Sakura Wars 4: Fall in Love, Maidens[a] is a cross-genre video game developed by Red Entertainment and Overworks and published by Sega for the Dreamcast.
The fourth main installment in the Sakura Wars series and the last for Sega home consoles, it was released in March 2002.
Defined by its publisher as a "dramatic adventure" game, Sakura Wars 4 combines overlapping tactical role-playing, dating sim and visual novel gameplay elements.
and Sakura Wars: The Movie, main protagonist Ichiro Ogami returns to Tokyo and reunites with the Imperial Combat Revue and its "Flower Division", a troupe of magically-imbued women who also works as a theater company.
While Ogami produces the group's adaptation of Les Misérables, the Imperial Combat Revue must join forces with the Paris Division to stop the hostile ghost of the main antagonist, Ōkubo Nagayasu, from terrorizing Tokyo.
When the Dreamcast was discontinued by Sega, the development team instead decided to create a celebratory game to conclude Ogami's narrative.
Dubbed a "dramatic adventure" game and taking place across three "acts", the gameplay segments incorporate tactical role-playing, dating sim and visual novel elements.
[1][2] Gameplay is divided between periods where Ogami navigates the Grand Imperial Theater and interacts with various characters, and combat sequences governed by a turn-based battle system across a three-dimensional (3D) area allowing full range of movement.
[3][4] During the adventure sections, when talking with both the main heroines and supporting characters from the Imperial Combat Revue, conversations rely on the series' "Live & Interactive Picture System" (LIPS); when faced with critical choices in the course of a conversation, dialogue options are displayed with a time limit for the player to select a response.
[2][3] If save data from the Dreamcast versions of the last three Sakura Wars titles is imported, Ogami's romance choices from those games are incorporated into the narrative.
As with Is Paris Burning?, the game uses the "Active & Realtime Machine System" (ARMS), where each unit has a full range of movement, with their distance limited by an Action Point meter.
Immobilized by a golden mist produced by the Koubu, the Flower Division are easily beaten back and their base at the Grand Imperial Theater damaged.
In their role as a theatre troupe, the Flower Division are preparing a stage adaptation of Les Misérables, which Ogami is tasked with directing.
The need to properly portray the marriage scene leads to widespread misunderstandings as both Ogami and Flower Division members think each is proposing to the other.
were regular series character designer Hidenori Matsubara, scenario writers Satoru Akahori and Hiroyuki Kawasaki, and composer Kohei Tanaka.
[12] Due to the development goals and short production period, the story was considerably shorter than earlier Sakura Wars, being formatted as a three act play rather than an anime series.
[15] While it was a legitimate sequel to the earlier Sakura Wars games, the density of the cast caused staff to compare it to a special program or fan disc.
[6] Before beginning development on Sakura Wars 4, the team contacted the main cast from the past games (Chisa Yokoyama, Michie Tomizawa, Urara Takano, Kumiko Nishihara, Yuriko Fuchizaki, Mayumi Tanaka, Maya Okamoto, Kazue Ikura, Noriko Hidaka, Saeko Shimazu, Etsuko Kozakura, Kikuko Inoue and Yoshino Takamori) to ensure they could include all thirteen heroines.
Tei - Finale" was Ogami actor Akio Suyama's first time singing a theme for the series, performing it with backing from the female cast.
[20] Hiroi originally wanted Suyama to sing the whole song, but Tanaka talked him out of it and relied on the actor's speaking talents to narrate his lyrics.
[1] Localization efforts were prevented due to Sega's uncertainty as to whether the game's blend of genres would find a profitable audience outside Japan.
[35] 4Gamer.net's Tetsuya Asakura, reviewing the PC version, praised the story options opened with the entire cast being present, and its solid gameplay.
[40][41][42] So Long, My Love formed part of the Sakura Wars World Project, a group of seven games being developed for the PlayStation 2 to expand the series' audience and eventually release internationally.