Category Archives: Senran Kagura

Senran Kagura Peach Ball: Bump ‘n’ Bounce

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There’s a convincing argument to be made that a long-running video game franchise has only seen true success when it’s had a video pinball spinoff on a Nintendo platform.

I jest, obviously, but there are a number of fun examples from over the years — primarily direct from Nintendo, it has to be said, what with Metroid, Kirby, Pokémon and Super Mario all getting the bouncing balls treatment.

Senran Kagura is a series about ninja girls, though, so how on Earth could that possibly… oh, you know they’ll find a way. Let’s take a closer look.

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Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal: Within the Depths of Shadow

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The very first release in the Senran Kagura series — one we didn’t get here in the West — focused exclusively on the Hanzou girls’ narrative, which we discussed in detail last time.

It wasn’t until the expanded rerelease Senran Kagura Burst — which we did get in the West, and which forms the basis for Burst Re:Newal — that we got the opportunity to see things from the “other side” by spending some time among the Hebijo girls.

It’s this particular character arc — along with the two optional DLC stories that involve Gessen’s Yumi and Miyabi of “New Hebijo” respectively — that we’ll be exploring in depth today.

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Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal: The Pairing of Sword and Shield

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We live in an age where remakes and reboots are very popular. Exactly how that came to be is anyone’s guess — improving technology leading creators to believe they can better realise the original intention of a work, presumably — but regardless of the reasoning, here we are.

Senran Kagura, a series which turned eight years old on Sunday, September 22, 2019 — the Sunday just gone at the time of writing — has been no exception to this, with its most recent “mainline” release in the series being Burst Re:Newal, which first hit Japanese shelves in February of 2018, and followed just under a year later in the West.

Burst Re:Newal, as the name suggests, is a reimagining of the first game in the series — or, more accurately, the expanded second release of that first game, Senran Kagura Burst — and it brings the beginning of the saga to a whole new audience. Let’s take a closer look.

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Senran Kagura: Shinobi Creativity

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Besides being a cracking series of games that are a lot of fun to enjoy in their own right, a very appealing aspect of the Senran Kagura series for a lot of players is how it encourages creativity.

This has taken a number of different forms over the years, beginning with the simple option to dress the various characters up as you see fit — with these custom appearances being reflected in real-time cutscenes during the game — and gradually evolving into a fully-formed “Diorama” feature where you can arrange and pose characters as you see fit.

Let’s take a look at how Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal, the next game we’ll be covering here on MoeGamer, handles this side of things.

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Senran Kagura Peach Beach Splash: No Shirt, No Shoes, All Shinobi Shooting

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It’s understandable that some people approached Senran Kagura Peach Beach Splash with a certain amount of trepidation prior to its initial release.

After all, here was a series that was supposedly about ninja girls fighting an unseen battle against the otherworldly youma forces, and yet their next game seemed to have them all clad in bikinis having water pistol fights with one another. Sure, the fanservice angle had always been part of the series… but surely, surely we were going a bit off-piste now, right?

Two things. Firstly: Bon Appétit would like a word about going “off-piste”. And secondly: Peach Beach Splash is absolutely a worthy sequel to Estival Versus that sets the series up for what will hopefully be an apocalyptic, climactic finale. In the meantime, though, yes, water guns.

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Senran Kagura Bon Appétit: The Fastest Route to the Heart

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When the Senran Kagura series first launched, I’m not sure anyone could have quite predicted the trajectory it would take.

While some fans lament the fact that the series has deviated somewhat from its original course of “cool female ninjas fight youma, also there are breasts and bums”, I can’t say I’m the slightest bit sorry for the existence of games like Senran Kagura Bon Appétit (also known as Dekamori: Senran Kagura in Japan).

It’s a game that bills itself as a “hyper busty cooking battle”, and gives us the opportunity to see that enormous cast of delightful characters in a rather different context to normal. What’s not to like?

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Senran Kagura: An Almost-Comprehensive Look at Gessen’s Use of Classical Music

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The Gessen girls, introduced in Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus on PlayStation Vita and pretty much a fixture ever since, are certainly a distinctive lot.

Taking a rather different approach to being “good” shinobi than Asuka and friends at Hanzou National Academy, the students of Gessen Girls’ Academy learned everything they know about the world from their adoptive “grandfather” Kurokage.

And that includes their musical tastes, which is reflected in the games’ soundtracks; Gessen girls’ themes make extensive use of Western art music. So I thought that might be interesting to take a closer look at.

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Senran Kagura: Introduction

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Senran Kagura. Now there’s a series we’re no strangers to here on MoeGamer, but it’s been a long time since it graced the Cover Game feature. With the recent release of Peach Ball at the time of writing, I thought it was about time we fixed that.

This Cover Game feature is, as much as anything, me fulfilling a promise to myself; I absolutely love the Senran Kagura series, yet I’ve been falling very behind with it, so I’ve been promising myself for… probably a couple of years now that I’d get caught up!

Since Estival Versus was the first ever Cover Game feature here on MoeGamer back in April of 2016, we’ve had Peach Beach Splash, Burst Re;Newal, Reflexions and Peach Ball, plus a lovely Limited Run Games packaged release of Bon Appetit, a former digital-only title. And, with the exception of Reflexions and a bit of Bon Appetit, I haven’t played (or covered) any of these yet. This leaves me with a fair amount of work to do, but I’m looking forward to it; I hope you enjoy it too.

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Senran Kagura: More Than Just Life and Hometown… Much More

“Tits are life, ass is hometown.” So runs the catchphrase of Senran Kagura creator Kenichiro Takaki, and the unofficial tagline for the series as a whole.

While Takaki’s sentiments are refreshingly honest in a world of increasing political correctness — indeed, supposedly the only reason Senran Kagura exists at all is because Takaki wanted to see breasts on the glasses-free 3D screen of the Nintendo 3DS — in a way it’s a bit of a shame that so much emphasis has been placed on this aspect of the series. Not because fanservice-heavy media is inherently bad, of course — on the contrary, Senran Kagura represents a good example of how fanservice can be used to create a very distinctive look, feel, style and overall personality — but because for those less familiar with the series, that’s all they see.

And there is one hell of a lot more to Senran Kagura as a whole than just “life and hometown”. So let’s take some time to explore exactly what it is that makes this remarkable series tick, and why you should check it out if you’re not already a fan.

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