Hey.

I haven't played any vast amount of RPGs in my gaming career but I've thoroughly enjoyed a few. In recent times:

Rune Factory Frontier
Oblivion
Fallout 3
King's Bounty Armored Princess

Like how RFF is a farming & dungeon battler combo...I understand SW is dating and battling.

Is this a game that relies too much on communication? How in-depth the levelling system goes? I know it's very detailed the relationships you have with the girls. I'm just trying to get feedback on how it is outside of that....

I have it, and I must admit, to my own surprise I like it. A lot. But IGN is out of their f---ing minds giving it a '9' and ranking it over MH3.

Sakura is a BUDGET game, made for a small Japanese only audience. It's more of an interactive book than a game, although the mecha robots SRPG elements are good if somewhat standard fare.

70% of the game is clicking 'A' to go through all the story/dialogue - which is campy as hell, disjointed, and at times utterly ridiculous, albeit strangely charming and amusing in it's own way.

Occasionally you get to choose a response which affects how much the like you. The choices are not obvious, you really have to take the nature of the person you're talking to into consideration and you're giving a very short time frame in which to do it. You've really got just enough time to review the answers and go with your gut.

Once is a while the dialogue gives way to running around on a 3d map or a quick mini-game which amounts to QTEs with the analog stick (press up, right, right, up, down, circle as instructed in the time allowed - sort of thing).

At the end of each chapter (roughly 45-60 minutes of gameplay) you get the to (tacked on) SRPG mecha combat. Which is good but not particularly deep, at least not yet but I'm only just finished chapter 2.

Where the game wins is in playing on ones natural desire to be liked. I do find I genuinely want the 'girls' to like me (and maybe be enamoured) and have even replayed parts to get better results.

The relationship building plays right into the SRPG as that's your best weapon. The better the bonding with your teammates, the more damage you do when you do a joint attack. Even had one girl who's particularly fond of me, sponteously save my character from a certain death blow. So you really want to make the friendships/romances work which is already becoming a bit of a juggling act as you have to take each characters egos into consideration and what might score points here, might cost you there.

If you like adventure games and SRPG then you might really dig this game. It's got charm. But's it's got nothing at all in common with Oblivion or Fallout. Closer to Fire Emblem and trying to score with a chick in Mass Effect.

^^ Thanks for the detailed post.

I really didn't want a game for which the majority is reading/listening....which sounds kinda like this....but i still wanted to try something different. RFF was a refreshing change for me and clocked almost 300hrs on the wii, so i was wondering if this would have the same effect. It might, but it seems the other aspects of the game are in more of a minority than I would have liked...

I am going to purchase MH3 actually but wanted something else to go along with it. Might just stick with that.

Gamerace already made a detailed post and covered nearly everything. However there is one thing I might add. The QTE which Gamerace mentioned are designed for 2 dual analog sticks. This works not so well with the wiimote and nunchuck combo, because you use the digi-pad of the wiimote for the other analog stick. This is (imho) the first Wii port, where the PS2 Version is superior. (Especially if you consider the bonus stuff.) I really can't understand the 9 from IGN.

However I still like it. It reminds me a little bit to the hentai dating sims/digital novels, I played when I was younger.

I already finished 4 Chapters and I would say, that the fights are getting more difficult. (I was forced to restart two fights and retry them with a new, better working strategy ...)

^^ True, i've been reading everywhere that the PS2 version is better with bonus material and option for the Japanese dubs (and now, the QTE problems u mentioned). It probably got a 9 from IGN cuz it's not a Wii exclusive ;)

At a $30 price point it seems a little enticing, especially since I haven't played anything like this before. I think I definitely would like to get for experiment's sake, but at a lower price point. Refuse to pay full price for an experiment.

Yeah, lots of reading with nothing but static drawings of characters with moving lips to look at.  Honestly, how does IGN justify giving this game a 9 and then bash every casual title for poor graphics?  It's absurd.    And skipping all the dialogue will cost you because you won't know how to anwser the questions to gain battle bonuses. 

Sakura Wars is definitely a love it or hate it type of game.  Fortunately for me, I love it, although I'm not even sure why.

You might want to check out Shiren the Wanderer or Fire Emblem instead.   The former is a 'rogue' game, meaning it's an RPG like RFF but all you do it walk around randomly created dungeons killing monsters to complete quests.   The latter is a Strategy RPG - turned based (like Sakura) which is not everyones cup of tea, more like chess or Risk than an action RPG, again theres a lot of dialogue in FE (not much compared to SW:SLML) but it's mostly skipable, just advancing the plot and setting up the next battle, but FE is a great SRPG and if you're into it will engross you for endless hours. 

Of course MH3 is also a huge time sink - you probably won't need anything else once it's claws are in you - including a life.

It's true but honestly, it hasn't been an issue at all for me.  Makes it easier I find.   It probably works with a classic controller which would give you two analog sticks (and you'll want a classic controller Pro for MH3 because using the digipad instead of an analog stick really does make a big difference in that game)

I hear ya. I wrote off Shiren and was looking at FE....but everyone seems to talk about how difficult it is. I have come to like SRPGs after playing King's Bounty so yea i'd say it's my thing. I usually purchase from Amazon but I see they have it for a whopping $73.....$25 used cheapest. Is it one of those games that might be harder to get these days?

Mixed bag, you might luck out and find an original copy somewhere (where 'core' gamers don't shop) for $20 but it's out of print now and used copies can be expensive at somewhere 'core' gamers do shop.    It's difficult but it's good difficult, the type where if defeated, you want to go go right back and try it again, or after a day or two you get a new idea of how to play it out and can't wait to try it.

Nice. Thanks for the advice there buddy.