Newest Sakura Wars Mobile Game Service Recently Discontinued, Another Mobile Game In Planning?

At Segalization we’ve not written much about the Sakura Wars titles on mobile in Japan. However, a couple of days ago operations for the most recent operational Sakura Wars game (subtitled “Hyakka Ryouran Yumemonogatari”) were effectively discontinued. Plans for the game’s closure were announced at the end of January via the official Twitter account for the mobile game, though not currently reflected in the game’s official webpage.

~Hyakka Ryouran Yumemonogatari~ was a card-based battle game wherein one of its promoted features was the ability to change the outfits of the heroines.

With this said, it appears that there is another Sakura Wars mobile games in the works, and that this has been the case for quite some time. Introducing Sakura Wars: The Legend Begins, the officially translated subtitle of a card-based battle game developed by Snowpipe, a Korean company that appears to have plans to develop mobile phone content for various industries.

Snowpipe acquired the rights to develop a Sakura Wars mobile game in 2014. Though I’m not familiar with all pieces of Sakura Wars artwork featured on the linked webpage, most if not all of them are borrowed pieces that belong to SEGA (likely used for drafting and reference purposes.) This AngelList page interestingly notes that Snowpipe’s Sakura Wars project was due for release in 2014 after having secured investment money, but as we know SEGA’s own Sakura Wars game has been operational long past that time frame.

Snowpipe has their own official website, which lists The Legend Begins as one of its projects. Their project history lists three titles, perhaps reflecting their relative newness as a company. The description for The Legend Begins links to a Facebook page which is currently not operational.

A short trailer for the game was released earlier this month, demoing its gameplay and card artwork. We’ve linked to it below.

While art or gameplay aspects of The Legend Begins may appear decent, it might surprise some observers to see a relatively new company develop what might become the flagship Sakura Wars mobile game. Clearly a Korean release is planned, but it’s also difficult to imagine the absence of a Japanese Sakura Wars mobile game that ~Hyakka Ryouran Yumemonogatari~ is now defunct.

We should at least expect to see more of The Legend Begins in the coming months. To be sure, ~Hyakka Ryouran Yumemonogatari~ was not developed by SEGA itself, but rather by Sakurasoft. Sakurasoft being the developer of the recently-closed mobile game is reflected in the link for the ~Hyakka Ryouran Yumemonogatari~ that I posted much at the beginning of this article. Interestingly, Sakurasoft’s website doesn’t seem to mention their Sakura Wars title, upon a quick glance.

Segalization would like to thank XMax360 for their contributions and background information on recent developments in mobile games for the Sakura Wars franchise, as such details were helpful to the crafting of this article.