Games Beaten in 2016 So Far - 127January (20 Games Beaten)
February (8 Games Beaten)
March (8 Games Beaten)
April (13 Games Beaten)
May (6 Games Beaten)
June (13 Games Beaten)
July (7 Games Beaten)
August (15 Games Beaten)
September (8 Games Beaten)
October (10 Games Beaten)
November (6 Games Beaten)
December (13 Games Beaten)
127. Senran Kagura Burst - 3DS - December 24
I've had Senran Kagura Burst downloaded on my 3DS for a good while, and I've had a PAL import copy just for the sake of having it on my shelf for a good six or seven months, but I've just now gotten around to beating it. Senran Kagura Burst is about as "me" as a game gets - big titty anime ninja girls beating the crap out of hordes of enemies. Sounds like something I'd think is absolutely amazing, right? Well, it's okay.
The story mode has you choose one of two sides - the Hanzo school of good shinobi or the Hebijo school of evil shinobi. Each of the two campaigns is divided into five chapters with about eight key missions and another four to eight optional side missions. To really "complete" the game and get both sides of the story, you naturally need to play through both the Hanzo campaign and the Hebijo campaign and complete every mission in all five chapters with all characters. Had I been totally in love with the game, I'd have done that. I did not love the game that much, though, so I just played through the key missions on the Hanzo side, did whatever side missions with whatever characters I needed to in order to grind up enough to complete a few particularly tough missions, and called it a day. The game's not bad, but the story didn't really grab me enough to bother with all the rest of that. It's basically "The evil ninja stole our school's Super Secret Ninja Art Scroll (that's seriously what they call it)! We need to go get it back!" That's the core of the narrative. It's simple, and it works, but it's not gripping or interesting enough to entice me to spend more time with the game.
One aspect of the game that's extremely redeeming, however, is the characters. They're basically anime stereotypes, and as a fan of those particular stereotypes, I'm probably a bit biased, but I enjoyed them. You've got the serious and fairly strict class rep, the lesbian whose every other action is sexual harassment if not outright molestation, the quiet and gruff tsundere, the totally clueless but adorable (and freakishly strong) idiot, and the exceptionally average character who ends up saving the world or whatever. You know, your cast from just about every anime style game comprised entirely of female characters ever. But I love it. It worked, and their interactions were entertaining.
Unfortunately, that's about where the redeeming aspects end for me. There isn't anything about it that I found to be particularly bad aside from the inconsistent difficulty curve. There were times that I'd beat a mission easily on the first try and then immediately fail the very next mission, grind five levels, and then only barely beat it; the next mission after that, I would beat easily in one try. Really, though, I only noticed that in two or three places, and that was the only aspect of the game that I felt was a negative. The rest of it was just okay, and "okay" doesn't make for a memorable game. It had some pretty nice boob bounce effects, but with Dead or Alive, Onechanbara, and Gal*Gun, that alone isn't enough for even me to consider it a stand out game. Give it a shot if you can find it cheap (which is unlikely for us Americans since our only option is digital), but don't go out of your way for this one, and don't pay more than $10 MAX for it (really, I'd stick to $7 or less).
