Sega recently revealed the “Dramatic 3D Action” battle system of the upcoming New Sakura Taisen, code-named in the west “Project Sakura Wars.”
Yet, Sakura Wars is a series deeply rooted in its simulation RPG past, so it isn’t surprising that many may have raised an eyebrow (in some cases this is a euphemism) at the shift to action.
Yet, during the reveal broadcast Chief Creative Officer Toshihiro Nagoshi and Producer Tetsu Katano explained the reason for the decision.
Nagoshi-san explained that the team went through a lot of trial and error since the announcement of the game. While he is now happy to be able to show the game, it wasn’t always easy, implying that Sega planned to showcase it earlier, but it wasn’t ready for prime time.
The two developers explained that the team had various discussions internally, and Nagoshi-san kept asking questions “why can’t it be like this?” Ultimately, they opted to go for a faster system that younger gamers could appreciate, but that veterans from the old games could enjoy as well.
In particular, Katano-san explained that the pieces started falling into pieces when they took inspiration from action scenes like those in the opening cutscene of Sakura Wars 3: Is Paris Burning?
You can watch it below.
Interestingly, the cutscene only includes a few seconds of mecha action, but they do indeed show the essence of the system that we have seen in Project Sakura Wars’ new reveal. The movement is fast and fluid, we see the mecha jumping around and even wall-running.
It’ll be interesting to see the final result, and there certainly are many questions still in the air, but the mechanics certainly seem promising.
If you’d like to learn more about Project Sakura Wars, you can enjoy the latest gameplay reveal and the previous one, on top of the latest gallery of screenshots and art.
You can also check out some awesome artwork by main character designer Tite Kubo and the second batch of character sketches.
If you’re unfamiliar with the Sakura Wars series, you should take a look at my dedicated article explaining what it’s all about.
Project Sakura Wars releases in Japan on December 12, 2019, exclusively for PS4, and in the west in 2020.
