In my original review for Sakura Samurai, the game symbolized, to me, how Nintendo's curation had become too loose, leading to the 3DS store having way too many low-quality games in it that weren't worth anybody's time. Fast-forward to the Switch, and the shovelware on the Switch eShop makes the one from its predecessor look like gold, so I might have been on the wrong side of history there: at least, Sakura Samurai was a finished product that offered a degree of cohesion. That's the best defense I can muster for it, though.

The game follows the eponymous Sakura Samurai, a fledgling warrior who receives the title from a Kappa they encounter one day, with the creature also tasking them with rescuing a princess, who was taken... some time... by someone...? The details are hazy: the game isn't quite clear about what happened or how many people care, and just sends you on your merry way. This handwave-y style of storytelling isn't that uncommon, with many of Nintendo's first party games, for example, having been employing it for decades. The difference is that those games have the gameplay to back it up, while Sakura Samurai...

To call the game simplistic would be generous: it has one gimmick it stretches over the course of a couple of hours, and that's it. Each stage is a sequence of stand-offs against enemies in which you can attack with the A button and dodge using B + Circle Pad. Going on the offensive is not an option: the game forces you to play passively by having enemies block all your attacks if you try to strike first. Instead, you must wait for them to attack, dodge, get a few hits in, rinse and repeat. This goes for every enemy in the game, from punchbag grunt to final boss.

It's action gameplay distilled to its most flimsy essential, too barebones to sustain a game alone. It feels nifty for the first fifteen minutes; by the first hour -- that is, entering the game's second half -- you'll have grown bored of the mechanic already. And then, in that latter half, enemy tells start becoming confusing, or worse, the same gesture is shared by different moves. The experience is somewhat padded by the existence of special moves that require you to grind a few special stages, as well as the need for money for consumables, but it never leaves that very basic framework it's built on and thus only further contributes to the feeling of repetition.

Bottom line, if you played fifteen minutes of Sakura Samurai, you've seen what it has to offer, and you might as well not do it. It's a relic from the 3DS that's not worth revisiting.

The best thing about Sakura Samurai is its budget. In the tradition of other 3DS eShop titles, Sakura Samurai was clearly developed affordably by a small team, this time at Grounding Inc. Counting the various NOA support roles and "thanks" credits, the game is attributed to 61 people.

While playing, you can feel this small footprint. The game is built upon a very simple Punch Out-adjacent combat style with no fat on the bone. You play only as long as Grounding felt was necessary to see its single concept through. My full journey was 3:09 in total and that felt just about perfect. In that time, I fought the same few enemy types in the same few locations, visiting the same town archetype as I wandered the small overworld map.

If that sounds like a negative assessment that's because you've not framed this game properly for yourself. To me that's all dynamite. I appreciate having small games like this. Sakura Samurai has one great gameplay idea, a few enemy designs, a few environments, and a simple story. Where one person might see the financial constraint or oppressive repetition, I see a small group of game developers with a great concept which doesn't warrant overelaboration.

Every time I encountered a new stage which reused all its component elements, I appreciated the pragmatism involved. This is a game about the naturally rewarding process of patience, persistence, and pattern recognition. I don't need that dressed up. The combat is great as-is. And even still, there is some fantastic window-dressing on Sakura Samurai. The small cast of characters is great; I get Skip Ltd. vibes from them (and those are the best vibes you can get).

I wish Nintendo would bankroll more games like this these days. One that are cheaply made and cheaply sold; "cheap" as a statement of fact, not as a value judgement. Sakura Samurai probably gets tiresome as a 10-hour $40 retail game on 3DS. That proposition doesn't make creative or commercial sense. For example: Sushi Striker certainly got tiresome as a many-hour $50 Switch game!

I love how Sakura Samurai looks, I love how Sakura Samurai plays, and I love what Sakura Samurai represents. I'm certainly glad that I bought many games like this before the eShop closed down.