Origins and development
In 1990, Oji Hiroi at Red Entertainment (formally Red Company) decided to create Sakura Wars. Hiroi drew inspiration from Japanese stage shows when creating the project, initially titled "Sakura" (桜). Because of a lack of interest from publishers, Hiroi shelved the project until he was approached by Sega vice president Shoichiro Irimajiri to develop a new project for the Saturn. Successfully pitching his project to Irimajiri, the game began production under the title Sakura Wars. While the scenario and gameplay went through multiple redrafts, Sakura Wars always made use of a steampunk setting, a female lead and mecha combat. Development lasted three years, double the original estimate, and was Sega's most expensive project at the time. Many within both Red Company and Sega were skeptical of the game's success, but Hiroi remained confident. Following the critical and commercial success of Sakura Wars, Sega and Red Company expanded the original premise into a franchise, starting with Thou Shalt Not Die. A recurring feature from Thou Shalt Not Die onwards was the use of subtitles drawn from famous poetry or other types of fiction related to a game's location or mood. A recurring poet was Akiko Yosano, whom Hiroi admired.
Following Thou Shalt Not Die, the team moved onto the Dreamcast to develop Sakura Wars 3, rebuilding the game engine and utilising the console's functions for gameplay elements. Following the release of Sakura Wars 3, Sega discontinued the Dreamcast because of declining console sales, transitioning to a software developer and publisher. Rather than move their planned next entry to the PlayStation 2, the team created a final Dreamcast entry as a celebratory title for series fans. This became Sakura Wars 4, which was completed in 10 months as opposed to the usual two year development period of other entries. The original story planned for Sakura Wars 4 was moved for the team's next entry on the PlayStation 2.
In 2005, Red Entertainment split from Sega after it bought back its majority share holding, although it continued to be involved in the Sakura Wars series. The next entry, Sakura Wars V, formed part of a seven-game group dubbed "Sakura Wars World Project"; the aim was to release these games overseas. In the event, only Sakura Wars V was published overseas as Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love, and only three of the other planned games were released. The remaining three titles were cancelled in 2008. Sega and Red Entertainment greenlit Dramatic Dungeon: Sakura Wars in an attempt to revitalise the franchise using a new gameplay genre. In August 2008, Sega decided to end the franchise, with the final Sakura Wars-themed event being a concert that month. Red Entertainment was bought by Chinese company UltaZen in 2011, with Sega retaining the Sakura Wars property. Fan demand eventually persuaded Sega to greenlight a new title in the series, which would both continue the narrative and feature a new cast.
Staff
All titles from 1996 to 2005 were developed by the same central team. These included writer Satoru Akahori, artists Kōsuke Fujishima and Hidenori Matsubara, director and later chief director Tomoyuki Ito, producer and later executive producer Noriyoshi Ohba, and designer Takaharu Terada. Hiroi had contributed to all the projects as a general producer. Red Entertainment co-developed the games with an internal Sega team which shifted identity over the years—originally known as CS2 R&D during development of the first two Sakura Wars, the team was renamed Overworks in 2000 when Sega consolidated its 9 semi-autonomous subsidiaries into six studios; they worked on the series between Sakura Wars 3 and Sakura Wars V: Episode 0. Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love was developed by the same team as part of Sega's GE2 R&D division, the same team which would develop Valkyria Chronicles. Shin Sakura Wars was developed by a team within Sega's CS2 R&D division, a newer group including Sonic Team. New team members included character designer Tite Kubo, and writers Jiro Ishii and Takaaki Suzuki, all famous names in anime and video games respectively. Hiroi remained in a supervisory role, and also wrote the theme song lyrics.
Other developers worked on the series alongside Sega and Red Entertainment, including Idea Factory, who created the Wii port of So Long, My Love; Jupiter Corporation, producers of the Sakura Wars GB duology and the Pocket Sakura peripheral; and Neverland, who developed Dramatic Dungeon: Sakura Wars. A notable feature of the series is its FMV anime sequences.
Music
The Sakura Wars series features a variety of music, and frequently reuses themes. Kohei Tanaka is the chief music composer of the series. Tanaka's first major work in the video game industry, it brought him widespread recognition. Tanaka was among the first to support Hiroi with Sakura Wars, having worked with him during work on an original video animation (OVA) of Tengai Makyou: Ziria. Tanaka acted as a teacher figure for the rest of the development team. At that time, rhythm and percussion dominated Japanese popular music rather than melody. Both Tanaka and Hiroi wanted to reintroduce younger Japanese to beautiful melodies. Tanaka has been involved to some degree in most of the Sakura Wars games, composing the music for all mainline entries, and several spin-off titles. A recurring theme in the series is a piece called "Geki! Teikoku Kagekidan". Tanaka wrote the theme based on Hiroi's request to combine the music of a Super Sentai opening theme with the vocal style of the title song for the film Aoi sanmyaku (1949). Versions of it were included in Sakura Wars 2, Sakura Wars 4, and the 2019 soft reboot of Sakura Wars.
Localization
While Hiroi wanted the series to be released worldwide, nearly all games in the Sakura Wars series remain exclusive to Asian territories. Early efforts at localizing the series were not undertaken because of Sega's uncertainty over whether the game's blend of genres would find a large enough audience outside Japan to be profitable. An unspecified attempt by Sega to localize the game stalled during the concept approval stage. No official reason was ever given. The PSP ports of Sakura Wars and Thou Shalt Not Die were scheduled for the North American market, but it were canceled. It was later explained that Sony classified Sakura Wars as a text novel, which made then-future licensing for importation and translation difficult.
A Korean translation of So Long, My Love was published in South Korea by Sega in 2006. The PC CD-ROM versions of Sakura Wars and its sequel were localized and released in Russia by Akella in 2006 and 2008 respectively. Dysin Interactive published the PC versions of Sakura Wars to Is Paris Burning? in China, and Fall in Love, Maidens was released in the region by Beijing Entertainment All Technology.
The first official English release in the Sakura Wars series is So Long, My Love, which was translated by NIS America in collaboration with Red Entertainment and Idea Factory. The dub was produced at Bang Zoom! Entertainment, and included actors from NIS America's localization of the Disgaea series. The team also included the Japanese voice track in the PlayStation 2 version, with a dedicated translation which preserved the original character names being created for it. The localization took two years to complete, becoming NIS America's largest localization effort to date. For Shin Sakura Wars, Sega brought on Yakuza 0 translators Inbound Games to localise the game. The localised version uses the Japanese audio with subtitles in other languages, and renames the game with the series namesake only.
