It’s been almost 8 months since I started Sakura Taisen 3, but today I finally finished it. Shouri no po-zu, kime! Whee! If I had known how close to the end I was when I dropped it, I would have pushed on through and finished it long ago. …Either that or just Youtubed the ending. The later-middle parts of the game were rather sluggish because I had to fight the same 5 bosses I had beaten already all over again.
It’s probably my least favorite feature of the Sakura Taisen games, the way they waste so much time on an early set of bosses who turn out to be nearly inconsequential in the end. In ST3, it turns out the true boss needed us to kill off the earlier bosses so he could use their souls to revive an ancient god sealed underneath the Notre Dame. The ancient god is supposed to help him get revenge on the people of Paris because their ancient ancestors were mean to his ancient ancestors blah di blah. First we beat the crap out of him and his ancient god, then we preach to them about the power of love and lo and behold, they’re converted! Heck, I’d be converted too, if the alternative was another beating ^^;; But anyway, faced with our true love and the bonds of trust we have built up between us (stop me if you’ve heard those before) they decide to disappear/seal themselves away forever and we all live happily ever after, the end.
Only it’s not really the end, because first you have to sit through a lengthy epilogue featuring Ichiro “Ladykiller” Oogami and his chosen target. Sakura Taisen 3 has the edge over the previous two games in that it really tries to give you quality time with your lady once you pick her. You get at least two dates and multiple cutscenes/ sequences with just the two of you reaffirming your love for each other. It’s a lot more satisfying than what you get in ST1/2, though that might have a lot to do with me putting Oogami and Kanna together when he really doesn’t want to be with her.
Right: Waifu
Left: Concubinu
Well too bad, Oogami-san. Not only am I going to pair you with Kanna again when I play Sakura Taisen 4 but also I scuppered your budding romance with Erica by telling her you’ve got “someone special” waiting for you in Tokyo. What? It’s true, isn’t it? I’m going to make sure of it.
And so Erica, being the understanding French woman that she is, says she doesn’t mind being Oogami’s girlfriend just while he’s in Paris. However, when he returns to Tokyo at the end of the game she writes him a letter saying she lied and wants to be his real girlfriend, I’ll wait for you forever Oogami-san etc etc. Come on girl, don’t throw your life away. Just look at that goofy face and dumb haircut. You can do better than this guy. Find yourself a nice beau and settle down, okay? Good girl.
Inconvenient girly crushes aside, the Paris Troupe did manage to build a nice rapport with Mssr. Oogami by the end. It felt pretty natural for the most part, though Hanabi had so little presence in the game it was a little weird whenever she piped up about how wonderful Oogami was. Who are you again? They made a good team on the battlefield and off, and there was plenty of time between chapters to roam the town looking for new events. There’s plenty of time to read your options and pick the best answer, plus you’re usually rewarded for being as kind and polite as possible, which suits my style of play just fine. I was pretty happy with the visual novel portions of ST3.
The battles… should have been a tad tougher. Just a tad. It was okay for the game to be easy early on, but endgame bosses like Calamar, Saryu and the borderline NSFW Dernier should have put up more of a fight. Dernier in particular had three different forms but all of them were pushovers. I switched to the Fire formation which doesn’t even let my party heal and relied on Erica’s ougi to refill our HP as needed. Then it was just a matter of whittling down her HP with ougis – ougi, recharge ougi, ougi, recharge until boss dies.
But it’s not really a secret that the the Sakura Taisen games are visual novels first and SRPGs a distant second. Excellently-written visual novels with a surprisingly well-made SRPG aspect to be sure, but VNs nevertheless. So I promise this will be the last time I complain about the lack of challenge in an ST game. I had fun with the new cast of girls (and stopped Oogami from cheating on Kanna), I’m looking forward to getting back to Tokyo (and eventually merging the two casts), we managed to save Paris (after most of it had been destroyed, of course) and all’s well that ends well. Looking forward to the next installment!
I played Sakura Taisen 3 too around the time you publish this article. Out of all the series installment. I think Sakura Taisen 3 will remain as my all time favorite. The production value this game is just astonishing even though the story department remains the same. My favorite heroine in 3rd game is definitely Glycine because her dere moment is just too good!
I completely agree about the production values. Especially because I played the first two on the PSP, seeing ST3 on the TV in its full glory blew me away a little bit. It was highly impressive, almost like watching an anime. But in terms of characters nothing beats the first cast for me. Kanna 4 Lyfe!