One of the main defining aspects of the Neptunia franchise, aside from it’s parodying various gaming genres and the gaming industry itself, is the various cameos from other publishers/developers that are in the games as cute anime girls.
Much like every other spin-off in the Neptunia franchise, Neptunia x SENRAN KAGURA: Ninja Wars is another retelling of the first game but with a twist. Instead of the four goddesses who are parodying Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo and Sega fighting amongst each other in the “console wars”, Nep, Norie, Vert and Blanc are all ninjas who live in the country of Heartland and are students of the Compa Style school of martial arts. Heartland is currently at war with Marveland and the Honeypa shinobi which consists of Asuka, Homura, Yumi and Miyabi. One night the two schools are yet again locked in battle. As they reach a temporary stalemate, each side expresses to each other that they are tired of their “fights to the death” and just want to be friends. During the break in fighting a mysterious group calling themselves Steeme Legion attack the two schools with robotic ninjas. Its leaders, Yoh Gamer and Tetsuko, have declared a “Super Ninja War” to see which of the two schools is the strongest as a means for each of the countries to weaken each other so that the Steeme Legion can easily take over Gameindustri. Even though this may be a cross-over game and plays more like the SENRAN KAGURA games, the main focus and stars are Neptuina and the other goddesses. While the story is somewhat just another re-telling of the very first game, its different enough with the addition of the SENRAN KAGURA girls that makes it fresh. I do wish that Asuka and her friend had more story around them, as the game is mainly focused on Nep and her friends.
Neptunia x SENRAN KAGURA: Ninja Wars is an action RPG that uses gameplay elements from both the Neptunia series and the SNERAN KAGURA series. For the most part the gameplay is just like any other SENRAN KAGURA game: you run around in the area, hacking and slashing everything that moves and rush towards either the event trigger or the exit. Now what makes this game different from other SENRAN KAGURA games is that skills are executed differently. In previous games, skills usually are performed in real time by pressing the R2 and a face button so as to not slow down the action. Picking skills in Neptunia x SENRAN KAGURA: Ninja Wars is performed in the same way but time is slowed down instead, giving you time to decide which skill to use. This mechanic is nice to have but I kind of wish that this was regulated to Neptuina and friends so as to differentiate between them and the Honeypa shinobi. Then there are boosts called Furrinkazan Drives. Also different from the other SENRAN KAGURA games is that the battle/fighting mechanics have been simplified even further. In previous games you were able to perform simple combos using light and heavy attacks. In this game there’s the main attack, dodge, block, jump, and throwing kunai/daggers. This is really great for those who have never played any of the SENRAN KAGURA games before but personally I really enjoyed their battle/fighting mechanics much better.
I’ll be honest, I really didn’t like the look of Neptunia Virtual Stars. While the character designs did look cute, the environments were pretty bland looking. Neptunia x SENRAN KAGURA: Ninja Wars on the other hand is very vibrant and colorful looking. The character models not only stand out much more but their designs look awesome. The Neptunia girls have two forms, their base and their goddess and outfits for each while the SENRAN KAGURA girls only have one outfit which is their school uniform from their games. As for the environments, they are vibrant and varied, each reflecting which game series they take inspiration from. Then there’s all of the alternate DLC costumes for the girls that pulls looks from various games from each of the series. So you’ll have no trouble in finding the perfect outfit for your favorite waifu.
Neptunia x SENRAN KAGURA: Ninja Wars is a pretty decent spin off to the mainline games. While base of the story is another version of the very first game in the series, the addition of the SENRAN KAGURA girls makes it a bit more interesting. The gameplay is a mix bag for me. I was expecting that both teams would have gameplay styles unique to them, but both play very similarly with the heavy emphasis on using Neptunia’s turn based gameplay for using skills. Melee combat is simplified, which is fine for those new to the SENRAN KAGURA style of gameplay but I miss using a mix of light and heavy attacks to pull off cool looking combos. The character designs for the Neptunia girls are really cute and play heavily into the samurai/ninja motif of the game while the SENRAN KAGURA girls, while still looking cute, don’t really have much changes due to them already being ninjas. Overall Neptunia x SENRAN KAGURA: Ninja Wars is a good game, I just wish Idea Soft would have led Tamasoft develop the gameplay aspects. If you looking for cute girls and fun action, then give Neptunia x SENRAN KAGURA: Ninja Wars a try.
7/10
