Sakura Wars

Project X Zone removed from North America & Europe Nintendo eShop

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For reasons unknown, the digital version of Project X Zone has been removed from the Nintendo eShop. Starting around 2012 games produced for the system typically sport a retail and digital version, with a few exceptions that are retail exclusive or vise versa. Typically the digital version would need to be loaded into an SD card, but the main benefit of choosing digital is slightly faster loading times, the convenience of not switching 3DS game cards, and the option to re-download the game at any given time.

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Axel Stone from Streets of Rage, Sakura Shinguji of Sakura Wars and more confirmed for Project X Zone 2

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Courtesy of the new issue of Famitsu (and the scans above, provided by @TACK0520 on Twitter), we now know three more characters showing up on the SEGA side of things in the upcoming Project X Zone 2: Brave New World.

Axel Stone of Streets of Rage fame has been confirmed to show up in the game, as have Sakura Shinguji and Gemini Sunrise from the Sakura Taisen series. Whilst both Sakura Taisen characters return from the first game, this is Axel’s first appearance in a seriously long time, and it’s great to see him added to the roster. In addition to these SEGA additions, Capcom’s Phoenix Wright and Maya Fey of their Ace Attorney series are also confirmed to be appearing, as well as characters from God Eater 2 and Summon Night 3. From the looks of things, Axel will be an assist unit, whereas the Taisen characters return in their role from Project X Zone. 

Overall, it’s awesome to see more SEGA love from this game; Axel was definitely near the top of my wanted list, and I’m ecstatic to see him return.

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Project x Zone 2: Brave New World trailer shows off new Shinobi and Yakuza crossover

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Famitsu.com has now officially spilled the beans on the new upcoming Project x Zone 2: Brave New World video game coming to the Nintendo 3DS this fall worldwide! The game shows off some new crossover characters that will be brand new including SEGA fan favorites (listed below):

List of franchises/characters confirmed:

SEGA:

  • Shinobi (PS2): Hotsuma Hotsuma
  • Yakuza Dead Souls: Kazuma Kiryu and Majima Goro
  • Virtua Fighter: Yuki Akira and Kage-Maru
  • Sakura Wars: Ichiro Ogami and Erica Fontaine

Capcom:

  • Resident Evil: Revelations: Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine
  • Resident Evil 6: Leon S. Kennedy
  • Devil May Cry: Dante and Virgil
  • Mega Man X: X and Zero
  • Strider: Flying Dragon

Namco-Bandai:

  • Tales of Vespera: Yuri Lowell and Flynn Shifo
  • Tekken: Jin Kazama and Kazuya Mishima
  • .hack//: Kite and Haseo
  • Soul Calibur V: Natsu

Obviously some of the characters listed are returning from the previous game. To see all the tie-ins in the last Project x Zone, here is a complete list. Hit the jump to see screens.

Update: Replaced the Japanese trailer with the English one released by Namco-Bandai USA. Meaning that yes, its going to come West this fall!

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Iwakura Productions to Fan Translate Sakura Taisen on PC

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Iwakura Productions, known for their work on numerous Japanese fan translated games, has taken charge of translating SEGA and Red’s best selling dating sim/tactical role-playing game, Sakura Taisen (Sakura Wars in the West) to English. The project is currently being worked on by three people and will have a brand new translation with no prior scripts to be used or referenced. So far, the game’s script is 1/12th finished. If anyone would like to volunteer for the translation project, click here and send comment to the project lead. For screenshots of the game in english, be sure to hit the jump!

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What happens if you mix Beastie Boys music with Sakura Wars?

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Kori here to bring you an amazing mash up of the Sakura Wars iconic theme song “Geki! Teikoku Kagekidan!” (which roughly translates “Attack! Imperial Floral Assault Team!“) with Bestie Boys in the mix.

The original video was found on NicoNicoDouga and uploaded on YouTube. The mix is pretty amazing with the fusion of the Bestie Boys singing and Chisa Yokoyama as Sakura Shinguji as the lead singer.

If you have any thoughts on this amazing mash up video, be sure leave us a comment below

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Segalization and Sakura Taisen Week

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Segalization heard that SEGAbits was running a Sakura Taisen-themed week, and we were happy to help commemorate the week by contributing something of our own. Sakura Taisen, or Sakura Wars as it’s known over here, is easily one of the most prominent SEGA franchises to never make it stateside. It is the poster child for what Segalization wants to correct. So please, read on as we go into Sakura Wars’ history, what it means to the Segalization mission and my own personal experience with the only game in the franchise that has been localized.

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The SEGA Five: Ways to experience Sakura Taisen

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Sakura Taisen has had an interesting history in the West. Though the first four games that make up the core of the franchise were never localized, the series’ anime and manga adaptions were. As a result, Sakura Taisen was able to establish a cult following in the West, one strong enough to spawn continued interest in the franchise from both fans and corporations years later.

Thanks to the efforts of these companies and fans, there are now several ways for western audiences to get a taste of the franchise. Though they are not all complete and they are not all convenient, these are the five ways you can experience the biggest SEGA franchise to never officially make it West.

This is the Westerner’s guide to Sakura Wars.

(Special Note: the information from this list is derived from Kori Maru’s extensive knowledge of the franchise. He was gracious enough to help us out with the research for this article)

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SEGA Channel Retro: Sakura Taisen 1-4 streaming marathon

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Kori-Maru here to bring our readers a live stream today featuring Sakura Taisen 1-4 during Sakura Taisen week running on a SEGA Dreamcast system. The stream will begin at 7:15 AM 9:30 AM Eastern Time. I will be showing off the each game in the main series for fans and newcomers of the series and it’s gameplay features. Be sure to stop by our SEGA Channel Retro Stream Channel and ask us questions during the stream.

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SEGA Tunes: Sakura Taisen’s “Kimi Yo Hana Yo (Live)”

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As some of you may remember, we’ve covered Sakura Taisen on Tuesday Tunes before, featuring music from both the game itself and its stage show incarnations. As a musical theatre buff myself, I am extremely jealous of Japanese fans for the dozens of Sakura Taisen related stage shows they’ve had over the years. After all, the closest thing us westerners have gotten to a proper SEGA related stage show is that awful Sonic musical from Australia.

A Sakura Taisen stage show is rather fitting though, given that the game itself stars performers who actively sing and dance on stage. The above video is from the 2003 Shichifukujin show, which features all the voice actors from the Sakura Taisen video games and anime reprising their roles on stage. From what I’ve seen of the show it looks pretty cool, and the performers themselves are definitely talented.

The song “Kimi Yo Hana Yo” was originally composed by Kouhei Tanaka for the end credits of Sakura Wars 4. The stage version features all of the games voice actors reprising their roles as members of Flower Division, including Akio Suyama as Captain Ichirou Oogami and Chisa Yokoyama as titular character Sakura Shinguji.

Check below the fold for the version of the song featured in the game!

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SEGAbits & Segalization partnership

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Hi SEGAbits readers! Some of you may have heard about Segalization, our new fan campaign that focuses on promoting the localization of Japanese Sega games. The project has already gone live a while ago, and today we’d like to formally announce a new partnership with our friends at SEGAbits. Other than having both websites link to each other, this partnership means you may find Segalization staffers occasionally contributing articles to SEGABits, which may or may not involve titles or news related to Segalization’s mission. In this first article, we’d like to talk a bit about the origins and goals of our campaign/website.

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Sakura Wars Mobage will feature a costume changing system and sign ups

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A few months ago, SEGA and Red Entertainment made a partnership with Mobage to develop a new Sakura Wars game which displeased many fans in Japan.  However, Sakura Wars for Mobage  will feature a original story featuring several characters from the franchise a new gameplay system that involves changing costumes.

Details about how this  will change gameplay have not been announced as of yet. Signups for Sakura Wars for  Mobage start today and if you register early you’ll get an ultra rare  Sakura Shinguji card. Service for the game is scheduled to begin sometime this winter.

Special Thanks to SEGAFAN for the tip!

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Sakura Wars the Movie now avalible on Blu-Ray/DVD Combo Pack

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Western Sakura Wars, anime, and hardcore SEGA fans alike can now rejoice as Sakura Wars the Movie makes it’s grand return today on Blu-Ray disc for $34.98 in retail stores and $17.49 with 50% savings on Funimation’s store page. The Blu-Ray version contains tons of special features such as interviews with the creators, promotional videos, Japanese commercials and more. Hit the jump for the summary of the movie.

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SEGAbits Visits SEGA of America, Inc. in Sunny San Francisco – Part 3

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Welcome to the third and final part of our visit to SEGA of America! Check out the first part here and the second part here. In part three, we’re going to take a look at several rare, cool, and sometimes strange pieces of SEGA history pulled from SEGA’s archives from SEGA community managers Kellie Parker and Julian Mehlfeld. Consoles in their original boxes, cool accessories, rare statues, and a few items from the Kellie Parker Collection™ can all be seen after the break!

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Sakura Wars CG Motion Manga heading to Japan by TOMOTOON!

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SEGA and Red has collabrated with japanese animation studio TOMOTOON! to bring the manga adaptation of Sakura Wars by series creator, Ouji Hiroi, to life with CG motion, which was also translated into english towards the Western manga readers by the manga publishing company, TokyoPop.

The trailer features a few first panels of the manga in full motion CG, almost compared to the Valkyria Chronicles cutscenes. I happen to like motion comics by comic publishers like Marvel and DC Comics for example and pretty stoke to see how this turns out as a fan of the series. What are your thoughts?

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