1794: Oppai Fightin’

Alongside Senran Kagura Bon Appetit, which I talked about a bit yesterday, I’ve also been playing some Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus. I haven’t delved into it particularly deeply so far, having only played through three of the Hanzo girls’ short mini-arcs (effectively an “arcade mode” of sorts, challenging you to complete five stages of gradually increasing difficulty in succession while working through an eminently silly side story) and spent far more time than I’d care to admit gambling in-game currency on the “Lingerie Lottery”, but I’ve enjoyed what I’ve played so far.

The thing I liked about Senran Kagura Burst on 3DS is that it was a thoroughly modern take on Streets of Rage-style brawlers — you know the kind: walk from left to right punching things in the face and trying not to get punched in the face yourself. I was a little worried about Shinovi Versus, to be honest; I liked the simple but satisfying button-mashy gameplay of Burst so much that I was concerned the shift to 3D wouldn’t be quite as enjoyable to play, what with those pesky extra degrees of freedom to worry about.

Turns out I needn’t have been too worried. While the 3D gameplay does have its own idiosyncrasies — the camera can be a pain on occasion — at heart, it still feels very much like Senran Kagura. That means obscenely huge… combos (it’s not at all unusual to see combo counts numbering into the hundreds or thousands — though with the more sprawling nature of most stages now, it’s significantly more challenging to chain one long string of connecting attacks together without a break), single characters wading into swarms of enemies and punching them into orbit, special moves that range from the faintly plausible to the utterly ridiculous and, of course, ninja girls fighting until each others’ clothes fall off.

Senran Kagura Burst felt a tad button-mashy at times, with the Hanzo girls in particular suffering a little from the “hammer the light attack button” syndrome. To be fair, as the girls levelled up, new combos became available that often required you to carefully time your use of the heavy attack button as well as the light attack, but for the most part you could get through a lot of the game with a single button.

Shinovi Versus initially feels a little like this, but try a few different characters and their differences start to become apparent. Poster girl Asuka is very much of the “hammer the light attack button” mould and consequently is suggested as a beginners’ character, for example, while Hanzo’s resident adorable character Hibari serves up an array of difficult-to-use but effective close-range slap and kick attacks, plus the strange little quirk that it’s actually quite tricky to get her out of the air and back onto solid ground once she’s up there, thanks to the fact that her aerial light attack appears to cause her to trampoline up and down on whoever happens to be unfortunate enough to be underneath her.

Your opponents are more than simple damage sponges, too. They block, they parry, they counterattack and you need varying approaches to even get near them in some cases. Unlike Burst, there’s not really one simple strategy that will serve you well for the whole game; instead, you’ll have to assess the situation on the fly and determine whether you’re best off charging head-on, trying to get behind them, attacking them from above or waiting to counter them when they approach you. It makes for some enjoyable and thrilling battles that are a lot of fun to take part in.

I haven’t got far in the story yet but the early chapters of the Hanzo girls’ narrative appear to pick up nicely where Burst left off, with the group’s now well-established character traits now more evident than ever before. The rather quiet Yagyuu’s obsession with Hibari is kind of adorable to see, particularly as Hibari is a complete contrast to her in almost every way: Yagyuu is reserved and uncomfortable with expressing her emotions, even as it’s clear she genuinely loves Hibari, while Hibari is very loud, emotional and open with her affections. I can see there being some potential for interesting situations between the two of them as the story progresses, and I’m looking forward to seeing it.

So far it seems to be a worthy successor to a game I ended up enjoying a lot more than I expected — a game whose appeal goes far deeper than the fanservice and smut it’s primarily known for. It’s a fine addition to the Vita library, and a great example of how to use a recurring ensemble cast very effectively. I feel it’s going to keep me busy for a good few hours yet.