Video Game Review: Dramatic Dungeon Sakura Taisen ~Kimi Aru ga Tame~ (Sakura Wars, import)

Dramatic Dungeon Sakura Taisen ~Kimi Aru ga Tame~ (Sakura Wars, import)

Nz17

Developer: Neverland

Publisher: SEGA

Type: Nintendo DS game

Format: Game card

Length: ~20 hours

Content rating: All audiences

Review rating: 8 (out of 10)

Written by: Sean "Nz17" Robinson

If you would like a cute, fun, and funny portable Rogue-like for the Nintendo DS, Dramatic Dungeon Sakura Taisen is an excellent choice. It features the full cast of the first five mainline Sakura Wars games from Tokyo to Paris to New York. It's an all-new adventure featuring a new villainess and her minions bent on a mysterious task which ends up involving the protagonists from the whole line of games.

Each set of stages begins with a bit of story to help set the scene and to tell the goal for the mission. Most stages are randomly generated with enemies and items scattered about the levels. After the set of levels is completed, a boss fight will ensue with additional story sequences unfolding. In-between exploring the dungeons, players will talk with the various other characters and choose whom they wish to take into battle, with extra story scenes during this time that can positively affect the result of battles.

Though there is a bevy of Japanese text in this game, it can be safely ignored and the game played to completion. Obviously it is better if one can read Japanese to enjoy the full story and the character dialogues, but the action of the dungeon stages and the humorous slapstick of some story sequences will keep even non-readers amused. And if one already knows the characters of Sakura Wars, events in the character interactions are obvious enough without reading the Japanese text.

All-in-all, Dramatic Dungeon Sakura Taisen is a fun little game that is a must-have for Sakura Wars fans. Even non-fans and casual game players will find this game fun and easy to pick up thanks to its simple-to-understand game-play and low consequence for failing a mission as the missions can be tried repeatedly until one succeeds. I can confidently recommend this game to anyone who enjoys Japanese games or Rogue-like adventures.