Senran Kagura: Estival Versus

Senran Kagura: Estival Versus is a 3D action, beat 'em up developed by Tamsoft and published by Marvelous Inc. and XSEED Games. The game first came out on PlayStation 4 on March 26, 2015, and then ported to PC on March 17, 2017.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Pretty good and deep storyline that deals with some dark themes such as grief, having to accept your loved one's death, etc.
 * 2) Excellent and fun gameplay that feels inspired by Dynasty Warriors.
 * 3) * The controls are also fluid and responsive.
 * 4) Improved gameplay over its predecessor Shinovi Versus, basic attacks are slightly stronger therefore less spam reliant, parries are much more powerful, combat is slower but balanced making move spamming less reliable. Compared to the previous game which had a breakneck pace that let you spam and mash moves almost not letting the opponent have a chance.
 * 5) *Adds also the ability to do a counter-attack when you are knocked down. Another is that you can do wall counter attacks, and run on walls which help greatly if you are pinned.
 * 6) *Another improvement to levels is that there are Bombshells another new addition in the game which inflict different effects such as freezing, fire, poison, or electrical shock when thrown at enemies which makes clearing levels full of enemies much less repetitive and reliant on your base attacks. But there are more bombs such as summon bomb that summons grunts as distraction, or a puppet bombshell that creates a powerful mecha for you to mount (with a time limit to control)!
 * 7) *Character's secret ninja arts now have a tiny delay before they begin letting you have a chance to escape their attack, compared to the previous in which it was instantaneous with no escape once called out.
 * 8) The soundtrack is amazing, which is expected for the Senran Kagura series.
 * 9) The game is filled with tons of content for many players to unlock and enjoy.
 * 10) Outside of the main story mode, there are these missions called Shinobi Girl's Heart Missions, and Dual Shinobi Hearts (the former was first in Shinovi Versus). They're small missions that are told from the character's perspective and are made to balance out the darker story.
 * 11) The clothing room allows you to dress up girls to your liking, mess with them in intimacy mode to get a reaction out of them, and even kiss them (the whole intimacy thing actually came from Valkyrie Drive: Bhikkhuni). As a bonus feature, it has a diorama mode where you can pose your characters for scenes of your liking.
 * 12) Almost all of the characters have some kind of horrible and dark past to show that they are more than just some fanservice characters.
 * 13) All of the characters are entertaining, likable, and have well-written personalities. They also have great chemistry with each other and aren't forced at all.
 * 14) The character designs are also very creative and beautiful and suit every character's personality and powers and have their own playstyles that at seperates them from another.
 * 15) There's an online multiplayer mode to compete against 10 other people. The online mode has 3 modes to pick from; these being: Shinobi Deathmatch, Understorm & Capture The Bra. You can even add some A.I. to the mix.
 * 16) Like what the series is usually known for, the fanservice is greatly used and the clothing damage is utilized so you end losing your defense stats.
 * 17) A huge amount of replay value, especially because of all the content, the plentiful and diverse characters to master around with and addicting combat.
 * 18) Players can go into 'Frantic Mode' which strips you down to your lingerie/swimsuit and drops all of your defenses in favor of boosting your strength.
 * 19) A total of 34 playable characters including ones from the Ikki Tousen and Dead or Alive series.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) While the online mode can be fun, the net code isn't really good which can lead to problems when playing it. Players can also end up abusing incredibly cheap and boring tactics which can turn off newcomers from trying the mode out.
 * 2) The A.I. is incredibly flawed, especially in hard mode since they blatantly cheat a lot and frequently use cheap moves on the player, making them really unfair at times.
 * 3) The roster is really unbalanced, characters like Yomi, Hanabi, Yozakura and Haruka's attacks are more based on strength than speed, but this only ends up making them really slow to use, making them some of the worst characters in a game that's heavily fast-paced.
 * 4) Out of all of the characters in the main story, Homura is completely underutilized, only having a total of one mission in terms of story mode which is only a part of the tutorial.
 * 5) While the slower combat may be good, it can sometimes be not responsive in which you may not be able to cancel your attacks and preform a block or dash as fast as the previous game. Characters like Yomi and Yozakura have difficulty fighting off speedy enemies.
 * 6) There are some graphical glitches on the PlayStation 5 and for some reason, Marvelous and Tamsoft refused to fix it.