Project Sakura Wars French Trailer Is Completely Different, Revealing Many New Details

Iyane Agossah April 2, 2019 1:13 AM EST

The French trailer for New Sakura Wars is an earlier version of the trailer with different cuts and subtitles enabled, revealing many new character details, possible events and dates like christmas, and how the game's 3D models evolved.

New Sakura Wars, temporarily titled Project Sakura Wars in the west, is being published in Europe by Koch Media. Soon after the game’s first trailer reveal during Sega Fes 2019, the publisher released the trailer as well. The game’s characters and story were detailed too. Sega America, and the Spanish and German subsidiaries of Koch Media all published the same trailer as the Japanese trailer.

The French version of the trailer published by Koch Media France however, is different and is a slightly older version, with a few different cuts, some unfinished. Moreover, while the trailer is almost completely unvoiced, all scenes have subtitles enabled, revealing new information on the game.

These lines of dialogues reveal that our protagonist Seijuro Kamiyama and Sakura Amamiya already knew each other before they ended up in the new Flower Division. The two of them are childhood friends, and they promised each other to join the Flower Division, with Seijuro promising to protect Sakura. Sakura speaks of another promise he doesn’t seem to remember though. She also affectionately calls him “big brother Sei”. This explains why he’s patting her head in the trailer.

Here, our protagonist Seijuro speaks of using his “Kouma power” which is, unless I’m missing something. a pretty weird thing to say for a Sakura Wars protagonist, the Kouma being the demons they fight. In Sakura Wars, nearly all the mecha pilots are women because men with the spiritual power required to pilot the Koubu are very rare. Maybe Seijuro doesn’t have spiritual power, but can pilot his Koubu by using energy from the Kouma instead? Multiple theories can be made from this.

Unfinished shots like these clearly show the French trailer is an earlier, unfinished version.

This scene must be happening at the beginning of the game, right after Seijuro transferred as captain of the Flower Division. Sakura is giving him a tour of the Imperial Theatre, saying the theatre scene is definitely the place they must start with.

In this scene, Clarisse expresses her doubts about her books-using magic, saying that because of it, her family’s history is linked with destruction.

The French trailer is on the left, the final trailer is on the right. This scene with Azami didn’t have her lips synchronized to her speech yet. You can see how her 3D model improved as well. I’ve included more comparison shots like this for other characters in the gallery below.

This scene with the Flower Division characters rallying together is only present in the French trailer. They’re speaking about bringing forth a Christmas miracle, implying that a Christmas event and date are coming back in New Sakura Wars.

The Koubu vs Koubu fighting scene is shown during daytime in a different environment than the final version of the trailer. They are fighting in some kind of stadium. This is probably where the “World Combat Revues Great War” tournament mentioned in the game’s story is held. Or it could just be stock temporary background. Another intriguing thing is the “Smartron” triangle option at the bottom left. I have no idea what it could be, probably a completely unrelated, development thing they didn’t remove yet. Update: According to new information from Famitsu, Smartrons are smartphone-like devices used by the characters.

The cockpit shot with Sakura has her covering for Clarisse after the others criticized her for a mistake. Meanwhile, Clarisse herself is doubtful of her abilities. This hints at how the group will be facing teamwork problems.

Here we have another short cut only present in the French trailer, where Seijuro, Sakura, and Clarisse speak about how the Flower Division might get disbanded. As we already know from the story summary, the Flower Disivion lost its former glory, and Sakura’s dream is to bring it back.

Lastly, we have something very common in trailers: what Sakura says is different than the actual dialogue of the scene shown. She says “This is the moment our fates awaken!” while in the subtitled dialogue, she’s talking about realizing her dream.

The final version of the trailer also teases that Sumire might be making an appearance. I’ve explained in a previous story why it’ll be a huge deal if Sumire does appear in New Sakura Wars. Game Producer Tetsu Katano also revealed many development details in an interview, like how Studio Sanzigen is working on the game, or why they picked Bleach’s Kubo Tite as character designer. Multiple former staff of the Sakura Wars series, and the seiyuu of the new characters in New Sakura Wars shared comments after the game’s reveal. You can find everything in this article.

You can find the French trailer below, and I’ve included the final version of the trailer as well for comparison sake. Here are additional 3D models and background comparisons, with the French/unfinished version at the left.

New Sakura Wars, or Shin Sakura Taisen, will be launching on PS4 in Japan in Winter 2020. The game will come to the west a bit later, in Spring 2020.