Sakura Wars

Sakura Wars
Sakura Wars	2000
Sakura Wars 2: Thou Shalt Not Die	2001
Sakura Wars 3: Is Paris Burning?	2003
Sakura Wars 4: Fall in Love, Maidens	2005

Warnings

SafeDisc DRM may not work on Windows Vista and later (see Availability for affected releases).

StarForce DRM may not work on modern versions of Windows (see Availability for affected releases).

This game is not playable in English (see Localizations for supported languages).

Sakura Wars is a singleplayer cinematic camera and isometric adventure, strategy and visual novel game in the Sakura Wars series.

It was released as Sakura Taisen (サクラ大戦) on September 27, 1996 for Sega Saturn console, and later on May 25, 2000 for DreamCast console in Japan. PC received port from DreamCast and released on August 18, 2000 in Japan while China and Taiwan version was released on August 18, 2001 as Ying Hua Da Zhan (Simplified Chinese: 樱花大战, Traditional Chinese: 櫻花大戰). An updated port for Windows XP compatibility was released on February 20, 2003 in Japan. The game was ported to PlayStation 2 on February 27, 2003, while PlayStation Portable released as Sakura Wars 1 + 2 combo pack on March 9, 2006. The only western release of Sakura Wars was made available in Russian version knows as Voyny Sakury (Войны Сакуры) on January 11, 2006. A PC Premium Edition, which includes all first four games of the Sakura Wars series with updated higher resolution FMVs and sprites compared to the original releases was released on September 21, 2006, while the DVD version of Sakura Wars which the Premium Edition used was sold separately on January 25, 2007.

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SafeDisc 4.60 DRM^{[Note 1]} disc check (DVD Edition)

SafeDisc DRM may not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected releases).

Version differences

Game data

General options menu

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\SAVE\key.dat^{[Note 2]}

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\SAVE\INDEX.DAT^{[Note 2]}

Video

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution		No resolution options. Runs at 640x480.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
60 FPS		In-game hub sections and non-FMV Sequences are capped at 60 FPS. Cursor updates at a lower rate.^[3]
120+ FPS
High dynamic range display (HDR)
Color blind mode		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.

Input

Keyboard input options menu

Controller input options menu

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity		Known as Cursor Speed (カーソル速度/游標速度)
Mouse input in menus
Keyboard and mouse prompts
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller remapping
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Input prompt override
Haptic feedback
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Music is always set to on, only Sound can be turned on/off.
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
Japanese
Russian				Russian retail version only

Issues unresolved

First Edition runs without correct texture color on Windows 10

The game loads properly, but unable to display any pictures aside cutscenes, even with compatibility set.

Poor framepacing on newer CPUs and operating systems

In-game performance is very inconsistent and can rapidly fluctuate.^[4]

Other information

API

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

No middleware information; you can edit this page to add it.

System requirements

First Edition

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	95, 98
Processor (CPU)	Pentium 166 MHz	Pentium II 266 MHz
System memory (RAM)	64 MB	128 MB
Storage drive (HDD/SSD)	200 MB	1.4 GB
Video card (GPU)	640 x 480 16-bit resolution DirectX 7 compatible
Other	4x CD-ROM drive

XP Compatible Pack Edition

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	98, ME, 2000, XP
Processor (CPU)	Pentium II 300 MHz	Pentium III 450 MHz
System memory (RAM)	64 MB	128 MB
Storage drive (HDD/SSD)	1.4 GB
Video card (GPU)	640 x 480 16-bit resolution 8 MB of VRAM DirectX 8.1 compatible
Sound (audio device)	DirectSound compatible
Other	4x CD-ROM drive

Premium Edition and DVD Edition

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	2000, XP
Processor (CPU)	Pentium II 300 MHz	Pentium III 450 MHz
System memory (RAM)	64 MB	128 MB
Storage drive (HDD/SSD)	1.4 GB
Video card (GPU)	640 x 480 16-bit resolution 8 MB of VRAM DirectX 9.0c compatible
Sound (audio device)	DirectSound compatible
Other	4x DVD-ROM drive

Notes

↑ This version of SafeDisc DRM may not work on Windows 10/11^[1], including on Windows Vista/7/8/8.1 when the KB3086255 update is installed, if the game relies on the SafeDisc SECDRV.SYS driver.^[2]
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).

References

↑ Not Loading in Windows 10; this will break thousands of - Microsoft Community - last accessed on 2017-01-16
↑ Verified by User:PCGW Staff on 2025-06-04
Some games protected with SafeDisc v4.60 may not depend on the SECDRV.sys kernel-level driver that Microsoft blocked in 2015, and would therefor continue to function as intended.
↑ Verified by User:KingKrouch on 2020-07-26
Tested with Premium Edition using Rivatuner and by using mouse controls, and controller.
↑ Verified by User:KingKrouch on 2020-07-26
Tested using FPS overlay with frametime graph.

[3] This version of SafeDisc DRM may not work on Windows 10/11^[1], including on Windows Vista/7/8/8.1 when the KB3086255 update is installed, if the game relies on the SafeDisc SECDRV.SYS driver.^[2]

[gamedir-4] 2.0 ^2.1 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).

[1] Not Loading in Windows 10; this will break thousands of - Microsoft Community - last accessed on 2017-01-16

[2] Verified by User:PCGW Staff on 2025-06-04
Some games protected with SafeDisc v4.60 may not depend on the SECDRV.sys kernel-level driver that Microsoft blocked in 2015, and would therefor continue to function as intended.

[5] Verified by User:KingKrouch on 2020-07-26
Tested with Premium Edition using Rivatuner and by using mouse controls, and controller.

[6] Verified by User:KingKrouch on 2020-07-26
Tested using FPS overlay with frametime graph.

[Note 1]

[Note 2]

[3]

[4]

[1]

[2]

Developers

	Red Entertainment
	Sega
	Jupiter
	Neverland
	Sammy Corporation
Publishers
	Sega
	Dysin Interactive
	AcerTWP
	Tian Ren Hu Dong
	Akella
Release dates
Windows	August 18, 2000
Reception
IGDB	TBD
Taxonomy
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Turn-based
Perspectives	Cinematic camera, Isometric
Controls	Point and select
Genres	Adventure, Strategy, Visual novel
Art styles	Anime
Themes	Fantasy, Japan, Romance, Steampunk
Series	Sakura Wars