Senran Kagura

www.hanzonationalacademy.com/sk2/

Game's site

While having new profiles is fine and all, I really think they should have really reworded Murasame's hobbies differently.

Also, yaya for icons I don't need to shrink down.

edited 19th Aug '15 12:14:07 PM by TPPR10

Since our lucky european buddies will be able to enjoy the amazing game that Deep Crimson is this week, here are the things you guys must know before playing it:

- Putting aside the story missions, you have all the Hanzo girls available since the start of the game, so you're free to repeat any cleared mission with them as soon you get at the hub level.

- The story mode is a continuous affair with no real break until the end of the first chapter, so if you wanna return to the hub and change stuff around, save or grind some levels for your characters, just abandon your current mission via the pause menu.

- Is strongly recommended that you turn off the clothe-breaking cutscenes on the configuration menu. It does wonders to improve the game experience.

- The homing kunai (A button) is your best friend. A light tap will prompt your character to throw a Kunai at the nearest enemy and then she will teleport towards them (similar to Vergil's sword trick on DMC 4:SE), with the proper rythm you can go between every enemy on screen without stopping. This will make short work of airborne enemies and even works with offscreen enemies.

- Unlike Burst or Versus, Deep Crimson lacks a proper "limit break". Its combo breaking tool is simply press the X button (hard attack) on the air. This will make your character to do a ground pund that will send any enemies in its range, flying. Leaving them at your mercy. It can be spammed so you can cheese the game difficulty with it. Not recommended though.

- Frantic mode has been reworked into a special mode similar to DMC's DT. To access it you just need to be in shinobi mode with your scroll bar filled and press down on the D-pad. This will buff your character stats and give you infinite scrolls. In this mode your health will decrease over time but it can be filled by landing hits on the enemy.

-Deep Crimson also does away with the Yin/Yang/Flash mechanic present on previous games. The perks found on those modes have been relocated on the new stance system and are character specific.

-All the girls have been overhauled from their previous iterations, stats have been rebalanced and now you have at your disposal a mechanic very similar to BB's drives or Injustice's special attacks. X has gone from strong attack to have different functions depending of the character. There are three variants: Some characters like Asuka or Homura just get the breach art introduced on Versus, other characters like Daidouji or Hikage activate a stance -By pressing X and spending one scroll they will let go a burst of damaging energy and will get a tweaked moveset and character specific perks. The last variant adds a new gameplay mechanic and is exclusive to Mirai and Haruka. Haruka has a robot at her disposal now and by using it to attack it will get red over time, you have to press x regularly to cool it otherwise it will explode and leave Haruka vulnerable for a few seconds (The steam released by the robot is damaging to the enemies). Pressing X while playing with Mirai will make her shuffle betwen three different weapons: gumbrella, grenade launcher, gatling gun. Each weapon has its own moveset and propierties.

- The game counts with a pretty handy tutorial and training mode accesible via the "Mission" menu. Take advantage of it!

-Oh right, I forgot. You can also set on the options menu if you want the in-game cutscenes to carry over clothing damage and the customization you've done to the characters.

You know, it was a good idea for me to check SIA's SK 2 thread so that I remember to actually have a Burst save data on my SD card to unlock Murasame and such.

I've been playing Burst (trying to beat it before the next one comes out), and I must say, Hikage looks great in a Magical Girl Dress. It fits her perfectly, oddly enough.

Ayane is released tomorrow

Also, it seems no DLC character will have a story mode

https://twitter.com/kenichiro_taka/status/636580058753273856

(Going by Google Translate at least) Iris is also so, there is no story mode in this earlier all of EV additional characters. That it is not in place, but the main part of the finale additionality Shinobu Tsutomu is being prepared as a free update.

Plus, something about an announcement due the series' 5th anniversary?

https://twitter.com/kenichiro_taka/status/636583240816459776 https://twitter.com/kenichiro_taka/status/636583680178286592

edited 26th Aug '15 10:04:31 AM by Tzitzimine

After much wait, I finally got Senran Kagura 2! Now to semi-close myself to play it.

Looking at the Glossary, there are few interesting new bits:

• Shinobi Barrier are created between human world and yoma world
• Frantic Mode is activated by absorbing spilled blood inside Shinobi Barrier. So Bloot Riot is Frantic Mode Up To Eleven.

I love Murasame's guide voice select

Speaking of which, we actually have a character wil a full name: Houoh Zaibatsu, his father.

edited 27th Aug '15 5:46:08 AM by TPPR10

I would be playing it but the Australian e-shop hasn't released the game yet. This is weird because release date on the e-shop is today.

Edit: Well it's out now. I guess they were planning on releasing it on the 28th seeing that it was available to download shortly after it hit midnight.

edited 27th Aug '15 7:11:31 AM by MachThreeSlug

Congrats!!!

Can't wait to hear your impressions on the game!

I guess now that I have cleared Chapter 1 and played bit of Chapter 2, I must say that the game feels really nice. I think currently only things I don't like is trying to follow-up with a partner. Other than that, not that much to complain after intial reaction.

Really, that is just how the game feels. I would have much more to cover, but I haven't time to fully dwell into stuff.

Just a note, this game is profane as hell! Okay, maybe not super profane, but definitely more that the previous games. I mean, this is a direct quote from Homura:

Speaking of Dougen, I almost feel like they decided to change his voice mid-way through the game. At first he sounds like he usually did, but suddenly he sounds so different.

edited 27th Aug '15 10:33:11 AM by TPPR10

I've only seen screencaps of course but is kind of weird to see how much of a potty mouth the girls can be.

Speaking of Dougen, how is he as character? I've seen a lot of complaints about him (going from "generic" to worst character in the franchise")

Yeah. Like Homura, okay, she does seem like a girl to curse, but when Mirai cursed couple of times, I was like "Girl, calm down!".

As for Dougen, I am not a type of guy to really discuss about these things in details as for me, as long as the villain fulfils what he is meant to do, then I am fine with them. I guess one way to describe him is that he definitely doesn't let anything to distract from his goal. "Orochi was killed by a single girl? I'll get more shinobi to summon it again." "My yoma form failed? I'll just use all this blood to summon an actual yoma to crush my enemy." "Crushed beneath the yoma I summoned? I cannot let this affect me." Even Homura seems to be impressed by his determination, saying that "If only you'd aimed all that determination somewhere else... you could have been a great man". Other than that, that game seems to clear that he is not here for profit as a demon dealsman but to Take Over the World. And I guess to me, he has enough charisma to make him "good enough" (at one point, he outright praises Homura before deciding she would be a perfect puppet for him). So overall, probably not the most interesting character, but as long as you don't expect too much from him, he does work.

I should also mention that his sudden voice change happens after Rin attacks him before he can fully take control of Homura.

edited 27th Aug '15 11:23:59 AM by TPPR10

Yea, that was the impression I got from him when I played the japanese version.

How's the difficulty?

The difficulty for now is in a good threshold. The normal encounters are nothing too bad as you don't suddenly loose track of some enemies. The bosses go into "Dude, calm down" terriotory, but nothing what has really frustated me. I really have failed only twice in story missions, once against Yomi (of course), and once against Hikage (decided to go Frantic, got served due of that).

I sort of feel bit disappointed that you cannot change the colour of Murasame's outfits. Even Daidouji and Rin in Burst at least allowed you to change the colour of their costumes. Also, do not give him eye accessories. They are not made to fit his model. At all.

I am going to put the game down until tomorrow. Clearing two out of five chapters definitely isn't good pacing on the player's part.

Good to know the game's still challenging. I've heard reports of being made too wasy by the patches.

And hey, there are people who have already beaten it :P

Sort of funny how one's opinion can change regarding some enemies. At first I thought that the Yoma Generals were going to be really cheap due of how much they spam Secret Ninja Arts. Then I got to 5th General and she hardly hit me with hers due of constantly being knocked out of it. I guess just the 9th(?) one (The Hibari one) who is really cheap.

Also, Naraku's hurt sounds are annoying to me.

edited 28th Aug '15 4:02:36 AM by TPPR10

I never had any big issue fighting the Yoma generals on the japanese version, hell, I didn't even knew they could be knocked out their ninpo animations.

Anyways, so I've heard trough the Vine that Takaki is working on a new ending/epilogue for EV, I went back to check his tweets and what he said was that the final batch of dual heart stories is being prepared to be released later as a free update.

Whether that implies an epilogue or new ending is anyone guess.

https://twitter.com/kenichiro_taka/status/636580058753273856

https://twitter.com/kenichiro_taka/status/620423417670438912

You cannot knock them out of the animation itself, but they have to charge up their supers, and you can knock them out during that period.

In hindsight, I find it funny how Kagura's name isn't really mentioned aside of battle quotes against Nakami until she grows older.

For all the complaints about the marketing focusing too much on Kagura and Naraku (it didn't by the way) I always got the impression that their role on the story was minor. That rather than being active actors they simply got mixed in the story

You know what I really like about Yoma Nest? You don't have to start from like section 1 and such to clear a particular panel. You can just select it if you have the possibility. And that you will get the wapon from the particular section if you clean it, even if you fail later on.

I suppose in terms of my favourite moments so far, the part where Murasame pops up is just hilarious. Though in terms of least favourite part, ironically, it is with Yagyuu and Mirai. Like you remember the part in SV where Yagyuu has no idea that Mirai is envious of her breasts? Yeah, let's stretch that joke further. It begins in the hot springs, it pops up again when you face against one of Yoma Generals and then immediately you have reversal where Yagyuu thinks that Mirai is mocking her stomach. I almost feel like they even recycled some lines. Mind you that those two are my favourite characters, so this is bit of a bummer, even if we had one scene where Mirai snaps Yagyuu out of depression of not knowing what to do if Hibari doesn't need her.

edited 28th Aug '15 12:07:03 PM by TPPR10

Well, while is it disappointing they keep using Mirai's breast complex is somewhat understandable given the context and we finally have some proper development for those two (not that it matters for the versus games but still)

That is the part I'm looking the most of the game, the interactions between all the girls, something lacking on the Versus games due the size of the cast.

Had problems sleeping, decided to finish the game's story. What a game, I tell you. Now to do misc. stuff and wait until someone uploads the OST.

Awesome. So, can you tell me if Homura and her friends go back to Hebijo at the end?

edited 28th Aug '15 9:35:15 PM by Tzitzimine

No, but the game does end in the idea that they are thinking if they want to continue their renegade live or go back to Hebijo.