We are less than a week away from the western launch of Sega's Sakura Wars, the newest entry in a long-running strategy-RPG franchise that is yet to find much more than a niche audience outside of its native Japan. This is obviously not helped by the fact that only one of the series' five mainline titles has seen official localisation, in 2005's PS2 (and later Nintendo Wii) release Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love.
Sega seems very aware of this fact, and as such is positioning the new Sakura Wars as a "fresh start" for the franchise, one that hopes to proudly acknowledge the series' storied legacy, while opening up its genre-blending adventure to new generations of fans worldwide.
Over the past week or so, I've been treading the boards with the Imperial Combat Revue's Flower Division. To the uninitiated, they are an under-funded group of thespians, who have made the natural career progression from Am-dram performers to mech-riding monster hunters. Existing within an alternate, steampunk-infused 1940, the Imperial Combat Revue are a global network defending the planet from ever-increasing demon attacks, while operating a modest business in their downtime. In our heroes' case, it's the dilapidated Tokyo Imperial Theater.
