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5 /5

Arano Samurai Musume is a side-story in the Sakura Taisen series, and an introduction chapter to Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love. It features different setting, characters, and gameplay style compared to the first four Sakura Taisen titles.

The story is set in America, and focuses on one of the new cast members of the upcoming fifth installment, a young Japanese-American girl named Gemini Sunrise. She has spent her childhood in Texas, but is now sent to New York. The Samurai Cowgirl boards her trusty friend, the horse Rodeo, and heads for the "Big Apple", to meet many new characters and to experience many adventures.

The game is a radical departure from Sakura Taisen style, gameplay-wise. This is primarily an action game, where Gemini fights her enemies in real-time, on a horseback, in what is called "Action Rodeo Combat". The dialogues are still built according to the classical Sakura Taisen model, featuring multiple choices by dialogues which lead to different relationships between characters.