Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Senran Kagura Burst - Guren no Shoujotachi

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Senran Kagura Burst - Guren no Shoujotachi

    Not a true sequel to Shoujotachi no Shinei but more of a tune-up of the existing game engine and story.
    The cartdrige contains the new game (the story as seen by the girls in Hebi Academy, the "bad guys" of the first game) and the original Senran Kagura as well. There have been some additions to Burst like an air super technique and a less exploitable combo system that have been applied to the first game, along full stereoscopic 3D support during the whole game; other changes include bug fixes and mission balancing, creating a more enjoyable game experience.

    Senran Kagura is a scrolling beat'em'up and only few missions differ from beating the life out of all things on screen. Y is the standard attack; X is the heavier attack that is normally used to pick up downed enemies and/or launch anything into the air. A is used for dashing (ground and air) and when an enemy (or a group of them) is airborne, works as a homing button to continue combos. B is used for jumping, double jumping and quick recovery. R unleashes an area attack that knock backs enemies and L is used to transform and then initiate special techniques with Y (and later X).

    There are ten basic playable characters (plus two hidden and two variants of Asuka and Homura) and each has her own distinct feeling, though they tend to follow some archetypes, mostly linked to the weapons used; at first it might look like that girls only differ from their movement speed and hitting power, but after some levelling combos and strategies get more different from each other and all characters offer a distinct play style with a good number of different combos each.
    The levelling involved is not heavy and some grinding is only necessary for some side missions and to fill up two different gauges to unlock permanent character bonuses. These gauges are either filled up by playing normally (with clothes on) or by pressing L and R at the beginning of a mission and play it in a bathing suit...or whatever outfit chosen from the dress menu: bunny girl suit? Just a shirt? Towel? Bikini armour? Check all and some more.
    Playing in these two modes is not simply an estethic change: playing in a bikini means more speed and longer combos, but also much less defense. And not seeing clothes being ripped apart.
    Filling up these gauges is a bit tedious but luckily missions aren't dull enough to bring everything down to mindless button mashing, unless speaking of story mode.

    Missions in story mode are extremely easy and almost not worth playing; side missions, especially those offered during the end game are much more challenging and rewarding; unfortunately they do not escape the trap of huge difficulty spikes here and there, but they can be done with all characters after some practice in their style.

    But things could have been done better: I'm speaking about enemies. There few enemy types and from one archetype there are recolours and new models, but their attack patterns are always the same, i.e. lambs to the slaughter, and this is Senran Kagura's biggest fault: mobs are pushovers and unless facing special enemies (that use the same animations as playable characters but don't have all their special abilities) they are no fun. There are instances where the game pits you against other main characters, and this where Senran Kagura shines thanks to the various playstyles; surely, all enemies don't shine for intelligence and even in duels there are loopholes that can be exploited, but at least duelists don't sit around waiting to get killed. Plus, ripping clothes.

    When playing normally (not in a bathing suit) and when transformed (the character dons a special outfit different from the usual school uniform), getting damage (and doing damage to an opponent playable character) destroys clothes, and the destruction is shown in a small cutscenes along with suggestive poses, sounds and a lot of jiggling. While this is only an estethic change, it's part of Senran Kagura and there's a pervese (or pervert) pleasure in getting clothes destroyed, especially with characters like Katsuragi and Haruka that seem to enjoy getting their skin exposed (and in Katsuragi's case...girl, your bikini covers more than your special outfit). In the heat of a battle getting your opponent's clothes down might result in a dropped combo, but it's not a game-breaking problem.

    Of course with all this waste of fabric the game offers a large number of different outfits to chose from, as well as accessories (that no longer add special effects) to make the girls look as silly (or provocative) as possible. And then there's jiggling: boobs and buttocks bounce around. Independently (something Team Ninja was proud about for Dead or Alive). A lot. Maybe too much. It surely adds..."charm" to the game but, really, they could have toned down it a notch or two, here we're past the marshmallow, we're in Jell-O territory.

    Senran Kagura doesn't offer any mode beside a single player story mode; there are two separate stories and each side gets 70 or so missions, all playable with characters available for each side; some of them are only unlocked after completing story mode and there's always the treat of extra characters, so there is plenty of content for those willing to complete the game at its fullest.

    Compared directly to Code of Princess, the system's other beat'em'up, I'd say Senran Kagura Burst wins. It's not an hands-down victory and CoP has significant edges over SKB (like more unique characters and more game modes, including online), but SKB is simply more fun and not centered around grinding as CoP is: I really hate grinding, so my opnion in this is highly biased. SKB also runs at a much more steadier pace than CoP while having at least the same amount of things on screen and the graphics in SKB are generally nicer.
Working...
X