Senran Kagura 2: Deep Crimson

[JBird]

I've been on the fence for this game for the longest time. Even when it was on sale (not sure if it's still discounted at the time of writing), I still didn't jump on it. The only deciding factor would have to be a playable demo. I understand that it is a beat 'em up, but there are games of the genre that can be awesome and fun, or play like crap, in my opinion.

No pun intended, but I need to get a feel of the game before I put any money into it, regardless of the shallow fanservice appeal.

[daakuhakushaku]

Originally Posted by JBird

I've been on the fence for this game for the longest time. Even when it was on sale (not sure if it's still discounted at the time of writing), I still didn't jump on it. The only deciding factor would have to be a playable demo. I understand that it is a beat 'em up, but there are games of the genre that can be awesome and fun, or play like crap, in my opinion.

No pun intended, but I need to get a feel of the game before I put any money into it, regardless of the shallow fanservice appeal.

I have Senran Kagura Burst, and though it was mostly just button mashing, it was fun enough that I played through both campaigns, though not nearly fun enough for me to 100% it. Some of the hoops they tell you to jump through in order to unlock all of the gallery art are tedious as hell.

The good parts of gameplay are racking up super-long combos (air combos in particular are a big part of the system), and using big fancy moves to take down several enemies at once. And since you level up over time you also feel a bit of progress as you learn new special moves and combo chains. Eventually you can drop into some older missions and destroy everything once you've leveled enough, which is satisfying. There's also a total of 10 different characters (+ 2 unlockable) to try out, each with their own feel.

The bad parts are that sometimes the game's just plain unfair: You might get hit by one enemy, and then just get stunlocked as all the other enemies dogpile you to death, which is downright infuriating in some of the harder missions. The framerate is also an issue-- it drops severely during most battle cinematics as well as whenever a lot of crap's going on. And the repetitive nature of the game also makes it hard to play for more than an hour or so at a time. Story's pretty forgettable and cliché as well.

[Muhznit]

Originally Posted by daakuhakushaku

I have Senran Kagura Burst, and though it was mostly just button mashing, it was fun enough that I played through both campaigns, though not nearly fun enough for me to 100% it. Some of the hoops they tell you to jump through in order to unlock all of the gallery art are tedious as hell.

The good parts of gameplay are racking up super-long combos (air combos in particular are a big part of the system), and using big fancy moves to take down several enemies at once. And since you level up over time you also feel a bit of progress as you learn new special moves and combo chains. Eventually you can drop into some older missions and destroy everything once you've leveled enough, which is satisfying. There's also a total of 10 different characters (+ 2 unlockable) to try out, each with their own feel.

The bad parts are that sometimes the game's just plain unfair: You might get hit by one enemy, and then just get stunlocked as all the other enemies dogpile you to death, which is downright infuriating in some of the harder missions. The framerate is also an issue-- it drops severely during most battle cinematics as well as whenever a lot of crap's going on. And the repetitive nature of the game also makes it hard to play for more than an hour or so at a time. Story's pretty forgettable and cliché as well.

When does it actually get interesting. I keep on finding that the same boring combo works for practically everything. Spam Y until the green circle appears, press A, spam Y a bit more, maybe press X Get to ground, lather, rinse, repeat.

[daakuhakushaku]

Originally Posted by Muhznit

When does it actually get interesting. I keep on finding that the same boring combo works for practically everything. Spam Y until the green circle appears, press A, spam Y a bit more, maybe press X Get to ground, lather, rinse, repeat.

It doesn't get much more interesting than that, I'm afraid. =\

You can spend time unlocking the 2 extra ninja-arts for each character, and just generally grind levels until you're OP and self-sustaining enough that you can ninja-art nearly all the time, but the gameplay is pretty much as you say. There are some minor variations, like once you unlock a certain style mode you can juggle in the air pretty much forever so long as your fingers are fast enough-- but it's all pretty much the same. That is, unless you're Hibari, who has an insane aerial X attack that you can just spam everyone to death with. It's ridiculous and pretty fun-- for a little while.

But honestly, if you're bored to death after a few chapters, the game may not be your cup of tea. And that's fine, because like I said it's totally just a button masher, and the fanservice gets pretty samey too. Some of the outfits are kinda neat, but if the game feels tedious the whole time I wouldn't call them worth the effort.

But! Since SK2 actually seems to have some BE content, perhaps the new game's a little more interesting than its predecessor. I'm a fan of BE where a flat-chested girl who wants to be busty finally gets what she wants, so I'm interested to see if there's any real story to Mirai or if it's just "hey I found this flimsy explanation for a breast size slider option".