Well, it was going to happen sooner or later. Actually it should have been sooner but, y’know, stuff! After I reviewed Senran Kagura Burst, there was always a more than passing interest in the jump to the PS Vita in Shinovi Versus (yes, that IS the actual spelling of the title). Senran Kagura Burst surprised [...]
Well, it was going to happen sooner or later. Actually it should have been sooner but, y’know, stuff! After I reviewed Senran Kagura Burst, there was always a more than passing interest in the jump to the PS Vita in Shinovi Versus (yes, that IS the actual spelling of the title). Senran Kagura Burst surprised with it’s solid gameplay even if the game as a whole wasn’t anything to really write home about but they decided to change tack when it came to a new vita title.
Although the game has been billed as a “spin-off”, the story itself is a direct sequel to Burst. The Hanzou girls are now seniors, Homura and the other former hebi joshi girls are in hiding after the events of burst (which conveniently allows for 5 new girls to take their place) and we get a new group from Gessen Jogakuen.
So basically, we get 2 completely new teams which brings the total up to 4. Gessen Jogakuen is considered a “light ninja faction” like Hanzou Gakuen but they take a more extreme view and believe that all evil should be eliminated without question. Kinda like the old addage “when you stare long enough at the abyss, the abyss stares back at you”, they aren’t the friendliest of people when it comes to fights. The new Hebi girls are just out to rebuild their school after the events of Burst. There are 3 hebi girls with 2 more who transferred from Gessen Jokakuen. Without spoiling too much, those 2 have some business with Hebi Joshi Gakuen. And there’s the Hanzou girls, who are basically taking a back seat and dealing with whatever is thrown at them. The Homura Group appears in all 3 stories, with differing connections but they themselves become playable once you complete the story mode for the first 3 groups.
Gameplay is very much the same as the previous games, with a story mode for each faction and an addition story for each character (which are almost always ridiculous). New costumes need to be purchased with in-game currency instead of simply being unlocked (although some still are) but otherwise, the game is the same as before so you can read the previous review to get an idea on the basic system.
Aside from the new characters, the biggest change is that the game has moved from a 2.5D scrolling fighter into a fully 3D one, very reminiscent of the Dynasty Warriors games. The old techniques are still there though so you can end combos with launchers to throw enemies into the air and continue from there. But to make things interesting again, there are new elements at play. For example, when both units are in the air, and both attack, it triggers a mini-game where you have to mash your buttons as fast as you can. The loser is then placed in a stun and pushed back again, leaving the attacker to continue their attack. This can be done both as an attacker or defender and acts as a way to break out of the air combos which were so important in the earlier games. There are also new units with special abilities and many characters have been tweaked to ensure that they play very differently from before. Yagyuu and Hibari are the most noticeable from the offset but all the Homura group girls have been changed. The makers have also implemented a guard button which allows you to take a certain amount of damage before the guard breaks and leaves you vunerable.
To help with the shift to 3D, there’s a new lock-on mode which is activated by touching the screen on the character you want to lock onto (Which is almost always the boss character) and every character has a new super move which required 5 charged bars and the character having less than 20% health. Not to brag, but I have never found myself in a situation where I am able to pull them off, so they remain a mystery to me. There are also now competitive online modes but I haven’t been able to try those out.
That’s about it with regards to the new systems in the game. How was it?
LOVED
- Still simple but effective – The overall system hasn’t changed so when it works, it does still feel pretty baddass taking out large groups of enemies in one go.
- Very diverse range of characters – one of the bigger flaws in the earlier games is that even when some characters play slightly differently, overall the methods you employ in using them were very similar. Shinovi Versus goes to much greater lengths to differentiate how each character plays.
- Better stages – The extra muscle on the Vita allows for slightly more interesting stages compared to the 3DS games. Stages can now be multilayered and generally more spacious since it’s now 3D. No more just move left or right!
- No more infinite combos from enemies – Now, the game always gives you a chance to escape from most situations! even projectile launching units aren’t as great a threat as before!
HATED
- Lack of proper distancing – Sadly, with the move to 3D, it can be very hard to judge distances between character attacks. You will often find that your character has been blown back by the enemy despite being sure that they were too far to hit. Some characters (like Katsuragi) can also have a very hard time simply hitting the enemy with their wide range attacks because of this.
- Frustrating new enemy units – There are 2 specific units which are new to the game and pretty much do nothing except solicit frustration. The first are musket units. They attack with guns, which aren’t the main problem. The problem is that they have shields which protect them from attacks. Combos don’t break them so you either have to wait until the stop guarding or hit them with a heavy attack to break their guard. That makes it very difficult to attack more than one at a time and is a source of frustration as it forcefully slows the pace of the game. The other annoying new unit is a giant bear woman. Often attacking in groups, these units have super armour when they start winding up attacks which makes it difficult to maintain a constant attack going but it also makes them insanely hard to launch for air combos.
- Battle damage – The makers have increased the level of battle damage for the costumes now so that each costume now has 3 stages of break and a cutscene to accompany each one. Usually this means 6 break levels as, once sufficient damage has been dealt, the enemy will do their shinobi transformation and reset the costume damage. Having a cutscene every time you damage the enemys costume can be very very annoying. You can skip them but it’s still unnecessary.
Overall, the biggest gripes are simply from the transition to 3D. The game itself is still solid but not exactly outstanding. The new features do mean that you are a little more involved in the battles and need to be more aware of certain things though so it’s a step forward. It’s an amicable first attempt but there are plenty of rough edges which need smoothing out. We just need to see if there are any further plans for the series, but I’m sure any new plan will be followed by various people mocking it for its level of fanservice instead of actually trying out the gameplay.