Title: Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal
Developer: Tamsoft
Publisher: Marvelous USA
Genre: Action, Beat ‘Em Up
Platform: PS4, PC [reviewed]
Release: Jan 2019
Price: $39.99
So, I’ve been sitting for a while on Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal. This is mostly because my backlog of review titles it pretty deep, but also because I simply can’t be bothered with these “sexy” games like I would have when in my early teens. And frankly, I don’t really know the draw for teen boys today with Google at your fingertips.
I’ve been heading to E3 for more years than I can remember. One thing that you can almost always count on is a Senran Kagura game hiding out over in the south hall with all their anime friends. It’s the sort of booth you pass by and giggle at. Maybe you spend some time looking at some cute anime girls in skimpy outfits, but not a place you normally spend a lot of time at.
Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal was interesting, at least for myself because it wasn’t technically a new game, and I use the term game very loosely for most entries. What the game is is a remake of the first game in the long-running series. These are the gravity defying breast physics that launched a lewd empire on consoles and PC.
What’s interesting with this apparent remake is that it’s nothing like the original, as far as I can tell from my limited research. That game was a more traditional side-scrolling action game on the 3DS where this new take is done in full 3D. Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal is more closely aligned with the newer entires in the series that the original release.
Looking at the game, Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal looks fine. It’s not going to knock you socks off but the anime look and feel works really well. All the ladies look adorable and there are a lot of options to chose from when playing dress up. And that’s what I think the game really is: a dress up game with some fighting interstitials.
Complete missions and earn money to buy new outfits and accessories for each of the ladies. These range the gamut from basic alternate outfits to more “sexy” affair like swimsuits and some pretty lewd attire. To be honest with you, it’s a lot more tame than it sounds. Turn of safe search on Google and search for cute anime girl and you’ll get a lot worse. Hell, you probably don’t even need to turn off safe search.
Accessories are also available with cute stuff like “cat ears” to the awkward “worn panties” for whatever range on the perv spectrum you fall into. The lame part is that you’ll unlock a lot of gear during gameplay, only for it to be available for purchase in the shop. I hate when games add this added layer. If I unlock something I should have access to it. I shouldn’t have to unlock the ability to buy it.
This all leads to the games photo and intimacy modes on the PC. In photo mode you can dress up each of the girls however you like and pose them around for a personal photo. Some of the poses are model poses you all have seen before, while others feel like they were pulled from the last porn the director watched. But it’s up too you to lay out your photo, so it doesn’t have to be lewd, but come on, you know what people are going to do.
The intimacy mode is a little weirder. Here you can dress up your favorite lady and then freely move the camera around their model and “interact” with them. You can simply explore the model and look up their skirt or down their top, or you can get weird. You have the option to have two virtual hands lift their skirts, rub sensitive places and even slap them around a little bit. This will then raise their love meter. Look, to each their own, but it just feels a little weird.
I consider this the core of the experience, but there is a video game in here as well. The story is something about a good shinobi school against an evil shinobi school. That’s as much as I could muster as the story was so immensely boring that not even huge bouncing anime tiddies could save it. What’s even worse is that the story is mostly presented through endless text that scrolls over a static background like a visual novel. After about the tenth mission I was skipping the story like it was a raise for teachers.
With these schools some girls do nice things while some other girls do bad things and you find the same mindless enemies over and over again in the same handful of locations. They might change attire and ability, but each is just built off one of the few stocks bases. There’s a lot of story to be had here as each of the two schools (one good and one bad) have their own story over over 30-ish missions. I know that sounds crazy high, but these missions are a repeated dozens of times. You might find yourself in the same area for a number of missions in a row.
The gameplay is about as shallow as the story. This is an action game starring ninja girls, so you can expect yourself slicing up baddies left and right. And at first that’s what you do, and I really liked it. Slicing up dozens and dozens of enemies was a blast and the mechanic of clothing being cut off depending on damage level was a neat touch. A little skin with a little sword play (get your mind out of the gutter) works in this respect.
The problem is that is gets incredibly boring after the first dozen very short stages. It’ll only take a few minutes to complete a stage, but it’s all the same. I couldn’t tell you one moment of the game from another. The same street over and over again, the same rooftop, same temple and on and on. Take a look at any screenshot for Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal and I couldn’t tell you when in the game it took place. Could be from hour one or hour eight. Who knows.
Combat consist of running enemies through with the same combo over and over again. Smash the quick attack a bunch of times and then slide in some strong attacks until a green impact bubble pops. When this happens you hit the jump button to dash into the air to repeat the process, and at the end of it enemies get blasted into the ground. It look amazing, but it’s all you are going to be doing. Rinse and repeat with the occasional one-on-one fight with one of the girls. It wasn’t uncommon for me to rack up a 100-hit combo by simply mashing the X button on my controller over and over without a break.
Aside from the basic attacks that require only two buttons that you mash really fast, you can block with another button. Revolutionary, I know! But here you can at least turn a battle with a little skill as a block at the right time will serve like a parry and reflect onto the enemy. In large battles it’s hard to land, but it becomes art of your strategy in the on-on-on fights and more important with harder groups of enemies. You can also dash to close distance of get yourself out of a large group when ganged up on.
And much like a fighting game Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal uses a meter system. When it’s full you can unleash a special attack that does a lot of damage, or activate your special shinobi state that grants you some perks. You’d think the game would want you to play off of each in strategic ways, but you simply activate your shinobi mode, hit them a bunch, and then let off your special ability. All of this really does feel better suited to a side-scrolling action game.
But when you go into shinobi mode you’ll pull a Sailor Moon and transform into a new costume. These are “cuter” then your stock schoolgirl look, but since you can dress up your girl, chances are you are already wearing the most lewd thing you can. This means going into your shinobi mode will probably make you put on more clothes. It’s like an anti lewd special most of the time.
But if you really want your panty fix you can always select the “Frantic Mode” as each mission is loading. This mode drops you into the area in your undies and also drops your defense rating. You are more at risk from taking damage, but the trade off it you are a lot more powerful. You thought I was going to say the up-side was being in your undies, weren’t you.
Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal has an upgrade system that opens up new combos and such, but I never really noticed. Something or other would unlock every few level ups but I’d still be sticking to the same basic combo pattern from mission one. Sometimes new attack animations happened but I never felt like I was doing anything different. Why learn or try something else when what I already have is more than enough?
Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal feels so out of place in 2019 for what little it offers. This is probably why each following game has pushed the limits on the lewd and pervy stuff and tweaked gameplay here and there. If you want anime girls with big ole tiddies bouncing around you’d probably be better served with one of the newer games. This one isn’t bad, but should be skipped you are one of those wanting to see where the series began and don’t want to dig out a 3DS.
Pros:
Cute cast of characters
Intimacy mode?
Fun in short bursts
Cons:
Terrible story
Intimacy mode?
Repetitive gameplay
Unlocking items for purchase
Remake in name only
“Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal is pretty boring for a game featuring lewd anime girls fighting each other in their undies.”
Final Score:
2.5/5
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