One of the more underrated JRPGs of 2020 so far is Sega's newest title in its long-running Sakura Wars franchise. While it initially released in Japan in December 2019, the title reached western shores just a few months ago on April 28th, but was unfortunately overshadowed by other major JRPG titles such as Persona 5 Royal and Final Fantasy 7 Remake. Despite likely not selling well, not even making the month's top 20 sales charts on PlayStation 4, the game's director, Tetsuya Ootsubo, has claimed that the team at Sega is pushing for a continuation of the franchise.
During an interview with Twinfinite, Ootsubo stated, “The development team would love to continue the series, and we’re pushing to make it happen. We appreciate all your support.” While not directly confirming any sort of new installment in the series, it seems like the team at Sega is eager to see the Sakura Wars series continue. When asked if future installments would make use of the newest entry's action-based combat or return to the turn-based style of the original titles, Ootsubo claimed that they are "continuing to research” what the “next steps should be in order to give fans the best possible experience."
Finally, when asked about the possibility of the most recent entry making its way to platforms such as the Nintendo Switch, Xbox One or PC, Ootsubo simply stated,“We’d love to expand the audience for the game! We’re actively researching to see where there is high demand and determine what actions will be feasible.”
Sakura Wars on PS4 marks the first major title in the series since 2005's Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love, and acts as a soft-reboot to the franchise. While still referencing characters and events from the previous entries tangentially, the title introduces a new cast of characters and an action-based combat system, contrasting with the original entries' turn-based, strategy RPG style. The game also features character designs from Bleach manga creator Tite Kubo instead of longtime series character designer Kosuke Fujishima.
Sakura Wars released on April 28th 2020, exclusively on PlayStation 4.