Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus is a 3D brawler Developed by Tamsoft and Marvelous Inc. and published by XSEED. You play as female ninja warriors fighting through hordes of enemies in a Dynasty Warriors style of gameplay. And your focus is mostly on the assets that the girls possess.
Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus immediately follows the events of Senran Kagura Burst, revisiting the fierce rivalry between the girls of Hanzō National Academy and their sworn enemies from Hebijo Clandestine Girls’ Academy — the latter of which have now gone underground and formed a mercenary strike team known as the Homura Crimson Squad.
From the very beginning, you see the focus of the game is on the boobs and asses of the girls. Landing enough damage brings up a cutscene that will have the girl’s clothes being torn open, revealing more of her body. Land enough combos and attacks, and you can strip your character down to practically nothing (although it’s censored). Gravity also does not seem to play a role, as the bouncing and jiggling of boobs happens at any given moment. The fan service is real.
The story mode allows you to follow one of the three schools of your choosing, with each school having its own sexually charged story line. There’s also a series of mini-missions where you find out the motivation of each ninja girl — which range from wanting revenge for being groped to wanting to be the groper themselves.
You also have three multiplayer modes:
- Death Match – Players fight to the death
- Strip Battle – Strip your opponent of their clothes. First one to lose all her clothes loses the match.
- Understorm – Collect as many pairs of underwear as possible while fighting your opponent.
The brawling aspect of the game falls short, due to the camera angle and the enclosed arenas. While the gameplay is smooth and fast, you can tell the focus was not on the actual fight encounters. Each stage usually consists of you racking up combo points as you fight through multiple enemies at once, followed by a boss encounter. The issue is the camera does not follow the mouse around.
The controls are a bit off if you do not have a gamepad to play with. You will need to spend some time mapping the controls — or have really long fingers. They seem to have placed the default controls on both the left and right side of the keyboard, as well as having to use the mouse.
You’ve got over 20 characters, with different combo systems and the ability to level up and learn new moves. There are 3 types of fighting techniques each girl can use — the basic clothed attacks, the special ninja costume which fully restores health upon use, and Frantic mode, which strips your character down to their underwear with hardly any resistances, but lets them chain together basic attacks infinitely. Each of these level up separately, with their own set of combos.
Overall the storyline is better than that of Senran Kagura Burst, but the combat system falls a little short. If you have a gamepad, you should enjoy the game more. And if you like watching girls getting their clothes ripped off, then you will have plenty of cutscenes to enjoy. And let’s be honest — that’s what you were really here for anyway.
