Richard E. Rae (76174.1410@COMPUSERVE.COM)
Tue, 15 Jun 1999 21:33:00 -0500
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express Macintosh Edition - 4.5 (0410) Message-ID: <199906160233.WAA07587@hpamraaa.compuserve.com> Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 21:33:00 -0500 From: "Richard E. Rae" <76174.1410@COMPUSERVE.COM> Subject: Re: My Introduction to the Sakura Taisen MLOmar: >>I know that Quattro Stagioni (Soletta's sure-kill) means Four Seasons, but what does Das Rheingold (Leni's sure-kill) mean?<< Incidentally, it's not Leni- it's "Reni". This is official in all RED publications. See her signature as well. And BTW, "Soletta's" first name is Orihime, not Soletta; Soletta's the family name of her mother (Ogata's the family name of her father). This is evidenced too in that everyone calls her "Orihime" in the same situations where "Sakura", "Sumire", etc are used. Anyway, to (finally) answer your questions: Being of German descent, Reni's Deadly attacks are named after Wagner operas and characters; "Das Rheingold", "Siegfried", "Die Walkure", etc. (which, translated, are "The Rhinegold", "Siegfried", and "The Valkyrie") >>Are there any stores that still sell Sakura Wars 2, or any of the other Sakura Wars games?<< Try National Console Support (www.ncsx.com). If they don't have it in their store, inquire to their e-mail address. If they can get it, they will. >>When the rest of you played Sakura Wars for the first time, which girl did you end up with at the end?<< Kouran the first time through. I then exhausted all the possibilities and cleared the game in fairly quick order, though I admit I used the saved position breakpoint at the end of episode 7 to manipulate the top three characters into position to get their endings, then manipulated the early episodes to get the other three into those positions and did it again. Once you've done this, there are few things more fun than to shuffle the "dates" in episode 8. When you have Iris in #1 position and if you choose to reject her in favor of taking another girl to the New Year festival, the performance of crying and wailing is a sight to see/hear- and a credit to Kumiko Nishihara's skills
. It broke my heart, but was fun to elicit. In some ways, your introduction via the OAVs is unusual but "sequential", since OAVs 1-3 are the "prequel" and episode 4 fills in between episodes 4 and 5 of the game. The OAVs are really aimed at true fans (since the game was first) and I don't recommend them to anyone who hasn't played the game. I KNEW problems would happen when ADV chose to release them, and I certainly found their decision to pick them up to be a dubious one at best. Anyway, music-wise, you would be well-advised to not only get the Vocal Collection and OST 1, 2, and OAV CDs, but seek out the "Ai Yueni", "Ai wa Daiya", and "Cinderella" drama CDs. There's also a "Shonen Red" Steam Radio drama CD, a "King Lear" comedic musical CD, and a couple of others. The live show soundtrack "Sakura Taisen Kayou Show Ai Yueni" CD is great, as is the entire musical itself (your chance to see all the seiyuu performing in character and in costume)- it's on video. I haven't gotten the videos of the "Tsubasa" live musical or Christmas musicals yet. Software-wise, besides the games, "Hanagumi Tsushin" was the first (and somewhat lowest quality) fan multimedia disc for Saturn (released in February 1997), but is unique for many of its features, including the first interviews with the main seiyuu and the ONLY one with the seiyuu of the Sannin being interviewed. "Steam Radio Show" is a more elaborate 2-disc set featuring video clips from the live musical and more interviews, including the only one with Akio Suyama (who plays Oogami). The Radio Show disc has product info, and fun Teigeki stories where you help your chosen seiyuu to prepare for her show (and play minigames). If you succeed at the minigame, you get to see that character's unique radio show . Lots of fun fake commercials in it, too. It also has a unique story and "dating game" with multiple endings, of course. "Teigeki Graph" is in a similar vein to the above, however the main story in this one is a production of "Sleeping Beauty" and through game play (and minigame success) you get to determine the cast of the play. And then you get to see the play performed (via "SD sprites") in all its Hanagumi funniness. This "play" mode is amazing, especially since characters are often juggled all over the place and every line of dialogue is spoken in the play. There's also an incredible on-line encyclopedia (via Cinematron) of everything Teigeki, another Koikoi tournament, and a great "Stratego" game among the minigames. Of course, if you can ever find "Hanagumi Taisen Columns", it's the rarest- and one of the most wonderful- games for Sakura fans. There are nine unique "episodes" in the disc which are full-length "side" stories, as well as a "Cinderella" mode where you pick who's going to be "Cinderella" by your success at Columns. The quality is as good as that in the original game, and the differing art and stories are wonderful. And you haven't even scratched the surface- there are the artbooks, the Aspect tactical and "ren'ai" guides, the Kodansha "Haoh" guidebooks, the Real Models and dolls, and the myriads of garage kits (I own the Kaiyodo Maria kit, and am collecting the WAVE "Koubu-kai" kits). And other stuff- trading cards, etc. etc. I happen to have been a fan from December of 1996 (discovering it only weeks after its release) and thus jumped on (nearly) everything Sakura Taisen I could find- including getting Sakura Columns when it first was released. Still going strong Welcome to the Hanagumi world... you have a lot of catching up to do . --Richard