Sakura Wars
Sakura Wars is a Japanese steampunk media franchise created by Oji Hiroi and owned by Sega. It is focused around a series of cross-genre video games. The first game in the series was released in 1996, with five sequels and numerous spin-off titles being released since then. The series—set during a fictionalized version of the Taishō period—depicts groups of women with magical abilities using steam-powered mecha to combat demonic threats.
| Sakura Wars | |
|---|---|
| Genre(s) | Role-playing Dating sim Visual novel |
| Developer(s) | Red Entertainment, Sega, Jupiter, Neverland, Sammy Corporation |
| Publisher(s) | Sega |
| Creator(s) | Oji Hiroi |
| Artist(s) | Kosuke Fujishima, Tite Kubo |
| Composer(s) | Kohei Tanaka |
| Platform(s) | Arcade, Dreamcast, Windows, Game Boy Color, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Portable, mobile phones, Nintendo DS, Sega Saturn, Wii |
| First release | Sakura Wars September 27, 1996 |
| Latest release | Shin Sakura Wars December 12, 2019 |
The original Sakura Wars was an ambitious title for the then-in-production Sega Saturn. The first game's overlap of the tactical role-playing, dating sim and visual novel genres prompted Sega to classify it as a "dramatic adventure", a moniker which has endured during the series' lifetime. Both Red Entertainment and Sega co-developed most of the games until 2008, when the series went on hiatus. Sega rebooted the series as sole developer because of fan demand. Recurring elements include anime cutscenes created by notable studios including Production I.G, and music by composer Kohei Tanaka.
The series has sold over 5.8 million copies as of 2022, and garnered both critical and popular acclaim. The original Sega console games have been voted among the most popular for the Saturn and Dreamcast. The Sakura Wars franchise includes numerous anime productions, manga, and other media projects such as stage shows. With the exception of So Long, My Love and Shin Sakura Wars, the video game series has not been released in English. Several of the anime series have been localized for English territories.