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Yasumi · Jan 17, 2015

Late to the Japanese Party.

So now that the 3DS region-free exploit is a thing, I finally cracked open my Senran Kagura 2 Nyuu Nyuu edition. I've played about 20 minutes so far, and it's pretty good. Oh my god, the framerate is such an improvement over Burst. I'll never be able to go back to it.

Don't know why there were so many complaints about the level 2 Yomi boss fight, so much so that they had to release a patch on the eshop. I lost to her once but didn't have too much trouble on the second try.

A couple irks are that the camera gets way too close when moving between enemy areas, and moving chase/dash to the R button doesn't feel as good as it did on the A button. I'll probably get used to it eventually.

Any other importers playing this for the first time?

antibolo · Jan 17, 2015

Glad to know they improved the framerate. Personally I find the original game unplayable.

Eolz · Jan 17, 2015

Will do soon (only played a bit on a friend's japanese 3DS), but I remember it being the best SK game I've played

and yes I have a Vita

. I remember the complaints for Yomi were mainly due because of the huge difference with the first game. It's more challenging, but nothing that difficult if you're used to beat them ups.

Here's hoping for a localization this spring/summer, it was teased before.

FlyingSaucer · Jan 17, 2015

Yasumi said:
Late to the Japanese Party.

So now that the 3DS region-free exploit is a thing, I finally cracked open my Senran Kagura 2 Nyuu Nyuu edition. I've played about 20 minutes so far, and it's pretty good. Oh my god, the framerate is such an improvement over Burst. I'll never be able to go back to it.

Don't know why there were so many complaints about the level 2 Yomi boss fight, so much so that they had to release a patch on the eshop. I lost to her once but didn't have too much trouble on the second try.

A couple irks are that the camera gets way too close when moving between enemy areas, and moving chase/dash to the R button doesn't feel as good as it did on the A button. I'll probably get used to it eventually.

Any other importers playing this for the first time?

Level 2 Yomi was pure, unadultured evil. Deeper, it's another sign of the usual problems the franchise has with balance, difficulty and enemy AI.

The new engine is great, gameplay is much more slick and smooth. Giant bosses like Orochi are frighteningly awesome and it's intensely satisfacting to slay those monsters. My major gripe with it is the number of sprites it seems to be able to support on screen at the same time, as for me SK is all about taking on countless numbers of opponents simultaneously and survive. The series has always been about excess, in the fanservice as well as in its fighting; I hope it will get corrected for EV, especially has the PS4 has the horse-power for fronting hundreds of mobs at the same time.

The stances systems is a good idea.

The improved dressing room and photography mode are lovely.

The story is kind of a mixed bag. On one hand it does a good job on perpetuating the usual deconstruction of good vs evil, this time by painting the Hanzo girls as evil' (

when they are ordered to put down Kagura and Naraku

) and, in contrast, Homura & friends as 'good' who have no qualm helping those in need (being on the run and then 'free' of any shinobi hierarchy and orders).
The rest of the plot is wasted. Bringing back again Dougen was silly; trying to reconstruct the endings of Shoujotachi and Burst was inelegant; continuing to water-down the opposition between light and dark shinobi is missing what made the first game truly interesting. Senran Kagura is only good when it tries to maximize the contrast between on one hand cute/sexy slices of life with, on the other hand, heavy drama with life-or-death clashes of duty vs friendship even most shounen manga don't dare to offer anymore.

JustAnotherOtaku · Jan 17, 2015

Final boss is a pain in the arse. But yeah, improves on the first two 3DS games.

SerTapTap · Jan 17, 2015

Good to hear the engine is better. Got tired of the first because it was insanely repetitive and performed poorly. Versus was still a bit repetitive but focusing on bosses over trash mobs with too much health made it much improved. Spending 5 minutes bashing the attack button and occasionally the "green flash" button every single normal level meant I quit before the end of chapter 2. Is that aspect better too? I don't see how anyone enjoys those "fights".

I own a JP copy because the pack with the figures was very cheap, but I can't play it. And probably won't ever buy a Japanese 3DS unless I can find it dirt cheap and ideally used so I don't directly support Nintendo's disgusting region locking policies.

Zhao_Yun · Jan 17, 2015

Sir TapTap said:
I own a JP copy because the pack with the figures was very cheap, but I can't play it. And probably won't ever buy a Japanese 3DS unless I can find it dirt cheap and ideally used so I don't directly support Nintendo's disgusting region locking policies.

Tried this?
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=973700

SerTapTap · Jan 17, 2015

Zhao_Yun said:
Tried this?
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=973700

I have now!

GayForMaster · Jan 17, 2015

OP is knowledge of Japanese a necessity?

Lyte Edge · Jan 17, 2015

GayForMaster said:
OP is knowledge of Japanese a necessity?

You don't need to know Japanese to play this. It's an action game. The biggest thing you'll miss out on is the story.

Yasumi · Jan 17, 2015

GayForMaster said:
OP is knowledge of Japanese a necessity?

Almost none is necessary. You can just mash A to initially set up your save file, then skip all of the dialog. Gameplay is really straightforward.

Tohsaka · Jan 17, 2015

Tempted to import it but I'm going to just wait, since XSEED is sure to release it over here this year at some point.

kiryogi · Jan 17, 2015

GayForMaster said:
OP is knowledge of Japanese a necessity?

Gameplay is universal

As is Life and Hometown.

GayForMaster · Jan 17, 2015

Can you guys tell me what there is to play in the SK series?

I know Estival is coming out, and I've already played (haven't finished yet) Shinovi Versus. Aside from Burst, would it just be Shinku?

Eolz · Jan 17, 2015

GayForMaster said:
Can you guys tell me what there is to play in the SK series?

I know Estival is coming out, and I've already played (haven't finished yet) Shinovi Versus. Aside from Burst, would it just be Shinku?

Yep.
Apart from that, there's Bon Appetit, a rhythm game spinoff (fun non canon stories), and New Wave a mobile japan only Card game.

HawthorneKitty · Jan 17, 2015

Lyte Edge said:
You don't need to know Japanese to play this. It's an action game. The biggest thing you'll miss out on is the story.

That's like the most important part.

GayForMaster · Jan 17, 2015

Eolz said:
Yep.
Apart from that, there's Bon Appetit, a rhythm game spinoff (fun non canon stories), and New Wave a mobile japan only Card game.

Thank you.

Yasumi · Jan 17, 2015

Huh, so the story's opening is another alternate telling of the end of Shoujotachi, like Burst was? Guess the canon's pretty loose.

SerTapTap · Jan 17, 2015

Is there like an Import OT for this game or anything or should I post any questions I have here?

kiryogi · Jan 17, 2015

Sir TapTap said:
Is there like an Import OT for this game or anything or should I post any questions I have here?

Here is good.

Yasumi · Jan 17, 2015

Sir TapTap said:
Is there like an Import OT for this game or anything or should I post any questions I have here?

I didn't see one, so feel free to post them here.

GayForMaster · Jan 17, 2015

I've got one more question.

SENRAN KAGURA BURST - GUREN NO SHOUJOTACHI I can guess is Burst, but SENRAN KAGURA - SHOUJOTACHI NO SHINEI is before burst, correct? Burst is a sequel to shoujotachi no shinei?

Yasumi · Jan 17, 2015

GayForMaster said:
I've got one more question.

SENRAN KAGURA BURST - GUREN NO SHOUJOTACHI I can guess is Burst, but SENRAN KAGURA - SHOUJOTACHI NO SHINEI is before burst, correct? Burst is a sequel to shoujotachi no shinei?

Think of it kind of like Persona 3 FES with The Journey and The Answer. The original game's there (Hanzo's story), along with a semi-sequel (Hebijou's story).

GeekyDad · Jan 17, 2015

antibolo said:
Glad to know they improved the framerate. Personally I find the original game unplayable.

Ha, ha. Wow. I found the game to be incredibly playable and enjoyable. Only time I experienced frame-rate issues of any kind were in the dorm/hub and during the super animations, which there was no gameplay going on during those times.

Incredible how people exaggerate the framerate issues.

FlyingSaucer · Jan 17, 2015

Framerate never prevented me to have fun with this game, yes.

GayForMaster said:
I've got one more question.

SENRAN KAGURA BURST - GUREN NO SHOUJOTACHI I can guess is Burst, but SENRAN KAGURA - SHOUJOTACHI NO SHINEI is before burst, correct? Burst is a sequel to shoujotachi no shinei?

Shoujotachi is the first game. Burst is the second game which contains the first one as a bonus.

Shoujotachi is Hanzo chapter. Burst is Hanzo chapter AND Hebijo chapters.

GayForMaster · Jan 17, 2015

Yasumi said:
Think of it kind of like Persona 3 FES with The Journey and The Answer. The original game's there (Hanzo's story), along with a semi-sequel (Hebijou's story).

FlyingSaucer said:
Framerate never prevented me to have fun with this game, yes.

Shoujotachi is the first game. Burst is the second game which contains the first one as a bonus.

Shoujotachi is Hanzo chapter. Burst is Hanzo chapter AND Hebijo chapters.

Ah..! So Shoujotachi is not necessary to get then. Thanks both of you for establishing that so quickly.

Yasumi · Jan 18, 2015

Just fought the second

Yoma boss, Jyura

. Really liking the change of pace compared to traditional Senran, and holy shit I love creepy they are. So far, this is probably the best 3DS game I've played yet, in terms of gameplay and production values.

SerTapTap · Jan 18, 2015

Just finally actually played the first level, I'm already quite impressed. Massive jump from SK1. After Burst I was kinda thinking I'd never bother with the 3DS games again. This is pretty cool. Non-boring enemies, non-boring traversal, looks better too, stripping of trash mobs, framerate has been fine so far.

Edit: Is there like a general overview of WTF is going on, both story and featureset-wise? Looks like no shop, everything must be unlocked mid-story? There was some pit of 100 trials-esque thing I accidentally entered, what's that? What are the difficulty (?) colors? It looks like green is normal or easy? So far I've figured out how to save, change clothes and locate the next story mission but everything else is confusing/scary (there's no way I'm touching those other 2 options in the save menu)

BTW I'm amazed the home-base performs properly now. Even in Versus it's like 15FPS and movement is super weird

SerTapTap · Jan 19, 2015

I guess it's late enough to be worth a bump--How the heck do I chase enemies after the "green flash"? No button seems to work, not like it does in the other games. Also, is there a real lock on option? Certain supers are hilariously useless without a Versus style lock (Homura is garbage in this Asuka fight, everything misses).

Enjoying the game but if there's really no real lock on option, the game tried to be a bit TOO 3D as the controls and camera really don't support what's happening sometimes. Any time someone is behind the fixed camera is really awkward.

Dylan Sexbang · Jan 19, 2015

Ooh. I might have to import this with the region lock fix. I have to wait a little but hopefully I can easily get a copy.

FlyingSaucer · Jan 19, 2015

Sir TapTap said:
I guess it's late enough to be worth a bump--How the heck do I chase enemies after the "green flash"? No button seems to work, not like it does in the other games. Also, is there a real lock on option? Certain supers are hilariously useless without a Versus style lock (Homura is garbage in this Asuka fight, everything misses).

Enjoying the game but if there's really no real lock on option, the game tried to be a bit TOO 3D as the controls and camera really don't support what's happening sometimes. Any time someone is behind the fixed camera is really awkward.

Usually it's the dash button, but if I remember well the way the auto-lock worked in this episode prevented me from spaming as many aerial raves as in the previous games. Keep trying ?

Yasumi · Jan 19, 2015

Sir TapTap said:
I guess it's late enough to be worth a bump--How the heck do I chase enemies after the "green flash"? No button seems to work, not like it does in the other games. Also, is there a real lock on option? Certain supers are hilariously useless without a Versus style lock (Homura is garbage in this Asuka fight, everything misses).

Enjoying the game but if there's really no real lock on option, the game tried to be a bit TOO 3D as the controls and camera really don't support what's happening sometimes. Any time someone is behind the fixed camera is really awkward.

Chase is different now. Once you've knocked the enemy away, hit R and you'll toss a kunai and follow them into the air. It's got a much tighter window than the other games' chase mechanics, so it's not as easy to pull off. Bosses tend to break out of it anyway.

And yep, some specials are pretty much useless in one-on-ones. Homura's L + B missed almost every time I used it. It's usually better to just go for AoE attacks, like Homura's L + Y.

SerTapTap · Jan 19, 2015

Yasumi said:
Chase is different now. Once you've knocked the enemy away, hit R and you'll toss a kunai and follow them into the air. It's got a much tighter window than the other games' chase mechanics, so it's not as easy to pull off. Bosses tend to break out of it anyway.

And yep, some specials are pretty much useless in one-on-ones. Homura's L + B missed almost every time I used it. It's usually better to just go for AoE attacks, like Homura's L + Y.

Huh, I tried R but it didn't seem to do anything, I'll try again now that I know what to look for. I guess it was kind of too mindlessly easy in SK1.

Her L Y was barely more useful, it's so crazy short range and I swear half the time the first hit knocked Asuka out of the AOE

SerTapTap · Jan 20, 2015

I just found the very helpful instruction manual (NSFW? Fairly tame, but...)

I really can't get the R chase thing to work at all. It's not unlocked or something, is it?

Yasumi · Jan 21, 2015

Sir TapTap said:
I just found the very helpful instruction manual (NSFW? Fairly tame, but...)

I really can't get the R chase thing to work at all. It's not unlocked or something, is it?

Shouldn't be locked. Maybe your R button isn't working? You pretty much just attack, get the green knockback, and jam on R. Your character throws a kunai and pulls themself to the enemy.

Haven't had much chance to play the last few days. I really need to get back and dig into it tomorrow.

Ogawa-san · Jan 21, 2015

I could be wrong, but I remember not being able to chase at all before I updated the game.

Yasumi · Jan 21, 2015

Kazama Sogetsu said:
I could be wrong, but I remember not being able to chase at all before I updated the game.

We can't access the JP eshop at all with the exploit, and I can definitely chase right now, so that's probably not it. Maybe the update widened the timing window? It's weird, I have like zero problem getting it to work whenever.

Pics_nao · Jan 21, 2015

Got my new 3ds today to pop it in after sitting on my DX copy for months. Game is really fun and I'm about 2 hours in. Didn't know that R was the new chase button but now that I do it'll help a bunch.

SerTapTap · Feb 7, 2015

Is there a cheat sheet of what all the menu options are? I'm still a bit confused when doing anything but selecting the next story mission

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