The team behind the fan translation of the Sega Saturn RPG Sakura Wars 2: Thou Shalt Not Die has just issued an update on the project's progress since it began earlier this year.
The team – which includes @NoahSteam_ (Project Lead), @SegaFanatic5188 (Programmer), @matto_bii, @Crouching_Mouse, @natsume__38 (Translators), @JustJoqu (Graphic Artist) and @bowloflentils (Editor) – has completed the English translation for the game's first disc.
As you can see from this Twitter thread, some amazing progress has been made in less than a year, but there's still some way to go. "We're not sure when everything will be finished," adds @bowloflentils before giving a summary of the work remaining. This involves compiling work on the second and third discs as well as ironing out bugs.
Released exclusively in Japan in 1998, Sakura Wars 2 follows on from the 1996 original, which was also on Saturn. Both games were later ported to the Dreamcast, PC and PSP.
The third and fourth games – Sakura Wars 3: Is Paris Burning? (2001) and Sakura Wars 4: Fall in Love, Maidens (2002) – were on the Dreamcast, while the fifth game – Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love (2005) – was published on PS2 and Wii, and was the first in the series to be released worldwide.
2019's Shin Sakura Wars was a soft reboot of the series for PS4 and also got a global release.