The line Koi seyo, Otome comes from the song "Gondola no Uta", or "Song of the Gondola", written in 1915 by Shinpei Nakayama. It also made an appearance in Akira Kurosawa's film Ikiru.
Originally the developers wanted to set the game in New York City, but the premature death of the Dreamcast console forced the team to re-purpose graphics from the previous entry as the team didn't want to port the game to PlayStation 2. Eventually the New York setting would be realized for Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love (2005).