Senran Kagura: Shoujo-tachi no Shinei
22 Sep 2011
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22 Sep 2011 - Nintendo 3DS
Nintendo 3DS
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Developer
Tamsoft
Publisher
Marvelous Entertainment
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Summary
Asuka, Ikaruga, Katsuragi, Yagyuu and Hibari are five novice ninjas with different powers, but all of them have one aim, to rid the world of evil. Take the girls in a horizontal scrolling action adventure, slash at the obstacles that block their way and combo enemies in the air. When gamers execute a move beautifully or satisfy some other challenging conditions, the girls will reward them with special cut scenes full of fan-service moments. The fast pace fights will appeal to action fans while the bishojo lovers can enjoy the cut scenes. But don't skip the story, as the scenarios are written by Kitashima Yukinori of 428 Fuusa sareta shibuya fame.
I started Senran Kagura mainly because of the boobs and I don't shy away from it, but after playing it for a while I noticed I found the overall games enjoyable.
What makes it stands out from other fanservice games is that it actually feels like a real, complete game, and there's clearly passion put into it.
The gameplay loop isn't anything new or particulary deep but it's fun, it's kinda like a 2D musou, and the final chapter actually has some challenging quests.
There are 5 playable characters, each with a different moveset and with different stats, and they can be used in three different ways: Ying, Yang and Flash mode. This add some, while little, customization to the gameplay, letting you choose your favourite approach for each quests: you can play on the defensive or having a great attack boost at the cost of almost zero defense. Flash mode is unlockable after a character masters both Ying and Yang, and it's the most balanced of the three.
What I did find questionable was the choice to lock a 6th character after the last story mode quest: at the point you unlock her, you'll have around 20 hours in and all quests completed expect just one, so I actually ended up not caring about her at all, despite being both an interesting and strong character.
Now for the story.
It was simple, and it was cute. Despite my initial beliefs, the story doesn't spin around fanservice and it's just a very common shonen from the 2000s. It's not that different from Naruto, really: 5 girls studying to become shinobi will face an evil rival school while finding what they fight for.
I actually ended up caring for the cast, and surprisingly my favourite character is Ikagura, which at the start I felt was looked very boring.
Surprisingly, the game is fully voiced. That wasn't something I gave from granted when playing on the 3DS.
Oh, and yeah, there are obviously boobs! And butts! This game has clearly the goal to make you look at thise stupid characters getting stupidly naked in fights, and I'm all in for it!