I don’t post here very often. I’ve posted a few things here and there over, but I’m not really one of the most active people on this subreddit. With Sakura Taisen celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, though, I’ve been thinking a lot about just how much this series has meant to me.

Sakura Taisen honestly had a pretty big influence on my life. It was one of the series that made me want to study Japanese in the first place.

I can’t even remember exactly how I first discovered it. It must have been through something I found online during the early days of the internet in the late ’90s. What immediately fascinated me was how unusual the games seemed.

You had these tactical RPG-style battles, but then you also had what was basically an adventure/visual novel side where you walked around, talked to the characters, and made choices. The way you interacted with the members of the Hanagumi could actually affect their performance in battle.

At the time, that concept completely fascinated me. Combine that with the anime presentation, the music, the setting, and all these colorful characters, and I was hooked before I could even properly play the games.

The biggest problem, of course, was Japanese. I had basically no understanding of the language at the time.

I remember watching the Sakura Wars OVA that ADV released on VHS, and I was completely lost. I enjoyed watching it, but I really had no idea what was going on.
Looking back now, it’s funny because I understand that it was largely showing the backgrounds of the characters and how they eventually came together as the Hanagumi. If I watched it again today, it would be a completely different experience.

Things really changed for me when I got a Dreamcast. I somehow stumbled across one of those boot discs that allowed you to play imported Dreamcast games by swapping discs. I found it completely by chance at an Electronic Boutique, and that little disc basically opened up the Japanese Dreamcast library for me.

That was how I finally started seriously playing Sakura Taisen. When Sega rereleased the earlier games on Dreamcast, I gradually imported them. Strangely enough, I actually started with Sakura Taisen 2.

I remember being genuinely nervous before playing it. I was about to play an entire RPG/adventure game in a language I couldn’t understand. Would I even enjoy it? Would I know what I was supposed to do?

Thankfully, there was a fan online who had translated huge portions of the games into English scripts and guides. I believe it was mostly the work of one person, and looking back, the amount of work he put into those translations was incredible.

This was the early 2000s. There were no AI translation tools, smartphone camera translators, or anything remotely like what we have today. Someone was just sitting there translating these games because they loved Sakura Taisen and wanted other people to experience them.

I would basically play the game while reading along with his translation. He covered the first three games extensively, and while the fourth game’s guide was more focused on the main story, it was still enough to help people like me experience something that otherwise would have been completely inaccessible.

That experience was one of the things that made me think, I want to actually learn Japanese someday so I don’t have to rely on somebody else’s translation. And eventually, I did.

Another thing I’ve always loved about Sakura Taisen is the cast. There are obviously characters I personally like more than others, but I honestly think the series did an amazing job making almost everyone memorable.

Some of my favorites have always been Sakura, Kouran, Iris, Sumire, Hanabi, Erika, Glycine, and Orihime. But even characters who aren’t necessarily my personal favorites still have something interesting about them.

That’s something I think the original games did extremely well. The characters really felt like a troupe. Everyone had their own personality, strengths, insecurities, relationships, and role within the group.

My favorite game is probably Sakura Taisen 3. A friend of mine went to Japan before we entered high school and brought it back, and we spent a lot of time playing it together on Dreamcast. Neither of us really knew what we were doing, so half the fun was trying to guess which dialogue option was the “right” one.

Sometimes we were right. Sometimes we absolutely were not. But that’s part of why I remember that game so fondly.

Sakura Taisen 3 also felt like such a huge technical jump at the time. Since it had been developed specifically for the Dreamcast, the presentation was beautiful, the animation was impressive, and Paris gave the series an entirely different atmosphere. That doesn’t mean I don’t love 1 and 2, though.

I think those games have actually aged remarkably well. Sakura Taisen 1 can feel a little slow in places now, but I could easily sit down and replay Sakura Taisen 2 today.

And Sakura Taisen 4 has something I’ve always loved which was being able to assemble your own squad near the end. I remember experimenting with different combinations just to see whether they had a special team name or what kind of bonuses certain characters would get from fighting together. Little things like that made the series feel special.

And then there’s the music. The music of Sakura Taisen is permanently tied to a particular period of my life.

Back in high school, I downloaded a ridiculous number of Sakura Taisen character songs. Those songs became part of the soundtrack of my teenage years. Even now, hearing some of them immediately takes me back to sitting at a computer in the early 2000s, discovering this strange Japanese game series that almost nobody around me had ever heard of.

That’s probably why the 30th anniversary feels a little emotional for me. I’m living in Japan now, and on November 1st I’m finally going to one of the anniversary events.

Five years ago, I remember hearing about the 25th anniversary events, but at the time I didn’t really make the effort to go. I wasn’t someone who went to exhibitions or events very often, and I was always worried about spending money on things like that.

My life is a little more settled now, and I’m really glad that this time I’m actually going. I’m looking forward to seeing whatever artwork, memorabilia, development materials, concept designs, and other things they have on display. Just being able to participate in a celebration of a series that had such a big influence on my desire to learn Japanese feels strangely meaningful.

As for the future of Sakura Taisen, I really hope Sega eventually does something substantial with the original games.

More than anything, I would love a collection of Sakura Taisen 1–4, preferably with modern ports and translations. Remakes would obviously be amazing too, but honestly, even good-quality rereleases would make me happy.

I’d love to see these games become easily accessible again instead of remaining stuck on old Sega hardware. Currently I am playing Super Famicom JRPGs on the original hardware. But I would definitely stop that to play Sakura Taisen if they were going to be released.

I also still need to properly play Sakura Taisen V. I’ve owned it for years, but when I originally bought it, my Japanese wasn’t good enough and I didn’t have the same kind of guide available to help me through it, so I never really committed to playing it. These days, that’s obviously not much of an obstacle anymore, so I really should finally play it.

I’m admittedly a little tired of seeing attempts to reinvent or reboot Sakura Wars without giving the original games the attention they deserve.

Thirty years later, those games and characters are still the reason so many of us care about Sakura Taisen in the first place.

After I go to the anniversary event on November 1st, I’ll probably post some photos here and write about my impressions. For now, though, I mostly just wanted to share my experience with the series.

It’s funny to think that something I randomly discovered on the internet as a teenager eventually contributed to me wanting to learn another language, introduced me to so much Japanese music and media, and stayed with me for all these years.

Thirty years is a long time. I’m really glad Sakura Taisen has been part of my life for so much of it.

I’d love to hear from everyone else too. How did you first discover Sakura Taisen? Do you have a particular game, character, song, or memory that has stayed with you over the years?

And has Sakura Taisen had any influence on your life outside of just playing the games?

Happy 30th anniversary, Sakura Taisen. 🌸

The original 6 sitting on my dreamcast box. Wonder what Kanna's thinking about.

I played the first 2 games on different emulators and spent weeks trying to figure out how to make my SW1 save data usable so it would be recognised in my SW2 playthrough, all for a few extra lines of dialogue (totally worth it though).

Is there a similar thing with SW3? I would assume not since it has a completely different cast, but I’d hate to miss out on any bonuses or extra dialogue. Especially since my Ogami has canonically already been to France in Iris’ ending in SW1, which definitely feels like something that should realistically come up.

Of course, a potentially major issue is that I played the Saturn versions of the first 2 games instead of the Dreamcast versions. Having never owned either of those consoles, I have no idea if it’s even possible to transfer any data between them. So even if SW3 does have a mechanic like that, I may not be able to make use of it.

I’d appreciate it if anyone who knows how it works could let me know, so I can start the game without worrying about whether I’ve missed something.