About a year ago, I decided on a whim to begin collecting all the Sakura Wars games.
I’m close to completing that project now, having tracked down a copy of Sakura Wars: Hanagumi Taisen Columns for the SEGA Saturn in Japan earlier in the month. (Only ¥980, and it has its original obi intact – good purchase.)
But without an emulator and the various fan translation packs installed, it can be tricky to play these titles on modern consoles.
Speaking with Famitsu, as translated by Gematsu, longtime SEGA producer Akira Nishino says it’s something the publisher is trying to change.
“Of course, we would like to [bring the original games to modern consoles] as well. However, there are various circumstances involved, so it’s not something we can easily move forward with. Still, we want to find a way, and we’re working hard each day.”
Nishino didn’t really elaborate on what those challenges are, but these are text dense titles, considering they blend visual novel, dating sim, and tactical RPG elements all at once. I guess they would probably be expensive and time consuming to translate.
There are six main games in the Sakura Wars series, with the most recent entry – named New Sakura Wars in Japan – released for the PS4 in 2020.
The west wouldn’t get its first taste of the series, however, until Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love was localised on the PS2 in 2010 – long after the PS3 had launched. Amusingly, that game had first debuted in Japan five years earlier, in 2005.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2026/10/we-want-to-find-a-way-sega-eager-to-bring-sakura-wars-games-to-modern-consoles
