Sakura Taisen ~Atsuki Chishio Ni~ (Sakura Wars ~In Hot Blood~) is the soundtrack to the PlayStation 2 remake of the first Sakura Taisen videogame that came out on the Sega Saturn. The soundtrack is composed of songs from the original game and music re-composed by Kouhei Tanaka. I first purchased the game from Japan in April 2005, and not long into playing the game, I was very impressed with the soundtrack to the game, and so I decided to get the soundtrack.
Like the first Sakura Taisen game, the tracks for the remake are made up of battle themes, events, and character themes. The tracks reflect some elements of Japan in them such as New Year’s Theme, which has a strong Japanese influence in it.
The disadvantage to the soundtrack is that some of the music tunes from the game are not there, such as when the Flower Divison make their appearance on the battle scene, or the theme tune to the card game. It is a shame that only the characters’ theme songs made their appearance on the soundtrack rather than having both the instrumental and singing versions.
Despite the disadvantages, Sakura Taisen ~Atsuki Chishio Ni~ makes up for this with a fantastic compilation of tracks. My favorites were Declaration! Imperial Floral Assault Group, Try Your Best! Imperial Floral Assault Group, Tokyo Style-Holiday (Kohran’s song), We, the Kuronosu Council 1, and Enemy Battle 1, from Disc 1. From Disc 2, For the Sake of the Imperial Capital, New Year’s Theme, Final Battle, Main Theme 2 and Blooming Maidens. These songs are all sampled, be sure to listen to them.
With 62 tracks to listen to, Sakura Taisen ~Atsuki Chishio Ni~ is definitely an impressive soundtrack, with original tracks from the first soundtrack and new remade tracks for the new soundtrack. If you are a Sakura Taisen fan, than this is a definite must-have for your Sakura Taisen collection! The soundtrack definitely stands out from most of my RPG soundtrack collection, such as Tokimeki Memorial 3, Final Fantasy X and Sakura Taisen 4 ~Koise yo, Otome~ (Sakura Wars 4 ~Maidens, Fall in Love~). If you are able to purchase this, then you will have made a very good investment indeed by doing so.
