/vr/ - Retro Games

>>10684285
They also spent just as much on Sakura Wars for the Dreamcast. It was their other big bet to make the system a success. In preparation for the big budget 3, they offset the cost and hoped rereleasing 1 & 2 onto the new hardware would drum up some hype. In the end, both series were garbage tier but I still liked Sega despite betting the house on two miserable failures.

>>10684298
It is the truth, but they did make the games that appealed specifically to me. I've long understood my taste in games were not what most people liked, so I am glad to have experienced their games in their time.

>>9630184
I think Iris was 9 and Coq was 11.

>>9630864
This series introduced and got me addicted to koikoi hanafuda. Played that minigame so much I had to seek out some discreet bespoke hanafuda games.

>>9631685
Wrong. Tsubaki and Mel are best.

>>9020123
That would be the Sakura Wars series. The hype was huge back then. It had combined efforts of a great character designer/manga artist, a scenario writer famous for animated shows, and all the funding Sega could bet the house on. The games ended out to be so bad, I am kind of glad Sega no longer has arcades in Japan and could finally fade away with whatever dignity it may still have.

>>8574085
Wrong, Mer is best in 3. While 3 was the best playing game of the series, I still lament how Sega overspent for it and Shenmue, and both were failures leading to their ultimate demise.

>>8454036
While I do not like the series as much, as it was a large portion of why Sega flamed out, I found 4 egregiously bad since it was slapped together quickly. It was only like 3 chapters, to gather every character together for Sega to say "goodbye." It had no substance, and they charged a full amount for it just to peace out when Sega ultimately failed. I can only hope Nintendo takes the Ghibli route too, and just decide to fade away taking all its IP with them for an occasional celebration for a better world, one which I will not be a part of but glad the world is better without the old guard. Sega in their failures went out like a bitch the wrong way, and it is nice they're doing it right in the end: https://youtu.be/mmxFaCVYMCc

>>8119157
Guessing you like the artstyle of '90s Japanese pop media. Admittedly, there is a flair to the varying styles that is quite appealing to me too. The suitcase limitation is rough, but Tetris-ing everything in is quite a challenge and you have to constantly account for the amount of space you have left. Plan your next trip well.

>>8121401
That is a funny episode. I can keep going, since it isn't the first time that has happened. I absolutely hate the Mortal Kombat games. Or see the following:

>>8121912
Not going to disagree with you. It is a large portion of what sunk Sega, since they put so much money into it for so little return. As much as they spent Isao's money on Shenmue, they did the same with the Sakura Taisen series and they had no turning back but to continually double down on a losing plan.

>>8122723
Because they were really cheap $1 finds in the junk bins.

>>7849105
I watched it when it aired on TV. That is how I learned about Sakura Taisen, since Sega was a sponsor of the show. I don't really like the show, just the characters like Ayanami, Asuka, Misato, etc. so I've not seen the movies and whatever came out after the 96/97 season airing. I enjoyed Escaflowne of the Sky a lot more which was a season or two after.

>>7849119
Looking at Newegg listings, you are right, I can still find Pioneer drives around too. I kind of respect that Pioneer supports their mediums to the end, like they did with Laserdiscs. The Pioneer portable BD drives are pretty handsome in design too. I see LiteOn is still kicking around as well, shame lightscribe didn't make it far.

>>7716406
Nice, simultaneously the best Sakura Taisen game and best Columns game, but that is not a high bar to top being Hanagumi Taisen Columns (1).

>>7716563
I remembered had trouble with reading Xenogears. That can get beyond my level so it may be right for you.

>>7498119
>>7498129
Working on it. With my sub-par diet and exercise habits due to soul crushing work, death is closer every day.

>>7498762
No idea, I wasn't the only one with a VCR back then. Unfortunately I had been convinced to throw out the VHS tapes due to a move. Tossed out some great old computers and the first two years of Nintendo Power as well which were regrets. Some of the commercials have been preserved on youtube at least. You never know, with some searching, even in the deep corners of the internet some things may be archived like this old VHS classic which I found funny back then called Ranma 1/3 on Bitchute, shame the audio volume is ruined: https://www.bitchute.com/video/sXk7jANrhJOf/

>>6760637
It is a mediocre at best game. It is the Saturn's equivalent to Shenmue: Sega overspending to produce a sub-par home video game that cannot decide what kind of game it wants to be. The best feature are character designs by Fujishima Kosuke who saved his best work in character designs for the Namco Tales series but shat out some basic bitches. Its story/scenario was written by Akahori Satoru who's stories all are like "1 guy 3 girls" but when Sega hired him on they asked for his best work and he responded "1 guy 5 girls" for the game and when asked to up his game for the sequel he responded "1 guy 7 girls" thus Sega exclaimed "brilliant!" then proceeded to throw a bunch of money at him. Sakura Taisen is not an RPG, so you are safe there, but if you want to play a SRPG, it does that pretty poorly and I'd suggest you look into Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Ogre, Disgaea, or Vandal Hearts instead. The dating game is pretty poor as well and you'd be better served playing Mitsumete Knight instead. If you are after a good story in a video game, you won't find it here either, maybe try something from modern consoles. The Saturn is one of my favorite consoles, but games like the Sakura Taisen series gives the many Sega haters on this board fuel, but that doesn't bother me as it is the Japanese equivalent to Madden games in the US: taking up all the junk/clearance bins in secondhand stores.

>>6401283
I would rather call it the definition of cheap. The games are staples of junk bins around the world. Any more than $1USD spent on them are a waste. Sega banked on this series which dooms everything surround it. The games are modern day equivalents to Madden games. The strategy is basic, the LIPS mechanic is only for basic bitches. At least they released the best version of Columns with this franchise, so at least it makes Columns notable in some way.

I guess a dating sim with a bit more flair would be the Sakura Taisen series, but sadly all the girls aside from the shopkeepers are basic bitches.


>>4304530
I post a bit to various threads on /vr/ on my off days. I don't exactly collect, it's just more like Gamestop cannot offer the same amount of joy I get in return from keeping the games I have. Like for dating games, I would rather keep Thousand Arms for PS than the $5USD max they would give me. I can squeeze more than $5 worth of fun from the game.

If you want to see pics, just look around /vr/ (I was originally from /h/ many years ago when 4chan intermittently shut down due to lack of funds) but I do reuse and repurpose some pics out of laziness when I post. I mostly have Xbox 360 games, then Saturn games, then Super Famicom games. I love playing games on my TurboDuo and Genesis that I got. I had tons of fun on the old DOS machines I had and I've been tinkering with the 486DX4 lately. For the Playstation systems, the newer the system, the less games I get for them, probably because I chose the Saturn, Dreamcast, Xbox/Gamecube, and 360 as my main multiplatform console of choice. I cannot afford the recent amazing systems, and I put my colon at risk with Taco Bell to try to win a Xbox One X. Fortunately a lot of dating sims and visual novels are really cheap because people don't like those games. It is not easy on minimum wage.

Are you trying to bait me into letting the other anon call me out for a repost of this pic? In that case the series: a pedantic, pontificating, pretentious bastard, a belligerent old fart, a worthless pile of cow dung ... figuratively speaking.

Notice how there's no one else responding to this thread regarding to this series. No one played the games. Those that have played it like I don't care enough about it either, and probably feels their time wasted could have better spent on other games.

For a dating game, one would think they'd design likable waifu tier characters, but no, they are variations of bland taken from a "how to design anime character" Japanimation amerimanga book. Sega threw the whole miniscule budget just to get the artist from You're Under Arrest and Aa! My Goddess to draw some characters just because he was hot shit at the time but never going so far as to develop any of them. It would be nice if the SRPG elements had any tactics to them, but they are all relatively straightforward with one solution throwing strategy or tactics out the window. So that throws both the visuals and gameplay out the window for anything worthwhile, so that leaves sound where they wanted inexperienced voice actresses which can sing, so essentially they hired probably the cheapest people they can get to do voice work. Understandable given Sega's shoestring budget, but when the Dreamcast rolled around, they went and blew all of Isao's money on Shenmue and Sakura Taisen 3, and all they had to show for it was a pretty cool non-grid combat system, but what a way to end a guy's life bankrupting him, Isao died so Sega can piss it all away. While the LIPS system was nice to make conversations more naturalistic, in the end it didn't provide a compelling story. I would dare say Walking Dead Season 2 on Xbox 360 is a significantly more compelling video game, so with all the haters of that game, you know where the Sakura Wars/Taisen games stand.

>>3894163
All the time, got these when they were new.

I like Sonic Wings it's a standard but enjoyable shooting game to me.

>>3864482
That would be 90%+ of my pre-Xbox games. If you're looking for bad, that I purchased, I would say pic related. Sega managed to get millions in funding to develop the series, and shat this out. It rode on the coattails of Fujishima Kosuke's popularity from Aa! Megami-sama and even that series goes nowhere, such that they doubled down on the anime aspect with his character design "skill" and they flamed out in spectacular fashion. Sega deserves all the shit for the worst possible bets with all that money. At the time I was convinced with its [anime] art, now I realize it's just superficial uncultured, undeveloped shit of a "game. "


>>3864643
I don't watch any anime, but the aesthetic really appeals to me. Studio Ghibli animations were a big part of my childhood, so I can never leave. Almost 90% my non-PC DOS games tend to be of Japanese pop character artstyle in some form.

>>3763021
Image looks almost like Kanzaki Sumire of Sakura Taisen. Somewhat fitting of a metaphor, when reading of the character on Wikia. Sega did put lots of money into the Sakura Taisen games, and they were supposed to be system seller games, but they are now used Madden-tier valued games. In this context, I do have dat feel that everything went fucking wrong, but I still loved my time with every Sega console I have.


>>3763028
>>3763034
This. Arcades were great, all of those developers/publishers knew how to occupy my time. There's just an energy about them which makes me happy inside. To Sega: https://youtu.be/9XBNfhlQtuU?t=5m51s

I live near a very large arcade not 10 minutes away, but I'm too poor to even go there. I chanced the Google maps search, the Sega owned arcade around here still is in operation too, but my friend no longer works there and has moved on; it would add to the hurt if it were gone.


>>3763035
Yeah, I too had the benefit of multiple makes of consoles between my friends and family. However, it seems a bit less exciting to me without some NEC, Sega, SNK, et al.


>>3763041
Numbers would suggest otherwise. Yet, in my personal experience, the PC Engine seemed to be the hotness of its day followed by Nintendo with the MegaDrive being completely stomped as no one had that. The numbers and stories I read now does indicate the Super Famicom was the one everywhere, but kids loved what the PC-Engine showed off.


>>3763118
I can only speak of what I witnessed, and all I ever seen purchases and trade-ins for Xbox products in Japan were from foreign military personnel. Then again, when I was on Xbox Live, 90% of gamercards I see from Japanese users, has to have Idolm@ster on it, so it was the Idolm@s machine at best. Again, this is just my personal experience. Unlike MS where they had that audience, I have no clue what audience the Japanese Mega Drive had.


Thread has sad feels, has a emo nu-metal music vibe now.

>>3686564
No, not really. At one time I did succumb to Sega's marketing, and it seemed like Sakura Taisen was their system seller to others, so I bought in. I only found them okay, sadly none of the choice characters had appeal to me (the shopkeepers like Tsubaki and Ci, however) and the SRPG aspects were undercooked at first. I do appreciate the massive effort to program and evolve the formula for the SRPG sections in 3, but in the end all of this was just a stepping stone to one of my more favorite SRPG: Valkyria Chronicles ... well, that and the best variations of Columns, full stop.


>>3686948
Speaking of SRPGs, I was hoping for more Final Fantasy Tactics (as that's my most favorite SRPGs) ... that I hoped Black/Matrix was the Saturn equivalent. It is a reqlly interesting mix with hip hop samples for music and an angel-devil theme, I really liked the colors in the Saturn version, but I've honestly not given the Dreamcast one as much play (since I already played through the original, and not motivated much to see the changes in Advanced for the DC). I do not have Black Matrix Zero nor 2 ... would you recommend I give those a try?

This is a very Japanese series. Just like how retro game stores here in the US cannot get rid of old Maddens for cheap in a bin, this series is the Japanese equivalent. Its time has passed, and will be unloved for many future generations.

>>3565252

>What's your favorite Sakura Taisen game /vr/?
Sakura Columns 2

>How did you first discover the series?
Sega's marketing/commercials back in 1996, got a lot of kids interested. Budget and effort went into casting, character design, animation, music ...

>Do you prefer Saturn or Dreamcast?
I like both systems a lot, but I might give the edge to Saturn because it lasted longer.

>Have you played the spinoffs?
Define spinoffs ... because one is just a damn web browser.

>Let me see your love for this fantastic series!
The thread is about to die, so time for a Sakura Taisen unappreciation <start playing some nu-metal>:

The series was supposed to be the system sellers of the Saturn but now the games are like Genesis sports titles in videogame stores: cannot get rid of them for even $1 (100JPY).

The best girls, Tsubaki and Mel, are not datable.

Sakura Taisen 3 had the budget and the time (that they rereleased the first two), Sega spent a lot of programming and designing effort to ditch the square grid of SRPG for a more organic spherical movement/action system. All to be one of the pillars of the Dreamcast and that system died anyway so the team cobbled together a budget quick all-characters get-together in one final farewell few missions for 4.

I don't have the heart to see what happened in 5 which is like reanimating a corpse by shoving tons of volts up its ass.


I wish I could've not liked the series ...