Not precisely what I used to be anticipating.
As is now custom, I’ll be masking this anime crossover sport within the Assessment FAQ format. Because the protagonist of this format, I feel Neptune would approve (that’s a Neptunia joke).
It’s lastly right here!
Spring?
No, you reside in Alaska. I’m speaking about Neptunia X Senran Kagura: Ninja Wars. Wasn’t this considered one of your most hotly-anticipated video games of 2022?
I used to be actually hoping you meant spring, as a result of this has been the longest winter in current reminiscence. However sure, I’ve been taking part in Neptunia X Senran Kagura, which I’ve actually been trying ahead to for the reason that announcement of a Swap port. And I’m thrilled to say it’s precisely what it says on the tin, however nothing extra. Possibly even rather less.
That sounds…underwhelming.
That’s as a result of it’s. To start with, as I stated in my preview, Nep X Senran is a Neptunia sport that co-stars 4 of the Senran Kagura ladies. The plot, menus, new characters, quests, environments, and a number of other gameplay features are straight out of Neptunia. The Senran Kagura contribution is woefully skinny on the bottom. To me, as any individual who prefers the Senran collection to the Nep-Nep video games, this was a disappointment.
Is Shiki one of many Senran ladies? You recognize, the precise Finest Woman?
Nope.
How about Haruka?
NOPE.
…Yumi?
Sure, however solely by advantage of being one of many Senran collection’ leads (together with Asuka, Homura, and Miyabi). There are not any different Senran characters within the sport, whilst character portraits. In the meantime, there are two new characters: Yuki, the resident catgirl, and Goh the Crow, an amnesiac ninja. Each match into the Nep-Nep forged greater than the Senran forged, however each are enjoyable to play as.
What do you do on this sport?
Did you play Hyperdimension Neptunia U: Motion Unleashed?
Oh, you imply the Tamsoft-developed Neptunia hack & slash sport for Vita (and later Steam)?
I do.
Yeah, it was senseless enjoyable.
That’s principally what Nep X Senran is, with extra advanced maps. You’ll choose two characters (who you possibly can freely change between within the subject) after which press the Y button rather a lot to carry out assault combos, often tapping the X button to throw shuriken or kunai, block enemy assaults with A, and sprint away from unblockable assaults with ZR. You have got “stamina bars” which refill over time and are used to unleash 4 completely different particular assaults (Ninja Arts) which may be strung collectively in sure methods to offer buffs, debuffs, or standing results. You may also—and I ceaselessly forgot about this—activate your individual momentary buffs which solely have so many makes use of per mission. For bosses, you’ll need to try to construct up their ”Break” meter by largely spamming your shuriken/kunai to get them right into a stagger state, the place you possibly can dole out a whole lot of punishment with out the specter of retaliation.
Lastly, usually a few times per space, your ladies will get an excellent assault which appears tremendous cool however is nearly all the time utterly underwhelming. It received’t even take off one full bar of a multi-life-bar boss.
So typical hack and slash fluff?
Mainly, yeah. And there’s nothing inherently incorrect with it, however like every sport like this, it will get outdated earlier than too lengthy. Oh, and blocking doesn’t cancel your assault animations, so when you’re in the course of a combo (even a Ninja Arts combo) and the enemy isn’t staggering, you’ll wind up taking a whole lot of hits, probably fatally within the case of bosses, which isn’t nice!
Do the characters differ?
Probably not. I’ll say that the Senran ladies come to this sport with their signature combating kinds and specials intact, in order that they felt essentially the most acquainted. The Neptunia gals’ fight talents are constructed from scratch, and so don’t really feel as distinctive. Their specials appear extra interchangeable and their fight kinds—although all trying fairly completely different—wind up mixing collectively. If Vert or Blanc had nunchucks, that total group would have Ninja Turtle weapons, however sadly that’s a missed alternative. You do have some capability to customise every character, although, so let’s speak about this sport’s largest time sink.
RPG stuff?
RPG stuff! In one other pull from the Neptunia collection, every character can customise the order of their specials in order that they supply additional profit relying on the order they’re used. For instance, one assault may end in a standing impact if used within the second slot, and different may present a personality buff if used final. Every woman learns extra specials as they degree up, so that you’ll be revisiting the Ninja Arts display usually. Nevertheless, you might be restricted considerably by the quantity of stamina every assault makes use of up. It’s surprisingly arduous—if not impossible–to discover a combo that may end in all 4 specials being utilized in fast succession within the correct order—the one method to see all the advantages of a Ninja Arts combo. Additional, you customise the checklist in checklist type, however within the subject, the specials present up in a diamond form, so it’s very arduous to inform, at a look, what order you’re supposed to make use of them in.
That’s annoying.
It’s, however you will have objects on-hand that may refill your stamina meter, and sure Soul Gems that may cut back the quantity of stamina you employ up.
Soul Gems?
Are you sitting down?
…ought to I be?
Yeah, ‘trigger that is gonna take awhile.
Soul Gems are an admittedly attention-grabbing, however poorly-implemented, system in which you’ll be able to customise every woman’s stats. You’ll gather dozens of multicolored Soul Gems in treasure packing containers, as quest rewards, or by buying them from the in-game retailer. They’re organized into a number of classes, together with assault, protection, development, Ninja Weapons (shuriken & kunai), and Ninja Arts. Every particular Gem sort (like “EXP Legion”) has 4 or 5 tiers of energy, so it’s commonplace to have duplicates of every degree of a given Gem. You organize the Soul Gems on a big 5×5 grid which expands as the women degree up. Your purpose is to rearrange them in such a approach that a number of Gems turn into related, thus offering a bigger buff.
Wait, maintain on, I’m getting misplaced. Give me an instance of what one Gem does. Like what does “EXP Legion” do?
Oh proper, sorry. Every Gem supplies some sort of minor buff. “EXP Legion” signifies that you’ll get a slight enhance to expertise factors earned from every defeated Steem Legion enemy. Different associated Gems offer you extra expertise for every defeated Yokai enemy, or giant mini-boss enemy, or correct boss. There are related Gems in different classes: your assault towards Steem Legion enemies is increased, otherwise you’ll get extra Zenni from defeated Yokai enemies, that sort of factor.
Normally, your purpose is to gather as many high-level Gems of every sort as you possibly can and organize them on the ever-expanding Soul Board in a approach that provides that woman the absolute best buffs. Your grid is graded from F to A, though it doesn’t inform you how one can enhance your score. Utilizing high-level Gems appears to assist.
Does the Soul Board apply to each character?
Nope, you need to set a distinct board for all ten ladies.
Are you…insane? Do you need to have a hojillion Gems in order that all of them have duplicates to make use of?
Fortunately, every woman can use the identical set of Gems, so if Homura is utilizing all of the “Assault UP” Gems, don’t fear—Noir will be capable to use them, too. My technique was to present every woman a mixture of buffs from the numerous classes, making an attempt to steadiness all of them out. You may also synthesize Gems, however I do not know how to try this—it’s poorly defined, and it was simply simpler to purchase additional Gems on the retailer. You may also purchase new shuriken and kunai on the retailer too.
Are they cool?
They’re largely helpful for standing results, although there’s all the time some small harm elements. I miss the Senran gentle/heavy assault dichotomy. Frankly, I miss a whole lot of the Senran staples: transformations, Flash mode, outfit-based bonuses, costume customization, character-specific sidequests, outfit harm, combo assaults.
Combo assaults?
Again in Senran Kagura 2: Deep Crimson, you possibly can additionally change between two characters, and a few of them had very highly effective combo particular assaults. I hoped to see that on this sport—as a result of it additionally has you taking part in as two characters.
I admit to being just a little weirded out that Nep vs. Senran doesn’t have a dressing room.
Proper? That stated, this sport does include all of the costume DLC from final 12 months’s launch.
Are they good costumes?
NOPE! The Senran ladies get their conventional pre-transformation outfits (however can’t rework) and the Neptunia forged will get…alternate colour schemes. Contemplating that was paid DLC, I anticipated higher choices or a minimum of far more selections. Have you ever seen the DLC for a typical Senran sport? It’s a mile lengthy checklist of outfits and equipment. Give the Neptunia ladies their conventional cyber-goddess outfits, a minimum of! Oh, and Yuki & Goh the Crow don’t get alternate outfits in any respect. If anyone on this sport is crying out for bikini DLC, it’s Yuki.
Dare I ask why?
Let’s simply say that she should have a really robust again. Additionally, given her weapon of selection (claws), her function may’ve been taken by an present Neptunia character—Peashy, a.okay.a. Yellow Coronary heart—who additionally has claw weapons and ridiculous proportions. Simply missed alternatives left and proper on this sport.
Sounds such as you didn’t like this one. The rest you need to contact on?
This sport does do one thing that I actually hope is carried ahead to future Senran and Neptunia video games: in the course of the (many) cutscenes that includes illustrated character portraits, their eyes and mouths transfer, and expressions ceaselessly change. It’s a small factor, however I actually appreciated it. Regardless of it being a huge problem, I just like the Soul Gem system in concept, but it surely wants some revision. The boss fights are usually disagreeable in that they take approach too lengthy. The “Closing Chapter” is about so long as all of the earlier chapters mixed. Oh, by the best way, the story is rubbish.
Yeah, you haven’t talked about the story.
It’s to be endured greater than loved. The world of Gamninjastri –
What?
As an alternative of Gamindustri.
*rolls eyes*
I do know. The Senran and Neptunia forged are members of warring ninja factions who don’t really go to warfare ever and are, as a substitute, finest associates. When an extradimensional group referred to as the Steem Legion arrives and tries to take over, the “warring factions” group as much as take them down.
So it’s a play on the sport platform Steam?
I couldn’t inform, as a result of there are additionally cracks about Instagram and likes and retweets and the chief of the Steem Legion is a woman named Yoh Gamer and so they’re making an attempt to awaken a large demon…it’s all nonsense, each cutscene goes on approach too lengthy, and by the tip I used to be simply urgent A like I used to be taking part in Mario Celebration.
After you beat the ultimate boss, you unlock extra subquests (BUT WHY) and a brand new Hoard-like endurance mode that I simply can’t be bothered to play by. Possibly if the fight was extra strong, however not like this.
Okay so that you didn’t like this one.
Not particularly, no. I anticipated extra out of this waifu crossover, but it surely’s lower than the sum of its elements. I’m pleased that each of those franchises are coming to Swap extra usually, however I actually want among the higher video games in each collection had been getting ports. The place’s Estival Versus and V Technology? Heck, I can’t think about that the remake of Senran Kagura Burst could be all that arduous to port, though it might be a Sony unique. Anyway, the purpose is, I used to be actually trying ahead to Neptunia X Senran Kagura and got here away very disenchanted.
Final query: have you ever purchased any new Senran Kagura figures?
Tragically, no, however not on account of lack of curiosity. There are two matching bunny woman figures (of Yumi and Yozakura) however pricing for figures of all scales has exploded in the previous few years. We’re speaking $300+ for the pre-order. For those who miss that, the aftermarket worth is totally unreasonable.
Geeze, that sucks.
It does, however my spouse would not appear to thoughts.
