Project Sakura Wars Producer Reveals More About Analogue LIPS And Action Combat

Sega recently held a Project Sakura Wars demo event in Japan, and producer Tetsu Katano sat down for an interview where he revealed more about the game’s action combat, other ways Analogue LIPS can be used, and more. [Thanks, 4Gamer!]

Here are the highlights:

During our playtime during the event, the action combat was somewhat difficult. How has the difficulty been balanced?

Tetsu Katano, producer: “The stage that we’re letting people play during the demo event is Stage 4, so difficulty is a bit high. We’ve balanced it so that you can feel good while defeating the first few waves of enemies, with the difficulty ramping up as you go.”

In the stage we played, there were areas where you could fall down and a snake enemy that you couldn’t defeat due to story events, making for a surprising amount of stage gimmicks. Are these stage gimmicks present in other stages?

Katano: “The giant snake is unique to Stage 4, and won’t appear in the stages before this. Stages 1-3 have been balanced so that it’ll provide some challenge for those used to action games.

Regarding pits, they’ll be present from Stage 1, but the camera will present them from a top-down view, so it’ll be hard to accidentally fall down. Most people will probably be used to the controls by Stage 4, so they won’t fall down as much.”

During the conversation sections, during the choice-making section (LIPS) you had to make dialogue choices within a time limit, and choose how loud you wanted to say the line, but are there any other gimmicks like this with the conversation choices?

Katano: “We’re calling the ability to change how loud you say the line ‘Analogue LIPS’, but there are other areas you can use this feature other than changing the intensity of your voice. For example, how close you are, or the position of your body, and more. There are also some scenarios where you’ll need to talk to people and collect evidence within a time limit.”

In Project Sakura Wars, you can explore the streets of Ginza, but how big is it, and how much is there to do?

Katano: “Half the time you’re in the Theatre, while half the time you’re in Ginza. There’s a lot I can’t say about the map’s size and how much there is to do, so please wait for further information.”

Project Sakura Wars releases in Japan on December 12, 2019 for PlayStation 4. The game will release in North America and Europe in Spring 2020. You can read more about the recently revealed London Combat Revue in our previous report here.