Senran Kagura Peach Beach Splash (PS4) – Review
Senran Kagura Peach Beach splash is the latest entry in the ever growing Senran Kagura franchise of games and while I admit I am a bit delayed in posting this review, it was simply so I could savour the gameplay….
Peach Beach Splash, is a tournament held since the ancient times of the Senran Kagura universe and after a brief opening with another awesome intro song, you are thrown in to the deep end…without ninja arts or the girls usual weapons.
The weapons are swapped out for many different water guns, all of which have slightly different abilities. With a number of revolver and SMG style guns having shorter range attacks but more rapid shots and the larger bulkier ones like the rocket launcher and sniper rifle’s having a slower rate of fire but also offering slightly higher damage.
These weapons also mean different booster jets on your shinobi which change the way the double jump/boost works. Though you can burn through water to slide around the stage should you want to make a quick getaway.
These weapons can be swapped between the characters and can also be upgraded to improve their power.
The stages are quite diverse with a few references to earlier games, including Bon Appétit which I thought was a nice touch. The stages also offer a mix of wide open spaces and a number that cater to a more intimate battle.
You gain cards after each battle which can be used to upgrade your shinobi and abilities with the difficulty you play at rewarding you with more and rarer cards. These reward cards are also how you unlock further abilities and it is always good to check and swap in these better cards with their better buffs to compliment and improve your team.
Overall the game itself is quite simple which makes the game very easy to just get into and play. Once you are playing you will also begin to see why the game was loosely compared to being ‘Splatoon but with waifu’s’
The action is fast and fun and the whole thing looks very nice while you are playing. The framerate can and does dip slightly when there is a lot going on on-screen but it doesn’t really cause a problem.
The overall story is quite short but very addictive, the early missions in all of the school’s campaigns follow a similar progression which makes for a bit of repetition, but this is where the shortness of the levels plays to its strengths.
After you beat the main story, you still have a few other modes that will keep you occupied, you also have the diorama/dressing room which you can (and I did) spend a lot of time customising your best girl.
These extra modes take the form of V-Road challenge where you pick a team and enter a tournament and Paradise Episodes which are story related missions that flesh out the characters a bit more.
Multiplayer has a few more modes including a capture the bra which is effectively capture the flag, a survival mode, a team battle mode, Queen of the Hills which is a point capture mode and squirmy finisher mode which the team with the most squirmy finishers wins.
Senran Kagura has become one of my favourite series of games over the past few years and Peach Beach Splash simply inserts itself into that list without much hassle. The game is fun and challenging although it can be a bit unfair if you don’t level your characters and weapons as you play.
Senran Kagura Peach Beach Splash is a very fun game to play through and one that also pokes fun at itself as you play, with it getting less and less serious the more you play…
If you are a fan of collecting and upgrading things, Peach Beach Splash is for you, if you are just after a game where you play as a bikini clad shinobi with water guns, well you are not going to find a better match. So I can happily give it a DavePlays.co.uk Choice Award!
I would like to thank Marvelous for providing me with a review copy. You can buy a copy over at Amazon (referral link)
