Jose Barragán (devilot@WORLDNET.ATT.NET)
Thu, 4 Mar 1999 03:16:09 -0400
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.72.2106.4 Message-ID: <000a01be660e$e2cfd840$d0e14d0c@141149625> Date: Thu, 4 Mar 1999 03:16:09 -0400 From: Jose Barragán <devilot@WORLDNET.ATT.NET> Subject: Sakura Taisen: How did you find out about it and decide to buy it?
I was just wondering...how did people here on the list find out about the
Sakura Taisen game series and finally decide to buy one of the games?
Anyone willing to share his/her introduction to the Sakura Taisen
experience?^_^
Let me start off by telling you guys how I found out about Sakura Taisen.
GameFan. Yep, that magazine which is now pretty much considered a has-been
laughingstock had a wonderful 2-page import review by Takuhi on the original
Sakura Taisen (I'll never forget the phrase "Hey! You got a strategy game
in my dating simulator!"). The unusual mix of steam-powered mecha with
cute anime girls, as well as the storyline and the romantic possibilities
(I'd never played a dating sim at that point, and was more than a little
intrigued by the prospect). Considering how cool it looked, (even then
Takuhi mentioned that the game would probably become a fan favorite) I
figured it would eventually get translated to the US. I wasn't about to buy
the import version, considering how text-intensive the game obviously was.
I'd only recently gotten a Saturn and wasn't really into import gaming at
that point (I owned some import Dragon Ball Z games, but they were all
fighters...didn't see the point in buying something with a lot of Japanese
text I couldn't understand). I read and re-read the review longingly,
ogling at the oodles of screenshots, hoping against hope that it would get
picked up for US release. A short while after that, I got into import
gaming on the Saturn on a somewhat serious level. I bought Cyberbots (the
Limited Edition, naturally...all the best for my dear Devilot and her
Super-8!), got a converter, and began slobbering over the import titles
available overseas. I saw a screenshot (featuring Sumire) in the back of
the last issue of Game On! magazine. Reading the scant information in the
preview (character designs by the guy who did Oh My Goddess!...some other
stuff I can't remember), I decided to try to find out more on the web. My
quest led me to Ming's Sakura Taisen page. After finding pictures of Kanna
and falling head over heels in love (heheeh), and seeing that Ming was
working on a translation of the game, and that it was probably never going
to see the light of day via any company...I decided to go ahead and import
the game. This was early in the summer of '97, I think. The game arrived
about a week before I was set to go on a month-long trip to Spain (the most
beautiful country in the world, IMO). I decided not to open the game until
after I got back (I didn't want to start and leave it halfway through and be
miserable the whole month in Spain waiting to get back to finish playing
it). Once I did get back, the first thing I did was put the game into my
Saturn, watch the intro, play chapter one...and then promptly ignored it as
more and more US PSX RPGs got released. Sakura Taisen took its place in the
back burner where games such as Tactics Ogre and Tales of Destiny still
lie.^_^ A few months pass, I get tired of the PSX RPGs I've got, and decide
to take out my dusty Saturn. I looked at my CD rack full of games, and one
game definitely stood out. Sakura Taisen. I wanted to play that game, but
was still a bit nervous about my lack of knowledge regarding Japanese.
Nevertheless, I printed out the chapters Ming had translated, began the game
anew from Chapter 1 and the rest...is history.^_^
Anyone else want to talk about how they got into playing the game?