Senran Kagura Burst

Senran Kagura Burst is a hack and slash video game developed by Tamsoft, and the first entry in the Senran Kagura series. It was originally published for the Nintendo 3DS in Japan as Senran Kagura: Skirting Shadows in 2011; an expanded “director’s cut” version was released in 2012, and received Western releases in 2013–2014. A remake, Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal, was released for the PlayStation 4 in 2018 and Microsoft Windows in 2019. Kept secret from the rest of the world, high school girls are secretly trained in the art of ninjutsu.

Senran Kagura: Skirting Shadows revolves around the trainee shinobi of Hanzō Academy; Asuka, Ikaruga, Katsuragi, Yagyuu and Hibari, as they complete missions and battle against rival ninjas. Crimson Girls on the other hand follows the students of the dark academy, Hebijo Clandestine Girls’ Academy; Homura, Yomi, Hikage, Mirai and Haruka. Senran Kagura is a side-scrolling “hack and slash” action game. The player assumes control of one of five female ninjas. The more the game characters are damaged by enemies, the more their clothes are torn off.

The information for each character’s back story, major plot points, and general information on the universe of Senran Kagura is displayed in what is called the “novel”, and is structured similarly to a visual novel. The novel is introduced at major plot points in the game story. The main gameplay consists of battling through the world of the story. As the game progresses, the player’s character levels up and gains new moves and abilities, and in-game content such as art work, achievements, music, costumes (of which there are 180), and new characters are unlocked.

The game is split into 5 chapters, with each chapter containing a number of main missions as well as optional missions. Once a mission is complete, it can be replayed with any of the unlocked characters. At the end of a mission the player is graded according to the player character’s health, attack, and speed in completing the mission. Burst has two different routes to play through, instead of the one of the original. Before the start of a mission, the player can choose to activate “Frantic Mode”: by removing the clothing except underwear, the player gets a massive enhancement in attack and speed but a considerable loss of defense.