1504: Life and Hometown

As promised (well, suggested) I booted up Senran Kagura Burst for the first time last night, and I’ve felt a strong urge to keep going back over the course of today. The reason? It’s one hell of a lot of fun. Who’d have thought it?

The reason I like it so much is not, as you might conjecture, all the bouncing boobies (though I won’t lie, the various members of the main cast all push my buttons in various different ways — why deny it?) but rather the fact it plays like a modern-day brawler. Streets of Rage at turbo speed, if you will; the only thing that’s really missing to make it into a truly authentic arcade brawler is a cooperative two-player mode, which appears to be sadly lacking.

Still, this isn’t a massive omission on a handheld game, and particularly not when there’s seemingly so much to work your way through. There are two hefty stories to play through, each with five different playable characters, and when you’ve completed each level you can go back and replay it with any of the other characters in order to earn rankings and experience points for them. And then you can play it with each character in “Frenzy” mode, whereby they do 750% more damage but take considerably more damage on account of the fact that all their clothes have fallen off and they’re fighting in their swimsuits. In other words, you can play each level up to ten times altogether — five for each character normally, then again with each of them in Frenzy mode — and have an enjoyable experience each time.

Like the classic brawlers of yore, Senran Kagura’s controls are simple and straightforward, but can lead to satisfyingly ridiculous combos. Senran Kagura’s main contributions to the ridiculousness are the “Aerial Rave” skill, whereby landing a combo on enemies makes a green circle appear, and tapping the A button at this point launches them into the air for further punishment, and the Hidden Ninja Art attacks, each of which are themed around an animal and cause varying amounts of disaster for the enemies around or in front of you depending on which one you unleash.

There’s some lightweight RPG mechanics in there, too; completing levels earns you experience points, which levels the girls up, and new Hidden Ninja Arts become available every so often. Moreover, “Yin” and “Yang” bars build up depending on how many levels you’ve played in Normal or Frenzy mode, with various benefits (and potential shortcomings, particularly in the case of Yang) becoming available to you as these bars increase. It looks, then, as if the game will gradually grow in complexity as it progresses — though from the look of things, it will still remain pleasantly accessible.

I haven’t got that far into the game’s story yet — I’ve been having too much fun challenging the first few levels with all the characters — but so far the cast seems to be a loveable bunch, each with their own distinct personalities. Many of them are anime trope-tacular, of course, but I have no problem with this whatsoever; tropes become popular for a reason, after all — and I’m particularly intrigued to see how their personal stories unfold over the course of the game, as I know that those who particularly enjoy the series see the character development as a real highlight of the whole thing.

Further thoughts to follow, I’m sure; for now, I’m off to kick some Shinobi ass!