Sakura Wars is a game that considered to be legendary in Japan yet its not too popular in countries like United States. Sakura Wars came out back in 1996 as a Japanese exclusive and featured a blend of multiple genres. Sakura Wars included RPG, action-adventure, dating simulation and visual novel elements made the game feel more in-depth and complex than almost any other game that came out back in the mid 90’s. Sakura Wars was co-developed by Sega and Red Company and was released on Sega Saturn a console that had a ton of potential but suffered in western countries. Sakura Wars had a very intriguing plot where the setting took place in Tokyo in the early 1920’s and heavily steampunk themed. The main character was Ichiro Ogami a person who lead the a secret of military of women with magicial abilities known as the Imperial Combat Revenue.

In terms of battle the gameplay for Sakura Wars was more of a tactical-RPG and it involved the playable characters piloting steampunk mechas to battle dark demonic forces that are trying to destroy the world. The amount of variety included in Sakura Wars is something that makes many gamers look at the game differently 30 years later. Sakura Wars was a social simulation/dating sim game that came out during a time where both genres felt niche within the gaming world. It felt like the social simulation and dating sim features of Sakura Wars was designed to make the game more distinctive than standard role-playing games from the 90’s. The anime cutscenes and visual novel aspects of Sakura Wars added to the storytelling aspect of the game. While Sakura Wars had an intriguing story with a decent cast of characters its something that would have never caught on in America during the mid 90’s. Sakura Wars looked impressive on the Sega Saturn in ’96 because of its pseudo 2D design and gameplay. However, the Sega Saturn could not compete with the original PlayStation console in terms of popularity during the mid to late-90’s.

As creative Sakura Wars was the game was nothing groundbreaking mainly because 3D video games on the PS1 and N64 overshadowed almost anything you saw on Sega Saturn during the mid 90’s. Sakura Wars felt like felt like a prototype of a standard RPG game you would see during the 2000’s which is why it feels special. If anything Sakura Wars felt similar to the original Persona game which also came out in ’96 because of its pseudo 2D design and its social simulation gameplay. Despite, being a beloved classic from ’96 Sakura Wars is a game that many casuals to this day are unfamiliar with due to its lack of mainstream appeal. Sakura Wars is quite possibly one of Sega’s most underrated games from the 90’s and it could have possibly of sold well in America if the game was released earlier than it was.