This guest Dream Smasher was created by @VA_Yagi on Twitter, and thanks to Cart Boy for help with edits.
SEGA’s franchises inspire excitement across the globe. That’s not a surprise considering they were once Nintendo’s direct competitor—and, today, fans of both would love to see more of the former’s characters grace the latter’s iconic crossover series, Super Smash Bros. Some root for another Sonic the Hedgehog character, with Tails, Knuckles, and Dr. Eggman being popular picks. Others discuss the likes of Yakuza, a very popular franchise worldwide, or Puyo Puyo, which has had strong sales over the years. However, one former tentpole franchise always goes overlooked in these discussions: Sakura Wars. The series debuted on the SEGA Saturn in Japan in 1996, and saw its first global release in 2019. The main candidates from this series are none other than Sakura Shinguji, as well as Sakura Amamiya.
Who Are Sakura Shinguji & Amamiya?
(Courtesy of @CreaksTweets)
Starting with Sakura Shinguji, she is the de-facto mascot of the Sakura Wars series, the protagonist of Sakura Wars: The Movie, and deuteragonist of the first, second, and fourth games in the series. She also appears in the third, fifth, and sixth entries, making her the only character to appear in every game in the franchise.
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For some backstory, Sakura is the heir to the Shinguji family and the daughter of the legendary hero who brought the last demon war to an end. She hails from the rural plains of Sendai, and is initially written off as a clumsy country girl by her peers (well, mostly by Sumire Kanzaki, but I digress). Sakura struggles to make peace with her new life in the capital, but manages to gain strength and confidence. Ultimately, she becomes one of the strongest fighters in her group, using the spiritual power she inherited from her clan to defeat demons and successfully pilot her Kobu (a mechanical suit only those with strong Spirit Energy can pilot). And the lass’s skills with magic are matched by her swordsmanship—she wields her family’s blade, Arataka, and is often seen with it in her various appearances.
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Additionally, she has a relationship with protagonist Ichiro Ogami, whom she harbors romantic feelings for. She often experiences jealousy or frustration when he tries flirting with other women. Depending on your choices in the story, they might end up together.
For Sakura Amamiya, she is the main girl of the latest Sakura Wars game, Shin Sakura Wars (or just Sakura Wars outside of Japan), as well as its sequel anime Shin Sakura Wars: The Animation.
Sakura Amamiya is heir to the Amamiya lineage and comes from the outskirts of Tokyo. Raised by Tekkan and Hinata Amamiya, she was attacked by demons one day, before being saved by Sakura Shinguji (or so she thought!). This inspired her to follow in Shinguji’s footsteps and join the Flower Division. She was taught swordplay by her sensei Hakushu Murasame. Although she shares Shinguji’s positive and cheerful demeanor, her clumsiness gets in the way at times. Of course, both of them pilot a Kobu, and Sakura also wields the Imperial Sword, a sword that can vanquish—you guessed it—demons. Additionally, she’s childhood friends with Hatsuho Shimomone and Seijiro Kamiyama. She even promised Seijiro that they would eventually marry, and depending on the ending you choose, they can indeed end up together.
As part of the Flower Division, both Sakuras stand for truth and justice. Their dedication to fighting the forces of evil never wavers, only expands—first from defending Japan to defending the whole world!
Importance to Nintendo & Series
The first Sakura Wars game for the SEGA Saturn was a runaway success, with it selling out within mere hours. The sequel was even more successful, selling over half a million on Saturn alone. The series has since spawned a multimedia franchise, including a highly successful stage play production that’s gone on to this day in Japan, anime series, a cafe, shop, manga, theatrical movie, and empire of merchandise. The games have sold over 5.8 million copies as of October 2023, extremely impressive if you consider its history of mostly remaining exclusive to Asia. Shinguji herself is also very popular among Japanese audiences, ranking third in a 2020 poll determining the most popular SEGA character (behind Opa-Opa and Sonic). Both Shinguji and Amamiya are also very prominent in crossovers, gracing the Star Ocean series, Super Robot Wars, Project X Zone, and more.
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In regards to the series’ history with Nintendo, it’s actually surprising how much it has. It was one of the first properties SEGA licensed out to other publishers to release on Nintendo consoles, even before they exited the console industry (though, technically Columns is the first). Sakura Wars GB: Go Forth Young Cadet is a spin-off released for the Game Boy Color. It got its own GBC variant, an A-Life simulation toy called ’Pocket Sakura’ (developed by Nintendo and Media Factory). And it even scored a proper sequel in Sakura Wars GB 2, which is notable for being the first game published by SEGA for Nintendo hardware, predating Sonic Adventure 2: Battle by mere months. Additionally, the fifth mainline game in the series, So Long My Love, was released for the Wii in North America. This version uses the pointer and Nunchuck control scheme, and was developed by Idea Factory under RED Entertainment’s supervision, five years after the original version’s release on PS2. Moreover, there’s the spin-off Dramatic Dungeon: Sakura Wars, released for the Nintendo DS. A dungeon crawler role-playing game, it was something of a sendoff to the then-current run of the series.
Yes, the bulk of the series’ history lies with SEGA and Sony machines, but it’s much more than a mere footnote in the Nintendo empire. Again, Sakura’s unprecedented pilgrimage to the Yamauchi regime predates games like Puyo Pop and Sonic Advance; she walked so Arle and Sonic could run.
While Shin Sakura Wars has not made an appearance on a Nintendo console yet, Sakura Amamiya thankfully has through the Sakura Memories Event in Phantasy Star Online 2 as well as a costume in the official Tokyo 2020 Olympics game, solidifying her connection. And of course, it’s not unheard of for characters with a limited Nintendo presence to appear in the crossover (just look at Cloud). That and, with the series’ extensive history on Nintendo platforms, convinced me to include Amamiya in this concept alongside Shinguji.
Colors & Design
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When making the jump to Smash, Shinguji would don her kimono as her default costume. There isn’t really much that would change in the transition, as she would mostly take after her look in the first game, including her brown eyes, pink kimono, blue/black hair, red ribbon, red skirt, blue ribbon on her back, blue drawstring on her torso, black shoes, and purple floral pattern on her kimono. Overall, Smash would aim to capture the style of Kosuke Fujishima and Hidenori Matsubara, her original character designers, giving her a classic Shoujo manga feel. The Arataka would likely have its expected design, featuring the bandages on the back of the hilt, with her sheathe also sporting a similar design (including the purple ribbon and gold finish on the top). Additionally, her Kobu would be used in her Final Smash, the design of which resembles the Kobu Type-1 from the original Sakura Wars on SEGA Saturn, like with the rest of her aesthetics. Chisa Yokoyama would reprise her role in Japanese, and Wendee Lee would reprise her role in English.
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For her recolors, half of them would switch to a variant of her alternate costume: her Imperial Combat Revue uniform. This would have a bib, white stocking, regal coat, and boots.
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Sakura Amamiya was originally designed by Tite Kubo, with artwork adapted by Masashi Kudo. While his artwork in the game is impressive and does a great job contrasting with the original series, I’ve elected to have her more closely resemble Fujishima and Matsubara’s artwork. Above is a conceptual sketch showing what Amamiya would look like in the original art style, which would be more consistent with Shinguji and unify them into one coherent style. Think of this like Simon and Richter, where, despite neither designs being created by the person in question, were adapted into Ayame Kojima’s style. Anyway, Amamiya would have her brown hair, blue eyes, ribbon, flower pendant, blue-and-pink kimono, and her sword with the golden, flower-shaped hilt. Her Kobu would also appear in her Final Smash, physically unchanged from the original game. For the rest of the article, I will be using Amamiya’s original design by Kubo and Kudo. In Japanese, she would be voiced by Ayane Sakura, with Cherami Leigh corresponding in English.
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She would also have her combat uniform as an alternate costume. Unlike Shinguji, this one is a bit more modern in its design, lacking the bib and sporting a skirt design in addition to a chest plate, stockings, and combat boots.
In their respective taunts and victory poses, the characters Ichiro Ogami and Seijuro Kamiyama would appear to provide support. I decided to have them appear in their Imperial Theater outfits, where they are portrayed as ticket-clippers (a running gag in the series). It’s worth noting that Kamiyama would also have his design modified to fit in with the other Sakura Wars characters, as we proposed for Amamiya.
For Sakura Shinguji and Amamiya, I’ve elected to make them costumes of each other. Shinguji would be the main one, with Amamiya occupying all the even-numbered slots. And as previously mentioned, their second costumes would be their Imperial Combat Revue uniforms (making for four total models, each getting one recolor). For the colors, I’ve referenced Ratchet for Shinguji’s kimono alt, Hakushu for Amamiya’s kimono, Oni-Oui for Shinguji’s uniform, and Yaksha for Amamiya’s uniform.
How Would She Play?
Sakura’s stats and properties:
- Weight: ∼ Squirtle (72)
- Height: ∼ Marth
- Overall Speed: ∼ Zero Suit Samus
- Walk Speed: 1.47
- Run Speed: 2.29
- Air Speed: 2.28
- Jump Height: ∼ Palutena (35.8)
- Multi-jumping? No
- Crawling? No
- Wall jumping? Yes
(A closer look at the stats)
Sakura Shinguji and Amamiya join Smash as featherweight fighters with average height (about the same as Marth’s), and are among the fastest in the game. The overall design of the character is based on Shinguji’s abilities from the first game in her series, with some elements taken from the second game. Due to the two characters’ similarities and overlapping abilities, however, they can share attributes without much issue. The differences between them would only be aesthetic, like how the Inkling genders have different victory poses, the Byleths different taunts, and the Cloud costumes different Final Smashes, all of which would apply to Amamiya. For their moveset, they would both use the Hokushin Itto sword style, which would cover their neutral attacks. However, what would make them special is the Spirit Gauge.
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This meter would be shown on the HUD as a red bar. How this would function is that, the more it’s filled up, the more powerful their stats become, and the more damage they’ll be able to dish out. When the Gauge is full, they’ll diverge from their average playstyle in a few key ways. For example, their neutral attack would change to a debuff against the opponent, but its window of opportunity would be narrower. They’d also have the chance to unleash a Deathblow attack, temporarily replacing their Cherry Blossom Smite neutral special (or Cherry Blossom Blizzard for Amamiya, the first time an attack name changes with the alt). However, using this means her stats go back to normal, encouraging high-risk, high-reward plays.
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Additionally, their moveset would have some unconventional elements, harkening to a more defensive style reminiscent of tactical role-playing games. Her side special would be limited, like how Banjo & Kazooie’s Wonderwing is, letting them heal themselves (or, if playing on team battles, partners) twice per stock. Their down special, meanwhile, would let them charge up their Spirit Gauge with the move Rest, at the cost of it being slow to execute and making them vulnerable, like with Cloud’s Limit Gauge.
All in all, the Sakuras share an intricate moveset that encourages a more tactical playstyle. They have a lot of unconventional moves that are reliant on the player’s strategies and planning. However, using them can be incredibly satisfying, giving devotees plenty of room to experiment. In short, these two are a force to be reckoned with!
Boxing Ring Title: Red-Hot Maiden (Shinguji) / The Legacy Protector (Amamiya)
(Kirby’s hat combines aspects of both Shinguji and Amamiya, having the hair and ribbon of the former, but the sword of the latter)
| Move Type |
Description |
| On-Screen Appearance
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Sakura enters in a puff of pink smoke and strikes a pose with her left arm facing outward. |
| Stance
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Sakura idles with her sheathed sword in her right hand. She stands in a hunched position, ready to take it out at any time. |
| Idle #1
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Sakura takes her hand off her sword and puts it on her chest. |
| Idle #2
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Sakura stands up straight and folds her hands in front of her, then smiles. |
| Idle #3
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Sakura takes out her sword, cleans it with a cloth, then sheathes it again. |
| Walk
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Sakura walks with her sword sheathed and puts both her arms outwards as her kimono folds wave around her. This is how Shinguji’s walking animation looks in the PS2 remake of the first game. |
| Dash & Run
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Sakura dashes forward, pumping her arms in front of herself. As she runs, she grasps her sheathed sword with her right hand. |
| Crouch
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Sakura takes a knee, crouching with her right leg raised. |
| Jump
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Sakura leaps off the ground with her sword still sheathed. |
| Damage
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Sakura closes her eyes as she’s knocked down, and lands on her back. |
| Shield
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Sakura buckles her knees and holds her sword in front of herself, much like how the Kobu creates a shield in Shinguji’s original game. |
| Floor & Edge Attacks
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Sakura does a kick and swerve with her sheathe for her floor attack, like with Marth’s. Similarly, her edge attack involves a frontflip and swing of her sheathe. |
| Neutral Attack:
5-Hit Strike!
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Sakura takes her sword out and does one downward cleave, followed by an upward one, a twirling swing, then ends with a jumping slash. This resembles how Shinguji’s non-special attacks are done in the PS2 remake, as well as every game from the third onward.
However, if her Spirit Gauge is full, Sakura will instead debuff the enemy for her final hit, but only if she is able to sheathe her sword uninterrupted, making them more vulnerable to being launched for a brief period. |
| Forward Tilt
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Sakura quickly takes out her blade and performs a downward stab with her sword. This reads as a downward hit and can spike airborne foes, making for a powerful edgeguarding tool. |
| Up Tilt
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Sakura hits her opponents skyward with the hilt of her blade, somewhat like Byleth’s up throw. |
| Down Tilt
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Sakura strikes her sword into the ground, creating small shockwaves around her that repel nearby foes. |
| Dash Attack:
Cleaning Time!
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Sakura brings out a mop and drags it along the ground, with multi-hitting suds and water emerging from it as she goes, then concludes with a swing to launch victims caught by the bubbles. This slow, but powerful attack is a direct reference to the cleaning minigame in the original Sakura Wars. |
| Forward Smash
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Sakura swiftly strikes her katana to her front, with the swing’s direction varying if the player holds upward or downward during the startup. Regardless, enemies are sent remarkably far, but this speed and power are balanced by a long cooldown period. |
| Up Smash
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Sakura unsheathes her sword, performing an upward strike that sends foes flying. On top of the low profile this maneuver gives her, water bags appear in time to be slashed, extending the move’s radius and giving it a weak windbox near its edges. |
| Down Smash:
Swish Swish!
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Sakura pulls out her mop and swishes it back and forth, functioning like Inkling’s down smash and taking after its wide coverage. |
| Neutral Aerial
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Sakura swings her sword and sheath in a clockwise motion, then stops after a full rotation and reunites them. This functions like Corrin’s neutral air, being one of few moves where both the katana and sheath are involved. |
| Forward Aerial
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Sakura braces herself, then performs a quick horizontal slash. The technique’s windup and narrow hitbox are like Sephiroth’s forward aerial, but stronger and harder to hit. |
| Back Aerial
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Sakura slashes behind herself, twirling like a whirlwind to knock foes at a steep upward angle. |
| Up Aerial
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Sakura performs an upward stab with her katana, somewhat resembling Link’s up aerial. |
| Down Aerial
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Sakura faces the camera and slashes her blade straight downward, unleashing a devastating spike. Throughout this attack, Sakura’s locked into the animation for a short while, so be careful when using it. |
| Grab
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Sakura grabs her opponent with her left hand and gives a stern expression, much like how Shinguji pinches Ogami after he meets Ayame Fujieda. |
| Pummel
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Sakura repeatedly hits her opponent with her sheathe, a lot like Shulk’s pummel. |
| Forward Throw
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Sakura SLAPS her opponent, referencing when Shinguji did the same to Sumire in the first game. |
| Back Throw
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Sakura turns her prisoner around and delivers a backhanded slap, like with her forward throw. |
| Up Throw
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Sakura bashes her opponent into the air with her sheathe, like with Marth’s up throw. |
| Down Throw
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Sakura does a downward slash with her katana and stabs her opponent into the floor, resembling Shulk’s down throw. |
| Neutral Special:
Cherry Blossom Smite / Cherry Blossom Blizzard (+ Deathblow)
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Normally, Sakura would simply slash her sword and unleash a weak shockwave to her front, a lot like Terry’s airborne neutral special.
However, if her Spirit Gauge is fully charged, it becomes a Deathblow variation. In this form, it’s a powerful projectile that deals plenty of damage and knockback, but sacrifices the stat bonuses that come with your Spirit Gauge being maxed out. |
| Side Special:
Restore
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Sakura creates a green wave to her front and back that, if its summoner’s left uninterrupted for a moment, heals her. This invaluable tool can be used twice per stock, like how Banjo & Kazooie’s Wonderwing is limited. How much it can restore depends on the damage Sakura’s taken at the time, so more if she’s at a higher percentage (about 20% at 100% damage), and less if she’s at a lower percentage (about 5% at 20% damage). Regardless, using it haphazardly would leave Sakura wide open to being punished and interrupted, so proceed with caution.
By the way, when Sakura’s on a team, this move will also restore 5% to nearby partners. |
| Up Special:
Hyakka Ryouran!
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Sakura lights her blade on fire and slashes it at whichever angle the player aims toward, propelling herself in the same direction. Afterwards, she can (but doesn’t have to) rocket again toward any additional direction, as long as it’s not the same one as before. Although the move’s somewhat linear and predictable, as she has no other recovery tools to rely on, this mix of Fox’s and Pikachu’s up specials is sure to come in handy if used creatively. |
| Down Special:
Rest
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Sakura strikes a meditation pose and steadily fills her Spirit Gauge. Unlike Cloud’s Limit Gauge, this move grows stale the more it’s used in succession, yielding less and less energy per second. |
| Final Smash:
Kobu Strike!
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Shinguji gets into her Kobu and points her sword into the air. She then strikes with a massive Cherry Blossom Smite, sending a shockwave toward her opponents. This is a reference to her endgame special attack from Sakura Wars 2: Thou Shalt Not Die.
For Amamiya, she also enters her Kobu, unsheathes her sword, then does a massive strike of Cherry Blossom Blizzard, which will still send a shockwave toward her opponents. This deals the exact same damage and knockback as Shinguji’s, but is aesthetically different. |
| Up Taunt:
The LIPS System
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The LIPS menu appears in front of Sakura, featuring three responses. As one of them is randomly chosen, she responds with one of three emotions: Happy, Neutral, and Angry. Unlike in the source game, this does not affect her performance in battle and is merely cosmetic.
For Shinguji, this would be reminiscent of its appearance in Sakura Wars 1, while with Amamiya, this would have the appearance of the one in Shin Sakura Wars. |
| Side Taunt:
“Sakura-Kun!”
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Ogami (Or Kamiyama) appears to cheer on Sakura as she smiles and waves to him. This is a lot like what Rex does in Pyra/Mythra’s taunts. |
| Down Taunt:
Sword Moves / Dance Moves
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Sakura Shinguji shows off her sword skills, right before sheathing her sword and then sheathing it after she finishes it.
For Sakura Amamiya, she gets a little spunky and starts to do a cheerful little dance, think of her as the more upbeat one here. |
| Special Taunt:
Kinematron
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First introduced in Sakura Wars 2, the Kinematron would be used in an interesting way. If on the Sakura Wars stage, either Sakura could hold down the taunt button and start putting inputs into the Kinematron.
This would begin a transmission where the other Imperial Assault Troupe members would talk to you and coerce about battle strategies (who they’d be would change depending on which character you choose)
While Ogami is pictured here, for Shinguji I think it would be Maria, Iris, Kanna, Kohran, and Sumire, possibly with Orihime and Reni, with maybe potential cameos from Yonaeda, Ayame or Kaede, and Kayama, and maybe even oddball picks like Ciseaux and Sunnyside.
For Amamiya, the characters would be Hatsuho, Claris, Anastasia, and Azami, possibly with cameos from other revues and the like, and possibly Klara. |
| Victory Pose #1
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Shinguji and Ogami smile for a picture, shouting “Victory pose!”, referencing how chapters conclude in Sakura Wars with a victory pose and referencing this pose from an artwork scan.
For Amamiya, she does a victory pose as well, this time with Seijiro standing in the background (they say the same thing Shinguji does). |
| Victory Pose #2
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The camera follows a swirl of flower petals in the wind, which then pull up at Shinguji’s hair. As the camera zooms out, she gives an embarrassed smile.
For Amamiya, this changes to her holding a boisterous thumbs up pose and then putting her hand to her chest. |
| Victory Pose #3
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The camera zooms out from Shinguji’s face, followed by her sheathing her sword as rose petals engulf her, referencing the Sakura Wars opening.
For Amamiya the camera will cut to her smiling and then show her unsheathing her sword before cutting through as rose petals follow her. |
| Victory Fanfare
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Shinguji’s fanfare is a remix of the victory theme from Sakura Taisen 1, which would loop in a similar manner to Cloud’s signature fanfare.
Amamiya’s victory theme, meanwhile, is a remix of the stage clear theme from Shin Sakura Wars, which also loops like Cloud’s fanfare. |
Closing Thoughts
Whether it’s someone from Sonic, Puyo, Yakuza, or Phantasy Star, SEGA has so many options to choose from for its next Smash fighter. Sakura Wars is a series, however, that I think really left a mark on gaming and helped shape the company. It’s an important pillar for both SEGA and the tactical role-playing genre, one whose legacy spans nearly three decades. And its two leading ladies would make the leap to Smash beautifully, offering a unique style unlike any other swordsman. From the experience I’ve had with the Sakura Wars series, it’s one that I’ve grown to love and revere. Smash Bros. would be a fantastic way for it to find a new audience, especially in a day and age where so many old titles and franchises are finding new fans.
As a bonus, enjoy this famous advertisement for the second game:
Credits
Thank you to @Hamada_520 for input and publishing, @LegendCartBoy for the editing, @AShadowLink and @CreaksTweets for graphics, @EchoSaefir for input and the Kirby hat, @sam_animeherald for input, and the entire Sakura Wars Discord and community for your support!
What about Valkyria Chronicles?