All in all, this game had great aesthetics and commentary, but it was entirely too repetitive. Every ‘mission’ was pretty much the same, but increased in difficulty throughout the game. I would give this game a 6.5/10 rating, but it is also a cult favorite and I respect those who have love for this game.
The Senran Kagura franchise has been around quite some time, starting as a 2D game, and now Senran Kagura: Burst Re:Newal has moved into a crisp HD 3D video game. Senran Kagura: Burst Re:Newal follows the lives of ‘shinobi’ ninja girls, who are currently attending a Japanese university and training to be a powerful ninja. In the meantime, there are other ‘evil’ ninja girls in the Senran Kagura universe, and they are constantly at battle. All of them are desperate for ultimate power, and they do whatever it takes to achieve that power. Even if it means sparring with a fellow shinobi ninja, they are constantly trying to better themselves. Senran Kagura: Burst Re:Newal allows you to play with multiple different shinobi ninja’s, giving the story broad perspective. When one of the protagonists gets their secret ninja scroll taken by another group of evil ninjas, she begins going on a journey to retrieve it, which is the basis of the storyline.
When it comes to the games aesthetics, I was genuinely shocked how good the game looked. Since the Senran Kagura franchise has switched over to a 3D platform, the game looked as clean as ever. Although the layout was basic, there seemed to be no flaws and in how the game ran and looked. The colors burst off the screen and were truly pleasing to the eye. Most of the time gameplay was in the same locations, but I can tell that the makers, Marvelous Games, took a lot of time in perfecting the few locations that were included in the game.
The gameplay was almost entirely based around combat, which is characteristic of the Senran Kagura games. The controls were very easy to learn, but I found myself doing a lot of ‘button mashing’ during the gameplay. There are a lot of popular games that follow the button mashing technique, but this time it got very repetitive. Everytime you were gearing up for a battle gameplay, it was either against one ‘boss-level’ character, or it was a hoard of fifty-plus enemies that came in waves. I would’ve like to see more missions that were based on setting up the storyline, even if it meant traveling on foot for a few minutes to find something.
When it comes to the games commentary, I thought the script was well written. Since the game was written by Japanese game designers, English writing came across the screen as you pressed X when the time came. Commentary was typically between two characters on the screen, or there was a still graphic in the background as different lines of commentary came across the screen and let your mind create the scene. At times, the commentary became almost tedious to run through and it was hard to capture your attention. But, that should not take away from the good job that Marvelous Games did writing this script.
As a disclosure, this game is not appropriate for children. Not only is it violent, but the shinobi ninjas are always dressed in risqué clothing that very much exploits the women’s breasts. There are times when you can execute a “shinobi transformation” that takes takes the ninjas clothes off and blurs their private parts, and then they change into their underwear. This allows your character to be more effective in combat. When you are close to striking down an opponent, the characters are stripped down into their underwear as well. If you are contemplating purchasing this game, that is something that you should consider before buying it.
All in all, this game had great aesthetics and commentary, but it was entirely too repetitive. Every ‘mission’ was pretty much the same, but increased in difficulty throughout the game. I would give this game a 6.5/10 rating, but it is also a cult favorite and I respect those who have love for this game.
