Senran Kagura Estival Versus impressions (Vita):
-People were saying that the large 700 MB day one patch improved the framerate. Not seeing a difference. It seems to fluctuate depending on the stage. The beach level is the worst in this regard. Everything is still very playable, though. The game runs at 30 FPS on Vita and 60 FPS on PS4, BTW.
-Stages from Shinovi Versus are reused. There's more detail and/or new background objects here and there, but it's still kind of disappointing to see this kind of laziness going on.
-Estival Versus plays slower than the other versions of the game. Senran Kagura 2 in particular feels much faster in comparison.
-This game is very much a direct sequel to Shinovi Versus gameplay-wise. The extra abilities/stances from SK2 are not present. Instead there are some new moves/combos and chargeable attacks. Some characters can charge square and triangle attacks.
-You can now wall-run and can bounce off walls and into enemies.
-The difference in character speeds is much more noticeable now. Some of the characters with heavier weapons are slow and lumbering but very powerful. This may turn some players off.
-There's a new mechanic when doing air chains, with R+O. If you have a partner with you, you can do a crazy auto air combo on multiple enemies with a cinematic finish.
-There does not seem to be a way to switch between partners. Instead, when someone is with you, you can command them to attack or do the aforementioned air move. Did not see anything about dual supers, which SK2 has, in the tutorial levels.
-Another new addition are various types of bombs. You can pick one up at a time and they have different properties besides exploding times, such as one that freezes enemies in place.
-Like SK2, all of the stages now have three difficulty levels selectable right from the start.
-Confirmation that an English version is coming already? The game icon has English text and all of the trophies are in English.
-The visuals are noticeably better than Shinovi Versus, particularly the backgrounds. Maybe this sounds like a weird thing to notice, but the ground textures are much better overall. Character animations have been improved and the "hometown" is now bouncy in addition to "life."
-Asuka's grandma is quite well-endowed and yes, bouncy. Uh...good for the geriatric-loving fans, I guess...?
-Some of the shinobi transformations are ridiculously lewd, even for Senran Kagura. I don't know how they are going to top this in future games, lol. Senran Kagura 2 is ridiculously tame in comparison to this.
-There's menus all over the place. You have the main menu, then another menu with multiple options, then another menu with multiple options after loading up the story mode. The latter is where you can select levels, customize characters, and all the other familiar stuff from the other games.
-Unless something is unlocked, I'm not seeing any individual character story levels. In fact, the game now just goes from character to character with everything being one big story. There is another mode with stages to select, but everything is locked, with clear conditions listed.
That's all for tonight. Hopefully the PS4 version will arrive today; really interested in seeing how much smoother the game will play at 60 FPS and the increased amount of enemies on-screen.
