the first five Sakura Wars games, Satoru Akahori, seemed confident in a new staff working on this as well. The game’s soundtrack is planned to have 70-80 songs, and they’re aiming to have the most songs in the series. Overall, this seems like a very ambitious project. Development is roughly 40-50% complete
