Developer: Tamsoft
Publisher: Marvelous AQL Europe
Platform: PS Vita, PC
Tested on: PC
Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus – Review
It hasn’t been that long since we last saw the busty shinobi ladies of the Senran Kagura series. Last time they were struggling to cope with the deaths of their loved ones, after reaching an alternate ‘universe’ where the spirits of those who passed still lingered. This time we go back in time, as an older Senran Kagura, Shinovi Versus has finally made its way onto Steam. While this game was originally released in 2014, the developers smoothened things out quite a bit. Put on your glasses, fan service right ahead.
Story
In the universe of Senran Kagura the different ninja schools are destined to fight each other. It’s a constant between good and evil, like Yin and Yang, the struggle never seems to end, and in a way this battle of light and darkness creates a certain balance in the world. Nonetheless, while this may be true when looking at the bigger picture, it’s daily life for the girls that attend the three different academies, namely Hanzõ, Gessen and Hebijo.
From here on out it will all depend on which school you’ll pick to be treated to a more personalized story. Nonetheless, in the end it will all revolve around the Shinobi Battle Royale, that pits the different academies against one another. Overall things remain rather simplistic, but tend to strike a sensitive nerve from time to time, after a healthy dose of banter that is. Other than that, you’ll be treated to personalized short stories per character, creating some fun extra content for those who wish to spend more time with the overly developed girls.
Graphics
Of course it’s clear that the game has been ported from PS Vita to PC, but things have been smoothened out quite a bit during the missions. Don’t worry, there are still enough wobbly boobs and torn clothes to go around, even with subtle graphical updates. The characters are still very likeable, be it for those who just love voluptuous young girls, or those who are just into cute looking characters with a tragic background. It also seems as if combat received an overhaul to make things more fluent and the special moves are still fun to watch.
The transition to the big(ger) screen is quite successful, but some areas could have used some extra touchups. The environments are still quite empty and feel a bit dated, as the only clutter you’ll come across are a few destructible crates, snowmen, trees etc. Other than that some areas tend to be rather overused, making it seem like the three ninja schools have a few fixed arenas they like to duke it out in, and two rather unfortunate classrooms that get trashed over and over again. Perhaps a bit more diversity would have been nice.
In-between the missions you’ll be treated to visual novel-like sequences ranging from text on static pictures or dialogues between the 3D rendered characters, who move slightly. A fun touch is that during these dialogues, the characters wear the costumes you have selected for them, or after missions, when you damaged an opponent’s clothes they will be talking to you in their torn garments.
Sound
Upbeat rock-ish tunes immediately welcome you when the game boots up, which are replaced by slightly more timid tracks during the actual game, but everything remains rather cheerful. Again, like in the other installments of the series, it are the girls’ voice actresses that steal the show. You’ll be treated to rather pleasant voices, with the necessary dose of overacting to make the game lighthearted, just like it’s supposed to be. Nonetheless, even more serious scenes, often revolving around the background of the girls, are also properly handled.
Gameplay
Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus is still an action packed brawler, along the lines of the Dynasty Warriors games. Nonetheless, where Dynasty Warriors often presents grand scale battles, Senran Kagura tones it down a bit and drops you in smaller arenas. Overall you’ll occupy yourself with missions that last somewhere from one to five minutes, all with a hefty dose of female banter in-between.
The missions have seemingly remained practically the same over the releases of the different Senran Kagura titles and thus, you’ll have to beat up smaller grunts in order to reach another classmate or someone from a rivaling school. Sometimes it’s a simple one on one duel, but overall, the formula is pretty much the same, beat up smaller foes and afterwards defeat the ‘boss’. This game will allow you to play through three different ‘campaigns’, namely three different schools. Not only will you be able to run through the main storyline for these three rivaling ninja schools, you’ll also get individual short missions per character, all revolving around an event in their lives. A fun addition, and in many ways a useful one, to allow those characters to level up faster, without having to replay the same missions over and over again.
In the latest release, Senran Kagura: Estival Versus, we noticed that combat was a bit clunky at times and that the camera was not always on our side. The developers seemingly did an effort to improve both sides of the game, as combat is now extremely fluent and hardly has any awkward pauses or recovery times after you pull off a combo. Of course, this means that your opponent possesses the same skill and thus sometimes whoops your ass in a matter of seconds. The camera, especially when locking on to a target, is still rather shoddy, but it has improved as well.
While this game was improved in many ways, there are a few other issues that tackle the otherwise smooth gameplay. Not only are the many loading times way too long for missions that only last a few minutes, they are too frequent and sometimes you’ll have to load, simply to get to the results screen, to load again afterwards. Another issue is with the transform command, which grants you a lot more strength. More than often the command simply did not trigger, even when our character was standing still on the ground, without being hit. The latter proved to be extremely frustrating when it caused us to lose a battle.
Conclusion
While we were perhaps a bit biased at first of how Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus would have been ported to PC, we were eventually quite pleasantly surprised, mainly because the developers ironed out the kinks when it came to the flow of the combat. Even though the loading times are sometimes a bit on the horrible side, this game proves to be a lot of simple lighthearted fun, with a hefty dose of cleavage on the side.
No Comments