New York: Sunny with a chance of Mechas

As someone who has fallen in love with almost every JRPG I've ever touched, I'm always looking out for new titles to expand my obsession. Unfortunately I'm limited to only three different platforms- Gameboy Advance, PC, and Wii- and it seems that many of the things I want, such as the Tales of games and the newest additions to the Fire Emblem series, are coming out exclusively on DS or the Playstation systems. That aside, this year I came across a Wii game that I hadn't tackled yet called Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love. The cover looked promising, and the description on the back which detailed a young Japanese samurai joining a capital defense division of woman-warriors manning mechas and masquerading as a New York theater troupe during an early 1900s steam-powered era seemed both entertaining and fascinating. I was eager to see how the Japanese creators interpreted American life and transitioned the Japanese male hero into the female-run New York Combat Revue.

What would a young samurai do surrounded by hot women in an AU New York? Play to find out!

In the end, I thoroughly enjoyed the premise of the Sakura Wars line. Although the harem and dating sim elements (the main character, Shinjiro Taiga, can date any of the females in the revue, and each one of them thinks he's the bee's knees after their initial period of dislike) were probably not geared toward female players like me, I loved the strategy needed to pull off the mecha battles, as well as the development each of the leading females had to undergo in order to operate as part of the team. Finding a way to navigate the constant conversations also clues the player into how to really understand what is important to a person and how to deal with their personal times of trouble, although the old adage of 'you can't please everyone' is strictly held. If Shinjiro tries to impress cool and logical Subaru Kujo, he may end up offending bright and dynamic Rosita Aries, but the game offers plenty of opportunities to redeem friendships that might be flagging based on dialogue choices.

The man of the hour: Shinjiro Taiga. Boys wanna be him, girls wanna do him.

The six Star Division fighters were all enjoyable characters, in spite of their often flawed judgment. Shinjiro, the protagonist (voiced by the notorious Johnny Yong Bosch), occasionally lacks self-confidence and is a bit of a doof around women depending on how you play him, but all in all he is your typical little engine that could of a warrior. Despite having the entire combat revue dislike him at first, he proves himself to everyone and ends up reaching out to each one of his companions in order to give them the means to make themselves better and stronger. The most enforced love interest option is Gemini Sunrise, a spicy Texan cowgirl trained under a Japanese swordsmaster (and no, I am not making that up) who has a secret double life that even she is unaware of. I liked her well enough as a character, but I didn't fall for the fact that she was supposed to be the number one romance pick. Even as a straight girl, if I have to choose from a harem of ladies, I'm at least going to aim for someone who is kind of my type!

"But Shiny, the game wants you to date me!"

Next up of the female cast is the aforementioned Subaru Kujo, although the word 'female' might not be the best way to describe this character. Subaru is rather androgynous, and there is no real way to tell if (s)he is a feminine man or a masculine woman. (S)he uses feminine pronouns to describe herself, and the fact that she has the mark indicating that she belongs in the female-run Star Division makes her most likely a woman, but she makes it perfectly clear that gender is not a concept that matters to her, and if Shinjiro is interested in getting together to her, he better not care if she is a man or a woman. Subaru makes a good choice if you enjoy an air of mystery, and if you don't mind defrosting the cynic and putting up with a few verbal barbs.

Man or woman? Subaru is Subaru, no more, no less.

Cheiron Archer is the older woman option, and damn is she hot stuff! Like Subaru, she prefers to wear men's suits, but when she changes her image and lets her hair down, she clearly becomes the option for those who want their girls to have business going on up top. Cheiron is large and in charge, a Harlem-born African American lawyer who is in love with justice to the point where very little else matters to her. Her blind obsession with justice over compassion is her character developing issue, and she is one of the earlier characters in the game to open up to Shinjiro, even after the crazy hard time she gives you in the beginning. All the same, she leaves you wondering. The early 1900s were a time of rampant inequality for both women and blacks, and I'm curious if the creators of the game chose to ignore this for plot purposes, or if they really thought America was a haven for female lawyers, even though women wouldn't have even had the right to vote during this time.

"This is the law of the land! You! Are! Guilty!"

Another interesting diversity option is Rosita Aries, a Mexican bounty hunter who is also the local lolicon. She doesn't dress up in tart clothing or anything, but she can't be much older than elementary school age. Shinjiro doesn't date her, per se (at least I hope not!), but he can develop an older brother type relationship with her, which might have the potential to grow and change when she gets older. Her conflicts center around her dislike of failure and loss of her family, and her little sister-like relationship with Shinjiro and the rest of the Star Division is pretty adorable, as long as her thing with Shin doesn't slide into the romantic realm (until she's older). She also has a pretty amusing obsession with eating; her pet ferret Niccolo is actually kept around in case she has no other food options available!

Cartoon depictions of Mexicans have come a long way, haven't they?

The last option was my personal choice, sickly girl Diana Caprice. When you meet her, she is set to die of an illness, and is cursed with the crappy ability to sense when the people/animals around her are dying and how long they have left. Due to this, she has trouble finding meaning in life, for herself and for others, even though she has a caring and nurturing personality, and serves as the team's primary healer. As a writer and helpless sap, I most likely ended up picking her because she was the one to comfort Shinjiro after an occasion when the entire combat revue told him they pretty much wanted him to go back to Japan and send over his cousin, the more experienced veteran commander from the earlier Sakura Wars games released in Japan. I'm a sucker for couples that help each other believe in themselves, so I probably latched onto that from the very beginning. I ended up being pleased with their (totally cheesy) relationship, although I'm probably going to go for Subaru in my next play through. I like her air of gender ambiguity; it gives you the best of both worlds, to borrow a phrase from Hannah Montana.

I apparently make passes at girls in glasses

All the mecha elements were interesting as well. You weren't just tanking the baddies; like my favorite series, Fire Emblem, you actually had to come up with effective strategies to take down the enemy's vulnerable points. Most of the battles presented a challenge, and I actually had to go back in replay some of them multiple times because I ended up getting my troops obliterated by some of the more difficult bosses. The fighting sections of the game were tough, but not so difficult that I ended up throwing my controller across the room, as I have been sometimes known to do on occasion (Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess, I'm thinking of you).

In any case, my enjoyment of the Sakura Wars game for Wii led me to do a little research to discover that there was an anime series based on the original Sakura Wars title, where the combat revue was set in Japan and commanded by Shinjiro's hot young uncle Ogami. The game was never translated for North America, but I was still interested in seeing what it was like, so I picked up the series collection at the Colossalcon convention in my home state, Ohio. I recently finished watching it, and my next post will feature the animated interpretation, which was actually in many ways different from its console counterpart. For now, enjoy the opening video of the game, which features the female cast and Shinjiro, as well as some of the secondary characters including Mr. Sunnyside (he runs the behind the scenes operations of the revue), Cherry and Anri (the young ladies in charge of deploying the mechas before battle), and Ratchet (the former vice commander and an additional romance option for the second playthrough).