Review: Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus

immediately follows the events of SENRAN KAGURA Burst, revisiting the fierce rivalry between the girls of Hanz? National Academy and their sworn enemies from Hebijo Clandestine Girls’ Academy.

Pros:

• Graphics are lush, Hitting you with a anime cartoon visual style. The animations are really well done with some truly exotic locations to explore.
• Gameplay is in short a 3D fighter within a set area of a map. In full it also features special moves, 100s of enemies and the ability to beat the clothing off your opponent! Yep thats right, you actually strip your opponent down by beating them up.
• File size for the game is 1965mb.
• Full Platinum trophy.
• Controls are fiddly at first but you soon get used to it. In game you can touch the screen to lock onto your nearest opponent or you can just use the d pad. All movement is done with the analogue stick.
• Choose between English and Japanese audio.
• the story is a weird one but what would you expect from a game like this?
• Settings allow you to invert controls, configure the rear touch pad and off course your typical audio options.
• Tutorial section can be played whenever and as many times as you like. it covers everything you need to know and has you fighting in a special tutorial area. There are many sections in the tutorial so you can focus on what you want to learn rather than do all of them.
• You have a central hub and here you can talk to other girls from your academy, buy/sell items, Save/load,access the tutorial, go to a practice area, assign inventory and even dress up your character.
• Shop has many items of clothing for you to buy, unlock and buy music and cut scenes and of course new moves.
• Mini games as it were are present in the shop. you can get lottery tickets to enter a draw to try and win new gear. Another option is a lottery style variant where you gamble a set amount of money, Shake your Vita and get a ranked piece of clothing. the rank is from a huge list ranging from hot to super awesome hot for example. Here is where you will spend a lot of time unlocking new items.
• the game uses a lot of the Vita features. Touchscreen can be used as said for targetting and can also be used for selecting menu options. You use the gyro for shaking the pad in mini games and the lottery, Rear touch pad can be activated and used for in game and the mic is used. Now this is where it gets a bit pervy but hey, Blow into the mic to blow skirts up and get a reaction from the girls. Told you its a bit out there but it exists in the game.
• Gameplay is fast and furious with you racking up combo chains and fighting hordes of enemies.
• You can skip or fast forward cut scenes.
• There are 3 schools to choose from: Hanzo Academy, Gessen Academy and Hebijo Academy. each school has different story missions and different playable characters each with their own side missions. Dont worry which school you initially pick as you can change the option at anytime in the central hub.
• Aside from story missions, You also get side missions. These are unique to each character and act more like their own personal story missions.
• You can pick up power ups in game to help aid you in defeating all the enemies.
• Levels typically play out with you pitted against a rival school student whilst fighting hordes of lesser students.
• Shinobi transformation is where you can activate a special move. When you do this you get a cut scene and transform into a whole new outfit, it also grants you full health and maybe new moves and abilities depending on your load out.
• The general UI is very functional and free flowing with a lot of short cut buttons and clear labeling.
• Boobs, Basically if you like boobs then you are in for a treat. They are everywhere from the loading screens to cut scenes, and of course beating clothes off people is bound to show something! Even you Vita screen is not safe with the icon for the game is just a picture of boobs.
• Earn exp from fights and level up to unlock new moves and improve your stats.
• Has online multiplayer with options to play against randoms or set up private/friends only rooms. Online is basically just one on one fighting but at the time of review  I had issues connecting to the servers.
• At the end of levels you get a breakdown of hits landed, hits taken, highest combo chain etc. A rank is assigned to you from S to F to evaluate your performance.
• Supports ad hoc play sessions.

Cons:

• You cannot preview items in the shop before you buy them.
• Few moments of slowdown.
• Controls are still a bit fiddly and awkward. Having moves on the d pad is a bit of a pain. The right shoulder button centers the camera but even that is slow compared to the fast paced gameplay.
• Difficulty spikes are present through out the game. One minute you are doing well then the next you cant even get a hit in!
• When doing side missions it keeps rolling into the next one instead of just finishing.

In Summary, the game is really good fun with a high emphasis on fighting and action. The story is there and its a weird one but to be honest you will never pay much attention to it. Boobs will be all up in yo face but its kind of like the premise of the game! The lottery mini game is brilliant fun and with so many missions and options, You are spoilt for choice. The controls are awkward but it does work and once you nail it down you can string together some awesome combo chains. The game suits the Vita well and is perfect for quick games on the commute all though I would stay away from prying eyes and have the sound turned down. In short, A brilliant yet brutal fighting game that is defiantly worth a look.