Review by: Richard E. Rae

Well, as you all should know by now, I'm a "Sakura Taisen" "Dai-fan". I am intimately familiar with "Sakura Taisen" and nearly all of its intricacies, having pretty much exhausted all of its possibilities and still loving its every aspect. This "Dramatic Adventure" deserves all the fame and popularity it has achieved, and of course it has spawned dozens of products, three games, 5 CDs, a new live action musical coming this summer (with ALL of the actual seiyuu playing their character's roles), and an OAV series later this year!

Of the spinoff games, I have also had the opportunity to enjoy the "Sakura Taisen Hanagumi Tsushin", but though this "fan-disc" is a definite "must-have" for the true fan, its long-term staying power as a game product isn't very good and it's more of a '"reference" than something to play regularly.

In contrast to that, though, I can definitely say that the Sakura Taisen "Columns" game is EXCEPTIONALLY entertaining, VERY addictive, and is something EVERY Sakura Taisen fan should definitely get!!

Published by Sega and Red Ltd. for the Sega Saturn as a single CD-ROM, this is the venerable "Columns" game, a Tetris-like offshoot where you must line up vertical stacks of dropping multi-colored "jewels" to form rows, columns, or diagonals of three or more colors in order to eliminate the row and keep the stacks from building up to a point where you can't clear the play area before dropping column overflows the top of the screen. What takes this version of Columns to new heights is the inclusion of the Sakura Taisen theme around the games, and it's an incredibly fun experience!

When the game opens, we're treated to a new little OP with "in-Saturn" animation and, of course, "Geki! Teikoku Kagekidan" playing. And some beautiful new art ! The first screen we're presented with gives the player five choices; "Shinterera" (Cinderella), "Story", "1 player," "2 Player (vs)", and "Options".

"Cinderella" is a VERY funny little "story surrounding the game"- you choose one of the six Teigeki maidens to play (Sakura, Maria, Iris, Kanna, Sumire, or Kouran) and then start the game. Your character then finds out which of the remaining 5 girls will be her opponent for that round... and the game begins!

There is a TREMENDOUS amount of dialogue throughout the games, and all the seiyuu are back with new commentary, funny remarks (especially good natured insults to their opponent), etc!

While playing, your character is on the left, and your opponent on the right. The play areas feature a series of beautiful new scenes and illustrations of the characters as backdrops that will change frequently depending on the mood of the character as the game intensifies (one moment Sakura is giggling and singing, the next she's shrieking "AAhh! Oogami-san!! Dame-desu!!" when the screen gets to a critical point!). The many different scenes also reflect the mood- for example, Maria may be smiling one minute, the next she's in shock! And to add to the humor, we see (from the front) little caricature animations of the characters kneeling on cushions and working little Saturn controllers! These are absolute riots, especially when moods change- smiles and casual wiggling of the controllers, or furious shaking of the handpads with sweat flying and eyes in terror!!

And it's also a battle royal! As "jewels" are eliminated, each player's power gauge builds up- and when it's full, the player can either "power-up" to increase for a future use, "attack" (dump a pile of colored dice-like cubes on the enemy to fill up their screen, proportional to their power level), or "defend" (wipe out a proportional number of the rows from the bottom of their own play area). The attacks are great, as our heroines give their standard battle cries from the regular game and their backdrops reflect their actions... and the cubes drop on the enemy player, who often screeches in protest or complaint as their backdrop shows their panic! Intense competition! And the winner looks victorious, the loser looks beaten up or defeated (Sumire is hilarious), and the little versions of the characters in the insets show their pride at winning (and their kicking and screaming if losing).

And- since we're talking Cinderella here- the loser of the round gets a minor role in the production of Cinderella being cast by the Gekidan!! In a hilarious and exceptionally well-done "between the rounds" sequence, the first round loser gets to be a tree, the second a horse, third the witch, etc... all with closeup of our winning heroine looking victorious and also offering a comment to the loser in a typical Sakura Taisen dialogue window! Seeing our favorite ladies in these hilarious get-ups when they lose is a scream!!

Anyway, once you defeat your team members, it's not over! You go up against the "Three Daughters of the Teigeki" (Tsubaki, Yuri, and Kasumi) who all trade off during the round you play, then you face Ayame... and finally, General Yoneda himself- who's no pushover, despite the fact that he's drunk (as usual) and keeps tippling and slurrily commenting as you play against him!! He is the FUNNIEST one of all, I think... especially his antics when he wins- like pointing to you with one hand and his butt with the other, laughing hysterically!!

Ah, but what happens if you get past all the Teigeki and beat Ayame and Yoneda? Why, your chosen lady gets the role of Cinderella, and there is a brand new, character-focused romantic ending sequence with your character dressed in a beautiful gown and Oogami as the Prince... very romantic, very Sakura Taisen- and now I have 5 more endings to get here, as well!!

"Hanasaku Otome" plays following this, with a unique "personalized" ED sequence for your character much like the ones in Sakura Taisen, but with some surprises- the cast list is illustrated like a Playbill, with the characters listed in the roles they "earned" in the preceding production!! Like "Tree- Kanna Kirishima" "Horse- Iris" "Witch- Sumire Kanzaki"... hilarious!!!

But that's just a detailed description of one offering! The "Story" is actually a way to choose one of six distinct NEW episodes ("OAVs" as it were), different ones for each character- each with title screen, a fully-scripted, enjoyable storyline with a LOT of new artwork and dialogue, new character poses in the dialogue sections, perfect use of the LIPS synching algorithms, a special ending, and a special ED for each one with 1922-type silent-film-like titles and sepia-toned pictures! Animation here is smooth as silk, not rough as it was in "Hanagumi Tsushin".

Each story progresses with the same RPG interface that Sakura Taisen players are already familiar with (timed choices, alternate pathways, etc), and the usual "upchime" or "downchime" depending on how the character you're with (you are, of course, Oogami) feels about you at that moment. Positive "reliability" improves your power and skill during the game levels you'll encounter as the story develops- and you will encounter several of these with different challenges as the tale progresses! Of course, you must win against your opponent before you can keep going to the next part of the story!

But you will finish the episode eventually, and you'll receive a very nice, unique ending and commentary from the character... and as a reward, you can display all the scenes and listen to the dialogue you earn via the "Omake" feature choice that appears the Options menu!!

This is exciting, because this is MUCH more than a simple "Columns" game with Sakura Taisen characters. You have to consider all these stories part of the Sakura Taisen mythos, as they're wonderful- Iris's is one I just followed to the end, and it was cute and VERY entertaining!!

Of course, you can play the solo game (as a selected character) or a versus game (two people, choose your senshi) as well, with all the fun described above. The solo games are rather challenging, as you have goals to achieve within time limits! There's also a "team" match play mode in the 2 player mode, where each player can choose a team of three characters to engage each other, one stepping in when another loses.

The options are definitely worth checking- besides sound and other factors, one neat feature is the ability to change the "jewels" into colored heads of your favorite Hanagumi character (Sakura, Iris, etc) and other things! And there's an OMAKE listing that is seen, but is initially "locked out" until you finish one or more "Cinderella" or "Story" episodes completely!

As already mentioned, graphics are incredible, artwork is stunning and original, the little animations and features are priceless, and the full commentary and flavor of the character voices is maintained as all the seiyuu (even Ai Orikasa as Ayame, and the actor who plays Yoneda) return with new dialogue andd fully-scripted new "mini-stories". Music-wise, there is not only the great many Sakura Taisen BGMs that we'd expect, but during the challenging games, each character's "signature songs" and other recognizable themes are presented in jazzy new arrangements which are VERY refreshing and lots of fun!

The quality of the original Sakura Taisen game is present in every aspect of this product. This game must definitely be counted as part of the Sakura Taisen world, and if you are a Sakura Taisen fan, you'll hate yourself if you don't get this! It's well worth the investment!!