Senran Kagura Burst

[Mr_Master_X2]

I just ordered a new SD Card as I plan on downloading it.

[Ashley]

We have an exclusive interview with the producer if anyone is interested: http://www.n-europe.com/features/interview-senran-kagura-burst-producer-kenichiro-takaki

[Emerald Emblem]

Forgot to cancel my pre-order at GAME, getting 2 copies then, it's on ebay if anyone is interested, £25 I've counter offered someone but if someone here wants to get in first then by all means make the £25 offer.

 

http://www.n-europe.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1661904#post1661904

[yesteryeargames]

Forgot to cancel my pre-order at GAME, getting 2 copies then, it's on ebay if anyone is interested, £25 I've counter offered someone but if someone here wants to get in first then by all means make the £25 offer.

 

http://www.n-europe.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1661904#post1661904

 

 

I'll offer £25 on here ,? Sent u a pm

[Mr-Paul]

Been playing this today... It's pretty much all about boobs.

[yesteryeargames]

Is the game any good ? Apart from the boobs lol

[RedShell]

Been playing this today... It's pretty much all about boobs.

And button mashing.

Yep, my copy arrived today as well. ShopTo on top form.

 

The back of the box is just as spectacular as the front, if not more so:

 

 

And some entertaining moments from the game/manual:

 

 

Hilarious. Nice Engrish too.

 

But yeah, so far this game has been pretty damn terrible. The frame rate is all over the place, in both 2D and 3D. And the gameplay is super shallow. It literally seems to be a case of just mashing the Y & X buttons (weak/powerful attack) and occasionally hitting A to target midair enemies in order to continue your Y/X button mashing combo.

There are some special moves you can perform after a while by pressing L+Y, but yeah... very basic combat at the moment.

 

Early days though, so hopefully there's a bit more depth to be uncovered as characters level up and the "story" progresses. But I'm not optimistic.

At least there's a lot to laugh at in the game, but that's probably not going to be enough for most people to justify a purchase.

[Mr-Paul]

@RedShell, I don't think with this game that there's much more that can be uncovered :p

 

It is VERY one dimensional so far; I hope that more depth to the combat appears as the game goes on, but I won't hold my hopes up!

 

There is a surprising amount of story, in fact there's probably more conversation than actual gameplay, which can be quite amusing, but it really depends if you're a fan of this sort of thing. I just want to get to the gameplay!

 

Have you played as the evil shinobi yet??? I've just been through a EXTREMELY long monologue/story section which basically boiled down to one girl complaining her tits aren't big enough to be a shinobi.

 

(I got it as a download review copy, I would never have paid for this!)

Edited February 26, 2014 by Mr-Paul

[RedShell]

Have you played as the evil shinobi yet??? I've just been through a EXTREMELY long monologue/story section which is basically boiled down to one girl complaining her tits aren't big enough to be a shinobi.

Not yet, no.

Read through a story about some baseball kid asking one of the characters to go out with him, that went on for a long time too.

 

(I got it as a download review copy, I would never have paid for this!)

Hehehe! Understandable.

I don't actually regret buying this though, as I consider any game that makes me laugh (be it good or bad) a worthwhile investment. And Senran Kagura Burst certainly makes me laugh.

[Dcubed]

I don't actually regret buying this though, as I consider any game that makes me laugh (be it good or bad) a worthwhile investment. And Senran Kagura Burst certainly makes me laugh.

 

Yeah, that's a nice way of putting it. I probably won't get it until it's really cheap (if at all) because I'm not interested in the gameplay at all, but I'm glad to see it get a release over here and see them go all out on pushing its... assets to the fullest

 

Any game that can give me a good laugh is alright by me

[Ike]

Hm. I think I kinda like it? I'm not sure. Maybe I've been playing so many RPGs it's nice to play something different. I'm not expecting the gameplay to change much. Frantic mode might prove a challenge, but I feel later stages may come down to luck rather than skill, but the mission 1 haven't proven to be too difficult. My opinion might change later on, we'll see. :shrug:

 

Curious/scared to see the Miiverse posts, I wonder if they will allow screenshots. :p

 

Update: It's up. No screenshots. I wonder why.

Edited February 27, 2014 by Ike

[RedShell]

Update: It's up. No screenshots. I wonder why.

Yeah, not surprising at all really.

For situations like this though, Nintendo should have added a feature to Miiverse where certain communities can only be accessed by people that have played the game (or just the posts with screenshots), rather than not enable screenshots at all.

 

 

Some new ads for the game, pretty amusing :

 

 

[RedShell]

I'm starting to enjoy the gameplay a lot more now, and reckon I might've been a bit unfair before by describing it as super shallow. Don't get me wrong, it is shallow, but having spent some more time with the game, I'm now starting to understand what the producer was on about in the N-E interview:

 

But since Senran Kagura isn't a coin-op game, the fun is refocused on taking out loads of enemies at once. And instead of rewarding players with a sense of relief after surviving a vicious onslaught of enemies, we encourage them to see how powerfully they can overwhelm their foes.

 

So a big difference is that the enemies are designed not to defeat the player, but to be defeated by the player in a fun and satisfying way.

Even though the control input required is very simple, and the enemies offer basically no resistance at all, it is strangely enjoyable just getting a massive group of them into one of your combos and seeing how many hits/ninja arts you can pull off in a single attack.

You're so ridiculously overpowered, but it's actually pretty fun.

 

Some of the costumes/accessories you unlock are really funny too. I've now got one of my characters wearing a giant pink cat costume, with a piece of toast stuck to her mouth.

 

Oh Japan... never change.

[Ike]

Have you worked out how the rankings are determined for a mission? Seems to be timed based but I've been working on getting large combo scores which obviously takes up time. I'm not even sure if getting a high combo is beneficial in anyway (more EXP?). So might require some balancing.

 

Noticed some enemies have an icon above their head. At first I thought it was because they were either important or dropped something but later found it doesn't seem to be the case. Had a quick look in the digital manual but couldn't see anything.

 

I managed to max Asuka's Yin affinity so I should be gaining some additional bonuses. Wondering if you can max both Yin and Yang? There's a bit a strategy involved here as levelling your Yin/Yang meter depends on your play style. You start to unlock additional combos later on but I'm not thinking their are many.

 

I've unlocked chapter 2 but a load of new missions appeared in chapter 1 so decided to clear them first.

[RedShell]

Have you worked out how the rankings are determined for a mission? Seems to be timed based but I've been working on getting large combo scores which obviously takes up time. I'm not even sure if getting a high combo is beneficial in anyway (more EXP?). So might require some balancing.

I think time is the most important factor, yeah. Because I went back through the first chapter and this time just blasted through it, getting all A Rank in the process.

So it seems like a bit of a balancing act, as longer combos/more hits will earn a larger EXP bonus, but perhaps at the cost of your overall stage rank.

 

Noticed some enemies have an icon above their head. At first I thought it was because they were either important or dropped something but later found it doesn't seem to be the case. Had a quick look in the digital manual but couldn't see anything.

I've noticed that too, not exactly sure what it means, but I always target those enemies whenever it appears.

 

I managed to max Asuka's Yin affinity so I should be gaining some additional bonuses. Wondering if you can max both Yin and Yang? There's a bit a strategy involved here as levelling your Yin/Yang meter depends on your play style. You start to unlock additional combos later on but I'm not thinking their are many.

That's interesting, I've managed to max Asuka's Yang affinity, but have made hardly any progress at all on Yin. So it's dependent on play style you say?

 

I've unlocked chapter 2 but a load of new missions appeared in chapter 1 so decided to clear them first.

I'm up to Chapter 3 now. Some of the stages are character specific the first time through, but then you can go back and play them as any character. I think that's what causes a load of 'NEW' missions to appear on the list, they're not really new, just new for whichever character you've currently got selected.

 

There's a red stamp on Chapter 1 in my game now, after I went back and played every stage with Asuka. Hopefully you don't need to complete every stage with every single character for 100%, 'cos that'd be insane.

[Ike]

That's interesting, I've managed to max Asuka's Yang affinity, but have made hardly any progress at all on Yin. So it's dependent on play style you say?

 

It depends on your play style. You raise Yin by being more aggressive while ignoring defence/taking hits, Yang increase by playing defensively (using the A button, using that burst attack that knocks enemies away).

 

(I hope I haven't mixed up Yin and Yang since I'm going off memory, but the red bar is the aggressive one, the blue is the defensive one.)

 

I'm up to Chapter 3 now. Some of the stages are character specific the first time through, but then you can go back and play them as any character. I think that's what causes a load of 'NEW' missions to appear on the list, they're not really new, just new for whichever character you've currently got selected.

 

Pretty sure some new ones appeared (such as a retrieve the USB mission) after the last story mission, They don't have any story beforehand, it just goes straight into the stage. I did get a bit confused when it said the character specific stages were marked as new when I had done them already.

 

There's a red stamp on Chapter 1 in my game now, after I went back and played every stage with Asuka. Hopefully you don't need to complete every stage with every single character for 100%, 'cos that'd be insane.

 

Haha, yeah I hope not. Looks like you might need to play the stage in Frantic Mode with everyone as well if that's the case.

[RedShell]

It depends on your play style. You raise Yin by being more aggressive while ignoring defence/taking hits, Yang increase by playing defensively (using the A button, using that burst attack that knocks enemies away).

 

(I hope I haven't mixed up Yin and Yang since I'm going off memory, but the red bar is the aggressive one, the blue is the defensive one.)

Apparently not. I found out exactly what effects each affinity, and it's not play style, it's something much more logical (for this game at least )... it's what your character is wearing, or rather, not wearing.

 

Yeah, if you forgo clothing (aka go frantic) you'll increase the Yin affinity upon completing a stage, regardless of your play style. But if you wear an outfit and don't trigger frantic mode, you'll gain Yang.

 

That's why I maxed out Asuka's Yang affinity, but only had a tiny amount of Yin, because I'd only used frantic mode once. Whereas you on the other hand @Ike... ;)

 

Anyway, I've now gone through the first Chapter again using frantic mode every time and maxed Asuka's Yin affinity too.

Going frantic is insane, it makes your character so unbelievably powerful! I actually managed to beat one stage in a matter of seconds!

 

Maxing both Yin & Yang unlocks Flash, and you can set your character to any of those 3 via the select screen. Yang is basically how the characters play at the start of the game, Yin puts you in an automatic frantic state, and Flash combines aspects of both styles apart from you can't go frantic at all. It also gives you infinite aerial rave loops, so once you get an enemy in an airborne combo you can effectively keep it going forever.

 

I got a combo up to 1000+ hits, but the speed at which you attack increases with every rave loop, and it reaches a point which is absolutely ridiculous. Seriously, it's like playing the game in fast forward!

 

Pretty sure some new ones appeared (such as a retrieve the USB mission) after the last story mission, They don't have any story beforehand, it just goes straight into the stage. I did get a bit confused when it said the character specific stages were marked as new when I had done them already.

You might be right, it does get a bit confusing with it marking each mission as new for different characters.

 

Haha, yeah I hope not. Looks like you might need to play the stage in Frantic Mode with everyone as well if that's the case.

Well I've now done all of Chapter 1 with Asuka, and like I mentioned above, Frantic mode makes you so powerful that the time to complete stages can be cut in half. Plus this is at Level 40. I'm assuming you can level up to 99 or 100, so that should make it even faster!

[Ike]

Apparently not. I found out exactly what effects each affinity, and it's not play style, it's something much more logical (for this game at least )... it's what your character is wearing, or rather, not wearing.

 

Yeah, if you forgo clothing (aka go frantic) you'll increase the Yin affinity upon completing a stage, regardless of your play style. But if you wear an outfit and don't trigger frantic mode, you'll gain Yang.

 

That's why I maxed out Asuka's Yang affinity, but only had a tiny amount of Yin, because I'd only used frantic mode once. Whereas you on the other hand @Ike... ;)

 

Ah, OK. That makes more sense. Dunno where I got that from. :shrug:

 

It was Yang I maxed, I did mix them up. :p

 

Yin was at 50%

 

Maxing both Yin & Yang unlocks Flash, and you can set your character to any of those 3 via the select screen. Yang is basically how the characters play at the start of the game, Yin puts you in an automatic frantic state, and Flash combines aspects of both styles apart from you can't go frantic at all. It also gives you infinite aerial rave loops, so once you get an enemy in an airborne combo you can effectively keep it going forever.

 

Ah, that's what Flash is. I unlocked a new attack for Asuka and had no idea what it was or how to use it.

Edited February 28, 2014 by Ike

[RedShell]

Completed the story today.

 

Mission Time - 11 hours

Enemies Defeated - 7099

Missions - 87% (61/70)

Titles - 30% (9/30)

Outfits - 75% (25/33)

Pictures - 23% (9/38)

 

My current character levels:

Asuka - Lv 44 (played as her the most, obviously )

Ikaruga - Lv 24

Katsuragi - Lv 18

Yagyū - Lv 20

Hibari - Lv 20

 

The final moments of the game were actually a bit dark, I was pretty surprised.

Although fighting the last boss (which was basically a monster created by the reanimated body's of the evil shinobi students that you just murdered) while still wearing a bright pink cat costume was pretty amusing.

 

I'm guessing that the 2nd story mode will see you playing through the game as the evil shinobi, but haven't started it yet as I want to finish the rest of the missions on the first story.

Clearing the game also unlocked a few enhancements to the dressing room feature. Like the ability to tilt the character models, and blow their skirts up using the 3DS mic. That right there is the best thing that the 3DS mic has, and ever will be used for.

[Ville]

They should've just named this "Ninja Tits Fanservice Gaiden" or something...

[Grazza]

They should've just named this "Ninja Tits Fanservice Gaiden" or something...

 

Nah, I think that would have lost the game its subtlety.

[Grazza]

I didn't know whether to keep my copy sealed, in case it becomes valuable, or to play it. In the end I succumbed to temptation and had a blast. Three hours in the Dressing Room later - money well spent!

 

@RedShell has described the game perfectly. Basically, it's a traditional brawler/beat 'em up with actual depth to the play area. However, let's be honest, this is not going to be held up there with greats like Double Dragon or Final Fight! Frame rate is poor, enemy design is terrible (in my opinion). It just doesn't have those great moments like in DD or FF when you have to fight a tougher (but non-boss) enemy that breaks through the wall and tries to clobber you.

 

The actual gameplay is not bad, but I'm pretty sure it will become repetitive. Fighting in the Yang style, the gameplay is about juggling combos and watching out for the green circle that lets you keep enemies in the air - fun, but I can see this getting on my mind in the same way puzzle games tend to (I had to give up playing Tetris for this reason). The Yin style, on the other hand, makes you ridiculously powerful and you can just bash through the enemies. At least this early on, it seems to strip the game of its strategy.

 

But what I really like about it is that it's just so Japanese. The story scenes actually remind me of the Phoenix Wright series, funnily enough. Now personally, I love the true Japanese feel. We're so used to Hollywood's version of storytelling, it's very refreshing to see something in another style. Yes, I do find some of it baffling; and no, I don't understand the appeal of all the conventions, but that's all part of the charm. After all, I don't understand everything Western either.

 

For all the criticism this game has received for pandering to the male audience, it's actually quite girly! There are stories about teenage romance, for example, and if someone in real life catches you changing the girls' fashion accessories, you might want to pretend you were just looking at the boobs.

 

All in all, I don't think this is going to be a great game, but it's a piece of Japanese software that has aspects of greatness. It's funny, cheeky, has some great music here and there (I like the track 'Girl Talk')... I basically enjoy it for the story and tone. And if none of that appeals to you, you can always go in the Dressing Room and, er, move the character models up and down.

[Mr_Master_X2]

I didn't know whether to keep my copy sealed, in case it becomes valuable, or to play it. In the end I succumbed to temptation and had a blast. Three hours in the Dressing Room later - money well spent!

 

@RedShell has described the game perfectly. Basically, it's a traditional brawler/beat 'em up with actual depth to the play area. However, let's be honest, this is not going to be held up there with greats like Double Dragon or Final Fight! Frame rate is poor, enemy design is terrible (in my opinion). It just doesn't have those great moments like in DD or FF when you have to fight a tougher (but non-boss) enemy that breaks through the wall and tries to clobber you.

 

The actual gameplay is not bad, but I'm pretty sure it will become repetitive. Fighting in the Yang style, the gameplay is about juggling combos and watching out for the green circle that lets you keep enemies in the air - fun, but I can see this getting on my mind in the same way puzzle games tend to (I had to give up playing Tetris for this reason). The Yin style, on the other hand, makes you ridiculously powerful and you can just bash through the enemies. At least this early on, it seems to strip the game of its strategy.

 

But what I really like about it is that it's just so Japanese. The story scenes actually remind me of the Phoenix Wright series, funnily enough. Now personally, I love the true Japanese feel. We're so used to Hollywood's version of storytelling, it's very refreshing to see something in another style. Yes, I do find some of it baffling; and no, I don't understand the appeal of all the conventions, but that's all part of the charm. After all, I don't understand everything Western either.

 

For all the criticism this game has received for pandering to the male audience, it's actually quite girly! There are stories about teenage romance, for example, and if someone in real life catches you changing the girls' fashion accessories, you might want to pretend you were just looking at the boobs.

 

All in all, I don't think this is going to be a great game, but it's a piece of Japanese software that has aspects of greatness. It's funny, cheeky, has some great music here and there (I like the track 'Girl Talk')... I basically enjoy it for the story and tone. And if none of that appeals to you, you can always go in the Dressing Room and, er, move the character models up and down.

 

When Haruka loses her clothes I always laugh."Ohh, so naughty!" Still only on Hanzo (too many games at once) and decided for the time being just to do every level A/Frantic with one character at the moment.

[Grazza]

When Haruka loses her clothes I always laugh."Ohh, so naughty!"

 

Yeah, I was in tears at that last night. I think she's also the one who says "Ooh, lovely!"

[Ike]

Senran Kagura 2 trailer. Contains some spoilers from Burst.