Intrigued by Senran Kagura 3DS?

To show this a genuine blog for all Otaku's, Ive decided to do a snippet on Senran Kagura Burst for the 3DS. Unlike most places that would give you a few words on the game n then hope it geos away due to its somewhat blatant fan-service, Im still gonna cover these type of games. Personally I dont hate or love fan-service myself. It deosn't effect my buying habits and on the odd occasion it will make me grin in amusement (teh hunni's!) But, yeah. Who cares? These games have an audience after all, just like CoD deos with its fan-service every year for those fervent gamers that salivitate over the killing orgys that ensue when they go online. Just 2 sides of the same coin to me, one is anime girls n the other is Guns, If you dont see it then you have to revamp your perspective on society and just what Fan-service actually means. BUT this isn't a blog on philosophy or anything as such so lets crack on with the game.

 Just in case theres people out there who aren't into fan-service but are interested in the game then Ill be using this banner to warn of any impending fan-service a game contains. If a blog post deosn't have this banner, then you can breathe easy as it will contain no blatant fan-service (but may still have not-so-blatant fan-service here n there) If you like fan-service, you'll be happy earlier then!


 So what is Senran Kagura about then? Well basically Im gonna paste a tidbit from its wikipedia page and eloborate:  Kept secret from the rest of the world, high school girls are secretly trained in the art of ninjitsu. Skirting Shadows revolves around the trainee shinobi of Hanzō Academy; Asuka, Ikaruga, Katsuragi, Yagyuu and Hibari, as they complete missions and battle against rival ninjas. Crimson Girls on the other hand follows the students of the dark academy, Hiritsu Hebi Girl's Academy; Homura, Yomi, Hikage, Mirai and Haruka.

So, its about Ninja Schoolgirls then. What stuck out the most from what Ive been reading on this game is that it contains 2 story modes, effectively doubling its content. The second story is apparently equal in length & scope to the original so its the original n a sequel on the same cart! Not too bad content-wise then I suppose. Now I dont know much about the Senran Kagura story arc or its characters, so Im not going to sit here spouting lies about how awesome characters are or how much I hate a paticular one as that would be unfair on you guys. I was considering trying the anime for catching up with the story this morning but Im not sure how it fits into the overall story of these games, Plus if the fan-service in it is anything like High School DxD's: It'll last about 7 minutes. Maybe Ill try the 1st episode later.

So what about gameplay? A huge suprise to me as It wasn't what I was expecting. From what I read a couple of months back it came across as a 3D fighter similar to the likes of DoA, but instead its a Side-Scrolling Beat em Up akin to the likes of Streets of Rage. Consider my interest officially piqued! Im not really a fan of fighters so it was only on my radar due to it being a niche title, but the revelation of the type of gameplay it has does leave me interested. I watched a playthrough of the tutorial stage on Youtube by a user called zedamax to see how it played out while I was researching info on the game. I would recommend you give it a watch if the game interests you. It looks to have a farily decent combat system and the ariel aspect of the combo system looks really cool plus theres 'special' moves ill make a note of later. When the level was finished it appeared to have a levelling system too which can only mean unlocks! No doubt extra moves but I wouldn't rule out the likes of costumes either. With the video being in Japanese n my Japanese being rusty at the minute I couldn't tell you what was unlocked unfortunately. So how well deos it play? Well I dont know. It looked fluid enough in the video but I wont know myself till its release date. Id suggest you see a few gameplay videos to see if its combat system will interest you.

So what about the aforementioned Fan-service? Indeed. When you consider the game producer, Kenichiro Takaki, has gone on record as stating one of the main design points for production on 3DS was seeing breasts in 3D (reason for Vita was breasts in HD!) then obviously the game will feature it. What this means is that Character design is your usual Moe styling but the girls all have exaggerated breast sizes. Honestly, It puts Vert to shame from Hyperdimension Neptunia. Aside from that the fan-service didn't seem to come into play much during actual gameplay in the video I watched until special moves were completed. During these boobs would jiggle (DoA style) and there would be the occasional upskirt panty shot (No Miku green shimapan tho unfortunately lol) that you'd typically get. Apparently the game also features cloth damage so your characters clothes tear n rip depending on how much damage you take but I didn't see any of that during the gameplay video I watched. So if you take a lot of damage I guess there'll be a lot of 'flesh' on show. From what Ive come across so far it deosn't seem to be on the level of something like High School DxD, but it most defintely is there. Maybe with the likes of inter-changeable costumes n damage to clothes it depends on how much fan-service YOU want. I guess I'll know more of just how bad the fan-service is closer to release.

Im intrigued by the game n Im not ashamed to admit that either The game looks to have some decent Beat-em-Up gameplay for old-skool fans! I just hope the fan-service stays at the level Ive viewed so far. If it gets excessive, Like High School DxD, then even me n my open-mindedness will be drawing the line somewhere. I hope not as it deos look to be good fun. Another amusing point before I end this post is the fact that we in the EU will get both Digital & Retail release while North America will only have Digital. It most certainly makes a change! Then again release is set for Q1 2014 in the EU and Fall 2013 in the US.

I hope Youve enjoyed this short write-up and dont forget to follow my Twitter for updates @MadchesterManc