Pros:
- Fun game
- Runs well
- A relatively lighthearted but entertaining story mode
- Rich with fan service
attractive girls in bikinis which you can play and fight against (also look at in the in-game art)
defeated girls can be humiliated, allowing you to squirt their face/bra/panties; there's a bit of gameplay advantage to doing that as well ;^)
highly customizable costumes to dress your characters however you want
obligatory intimacy mode
- Has plenty of shinobi characters from other SK games, including those from Estival Versus and New Wave
- Can explore a wide range of playstyles for Co-Op and PvP with the items you're given
10 different weapons, 16 unique pets and ~810 cards total (all rarities considered, but you'd typically aim for the highest rarity you can get)
- Reasonably balanced as it stands. DLCs and the Sexy Soaker edition mainly provide customization, reskins to guns and cards with multiple standard effects in one coupled with extra RNG.

Neutral:
- There is a bit of farming XP required for upgrading characters, weapons, pet and skill cards. Recommended before you enter multiplayer for Co-Op or PvP
farming may not be to everyone's liking, but fortunately it's easy in this game. There are guides out there that provide greater info on farming and other aspects of SK PBS
- Unlike other SK games, playable characters in this game are functionally the same. However, the melee attacks are different between characters and have unique properties at ground and air (e.g., Homura burns enemies on hit; Murakumo deals highest melee damage at ground; Asuka's air melee has the quickest frame startup; Naraku has very slow air startup, but deals multiple hits that can hurt, etc.)
melee is seldom used but adds more depth to the gameplay: it's rewarding when you land a hit, but is slow and punishable if you miss
Cons:
- Multiplayer is mostly dead, but you can find Steam groups with people that still play it
most people in these groups are quite experienced, can teach you some significant info about the intricacies of the game, and you'll definitely feel the difference in game knowledge and skill when you play with/against them
- Multiplayer netcode is functional but mediocre, and can sometimes screw you over in games and when hosting matches
- The game is in good shape, albeit the development for this game has halted, so expect a few bugs here and there
- You can save and load favourite decks, but I find the inability to rename them to be quite annoying. Also 10 slots is not a lot if you're considering to go super meta and have different loadout variations for both PvP and Co-Op
in this scenario you can utilize other characters to be used specifically for Co-Op/PvP or have different card variations of your existing loadouts


In-depth Overview
Senran Kagura PBS is a fun game that is significantly different from the previous Senran Kagura titles in that it is essentially a spin-off SK game with third-person shooter gameplay rather than the traditional hack 'n' slash. Besides some characters and lore sprinkled in the story and paradise episodes, this is an easy game to get into if you don't know anything about the Senran Kagura franchise. This was my first Senran Kagura game to start with.

It is a fast-paced game, with characters having great mobility (fast dashes and high jumps) and many ways to guarantee kills on mobs and opponents with a variety of water guns present in the game, and highly customizable card decks to provide utility in combat. You will find quickly that cards are quite important in PBS as they provide both significant damage (AoE damage, penetrating through groups of enemies, single target damage and stuns, etc.) and significant support utility (healing self/group, buffing self/group with damage and reload and whatnot, debuffing the enemy team, etc.) Another important element of the game is the soak gauge, which builds up as you get shot by enemies or allies (which is often the strategy at the start of the game). Soak enables you to have infinite water supply for a duration, meaning you can shoot, fly and dash indefinitely. Super effective.

PBS singleplayer has the following:

Main Story: basically following arcs of shinobi students from different academies, competing in a team effort against one another to the finals in the mysterious water gun tournament known as Peach Beach Splash. More about it is explained and uncovered in the story, and you complete it by finishing all the arcs. Once you beat it, you can farm rare cards here

Paradise Episodes: side story content about the random shenanigans that different characters partake in that are unrelated to the main story. Can farm specific achievements and rare cards here

V-Road Challenge: basically a type of tournament simulation where you fight against CPUs in a 5v5 from start to end, and if you fail you have to start over. The tournaments are separated into four cups that increase in difficulty, but once you beat them they become farmable stages for rare cards and money

PBS has multiplayer with three modes:

Co-Op Survival: fighting against spontaneous mobs of enemies across multiple waves and stages, ranging from 1 to 50. A go-to place for farming lots of money and special tokens, and is ideal to play with fellow players and friends. Can solo certain maps, but it can get difficult. Can add CPUs to help you, but besides soaking you and stalling enemies with special cards or by taking damage, they are mostly dead weight

Free Match: casual PvP. Four game rules/modes are available: team battle (deathmatch), queen of the hills (KOTH), capture the bra (CTF), and squirmy showdown (humiliating opponents counts towards points as opposed to just killing opponents). Can add CPUs here, but they are going to be extremely weak. Better to just play with people if you can find them. 1v1s work here, but it's more fun with more people

Ranked Match: free match but competitive. Also restricted to 3v3s or 5v5s, with the maps and game modes randomized. You do gain ranks when you win fights, with additional cards and money (not a lot if low rank) and custom user panels unlocked in the store when you rank up. It is worth preparing for the ranked matches, but unfortunately setting it up with randos in-game is almost impossible, so it's best to just host it with a Steam group


What else can I say? In conclusion, I think the game is quite fun, and I do genuinely enjoy it for its single and multi whenever I just want to chill or take the game more seriously. I put some time into it and met cool people due to how much I enjoyed it, and I do recommend giving it a shot if you think this is your cup of tea. I wish the multiplayer scene was more lively though.

Katsu-nee best girl. (fite me)

SENRAN KAGURA Burst Re:Newal (Burst Re:Newal for short) is the latest release from Tamsoft, published by the gods of anime goodness, Marvelous and XSEED. It's a huge full-3D "renewal" of the first SK game, available on PC after many years. Woot!

Burst Re:Newal introduces us to the "buxom shinobi" of SK in the best possible way: through slick and frantic combat, silly stories, and, of course, more jiggle than you can shake a boo- I mean, stick at! The game tells the story of the five elite students of good shinobi school, Hanzo Academy, and their first encounter with the five elite shinobi students of bad shinobi school, Hebijo Clandestine Girls' Academy.

No one can fault the SK games for presentation; they have AAA production values and near-perfect execution. Menus are attractive, consistent, and easy to navigate. The UI is straightforward and clear. There are no glaring omissions or grammatical goofs, and everything just works.

Character graphics are the visual focus of any SK game and Burst Re:Newal doesn't disappoint. Each girl is beautifully modelled and animated. I don't know how much work was done updating the characters for PC, but they look better than in Bon Appetit and even Peach Beach Splash. There are some occasional minor clipping issues, but they don't really detract from the game. And oh, the jiggle! You have to see a shinobi transformation in all its sexy, over-the-top glory to truly appreciate it. It brought tears to my eyes!

The Ninja Room deserves special mention. This forms the main game hub, where you select your next mission; visit the dressing room (complete with diorama and intimacy modes, of course!), shop, or library; alter game settings; etc. But the whole thing is a full 3D scene of your school's elite ninja rec room, with the relevant girls sitting around doing their thing. Each menu option moves the camera to focus on a different character, and the girls' expressions and actions change slightly depending on the mood of the story. It is exceptionally well done, but the girls are only ever shown in their default costumes; using selected outfits would have made it so much better!

World and secondary character graphics aren't as impressive as the shinobi girl graphics, but they're interesting enough. There's a good range of levels, though you'll see most of them multiple times, but more variation in basic enemy types would have been nice.

All main characters are fully and professionally voiced. They all sound good, though I have no idea how closely the spoken Japanese matches the English script, which is error free. Katsuragi sounded a bit rougher than I remembered her from the other two games I've played, but that could be me. Music is typical of the genre and helps to keep the adrenaline pumping while you're beating the clothes off other shinobi -- as if any help were needed! Sound effects are great and fit the game perfectly; the aerial rave *ding* is especially helpful.

Performance is flawless on a Ryzen 7 2700X @ 3.7GHz, EVGA GTX 2070, though that should come as no surprise, it is a great port!

Burst Re:Newal is a mission-based third-person beat 'em up. Each mission you select one of the shinobi and fight your way through either waves of cannon-fodder-like plebs, enemy elite shinobi (the other SK girls), or both. Most of the missions are played out in fairly small and quite bland levels around the town and shinobi schools in which the game is set, keeping the focus more on the girls than the setting.

The action is very fast, with huge combos and juggles. Controls are spot on; I played with a XBox360 controller and it worked brilliantly. Though initially I found remembering some of the buttons a bit tricky, after playing for a bit the most commonly used ones were second nature, and I could focus on starting to use the others to better effect. Each girl plays very differently to the others, too, forcing you to mix up your strategy.

Most missions can be played normally or in Yin/Frantic mode. In normal mode your character wears the first of her assigned outfits, selectable from the ninja dressing room, and both deals and takes a reasonable amount of damage, too much of which can tear her clothes. After fighting for a time you'll fill up your ninja power gauge, at which point you can perform a shinobi transformation to enter Yang mode. A rather distracting animation plays in which your girl's clothes disintegrate and are replaced with her second chosen costume; her health gauge is completely refilled, her attacks become more powerful and unlock a different set of combos, and two special ninja power moves become available.

In Yin mode your shinobi starts the battle by tearing off her clothes, leaving her in her underwear! For some reason this makes her take increased damage from hits, but also unlocks new combos and powers up her attacks, allowing her to dish out unrivalled damage. (Depending on the underwear you've chosen, it also provides some great screenshot opportunities!) Modes are selected separately for each battle, but both Yin and Yang mode have separate experience point gauges and unlock different skills, so you'll develop both modes as you play.

Missions come in three types: story, free, or training grounds. Story missions are the main draw and there are a lot of them: 41 each for the two schools. The story is typically silly, but mostly enjoyable, told through a mix of text-over background interludes (with auto-advance, which sometimes causes you to miss the last few words) and in game-engine cut scenes -- complete with your chosen outfits for the shinobi! Story missions are first locked to certain characters as dictated by the plot, but you can go back and revisit them later to play with different characters.

Free missions are outside the main story, but are unlocked by completing parts of it. These aren't central to the plot, but most seem as related as many of the story missions, so to me they're interchangeable. I unlocked 15 free missions on my first play through; I'm not quite finished my second yet, but I expect there will be 30 in total. Each story and free mission you complete rewards you with coins to spend at the shop, as well as experience points in your chosen mode, and sometimes other unlockables.

The training grounds let you choose one of the different stages and a character to play, then summon any of the normal enemies to battle, allowing you to practice your moves against them. There are no rewards and I couldn't see a way of summoning other elite shinobi. It would have been great to square off against a whole elite squad at once.

There's no multiplayer, but plenty of replayability to unlock everything, and there's a host of Steam achievements for bragging rights. There are fewer costumes than some of the newer games and they seem to be less adjustable, but there's still plenty to keep you occupied for many hours. If you're quick with F12 you can snap some lovely screenshots for your profile, too!

Pros:
+ Beautiful characters
+ Responsive controls
+ SK jiggle!

Cons:
- Not enough costumes


An amazing game definitely worth checking out, both at full price or on sale you will not be disappointed! One of the few game series I've managed to actually 100% more so not just this one but a few of the others aswell!


Katsu-nee best girl.