Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love/Episode 1

A Samurai Makes His Stand

You start out as Shinjiro Taiga. You're standing by the blossom tree as Sakura Shinguji, the black hair girl in a pink robe approaches you to meet her commander, Ichiro Ogami. You won't be penalized on the first multiple answer page. Perhaps as a nod, this is a tie-in to how the series began to where it is now. Although Sakura's the star of the series, she and her commander will take a backseat since they won't be joining you in your adventure. But the truth is, you're not part of the Flower Division in Tokyo nor the European Division in Paris. Instead you'll be starting at the bottom of the Star Division in New York.

Special note: This is a storytelling experience, remember to give out positive thoughts and sucking up to the girls as it will payoff when you reach your first battle.

Hello New York!
Of course you'll start off in a traditional Japanese robe waiting for a person to pick you up at a port. When you hear the robbery, a girl in the mask and a horse came and swipe two men with her sword. When you get a closer look, she has red hair and blue eyes. After she's gone, unfortunately you're mistaken as a robber until one of two people came to help you. If you played this game the first time, Kayama from Romando shops comes to take you to the New York Theatre. The second time you play, Ratchet Altair takes over with her car instead no matter how many times you play this game.

Arriving at the Little Lip Theatre
Upon reaching the Little Lip theatre Kayama introduces you to the Captain of the New York Combat Revue Star Division, Ratchet Altair. After greeting her she will bring you to the manager's office on the top of the building to meet Mr. Sunnyside. Instead of the standard set of options to introduce yourself a gauge will appear with the standard dialog timer. This is the first appearance of the Analog LIPS. Press up or down and confirm to use the Analog LIPS. Make a strong impression by pushing all the way up and gain additional favor with Ratchet Altair (the lowest option will have the opposite effect).

You're instructed to go to the village to settle in at your new apartment they have arranged for you.

Expect the unexpected
As you go to your village, the girl with red hair bumps into you. This is where your first test begins because the girls you suck up to will tie-in to the battle experience. The more motivation they have, the higher their chances of surviving the battle improves. But that's too early right now. You introduce yourself to Gemini. She can daze off into her thoughts before continuing her duties. Including punching you in the face! Anyway, she's describe as having red hair, blue eyes and wears pretty much variations of wild west clothing.

Because of the plea that Gemini is having, you tag along with her until you get to the village. You'll be introduced to Cherry and Anri as they both play a major role in support of the Star Division. If you're playing the second time, Kayama will introduce himself to you here. After changing your clothes, you and Gemini can spend time going around the city to get to know the places. Be mindful if this is your first time, think fast and try to keep your response as positive as you can until 10pm. Also each visit uses up five minutes so be sure to check as much as you can before you're called back to the managers office. By the way, when you reach the exit sign, select it and choose which area you want to go to. So far there's Village, Theatre and Midtown.

You meet Ratchet and Gemini goes back to cleaning. You'll be first introduced to Subaru (it's a name from a car but let it slide as there's nothing wrong with the name), the other Japanese person who's part of the division. Then you sit at the lobby while Ratchet finds Cheiron (pronounced as Karen). Unfortunately, things go wrong when Cheiron is unhappy with your presence. The Star Division thought it was Ichiro Ogami who's suppose to be the lead in this team! In consolidation, Ratchet tells you to see the performance while questioning whether you should stay or not. By the way, Cheiron is an African-American and described as sort of hot tempered lawyer.

On the next day as you walk through the path, you meet Diana Caprice, who's a beautiful blonde hair girl, wearing glasses and sitting on the wheelchair feeding the birds. This is the point for you to go back as this is your first task in helping with the theatre.

Cleaning service with Gemini
You start at the rooftop. You can meet with Ratchet to check how she's feeling but try to resist the temptation of staring at her body. Anyway after cleaning the top by checking the areas, go down and start with the first long timed task in the hallway. You got to remember: sweep the floor, wipe it with the rag and finally wax the floor. But the last part has Gemini getting wet by the water! The last part you choose is up to you. Regardless, you should do a good job in this timed minigame in following the order. But fail to follow that order can piss her off.

Another job is to hand out flyers which should be easy. The places to hand out flyers is Romando, Subaru's Suite, Cafe Samba, 5th Avenue and Maggie's Groceries. Go anywhere else would upset Gemini so keep those places in mind.

Lights out!
This is your first minigame task. Before that, when you and Gemini couldn't get the lights on to clean the auditorium. They both go to the top and things went terribly wrong. Gemini clumsily pushed all the buttons and the theatre blacks out!

Cheiron blames her for it, but after you defended her for her actions, this is your chance to make your mark! You'll be taken up with Subaru back to the same spot to get the steams going. It will be easy at first. If successful, you continue to operate to get the light working but one things missing. Gemini left the switch off at the auditorium! So you have to race to the switch and in time, the lights go back on and show becomes a success.

Just when you think it's over
You go to Gemini's house for the night. It's worth noting she has a horse named Larry. Pretty suspicious but it can't be spoiled until "Episode 6" to find out who whether she has a sister or not. But a loud siren comes on and you'll be called for your first battle.

Note: For a goofy response, choose "See you guys later" and their response is quite dim. Mr Sunnyside asks Ratchet whether she makes the right decision. She has to accept you anyway or else the story wouldn't work.

Also note that you won't be using advance strategies until the next episode. To speed up your knowledge, here's what you need to know:


 * Stratagem comprises of three advantages you need to know: Default is Gi which is a balance of offensive and defensive with all moves available including the advancement of speed. Shin is using offensive strength with the sacrifice of the healing component with the attack strength up. Tai is the opposite of Shin with the guard strength up but the Supermove not functioning in that area.
 * Protect is use if one of your teammate is in danger. It will be a good head start that also saves you from danger. The max is five so remember to use it wisely but only if your able to keep your crew alive.
 * Help me! is pretty much what it is. If you can't handle things on your own, the teammate you call will help you by teleporting to your spot. The max is three and only like the protection you have if you reach the requirements of ten medals.

In terms of medals, you'll be bound to go from rookie to superstar if your able to keep your crew alive until episode 8 in which you face the toughest challenge ever. To be really sure, check that your ability to heal girls around you grows, your supermove can reach further distances and you'll be able to use strategy much easier with a longer move bar set. Check conditions and you'll be thankful that you'll keep the status after you finish this game with a girl of your choice.

Saving Ratchet Altair
On your first battle, you don't get to control Cheiron and Subaru yet. Just battle one opponent at a time and if your bottom gauge is full, you can use your supermove attack. If you want to play safe, reserve two bars for defence (you can't use advanced strategy just yet) and it will help minimizes the damage taken from the robots to keep you from dying.

If you want more detail, you can choose to do the tutorial or not. Shinjiro's strength is pretty similar to Gemini in "Episode 6" and the only one which grows the most. Perhaps also as a nod, you can defend your person and ask your teammate for help which will be needed in later battles. Most importantly, you have Diana's healing range so it's helpful to use it wisely.

Also if you want to know why Ratchet isn't doing so well comes down to two reasons: While cleaning up the rooftop, you go to the Manager's Office to see Ratchet and turns out when you talk to her, she has so much work, talking to reporters and doing the paperwork makes her lose concentration. The other reason when you start your battle, Ratchet really doesn't have any Supermoves or defense which is why you have one choice left.

There will be a cutscene in which Ratchet couldn't move out of the way. You can choose to save Ratchet or not, but you'll save her anyway which makes you the captain. Finish off the remaining robot minions and get ready for the next battle. Be mindful in controlling your teammates as well. Also don't forget to try the joint attack. The joint attack is having two people cover a certain limited area to give devastating effect to the enemies within the area.

Special note: The more times you play this game, the more your overall experience grows. Your mobility will grow gradually, the defence and offence will increase and eventually your other needs like "Help Me!" feature and protect will grow once you reach the peak.

Also take note that only in this level your teammates Cheiron, Subaru and Ratchet will be restricted to its default motivations. You can only grow their motivations after this episode.

Star Division Assault
You'll be thankful it's on the easy side. Here's your priorities: Take down the flying robot minions as they can take your crew down easily. Then take down the offensive weapons. That's the two arms and the fire rocketing necklace. However if you try to take down the head, it will keep recharging from the backpack. So attack the backpack next then take down the head before finally taking down the pneuma. You'll get the photo victory pose after this.

If you earned nine medals from the Conditions on the save point, taking down Garan should be easy. Get Shinjiro to aim for the backpack and the fire rocketing necklace while Cheiron and Subaru take care of both arms and flying minions. Then group up and take the head and its dark pneuma.

Take note: The boss you take down will come back with more robot minions and weapons and even a superpower so prepare for that moment once you got your crew together in "Episode 6". Not to spoil but you'll see it once more in "Episode 7" but don't expect another fight with the titan. By the way, the gigantic boss name is Garan.

Also, the State of Liberty which is a beautiful large woman statue will have a surprise by episode 8 so tune in to the final page to find out more!

If you want to know more about those people, these links will help you understand them better:
 * Gemini Sunrise
 * Subaru Kujou
 * Cheiron Archer
 * Diana Caprice
 * Ratchet Altair

Check episode 3 for the recruit not listed here.