The latest game in Marvellous’ unapologetically pervy ninja brawling series hits PS4 and Vita this Friday, March 18. As someone completely unfazed by fanservice-y Japanese games I have to wonder, at what point does Senran Kagura: Estival Versus make you uncomfortable?
Before we get started, know that we’re going to be getting into NSFW territory here relatively quickly. Nothing horrible I’d say, but then I’m not the best judge here.
The Senran Kagura series is all about massive ninja battles starring young women who get progressively more undressed as the fighting continues. There’s a bit of a Dynasty Warriors feel to the battles, only with hysterical characters instead of historical ones. Also, breasts.
It doesn’t bother me. What some see as sexual and offensive, I see as goofy humour. No one looks like these characters. I’ve known people who act like these characters, but never in a serious manner.
But I totally understand that other folks don’t share the same attitude. Some of our readers do, but many others were put off by the GIF atop this article and have already left. I miss them.
If you’re still with us, I’m going to go through the first 30 minutes or so of gameplay, and you tell me at which point you’d be out.
First off we have the game case. Figure I’d start from the very beginning. The outside cover is just four ninja hanging out, nothing too racy there. The inside gets a bit chesty, and the disc itself has a sort of wet t-shirt vibe going.
The cover is reversible, so you can put the inside on the outside.
Good so far? Let’s move on. Going to assume we hit start immediately, skipping the opening credits for now. We’ll not worry about the Dressing Room option, which lets players dress up and shoot photos of the game’s characters. Just know there’s a pretty sweet achievement lurking in there.
The story begins with story narrated by an older Japanese woman. If older Japanese women talking for several minutes makes you uncomfortable, your journey is over.
That does seem worse.
Once the older woman stops talking we launch into an animated sequence. A pair of students from the Hebijo Clandestine Girls’ Academy, Ryobi and Ryona, pray at the grave of their dead sister, Ryoki. It is a somber, reverential moment.
I don’t know what you were worried about.
The two hear a noise coming from deeper in the woods and creep off to investigate.
Oh yeah, this is probably what you were worried about.For the record, time to panty shot, five minutes.
Kind of an abrupt mood shift there. I’m guessing we lost a couple of people after that image.
And now a couple more. Did I mention these are sisters?
The sisters discover an elderly woman in a clearing performing some sort of ritual. She summons forth the spirits of several dead ninja, including their older sister. The old woman guides their sister into a standing coffin, and the two ninja leap into action. They pry at the lid of the coffin, triggering a massive explosion that sends them flying.
Ryona, described in the character book accompanying the special edition of the game as “a hardcore masochist”, is overjoyed.
OK, maybe I’m a little uncomfortable here.
So that happens. Who’s still here?
Since Ryona is a masochist, it stands to reason in stupid anime sex humour land that her twin sister (did I mention they are twins?) has a sadistic streak. Reacting to her sibling’s… we’re going to go with enthusiasm here, Ryoki tells her sister to stop being stupid.
“Don’t call me stupid!” Ryona cries.
“Then what am I supposed to call you?” her sister asks in response.
Did we really have to open the game with these two?
It’s OK to tap out at this point. I almost did, and I have a high tolerance for this sort of thing. You can tell by the blush that Ryona is excited by the notion, but still.
It suits Ryoki just fine. “Bitch” is one of her favourite words. She says it before battle.
Well she did ask.
She also says it during battle with the female shinobi with black bags over their heads in the sequence that follows.
The whole world is her bitch.
You may notice Ryoki looks different in that last screen. That’s because each character in the game possesses the power of ninja transformation. Here comes the most NSFW bit.
It bears noting to those of you remaining that the scroll Ryoki pulls from between her legs is generally pulled from between the characters’ breasts, but since her normal form is flat-chested design compromises had to be made.
That is a sentence I just wrote. Yes it is.
Congratulations! You’ve made it all the way to the opening credits! If you haven’t felt uncomfortable yet, you’re probably safe to play the game. Feel free to dance along with the opening number in celebratory fashion.
And in case you stopped somewhere before the credits and scrolled down to the closing comments, don’t worry. I came very close to being right there with you on a couple of occasions. But I powered through, and now can enjoy the mildly addictive hack-and-slash gameplay of Senran Kagura: Estival Versus in nearly complete comfort.
Definitely not playing this online though.
Comments
22 responses to “Let’s See How Long It Takes Senran Kagura To Make You Uncomfortable”
Liams really burning the midnight oil to get his games out.
….
What are you talking about. This is precisely the game I am looking for!
I have no problem with sexual content in media, or usually any content at all. This may sound a little cheesy given the context of the article, but honestly the only thing that reliably makes me uncomfortable in media is censorship. Whether it’s opinion, visual art, games, movies, literature or most anything else, unless it directly hurts someone then it should be allowed to exist unimpaired. If I don’t like it I just won’t engage with it.
I agree with you 100% on everything you mentioned, it’s a pity that a lot of other people don’t have similar views like that.
I have the 3DS version of this game and it’s an excellent side scrolling brawler.
I’m disappointed in the article though that it doesn’t show any actual gameplay.
The Vita spinoffs are similar, but are 3D brawlers rather than the 2.5D style of the 3DS games and IMO have a fair bit more depth to the combat, though to be fair Senran Kagura 2 on 3DS is a massive step up from the first one on that front. The Vita games end up playing a lot like a Dynasty Warriors game.
The odds were certainly against me when I went to Kotaku at 11pm on a Wednesday night looking for some soft-core Anime porn, but sometimes, just sometimes, the Internet Gods are kind.
This doesn’t make me uncomfortable…kind of…I’m gay and the only way it bothers me is knowing that full male versions of games like this don’t exist and likely never will D:
I don’t know much about them personally but there are a lot of yaoi games out there if you can read Japanese. Only a handful have been given English releases though, and I doubt any of them are of the same calibre as this game. Wikipedia says there’s reluctance to license more titles for English because they’re already widely pirated.
Haha, yeah. I just mean Yaoi games with actual gameplay like this or something instead of a visual novel. =) thank you though. I have heard it’s a side of gaming that just gets pirated and translated by fans a lot.
Vita version just finished downloading and I’ll have the PS4 version delivered tomorrow. Senran Kagura wherever I go. Living the dream.
So I’m guessing the point of this article is “this game has boobs in it, you’re not allowed to like boobs anymore. If you like boobs in this game then you’re a dirty pervert”. Right?
Then colour me dirty pervert, by crikey!
is this being released as a physical copy locally or is the only way to import or digital?
http://www.ozgameshop.com/playstation-vita-games/senran-kagura-estival-versus-ps-vita-game
I’m oddly meta about anime nudity – the nudity isn’t interesting or funny in itself, but the fact that they put it in and the lengths they go to adds that extra layer of bizarre to a game (or show).
And then there are cases like the original broadcast version of Samurai Girls (not all that great an anime) where censoring was done with splattered ink blots rather than the usual fog or white strips or whatever. The censored version was actually more entertaining for it. I sort of regretted that the eventual DVD release didn’t include the censored version as an option.
Ugh! How obscene! Where do they sell this game? I need to know so I can remove it from the shelves in person.
And throw it out with the empty lube and used tissues?
Sorry if I went too far there, couldn’t help myself
Of course! How else will I keep them out of our children’s hands?
Taking one for the team
O-oh my. How horrible, ooh I feel weird, mmm very uncomfortable… yes yes….