The first game in the Sakura Wars series came out on September 27, 1996, which means this year will be its 30th anniversary.
Sega has revealed a 30th anniversary logo, along with the promise of merch and events.
It’s disappointing that they haven’t even hinted at a new game announcement for the anniversary, but maybe there’s still hope.
We last talked about Sakura Wars in December, when fans noticed the official social media account had seen more active for the past few months. That hasn’t led to anything yet, but the anniversary feels like a great opportunity for it.
I’d love if they celebrated the anniversary with a remaster collection of the original games (or even just started with the first one) that could get an official translation. I do want to play the 2019 game sometime, but I’m even more interested in the older ones.
Do you think there will be a new Sakura Wars game or remaster for the 30th anniversary?
The Muv-Luv 20th Odyssey Box came with several exclusive bonuses, including the four episodes of Muv-Luv Unlimited: The Day After.
This was unexpected since The Day After hadn’t been announced for the Switch.
And it wasn’t announced after that, either. Muv-Luv Unlimited: The Day After got a Switch release, but it was only available through that special edition collection.
Well, that’s finally changed.
Muv-Luv Unlimited: The Day After is coming to the Nintendo Switch on April 16. According to Gematsu, the four episodes will be available both separately and as a set.
I enjoyed The Day After and its bleak timeline, and I hope Resonative actually comes out someday, since it seems to be in some sort of limbo. In the meantime, I’m glad The Day After will be more readily available for fans playing on the Switch!
We’ve got a strange assortment of topics to talk about today, so let’s start with Stranger Than Heaven.
As we discussed on Monday, yesterday’s Xbox Partner Preview was announced as having “an in-depth look” at Stranger Than Heaven.
Well, it wasn’t quite an in-depth look.
I have to admit that I was a little disappointed when it turned out to be a single trailer along with the announcement that an actual deep dive will be coming on May 6 at 4 PM PT / 7 PM ET. The trailer did explicitly confirm multiple eras, however, so that’s something new we learned.
In fact, it confirms 5 eras (1915, 1929, 1943, 1951, and 1965) and 5 cities, so it sounds like it will be a pretty big game. The 1965 shot in the trailer also clearly shows Kamurocho.
The trailer didn’t answer most of my questions, though, since I really want to know more about the story. I’m intrigued by what was shown, but hopefully the May 6 broadcast will show a lot more.
Moving on, this morning was the Blue Reflection broadcast announced last week, and although I didn’t watch it live, I woke up eager to find out what the news was.
(Actually, I woke up yesterday eager to see what the news was, too, because I misremembered it as being on the 26th, but anyway…)
There was a new announcement, although not a whole new game like I hoped. They announced Blue Reflection Quartet for the Switch, Switch 2, PlayStation 5, and PC, a collection that includes Blue Reflection and Blue Reflection: Second Light as well as a game version of Blue Reflection: Ray (the anime) that tells “the climactic arc of the anime” with 3D exploration in the Common and a console version of Blue Reflection: Sun (the mobile game) with the main story adapted alongside new characters stories.
It will be out on July 30, although it’s a digital-only release in the West.
Some additional information from the live stream and website, translated and summarized by fans on Reddit, includes the fact that the first game will be censored slightly compared to its original release, which is disappointing.
Still, I’m interested in the Ray and Sun content included in this collection, so I’ll probably get it eventually. In the meantime, I hope this collection is build-up to a full third game, and not a sign that the series is over.
Finally, let’s talk briefly about the Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream demo. The demo came out on Wednesday, so I downloaded it that evening and tried it out, and I had a blast. There isn’t much to do in the demo, only create 3 Miis and go through a few basic tasks with them, but I played it for the whole evening and woke up wishing there was more demo content. I’m already itching for the full release after that little taste. If you’re curious about Tomodachi Life, definitely try the demo.
April 16 can’t come fast enough. I’d better get to work on my backlog so Tomodachi Life doesn’t shove all my partly-completed games out of the way. At least it’s the sort of game best played in short bursts between other games (is what I could say more confidently if I hadn’t played the demo for literal hours despite its tiny amount of content).
So, how do you feel about Stranger Than Heaven, Blue Reflection Quartet, and the Tomodachi Life demo?
The first game in the Sakura Wars series came out on September 27, 1996, which means this year will be its 30th anniversary.
