Review by: Richard E. Rae

"Sakura Taisen Hanagumi Tsushin" was just released 2-14-97. It is a single Saturn CD-ROM packaged in the conventional "jewelbox". Besides the all-important "soft", there's a 14 page manual (laid out right-to-left and in the same style as the manual with "Sakura Taisen"), and a bonus *special* message card inside to "Oogami-san" signed by all the girls (and with Fujishima's artwork). Too neat..

"Sakura Taisen Hanagumi Tsushin" (Sakura Wars Flower Company Newsletter) is just that; a VERY neat follow-up to Sakura Taisen by Sega and RED which keeps the flavor of the game and supplies the player and fan with more information AND a number of little surprises. This is not a CD you "play" or "read" once and then toss; it keeps springing little surprises on me every day!

When the game starts, one of the characters (usually a different one each time) greets you, "Oogami-san"... and the greeting is tied into the time of day it is when you boot up (based on the Saturn's internal clock)!! If morning, you'll hear "Ohayo gozaimasu, Oogami-san" ("... kaicho", "... Oogami-han" etc- typically, whatever the character usually calls you)! If afternoon, you hear "Konnichi-wa"... if evening, "Konban-wa". And best of all... the first time I booted the game on March 3rd, before I even saw the "Red" and "Sega" logo screens, Kouran appeared, blushing, and happily said "It's my birthday today!" (the other girls cheered her with "OMEDETO") Stunned, I took a look in my manual at the biographical data, and sure enough... March 3 *is* Kouran's birthday! I investigated further, and every girl's birthday is recognized. The surprises of Sakura Taisen are definitely carried over to this software.

Anyway, after the greeting and pressing Start, you'll meet Tsubaki-chan at her stand. (Tsubaki is a fan favorite, and you get to hear her pleasant voice and personality quite a bit here!) You're then given three choices- read the newspaper, go to the second floor of the theater, or leave.

If you read the paper, you're presented with a 1920's- style Japanese newspaper on a table., complete with today's date in old-style official kanji. It's full of "articles" and "advertisements", and while some of these articles are the same every time, a significant number of them change every "issue".

To read an article, you put your cursor on the area of interest, and confirm (C button). You'll actually ZOOM into this area; point to the exact article or picture you're interested in, and the event occurs... when there are dialogue windows or pauses, you use the same command interface as in Sakura Taisen. No new commands to learn here! When done, pressing B zooms you back out, and you then move the cursor to the edge where you can turn the page (which does so in a nicely animated display).

There's plenty to see here; information (and photos) about the Sakura Taisen radio show and its hosts narrated by Sakura), interviews with the creative staff (MPEG video interviews with Sakura asking the questions), an ever-changing gallery of Fujishima model sheet drawings of the characters... one or more characters advertising their next "stage production" at the theater (there are a surprising number of these that vary too)... great little vignettes featuring Yuri and Kasumi... a film of the lines outside a software shop where Sakura Taisen sold out... another continually changing gallery of beautiful 3-D renderings of all the koubu mecha, Teigeki equipment, and all the enemy's mechs and mechanoids (front and back)... many changing advertisements (and photo displays) of the many Sakura Taisen products.. phone cards, garage kits, cups, CD, photo-CD, art books, playing guides, UFO catcher dolls, etc.. etc... (this part is a form of electronic torture ). Tsubaki, Yuri, or Kasumi often introduce or discuss the products, too.

There are also biographical stories as the characters (two to an "issue") talk about themselves a bit and have amusing discourses; for example, Iris fills you in on a bit more information about herself, Jean-Paul, and how she loves Maria's hotcakes. Maria actually presented a recipe. There's certainly more to see...

There are also two "games" within the newspaper, too! The main one, in the center of the "issue", is a nice little adventure which shows off the branching logic of Sakura Taisen on a smaller scale... where you ultimately "date" one of the characters. The reactions and responses change radically, and the outcomes change here, too! It's all good fun. The first time I played this game, I wound up with... you guessed it, Kouran!! Just like the first time I played Sakura Taisen. Amazing... there's something mysterious about this phenomenon . Of course, you can give incorrect responses and wind up dating NO one .

The second game is fun, too! You activate a photo-reproduction of the music CD front, and you and Tsubaki (being very cute and funny) will play "name that tune" as you must identify a one-two note beat from a song on the CD by picking the title on a reproduction of the playlist on the back of the CD case before time runs out. If you're right, Tsubaki lilts "Pin-pon!" (Bing-bong!) and congratulates you. You then hear a short bit from that song as it is on the CD. If you're wrong, Tsubaki goes "Bu-bu!" (ZZZZT!) and then shows you the right tune on the label, playing it also. I aced this game... I know those songs and play order by heart

You also get a real treat- on the last page, you can actually watch a movie of Chisa Yokoyama performing either "Geki! Teikoku Kagekidan" or "Hanasaku Otome" from her live concert, dressed in a picture-perfect Sakura costume! The clips are nice, and Chisa's certainly enthusiastic... on a critical note, I found her performance of "Geki! Teikoku Kagekidan" a bit off pitch here and there, and she sounded like she was a bit breathless at times. (Given her energy, I'm not surprised.) But these are worth watching, and very enjoyable.

Once you're done with the "paper", you can also go upstairs to the second floor, where you're presented with the familiar floor plan/adventure scenario. But when you go to a character's room, you'll be greeted by the character- who then runs a movie (complete with '20's style scratches and titles) of a short and very personable interview about Sakura Taisen with the seiyuu who performs that character! Chisa Yokoyama, Michie Tomizawa, Yuriko Fuchizaki, Kumiko Nishihara, Urara Takano, Mayumi Tanaka... they're all here, as are the seiyuu who do Tsubaki, Yuri, and Kasumi. Notably missing was an interview with Ai Orikasa, though.

I will say that the animation here is of the same graphic quality, but lip sync and motion is a tad rough and not up to the silky smooth standards of the "parent game". Some (but not all) of the MPEG film clips are a bit jumpy, though audio is perfect.

All the BGM is the same as in the parent game of "Sakura Taisen", and is often skilfully used depending on the scenes or mood. There's a lot of spoken dialogue here, and only a couple of instances of text-with-no-speech.

Visually, the entire package is beautiful, and the "paper" is a reading and educational experience itself; it's designed after old newpapers, and the word flow and the elaborate screen titles usually run not only from top to bottom, but from *right to left* ... first time I've ever encountered this, though I knew it was possible! And the old-style "official kanji" for numbers are used here too.

I must say that if you haven't played "Sakura Taisen", the "Hanagumi Tsushin" soft will mean very little to you as it's DEFINITELY oriented towards "Sakura Taisen" fans. If you're one, though, it's a "must-have." I think it's great!!