She's Called Cherry COCKER?! - My Thoughts On Sakura Wars (PS2)

[mobiusclimber]

So I recently got the new Sakura Wars ~So Long My Love~ from Rosenqueen and started playing it (even tho I never beat Ar Tonelico or SMT: Devil Summoner, which I promised myself I'd beat the both of them at least before starting another PS2 game), and anyway I thought it might be fun to record my thoughts on the game as I play it. Anyone currently going through the game (or who have some insights or whatever), play along! ^-^ (And yeah, I'll be spoiling most of the game. You've been warned.)

1) The game starts a lot like the first Sakura Wars game (and I wonder if they all start like this) with your character meeting Sakura in the park surrounded my sakura trees in bloom. But pretty soon you get shipped off to America. I gotta say that the whole setting for this game has me seriously worried. Not to mention the characters I've seen in the artbook.

2) Almost immediately I'm smacking my forehead over this game. A female Lone Ranger shows up to stop two bank robbers, and your character gets accused of stealing even though EVERYONE just saw who the bank robbers are AND watched Miss Lone Ranger take them out. They KNOW your character has nothing to do w/ the bank robbers. Seriously, game, wtf? But you don't end up going to jail b/c the guy who was supposed to pick you up ends up showing up and telling the police detectives to shove it. Huh? My brain already hurts by this point. The whole sequence seems to have no reason for being beyond to introduce a couple of characters. What an oddball way to do it tho.

3) You're then whisked away to the Little Lip Theater, and if there was a more sexually suggestive name for this place, I can't think of it.

4) The weird thing about the Sakura Wars games is that they're about a theater troupe who also battle enemies using giant mechs. In this game, it's a Broadway revue. I'm actually not sure what the point of mixing theater acting w/ strategy battles is. In the first game, they do it to keep a low profile, and supposedly that's why they do it here. Except that EVERYONE knows all about the mech battles... I'm still trying to figure out if they know the mechs are related to the theater but considering the incredibly stupid way that the mechs are launched, I'm not sure how they wouldn't.

5) Almost immediately after meeting the masked Miss Lone Ranger, you meet a girl w/ the same heavy accent, same red hair, and same flippin horse! But do you even bother asking her, "hey aren't you that chick w/ the mask?" you just act completely clueless. Urrrrrrgggghhhhh.... My brain! My poor poor brain!

6) You also meet the aforementioned Cherry Cocker who proceeds to shamelessly flirt w/ you, and a girl named Anri. No relation to Shining Force's Anri tho, unfortunately. And no, I can't say the name Cherry Cocker with a straight face.

7) I've seen enough giant robot anime to know that they always have to make these needlessly complicated sequences showing the pilots going thru tubes and shit, getting dressed, and being inserted, one way or the other, into their giant robot, but this game seriously takes it to ludicrous lengths. The pilots slide down into a hangar where they grab a guide rope or some shit and glide down it to a huge MOUTH that opens up and swallows them. The whole building rises up and changes into a CROSSBOW that launches them into the sky. That's not even the worst tho. The worst is Cherry Cocker shouting GO! and watching as the giant pair of lips (that look like a balloon attached to the building) open up and shout GO! at the same time. Seriously... seriously game... WTF?!!!

8) Your mech is powered by something called Pneuma and you have to fight against the dark pneuma. No, sadly, not Numa Numa. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmtzQCSh6xk)

9) The adventure segments are seriously frustrating. To start with, there are the typical "choose your response from these three responses" which take too long just to read. The problem is that the game doesn't stop and wait, you actually have a limited amount of time to make your selection. Sorry I'm stupid and have to read w/ my lips, what does that say??? *squints* See, this just makes the game more frustrating than need be. Worse is that the translation (or the actual writing, who knows?) makes certain answers seem different than what they turn out to be. At one point, you have to choose between three things you can say in response to a gift of a necktie. The one on the bottom seems innocent enough, yet when you choose it, it becomes far more suggestive. The middle one is "I'll do my best to earn it" which sounds REALLY suggestive, but simply means "I'll be a good captain so you don't regret buying this for me." I seriously wish the replies were easier to understand. The worst thing tho would have to be the minigames were you use the left and right analogue sticks to input directional moves. You have to do this within a time limit, and there's no onscreen indication that you USE the analogue sticks for this. "It's all there in the manual." XD Thanks game. These aren't too hard once you know what you're doing, but all it would have taken was one line of text "use the analogue sticks" to not make me mess up the first one of these!

[mobiusclimber]

I really hate replying to myself, and I'll probably stop writing in here if no one else is interested in this but me, but for now... whatever. I've actually gotten thru several chapters since I first wrote this, so I'm going strictly by memory here...

1) Two more weird names: Subaru and Cheiron Archer. Subaru is Japanese. Like the car. (Is this a typical Japanese name? I don't know but either way I can't hear/read it w/o thinking about the car). Cheiron is pronounced KAREN, which is also headache-inducing. Apparently it has to do w/ a centaur from Greek mythology, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheiron) which is better than my first guess. (I thought it had to do w/ Chairon, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charon_%28mythology%29) also from Greek mythology.) Seriously, this game has the weirdest naming fetishes outside of Square's use of meteorological events. XD

2) Each chapter gives you an opportunity to take a picture of a background and submit it to Cherry for a bromide. The problem is that you only get one chance to wander around on your own in each chapter, and if you spend too much time visiting people, your time is up and you have to ... go home or go on to the next scene. It's frustrating to miss the opportunity over and over again. Oh well, at least they aren't sexy bromides so I'm not actually missing anything. (The girls in this aren't that attractive anyway, tho KAREN isn't too bad on the eyes when you see an older pic of her when she used to be part of a ... "gang." In the game, gangs are apparently agents of good deeds that protect the neighborhood they live in, which I guess is historically accurate?)

3) Speaking of those wandering around segments: this game really doesn't give you enough time to go do stuff on your own. It's like if in Persona 3 every month you only got one day to go off and do whatever you wanted. I guess I'm used to dating sims having a more open-ended, semi-sandbox approach, but then this game does have to split up telling a coherent storyline, having strategy battles AND giving you the opportunity to go walking around on your own, so I guess I can kind of understand the rigid nature of the game. I still wish I had a bit more freedom.

4) The battles tho... they are all kinds of awesome. I do wish it was easier to save in the middle of them (I think you can, but it takes you out to the main menu? I know during the adventure portions that's what happens, but I haven't tried it during the battles) b/c they are always broken up into two parts, and they take a LONG time to get thru. The first part is basically destroying "fodder" enemies, and is pretty easy. You even get special attacks and joint attacks which usually allow you to wipe out more than one enemy at a time (some special attacks only target one enemy or don't even attack, it depends on the pilot). This is seriously satisfying. The second part is a boss battle, which can be REALLY frustrating, but also pretty fun. The difficulty really ramps up. And again there are some strategies that don't even really get talked about in the game, but that are essential. The main character can choose to "protect" one girl, which will keep her from getting hurt. Holy crap is this useful!!! I've so far only had to replay one boss battle, and I'm kicking myself for not doing better on it the second time since your trust goes down w/ any pilot that gets beaten during a battle. And wouldn't you know it, Subaru got taken out in that one horribly long, impossible battle. XD Damn. She's probably the second hardest girl to please in this game (next to Anri), but I wasn't about to replay that boss battle again. (I would have had to lose anyway if I wanted to replay it.)

5) I wish saving was easier in this game, but I think I know why it isn't. They really don't want you to keep replaying the same conversation until you choose the right answer. But yes, if you want to save during the game, you have to press the start button and choose "Discontinue," which will take you out to the main menu. So it's a toss up if you want either just live w/ the screw ups (and it's really easy to screw up due to the time limit on answering questions and the analog stick parts), save every few minutes and have to go thru restarting every time, or reset when you screw up and play the same bits all over again.

[TonyTheTiger]

It sounds like you really don't like this game. At all.

[skaar]

Hey I want a cheap copy hook me up!

[RARusk]

*tries to say Cherry Cocker with a straight face*

*fails*

[mobiusclimber]

It sounds like you really don't like this game. At all.

That's the odd thing tho: this is the one of the few games I've played in awhile where I'll sit down and play for three or four hours straight. Yeah, there's a lot of problems and just general weirdness, but it's actually pretty entertaining. It isn't going to win any awards for its writing... or graphics... or anything, really. But it's just straight up fun! It's weird, I compared one aspect of this game to Persona 3, which has a far better adventure segment, a far more involving battle system (well... the whole demon recruiting thing, leveling up system, it has armor.... it basically has a lot more going on than this game does). Yet I was thoroughly bored w/ Persona 3 by the halfway mark. I'm actually hoping Sakura Wars turns out to be a short game so I can replay it a few times and make different decisions. I generally don't play games at home that much anymore, and even when I do it's only in half hour to an hour bursts (been working on beating Ys V for a month now) so I guess I'll just say I'm having more fun w/ this game than what I'm letting on.

[Push Upstairs]

"Cherry Cocker"

http://screenrant.com/wp-content/uploads/beavis-and-butt-head.jpg

[fishsandwich]

I have no interest in this game (and this was before I read your comments) but I must say I really enjoy your writing. Keep it up!

[mobiusclimber]

I have no interest in this game (and this was before I read your comments) but I must say I really enjoy your writing. Keep it up!

Thanks. :) This game is really not for everyone, and it doesn't try to be at all. I think most of the people who would like have probably already purchased it. I will say, tho, that fans of strategy-RPGs should at least check out some gameplay vids since the battles are really good... actually, I'm not sure it's strat fans who would enjoy them, but I'm also not sure exactly who it would appeal to. But I guess this should be part of a numbered point so...

1) Most of the battles in the game don't feel like a strategy-RPG at all. The battles, as I said, are broken up into two sections. In the first, you fight a bunch of easy enemies. This is kind of what most SRPGs have as their battles, tho the enemies you fight tend to be tougher and/or smarter than this. There usually aren't as many ways to clear out scores of enemies in one turn, either. Granted, most of these battles have some strategic goal to them. In one battle, you have to take out generators that are causing lightening to electrify the ground. In another one, you have to keep statues from being carried off the battlefield (which really only required the strategy of "run to the other end of the field and block the exit, in two turns or you fail") while also needing to destroy generators that respawn enemies. Then there was the one where you need to switch between two fields, destroy the poison-spewing plants, and (in the other field) destroy the seed that keeps dropping those plants. So... now that I think about it, maybe this is the evolution of the SRPG. Most of the earlier games I've played have always consisted of "clear the field of enemies" or "defeat the boss" or "don't let this person get killed." The battles in this game can at least be said to have better goals. After this section of the battle, there's a huge boss battle. The boss usually has several targets all over its gigantic body, some of which are weak and some of which aren't (but destroying them will cause it to not be able to use certain attacks). They usually have very devastating attacks as well as swarms of enemies around them. Generally it's best to find the weak point and blow it up as soon as possible, but that's not always easy or even possible. The one boss that had me pulling my hair out had a chest that had a bunch of shutters all the way around it. Blow off a shutter and you either reveal a cannon, a respawn generator, or the weak point. So you can go along blowing off shutters, but you'd better destroy whatever is behind it before blowing off another one. Worse is that the boss could spin the circle behind those shutters so that even if you find the weak point, you might only have a couple of rounds to fire at it. And if you've destroyed several shutters, you could then have a bunch of cannons pointed at you. Seriously frustrating.

2) It's a good thing you have some seriously punishing attacks at your disposal. Here's how battles work: You have two meters, one regulates how much energy you have for the round, and another keeps track of how much special energy you have. Regular energy (I don't remember what the game calls this) is what you expend when walking around the battlefield (no square tiles in this SRPG), attack, defend, recover special energy, or etc. Special energy is what you expend when you heal yourself or use a special attack. Unless you want to effectively waste a turn by choosing to recover this energy, you're likely to only be able to use your special attack once or twice during a battle (the amount resets when you go to the boss battle, I think). The special attack is particularly brutal and only costs one notch of regular energy, whereas attacking can cost the whole bar depending on how tough the enemy is. Regular attacks drain one bar of regular energy at a time and can cause more damage the further along you chain it. Since enemies have different amounts of HP, it's always a good idea to try to remember how many hits it takes to destroy them so you don't use more attacks than you need to.

3) You can also do a joint attack, which only takes one regular energy notch, and probably some special energy, but I'm not sure about that. When you choose the joint attack, a tubular glowing light connects the unit you're controlling to one of your teammates (you can switch to whichever teammate you want to use). The joint attack will attack any target that is within that beam of light, so long as you are close enough (the beam turns from white, meaning you're standing to far away, to blue when you're close enough to use the attack). This is probably the best attack in the game since it uses so little energy yet it hits so many enemies. The only problem is that the two teammates paired up have to have a decent amount of "trust" or the attack will be fairly weak. Pair up two people that "trust" each other and you can wipe up half the enemies on the field. The only way to build trust is to do well in the adventure segments.

4) Some teammates can hit more than one target w/ their regular or special attack, so it might seem like a good idea to just spam the special attack every other round while recovering the special energy in between. One of the problems is that it seems to take more special energy to perform the attack than what you can recover. Also, healing costs special energy (but not a whole lot) so there'll be times when you'll need to use a turn just to recover special energy and then use some of it to heal.

Well that's all for now, I guess. I need to go eat breakfast and run some errands. Check out some gameplay vids if any of this sounds interesting because the more I think about it, this is probably why this game is so addicting.

[PentiumMMX]

I'm not expecting anything mind-blowing, although I do plan on picking this game up eventually. Of course, I plan on finishing .hack//Quarantine before then...

[izarate]

Sorry for the topic hijack, but has anyone received their preorder from Rosenqueen yet?

I preordered this game (Wii version) but I haven't received it yet. I fired an email to RQ but haven't heard back from them.

[mobiusclimber]

My copy was preordered PS2 version from Rosenqueen. I'm pretty sure you should have received your order by now.

[mobiusclimber]

I only have one observation right now...

Lots of people seem to be complaining about the voice acting, but I think it does the job just fine. It's meant to be over-the-top fake-accented on every character (just about), and that's pretty much what you get. Go play "Tales of Destiny II" if you want hear BAD voice acting. My only real complaint is that it sounds like they have one person doing too many of the voices. There's a villain that's supposed to be male, but neither "his" looks nor his voice give this indication. It's the same girl who does a couple of other voices (or more, I dunno), and she still sounds like a girl. The villain is actually my favorite character voice in the game... even now, even knowing it's supposed to be a boy's voice.

[mobiusclimber]

1) The worst parts of the game is when they show the characters performing on stage. None of the voice actors can pull this out convincingly and, for a SINGING troupe, they do absolutely NO singing (which is a blessing, I'm sure). This is a problem for most media that features musicians (ever read a comic book about an imaginary band that featured scenes of them onstage? Yeah, it's bad). But yes, it's almost excruciating to watch. The worst is actually a toss up between the re-writing of Hamlet's famous soliloquy ("that's NOT the question!" ugh.) and their Christmas show "Over the Rainbow." Yeah, I have no idea why a christmas show would be called that either.

2) This game makes me feel like I'm playing as a total drunk, since every time I get the minigame where you have to decide how emphatically you say or do something, I end up pushing it all the way to the top. So I'm breaking champagne glasses yelling CHEERS! and smacking puppets together in big sloppy kisses. I can't imagine what this would look like besides some sloppy over-enthusiastic drunk.

3) It's Christmas but I can only give one gift to one person. that's usually not how christmas is celebrated. I guess to make up for this, it's done in a gift exchange... put the presents all in a bundle then pick one out kinda way. It still doesn't really make any sense.

[mobiusclimber]

1) More naming weirdness, or just inanity this time around: That red-headed girl that looks like the female Lone Ranger but no one is supposed to realize that they look the same... her name is Gemini Sunrise. Yeah, Gemini, as in the astrological sign Gemini (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_%28constellation%29) that looks like a wang and means "twins" in Latin. I mean, there's being clever with naming and then there's just giving away the entire character in one word. Yeah, the Lone Ranger woman is actually HER, in case anyone couldn't figure it out from the fact that they look the same and have the same horse, just a split personality.

She's not the only character w/ an astrological name, either. Rosita's last name is Aries (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aries_%28astrology%29) probably b/c of her hot temper and quick-to-act reactions to everything? I dunno.

2) During the first battle, the ostensible leader of this troupe/troop gets sidelined for a reason that is never fully explained. The other woman go "she's distracted! Do you think it's because..." and never finish that sentence. I'm not sure we ever find out what her problem is, but I gotta wonder if it's not the same as Asuka's from Evangelion. It's her period.

SOME MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD, THIS IS YOUR WARNING...












3) The main villain in the game is... Nobunaga?! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oda_Nobunaga) Man, this game has some serious WTF moments. I would have know too if I was more familiar with this period of Japanese history since... that villian w/ the girly voice that's actually a guy... is Ranmaru! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mori_Ranmaru) And it's pretty much stated that he love Nobunaga, tho they tried hard to steer it away from any gay implications (why???). Nobunaga even has Azuchi Castle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azuchi_Castle) with him. This is just fuckin weird, btw. Nobunaga is portrayed as a demon lord and a right old bastard too. Was he really that big of an a-hole?