Senran Kagura: Deep Crimson is the direct sequel to Senran Kagura Burst , a beat ’em up series well known for being fanservice ladden but also having the gameplay to back it up. Unlike its predecessor, Deep Crimson shifts from the 2.5D perspective & movement of Burst to full 3D. New to the series is the tag system; being able to go battle with a partner & freely switch between the two in combat as well as unleash duo powered skills.
Underneath the ninja-themed fanservice it is a typical beat ’em up with RPG elements. You’ve got your standard light, heavy & air attacks as well as special moves & the tag unlocked early on the chapters. Needless to say, it does it well enough that it spawned a franchise despite its fanservice nature. Typical gameplay cycle is beat things up, beat a boss, gain EXP to unlock more chains to your comboes, unlock new clothing or accessories to customize any of the 12 or so girls (purely cosmetic stuff), rinse & repeat.
Coming off from Burst, the shift to 3D movement might require some getting used to which might get you beat up more than intended though th game is fairly challenging in of itself. There were some annoyances when it came to some bosses though, stunlocking you & hyper armor are not fun in the least. Another balance shift from Burst is being unable to infinitely air juggle enemies or bosses, they now drop after a few hits.
Now the plot talk; as this is a direct sequel to the first game & very briefly but abruptly continues right of the first one’s ending I highly recommend playing it or finding a summary.
The game game quickly recaps the last 2 fights between the girls & the Yoma Orochi & Homura vs. Asuka. It by no means does those scenes justice but oh well, let’s carry on. Deep Crimson involves the struggle of the now homeless Hebijo girls & the Hanzo girls’ revelation that things are not as black & white as their learning & upbringing led them to believe. ‘Evil’ is a baseless word & that even girls from the Hebijo school, an ‘evil’ school are humans at the end of the day & circumstances led the to their current predicament. Of course things don’t end there because as expected summoning a demon never goes smoothly. Yoma are out in full force & now both team of girls must fight the demons, each other & other ninjas to boot.
All in all Senran Kagura’s plot is deeper than your average fanservice game & Deep Crimson is no different. You will probably won’t be shedding tears nut a few lights might ensue & for sure cheering for your favorite girl is to be expected. Sound department is pretty good, music as always, is top notch & pretty damned awesome. Most near everything is voice acted in some way or form & in Japanese. Visuals are top as well.
In the matter of extras this game provides the ‘Yoma Nest’, a 100+ mission arena quest thing. Each area has some sort of restriction be it only use air attacks, kill enemies using no skills, etc. Completing each ‘cell’ has a chance to reward you with a weapon for the girls though these are ultimately cosmetic much like clothing, EXP is handed out as well, as per usual.
There is also 3 different DLCs, which besides adding something trivial like a ‘boob slider’ also brings along something of substance like more missions, some mission even changing genre into a side-scrolling SHMUP or having its own little story involving chibi versions of the girls. There is also an extra character, the first & only male playable character for the series, can either be bought or for those that have a Burst save file, free of charge. Of course as this is a female centric game, Murasame is a joke character, his moveset is not as well developed or refined as a true ninja should.
At the end of the day, Senran Kagura: Deep Crimson brings the same awesome combination of fanservice, gameplay & awesome music combining guitars, traditional Japanese instruments or whathaveyou as Burst did but now in full 3D. It is definitely worth picking it up & I highly recommend it.
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