As is now custom, I’ll be masking this anime crossover recreation 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 one among 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 enjoying Neptunia X Senran Kagura, which I’ve actually been trying ahead to for the reason that announcement of a Change 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 mentioned in my preview, Nep X Senran is a Neptunia recreation that co-stars 4 of the Senran Kagura ladies. The plot, menus, new characters, quests, environments, and several other gameplay facets are straight out of Neptunia. The Senran Kagura contribution is woefully skinny on the bottom. To me, as any person who prefers the Senran collection to the Nep-Nep video games, this was a disappointment.

Is Shiki one of many Senran ladies? You understand, the precise Greatest 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 aren’t any different Senran characters within the recreation, 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 solid greater than the Senran solid, however each are enjoyable to play as.

What do you do on this recreation?

Did you play Hyperdimension Neptunia U: Motion Unleashed?

Oh, you imply the Tamsoft-developed Neptunia hack & slash recreation for Vita (and later Steam)?

I do.

Yeah, it was senseless enjoyable.

That’s principally what Nep X Senran is, with extra complicated maps. You’ll decide two characters (who you possibly can freely change between within the discipline) after which press the Y button loads to carry out assault combos, sometimes tapping the X button to throw shuriken or kunai, block enemy assaults with A, and sprint away from unblockable assaults with ZR. You’ve got “stamina bars” which refill over time and are used to unleash 4 completely different particular assaults (Ninja Arts) which will be strung collectively in sure methods to supply buffs, debuffs, or standing results. You too can—and I often forgot about this—activate your personal momentary buffs which solely have so many makes use of per mission. For bosses, you’ll wish 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 lots of punishment with out the specter of retaliation.

Lastly, usually a couple of times per space, your ladies will get a brilliant assault which seems tremendous cool however is nearly all the time fully underwhelming. It gained’t even take off one full bar of a multi-life-bar boss.

So typical hack and slash fluff?

Principally, yeah. And there’s nothing inherently improper with it, however like every recreation like this, it will get outdated earlier than too lengthy. Oh, and blocking doesn’t cancel your assault animations, so if you happen to’re in the midst of a combo (even a Ninja Arts combo) and the enemy isn’t staggering, you’ll wind up taking lots of hits, doubtlessly 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 recreation with their signature preventing kinds and specials intact, so that they felt essentially the most acquainted. The Neptunia gals’ fight skills 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 complete crew would have Ninja Turtle weapons, however sadly that’s a missed alternative. You do have some means to customise every character, although, so let’s speak about this recreation’s greatest 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 would possibly lead to a standing impact if used within the second slot, and different would possibly present a personality buff if used final. Every lady learns extra specials as they degree up, so that you’ll be revisiting the Ninja Arts display typically. Nevertheless, you might be restricted considerably by the quantity of stamina every assault makes use of up. It’s surprisingly laborious—if not impossible–to discover a combo that may lead to all 4 specials being utilized in fast succession within the correct order—the one option to see all the advantages of a Ninja Arts combo. Additional, you customise the checklist in checklist kind, however within the discipline, the specials present up in a diamond form, so it’s very laborious to inform, at a look, what order you’re supposed to make use of them in.

That’s annoying.

It’s, however you might have gadgets on-hand that may refill your stamina meter, and sure Soul Gems that may cut back the quantity of stamina you utilize up.

Soul Gems?

Are you sitting down?

…ought to I be?

Yeah, ‘trigger that is gonna take awhile.

Soul Gems are an admittedly fascinating, however poorly-implemented, system in which you’ll be able to customise every lady’s stats. You’ll accumulate 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, progress, Ninja Weapons (shuriken & kunai), and Ninja Arts. Every particular Gem sort (like “EXP Legion”) has 4 or 5 tiers of energy, so it’s common 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 means that a number of Gems grow to be 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 provide you with extra expertise for every defeated Yokai enemy, or giant mini-boss enemy, or correct boss. There are comparable Gems in different classes: your assault in opposition to Steem Legion enemies is larger, otherwise you’ll get extra Zenni from defeated Yokai enemies, that sort of factor.

Typically, 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 means that offers that lady the absolute best buffs. Your grid is graded from F to A, though it doesn’t inform you learn how to enhance your score. Utilizing high-level Gems appears to assist.

Does the Soul Board apply to each character?

Nope, you need to set a unique 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 lady 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 lady a mixture of buffs from the numerous classes, making an attempt to stability all of them out. You too can synthesize Gems, however I do not know how to do this—it’s poorly defined, and it was simply simpler to purchase additional Gems on the retailer. You too can 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 parts. I miss the Senran mild/heavy assault dichotomy. Frankly, I miss lots 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 would additionally change between two characters, and a few of them had very highly effective combo particular assaults. I hoped to see that on this recreation—as a result of it additionally has you enjoying as two characters.

I admit to being a bit weirded out that Nep vs. Senran doesn’t have a dressing room.

Proper? That mentioned, this recreation 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 not remodel) and the Neptunia solid will get…alternate coloration schemes. Contemplating that was paid DLC, I anticipated higher choices or at the least far more selections. Have you ever seen the DLC for a typical Senran recreation? It’s a mile lengthy checklist of outfits and equipment. Give the Neptunia ladies their conventional cyber-goddess outfits, at the least! Oh, and Yuki & Goh the Crow don’t get alternate outfits in any respect. If anyone on this recreation is crying out for bikini DLC, it’s Yuki.

Dare I ask why?

Let’s simply say that she will need to 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 recreation.

Sounds such as you didn’t like this one. The rest you wish to contact on?

This recreation does do one thing that I actually hope is carried ahead to future Senran and Neptunia video games: throughout the (many) cutscenes that includes illustrated character portraits, their eyes and mouths transfer, and expressions often change. It’s a small factor, however I actually appreciated it. Regardless of it being a big trouble, I just like the Soul Gem system in principle, but it surely wants some revision. The boss fights are usually disagreeable in that they take means too lengthy. The “Remaining Chapter” is about so long as all of the earlier chapters mixed. Oh, by the way in which, 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 solid are members of warring ninja factions who don’t truly go to struggle ever and are, as a substitute, finest buddies. When an extradimensional group referred to as the Steem Legion arrives and tries to take over, the “warring factions” crew 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 an enormous demon…it’s all nonsense, each cutscene goes on means too lengthy, and by the tip I used to be simply urgent A like I used to be enjoying Mario Get together.

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 means of. Possibly if the fight was extra sturdy, 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 glad that each of those franchises are coming to Change extra typically, however I actually want a number of 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 onerous 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 disillusioned.

Final query: have you ever purchased any new Senran Kagura figures?

Tragically, no, however not as a consequence of lack of curiosity. There are two matching bunny lady 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. In the event you miss that, the aftermarket worth is totally unreasonable.

Geeze, that sucks.

It does, however my spouse does not appear to thoughts.