New Info on Shin Sakura Taisen covers main enemies, union attacks, and more!

New information on Shin Sakura Taisen has been released in the upcoming Famitsu article which covers the introduction of the exorcism who are the enemies of the new Flower Division, the highlights of Wind Division members’ battle clothes and “union attacks”. One of the main antagonist is named Oboro, a demon who appears in the Imperial Capital with Yasha and has joy in scaring people and those dying in despair. He specializes in using illusions on his enemies in battle and controls a puppet army of demons covered in armor.

The article also showcased Kaoru Rindo and Komachi Ohba in their battle uniforms and supporting the commander in the Strategy Command Room and in the Shogei Maru. At last, the returning from the classic Sakura Taisen games is the bond gauge and union attacks. In the battle sections, performance will be strengthened according to the depth of bonds with the members of the Flower Division.

Bonds change their initial state depending on choices made in the adventure section, and can deepen by actions during the battle. A “union attack” that can be triggered only once per battle if certain conditions are met and will show a cutscene of Kamiyama with one of the heroines. After the cutscene ends, the status of Kamiyama and the corresponding heroine will be greatly enhanced for a certain period of time.

Shin Sakura Taisen aka Project Sakura Wars will be released on December 12, 2019 in Japan and Spring 2020 for Americas and Europe for Playstation 4.

Shin Sakura Taisen the Comic Vol. 1 and the Novel to be released in Japan this Winter

The official Sakura Taisen website announced that the first volume of Shin Sakura Taisen the Comic, authored by Kouri Noguchi, will be released by Shueisha in Japan on December 19, 2019 on Thursday for 600 yen along with the Novel set for release on the same day for 1,000 yen.

Shin Sakura Taisen the Novel will be written by Ayumi Muyoshi and will set as a prequel to the game where Sumire Kanzaki, retired member of the old Flower Division now commander, is reconstructing the new Flower Division by recruiting new members and Sakura Amamiya first encounter with the team.

If you are a fan of the Sakura Taisen series since the beginning, these books would be great collector items to import as soon as they hit online stores. Fingers crossed for the comic and novel to be licensed over here in the west as soon as Project Sakura Wars releases next year in Spring 2020 for Playstation 4.

TGS 2019: Sakura Taisen CD Song Collection and Shin Sakura Taisen the Stage announced

Last night during SEGA’s Tokyo Game Show stream, Sakura Taisen series, Kohei Takana, made an appearance as a guest and unveiled the Sakura Taisen Song Collection which contains 62 vocal tracks from the entire series and will be a part of the Limited Edition Package. Later during the stream, SEGA announced that Sakura Taisen will return live on stage with Shin Sakura Taisen the Stage in 2020 with Yuna Sekina as the game’s protagonist Sakura Amamiya. There are currently no announcements on the date for the stage show at the moment, but we’ll keep everyone posted. In the meantime, take a look of the CD collection and Sakura Amaimiya music video by Kohei Takana after the break.

TGS 2019: First look at Shin Sakura Taisen Opening Intro and Limited Edition Package

On stage at SEGA’s Tokyo Game Show booth, SEGA has unveiled the opening intro to Shin Sakura Taisen which captures the spirit of the original five games with breath taking visuals and showcased the limited edition package version of the game with visual design by Tite Kubo, author of BLEACH manga series, which contains an art book filled with character designs and more.

With SEGA localizing the game to the west, we hope that the localization team can bring these over as well. You can import the limited edition package through Amazon or Play-Asia. Feel free to take a good look at the limited edition package version after the break.

TGS 2019: Shin Sakura Taisen the Animation coming to Japanese TV in 2020

During SEGA’s Tokyo Game Show Live Stream, SEGA has made an announcement that Shin Sakura Taisen will receive an TV anime adaptation in 2020. The anime will be CGI and directed by Manabu Ono, known for directing several popular anime series such as “The Irregular At Magic High School” and “Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere”. We’ve also added screenshots of the anime in the article below for everyone to see and trailer over on Twitter (Credit towards HDKirin for capturing the stream).

It’s been almost 20 years since we had an TV anime adaptation of Sakura Taisen. With the game releasing to the west later next year, I have fingers crossed for Shin Sakura Taisen the Animation to be picked up in the US and localized. Have you ever watched the Sakura Taisen anime adaptations back in the day of ADV Films/Funimation and what are your thoughts on this announcement? Feel free to leave a comment below.

TGS 2019: New Shin Sakura Taisen Info with Story and Gameplay Trailers

During SEGA’s Tokyo Game Show presentation for Shin Sakura Taisen, the game’s producer, Tetsu Katano, made several announcements on what we can expect from Shin Sakura Taisen starting with a gameplay demonstration of the New Imperial Combat Revue members, Azami and Anastasia, in action. Following from there, they have made a few new character announcements with Yasha (CV: Chisa Yokoyama), A mysterious high-class exorcism that suddenly appeared in the Imperial Capital along with the disaster at the opening ceremony of the Hanatakudan War. Hardcore fans of the Sakura Taisen series will instantly know the identity of this character.

Next on the announcement were the members of the Berlin Combat Revue, Ellis (CV: Nana Mizuki) and Margarete (CV: Rie Kugimiya), with character designs by Fumikane Shimada, known for creating characters sparking the popularity of the mecha musume boom within the 2000s. In the Sakura Taisen V: New York OVA, the Berlin Combat Revue was briefly hinted at as Ratchet Altair left New York to help form a new team. The stream ended with several trailers showcasing the adventure and combat game play along with a few commercials. You can check them out along with character images after the break!

Shin Sakura Taisen Official Stream unveils new characters, gameplay, package art, and much more

On the recent Sakura Wars Imperial Theater Propaganda Department Report stream, SEGA revealed a lot of information regarding the upcoming game. As the stream began, they have demonstrated another look at game play by showcasing two Flower Division members, Hatsuho Shinome and Clarice Snowflake, with their own battle mode features and a tutorial session for beginners who are new to the game. Next, the staff introduced a new package art for the game and merchandise to be sold at Tokyo Game Show 2019. They have also revealed that Shin Sakura Taisen will be receiving a manga adaptation by Koyuri Noguchi and will be serialized at Weekly Young Jump on September 12th.

Then the staff shown off a new character, Gekizou, a machine doll designed by Ken Sugimori (known for his artwork behind Pulseman and the Pokemon series) and will serve promoting the Imperial Theater with Seijuro making sure that it doesn’t go down under. At last, another set of characters are revealed to appear in Shin Sakura Taisen with introduction of the London Assault Force who pilot the Spirit Particle Fighters named the Prywen. The London Assault Force is made of Lancelot and her captain Arthur with “BunBun“, illustrator of the Sword Art Online light novels as their character designer.

The new team then challenges Sakura and Seijuro in a battle. The London Assault Force also has another team member that has yet to be revealed as producer, Katano, wanted to show more about Arthur and Lancelot but anymore scenes with them will contain big spoilers. As the stream was about to end, the staff announced that the next set of streams will be held each day at Tokyo Game Show 2019 from September 12 to September 15th. Shin Sakura Taisen is set for release in Japan on December 12th with western release set for Spring 2020.

What are your thoughts on the latest info on Shin Sakura Taisen and what do you expect from Tokyo Game Show? Let us know in the comment below.

Project Sakura Wars Battle System Gameplay to debut in official live stream on July 25th

SEGA will be hosting a second live stream of the ‘Sakura Wars: Imperial Theater Propaganda Department Report’, and will demonstrate the battle segments of the game and more public information on Project Sakura Wars. The live stream will premiere on July 25th from 20:00 JST to 21:30 JST (4am-5:30am PST) on YouTube and Periscope.

The stream will feature:

– Tetsu Katano (Project Sakura Wars producer)
– Nao Yue (SEGA, director of SEGA Games Corporation)
– Mami Yamashita (assistant MC)

If you can’t make it to the stream, SEGA will have it uploaded to their YouTube archives and we’ll keep you posted on more news regarding Project Sakura Wars as they come by.

Project Sakura Wars Developer Interview: Project’s Beginnings, Tite Kubo, and More

In a recent interview on Famitsu, Project Sakura Wars development leads, Takaharu Terada (series director), Tetsu Katano (producer), and Tetsuya Ootsubo (development director), talks about on how the development for Project Sakura Wars began after the SEGA Fes 2016 fan poll, reaching out to Tite Kubo, known as the author of the Bleach manga series, to do character designs, enhanced gameplay mechanics taken from the original games and more.

The development team also stated that they wanted to reboot the series instead of making a sequel to the original games as the last game in the series Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love was released 10 years ago. You can check the entire Famitsu interview by hitting the jump!

New Sakura Wars will be shown soon, in “surprisingly good quality” according to Toshihiro Nagoshi

For a while, New Sakura Wars (aka Shin Sakura Taisen) has been in limbo since it’s initial April announcement back at SEGA Fes 2018. Since then, there’s been nothing concrete over what the game is about, with only rumors such as a planned Q1 2019 release date and possibly appearing on Playstation 4 and Xbox One being the closest things to concrete information. But it seems like a proper reveal will happen soon. According to SEGA’s Toshihiro Nagoshi, development on New Sakura Wars has been positive so far, specifically noting how the staff have been “fired up” over the project and how the game is in “surprisingly good quality”. Because of this, it won’t be long until something is announced in the future.

While the reassurance is always welcome, nothing specific has been dropped at this time. So we’ll still need to wait just a tad longer for what New Sakura Wars will be about.

[Source: SEGA Nama, Gamestalk]

Job Listing for the New Sakura Wars Game hints on PS4 & Xbox One release.


After SEGA CEO, Haruki Satomi, announced a new Sakura Wars game in the works a few months ago during SEGA FES in Japan, there has been a new job listing for the game that just opened up recently focusing a release on Playstation 4 and Xbox One consoles. New job listings were posted at Creative Job by SEGA that state that a staff is required for the New Sakura Wars game which includes:

  • Background Designers
  • Character Designers
  • Mecha Modelers

Each staff member would also need prior experience with developing on Playstation 3/4 and Xbox 360/One console hardware along with using high-end game engines. The new Sakura Wars game does not currently have any confirmed platforms or release date but SEGA has stated that the game will released by the end of the current fiscal year.

[Source: Siliconera]

SEGA FES 2018: SEGA working on Project Shin Sakura Taisen

Topping off the events announcement, SEGA CEO Haruki Satomi announced that the company has began work on a new Sakura Taisen project, still named Shin Sakura Taisen. I was predicting that the possibility of Sakura Taisen being revived ever since it placed first in the survey that had SEGA ask fans what series they’d like revived. Look at the past list, with Virtual On having a game released recently and Shenmue getting ports announced, perhaps this means a future Jet Set Radio and Virtua Fighter game might be on the cards? As this is a breaking story, please bare with us as we update it with further details.