Featured Post

PSP2, Switch 2 and an Xbox handheld... a brighter portable future?

Review: Senran Kagura Estival Versus

Imagine if you went on a beach holiday, and every time you tried to relax a bunch of clones turned up to fight you. You'd be cross wouldn't you? Cross enough to constantly rip your clothes off put on some slightly better ones? Perhaps not.

In the world of Senran Kagura Estival Versus this is pretty normal behaviour. It turns out the beach resort is in a parallel world (we've all had dreams like that right?) and the girls from Hebijo school and are just trying to kick back and relax.

With a horde of characters that sometimes fight each other, you battle through wave after wave of clones and the odd boss baddie over eight days of what passes for a story. At every turn the game is cleavage central, with clothes getting torn and flying off in combat. If you get bored of the battling, there's costumes to try on, with lots of free DLC costumes, plus poses to pull and feels to be had.

The most attractive moment in the whole Estival game
Otherwise, you follow the batshit story, with extra Heart missions for each girl to drag things out and add another bunch of trophies to collect. If you love the girls from their previous misadventures, then there's more story and development to get to know them better. Some missions have a bit of exploring today, but levels come and go so randomly there doesn't seem to be much sense behind them. Others have rather strict time limits, so you need to keep an eye on what's going on.

Back to the battling and the girls have a range of weaponry and special Shinobi moves to try out. Attacks while wall running and aerial raves make things more interesting, along with tag team moves with some touchscreen control. The early scraps act as tutorials, and there are a range of extra bombs to pick up and lob at the massed clones littering some levels, they can ride big dolls to splat and smite the horde if you're lucky. Health and other power-ups litter the battlefield and if you beat up some mini-temples you get more goodies available in the store.

Basically, if you take the whole boob-obsession as a bit of fun, then you have a mostly indecent mass brawler that at least isn't as po-faced as Samurai Warriors or as earnest as One Piece. Still, quite what you say to an opponent during multiplayer as you disrobe them violently or play Capture the Bra, I'm too polite to find out.

Score 6/10
More reviews
Price: £34.99 on PSN
Dev: Marvelous
Progress: In a field surrounded by lady badgers???

Currently playing on my Vita/PS4/PS5