Available via Steam for $30

The PlayStation Vita is losing yet another exclusive next week, as Marvelous and XSEED Games' "buxom brawler" Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus is a-comin' to Steam on Wednesday, June 1.

The PC version features "full HD" visuals??, with 60 frames-per-second, and comes with all the downloadable content from the original game included as standard for its $30 / €28 / £??23 asking price.

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The Vita loses another exclusive

Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus is bouncin?g to Windows PC next sum??mer, XSEED just announced.

The PlayS??tation Vita brawler burst onto the Japanese scene in early 2013 before arriving in the West last October. Now, XSEED hopes to expose a new audience to with an enh?anced port.

A sequel to this entry, Senran Kagura: Estival Versus, is coming to PS4 and Vita this winter.

The post Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus PC ma?keover is primed for summer 2016 appeared first on Destructoid.

Bounce, baby, bounce, b-bounce, b-bounce

In the world of Senran Kagura, excess is the rule. The outfits are skimpy, the plot threads are ludicrous, and the breasts are lau??ghably large, so huge in fact that you wonder how the skimpy bras the girls are eventually stripped down to are ??actually wrangling those things.

But beneath a veneer of silliness and near-parodical levels of fan service lies a brawler with ?plenty of hack and slash goodness to? offer.

Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus (Vita)
Developer: Marvelous AQL
Publisher: XSEED Games
Released: October 14, 2014
MSRP: $49.99

Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus explores the legendary shinobi, whose ninja (read: teenage girls) train in separate schools, one of which you’ll choose at the beginning of the game to follow through a special story mode and additional missions. You’ll be able to choose between 20 different brawlers in this third-person Dynasty Warriors-like?? adventure, where the order of the day is running your opponent into the dirt, slashing them up until you’re declared victor. This usually means your opponent has been left with shreds of her outfit left clinging to her body, humiliated on the field. Sound sexy? It’s a little more hilarious and over-the-top than sexualized, and that’s what makes the game work so well.

That’s right, amongst double-doses of fanservice, bits of ecchi comedy sprinkled into several visual novel-styled expository scenes, and fragments of character development, you’ll pepper the unfortunate bad guys with light and strong attacks, dashes, and mor??e. You’ll have the opportunity to rack up astronomical combos, in the neighborhood of 500-hit combos (and up) when you really get going. Or more, if you can stay in range of the several baddies tossed your way.

The action is frenetic and furious, with combos performed via well-timed button presses and an advanced parry system that allows players who wish to delve further to defend themselves in a much more engaging manner. Juggling enemies with air dashes and ultimate attacks will keep you busy as well, but the fact of the matter is there’s plenty here to ensure you don’t get bored, even if it does feel repetitive as you continuously press the same buttons. There’s nothing groundbreaking about combat, but it feels satisfying all the same, especially when y?ou watch that combo number rise all the way past 1000. It’s an addictive feeling, even if the banter between girls doesn’t quite make sense during combat, or when the arenas you’re fighting in feel constricted and narrow.

As you fight you earn energy that can be unleashed via “Shinobi Transformations,” which allows for more powerful attacks. When your fighter takes enough dama??ge, eventually her clothing and equipment will tear and deteriorate, leaving plenty of skin on display. Bouncing bosoms and pert bottoms can be seen everywhere, but the scenes that show them off are skippable. If it’s not something you want to stick around and see, you can skip past the transformation sequences themselves and get right back into battle. But if you want to get an eyeful, go ahead and soak it all in, because these scenes happen multiple times per battle. ?You can also go and view the character of your choice outside of battle just in case you didn’t get enough of them while locked in combat.

When you’re not dueling with other shinobi or nameless bad guys, you can customize your charact?ers as you level them up after each grueling battle with different hairstyles, clothes, and additional accessories. They’re fun to collect and can be quite silly when you head into battle, but keeping your favorite fighter decked out in different duds can be just as fun as beating the pants off your opp??onents — literally, of course. Or skirt. Or blouse, whichever the case may be.

Unfortunately, this otherwise solid brawler is plagued by longer load times interspersed between campaign segments. Waiting to get started in the mission and waiting to restart is especially painful, and give?n the amount of action going on on-screen with some of these parts, it’s hard to understand why such long loading times are actually necessary. They’re a minor annoyance, granted, but still a gripe that players will no doubt notice. In many cases, the camera will also conspire to annoy the heck out of you with frustratingly obtus??e angles, but luckily these bits can be worked around by manually fiddling with the analog stick.

It’s important to note as well that Shinovi Versus looks and feels great. The cel-shaded character models are polished and move fluidly, and while there’s no English voice cast to choose from, the Japanese voice actresses do an excellent job, especially in terms of the “cute” factor you really need in games like these. You really feel as though you’re viewing a piece of animation, and it shows. It’s leagues ahead of Senran Kagura Burst in terms of both animatio?n factor and content offering.

If you’re a fan of the franchise or want to get in on some good, old-fashioned melee combat with undies and lady bits in between, Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus is a great place to start. Sure, it’s silly, superficial, and more than a little bit ridiculous, but that’s what makes it so darn fun. And if you dip into this Senran Kagura offering, chances are you’ll want to delve into the others as well. Buyers, don’t leave your Vita at home, ‘cause it’s Senran Kagura at night and it’s bouncin’, bouncin&rsquo??;.

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Ninja gals show off their assets at E3 2014

The Senran Kagura series takes fan-service to new heights in the upcoming brawler Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus and Senran Kagura Bon Appetít!, a rhythm cooking game. Both titles were available to demo at XSEED's booth at E3 ??201??4.

Unlike Senran Kagura Burst for the Nintendo 3DS, which was more of a side-scolling fighter akin to Final Fight, Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus for the PlayStation Vit??a now finds the player in a 3D plane where enemies can approach from?? all sides. 

Similar to the previous game, the girls are assigned to five-member factions. There are four unique factions this time around, with the Hebijō school joining the pack for Shinovi Versus. Players will start with only three factions to choose from, unlocking the fourth as they continue to play through Story Mode. Other modes of play include Mission Mode and Challenger Mode. In the latter, players fight against the other characters one after another, whereas in Sto?ry Mode, one would have to fight through minions to reach them.

And of course, it wouldn't be a Senran Kagura game if clothes weren't ripped frequently ?(take enough damage and off go your garments). And although the game's backstory is surprisingly deep, the stripping aspect seems to detract from it, making it harder to take anything seriously. I understand that I am not the series' target audience but the sheer amount of bouncing and blushing made me feel a little uncomfortable.

Purists should be pleased to hear that the original? Japanese voices are in this version as well, now with subtitles. DLC includes t?wo additional characters, weapons, items, and costumes. The items can be placed anywhere on the body, adding an additional layer of character customization. 

The girls take a break from beating each other up to hold a cooking competition in Senran Kagura Bon Appetít! The premise is that they a??re competing for a magic bead that grants wishes. And some of those potential wishes are pretty darn silly! I found it particularly funny that it goes out of its way to state how this is not canon. Because the other titles are as solemn as the plague, right?

Bon Appetít! is a rhythm game in which the player must keep track of both top and bottom bars, hitting buttons in time with the music. By creating combos and timing hits wells, the player can earn a chance to trigger a multiplier, increasing their combo's worth. Miss a step, however, and that boost comes to an end. Knowing when best to initiate the boost?? added an extra layer of strategy. The levels I played were moderately challenging at first but once I got comfortable with this setup and the beat, I got sucked in. The stage music is based on each of the girls' theme music, which is all rather catchy.

Every gir?l makes a specific dish and their score affects the finished product's look and size. Do part?icularly well and you may even earn an extended cutscene at the end of the judging round. Some of these skits, like an old judge floating away on a boat of seafood, were so over-the-top that you can't help but crack a grin.

Of course, the loser of the match has to lose her clothes (all the way down to just her panties in some cases; nipples are censored with smiling faces). Because it's Senran Kagura and ??that is what they do. But add in the ability to manipulate the view of the now-revealed Shinobi using the Vita's gyroscope control and the game started to feel like it was a bit much for me. Again, I am clearly not the audience for this. 

Whatever DLC you have purchased for Shinovi Versus will carry over to Bon Appetít!, making the game's roster of?? 10 girls spike ??to 22.

Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus is scheduled to release this fall, while Senran Kagura Bon Appetít! will be available via download this winter.

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Omedetou!

Senran Kagura Burst has shifted more than 100,000 units, series producer Kenichiro Takaki has announced. It's taken 37 weeks for the Nintendo 3DS title to reach the milestone, a mark its PlayStation Vita successor achieved in its opening week.

Marvelous AQL has yet to localize an entry in the sidescrolling action series for Western audiences. Despite overwhelming fan support, XSEED boss Ken Berry has expressed concern about how the game's risque subject matte?r will play with the more conservative culture in the United States.

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Pancakes!

Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus released last week in Japan and sales has been? relatively strong thus far. Marvelous AQL announced today that the PlayStation Vita brawler has sold upwards of 120,000 units, a figure which includes both physical copies and digital downloads.

To date, only Persona 4 Golden (137,076) and Hatsune Miku Project Diva F (150,592) have experienced stronger Japanese launch weeks amongst PlayStation Vita titles. The strong showing may have something to do with the system's recent price drop, as the release coincided with a significant spike in hardware sales.

PSVita『閃乱カグラ SHINOVI VERSUS -少女達の証明-』販売本数が早くも12万本を突破、シリーズ最高実績を達成 [Marvelous AQL via Gemastu]

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Spin-off of the Senran Kagura series on 3DS

In my my post last week about new Bandai figurines, I very casually mentioned that booby ninja schoolgirl series Senran Kagura was receiving a new installment on PS Vita. It immediatel??y occurred to me that Dto?id never formally shared any information about the game whatsoever. Time to play catch-up!

While Senran Kagura producer Kenichiro Takaki intends to keep the core series on the 3DS and its potential successors, he's not opposed to bringing spin-offs to other platforms. Hence, Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus -- the "vi" in "Shinovi" stands for "Vita" -- will be heading to Sony's portable, trading in the side-view brawling style of its predecessors for Dynasty Warriors-esque hack 'n slash.

In addition to featuring 10 new characters on top of the returning 10 from the original two games, there will be four-player Wi-Fi battles as well as full costume breaks -- in other words, the girls' clothing conti?nues to degrade during battle until they are forced to cover their naughty bits with a free hand. Why the extra cheesecake? Takaki simply replies, "I wanted to make it more sexual." Well... that's a refreshingly straightforward answer.

When Shinovi Versus arrives in Japan on February 28, it'll come in a regular edition and a special deluxe edition that includes five adorable chibi figurines of the first game's heroines. You can see those gals in the gallery below, al??ong? with tons of screenshots from the game.

Marvelous has expressed plans to localize the 3DS Senran Kagura titles before, but at least Vita owners can import Shinovi Versus to play on ?th?eir region-free devices while the company suits come to a decision.

[via Siliconera]

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