Sega and Red Company's Sakura Wars series has rarely been localized into English, with the exception of 2010's Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love for the Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 2, and the soft reboot from 2020 for PlayStation 4.
This means that it's been mostly up to fans over the years to make the other games in the cult series more accessible to an international audience.
In 2019, for example, Sega enthusiast Noah Steam and a group of other fan translators and hackers collaborated on a project to bring the first Sakura Wars game on Sega Saturn into English for the very first time. And now, it seems that we should expect the same treatment given to its sequel: Sakura Wars 2.
Over the weekend, the translator Steam revealed that a team had been hard at work translating Sakura Wars 2 ever since Summer 2021. As a result, most of the translation is already done, with the team releasing a trailer for the project as well as a language patch for the game's special edition demo, alongside this announcement.
The Sakura Wars games, in case you're unfamiliar, can typically be described as cross-genre titles that feature a blend of tactical turn-based roleplaying, timed social encounters, and animated FMVs. The first game Sakura Wars was originally launched for the Sega Saturn in 1996, and there have since been numerous sequels since, including the aforementioned Sakura Wars 2, which was released in 1998.
Below are the credits of those who are involved in this most recent endeavour:
- Project lead - NoahSteam
- Programming - NoahSteam,TrekkiesUnite118
- Translation lead - MattoBii
- Translation team - CrouchingMouse, MatatabiMitsu, Natsume38, Neko
- Lead editor - Bowl of Lentils
- Editors - Burntends, CrouchingMouse, Mattobii, Natsume38
- Graphics modification - Joqu, Mattobii, NoahSteam, TheOpponent, TrekkiesUnite118
- FMV subtitles - Programming: TrekkiesUnite118 Translation: MattoBii
- Talent Recruitment - Burntends, CJ Iwakura
- Special Thanks - CJ Iwakura, ItsumoKnight, SaturnDave
If you want to keep up to date with this effort, we recommend following Steam on Twitter. We'll also be keeping an eye out for any updates ourselves. You can watch the trailer for the project below: