“Why do people have to be so lonely? What's the point of it all? Millions of people in this world, all of them yearning, looking to others to satisfy them, yet isolating themselves. Why? Was the earth put here just to nourish human loneliness?”
- Haruki Murakami, Sputnik Sweetheart
Senran Kagura is an action game franchise centered on a group of five girls from the National Hanzo Academy, a shinobi training school. They fight evil forces lesbianically.
Senran Kagura 2: Crimson Rivals, exclusive to Nintendo 3DS, is the direct sequel to Senran Kagura Burst. Fortunately, it's a big improvement on the first game, which, frankly, isn't even worth talking about because it's so bad.
The game is a very traditional hack n' slash, think Kingdom Hearts or The Bouncer, with three differentiating features:
Specials are, well, specials. It takes a while to get the hang of specials, especially considering that z-targeting DOESN'T WORK in this 3DS game, a console that, unless you've got 300 reals lying around, doesn't have a right analog stick! Besides, the game just doesn't tell you what each special does.
That's right, the game in the second chapter has you controlling two characters, which is actually just one, but the other is a CPU that you can take over - it's a bit like FIFA? It's a little tricky because the CPU is kind of dumb, plus the 3DS has a tiny screen, and when there are four characters fighting at once it's hard to understand what is going on, anyway, it's a cool concept that sets it apart from other hacks n' slashes.
Let's not joke around-this is serious stuff. It's life or death on the battlefield - and you need to know every detail.
Every time a third of your life is taken away, this is indicated by your character's clothes being ripped apart in a super exaggerated animation. The designers also didn't scrimp in the jiggle physics department, which frankly is so exaggerated that at serious moments in the story it makes me want to piss myself laughing.
Not only that, but dealing damage to enemies also rips their clothes off, and this is very well shown in the bosses, who have the same kind of animations when you beat them.
It's the whole appeal of this game, and i won't go into detail here (i'm not even sure i can!) but i'll say - the game knows it's dumb, it's a dumb boobs game, and it's fun!
Each character has a unique playing style, which is surprising? I was expecting something basic, especially as the missions force you to use pre-defined characters. As the game is very much a waifubait, it would be easy to create minimal variations between them, but no: the character development is well done and the gameplay reflects this. Speaking of which, the game's writing is decent - it's all told through a super corny visual novel, but still, I almost cried while reading the boob game. It's no big deal, and it won't change your life, I just cried because I'm a bawler.
There were two rival ninja clans, very stupidly, one of them was literally the Shinobi and the other was the Evil Shinobi.
At some point, the leader of the evil Shinobi decides to create a evil monster demon - the monster also has giant breasts. Anyway, the Evil Shinobi get pissed at that and decide to go indie, and start helping the Good Shinobis sometimes.
But the themes of the game are about learning to accept love, found family, and yuri. In a quote, the message is about:
“Love's gonna get you killed
But pride’s gonna be the death of you and you and me”- Bēkon
Senran Kagura is a decent Beat Em’ Up for the 3DS with fun characters and a pretty decent story. The gameplay could use some QOL improvements (like a Z-Targeting that actually works), and while the combat isn’t the most innovative in the genre, it’s still worth a play if you’re a fan of trashy anime and this genre of games.
You’ll get attached to the characters - maybe - and if you don’t, their character designs are still pretty memorable, so you might get attached to their designs, and buy that sweet, sweet, 200 dollar 7 inch figure.
Is it worth the buy?, dude, it's a 3DS game.
There’s no funny line in this one, sorry...