Niche X: Senran Kagura Estival Versus Review

You may be familiar with our recent Adult themed special issue, Niche X. It featured raunchy games, a (literal) graphic novel and some steamy cosplay among a host of other less PG content. 

One game series that is a perfect fit for Niche X is Senran Kagura and with the latest game getting a release on Steam the time is right to announce there will be a Niche X part 2 coming later this year! If you would like to take part either by submitting cosplay images, writing a review or just suggesting a feature/interview/review please get in touch: info@nicheonline.co.uk.

In the meantime, why not whet your appetite with Crosshire's full review of
Senran Kagura: Estival Versus!

Hey! Do you enjoy being a one person killer apocalypse of hack and slash glory? Are you a little bit of a pervert as well or do you simply enjoy the fantastic aesthetics of the female form? Well boy oh boy is this the game for you....

In case you're new to the Senran Kagura series they revolve around rivalling schools of Shinobi who hit each other until their bras explode off! The series is filled with a huge range of girls to play as who each have there own moves, weapons, transformation scenes, and more. The most recent additions to the series follow the 1 vs 100 genre, similar to the likes of the "Warriors" series i.e. Dynasty Warriors, Hyrule Warriors & Gundam Warriors. Senran Kagura doesn't just give you an army to cut and slice through however, but also a few challenging boss fights against rival Shinobi schoolgirls.

The fighting mechanics themselves appear relatively simple but there's enough going on to keep things interesting. Combos are not the most complex, mainly consisting of two buttons and charge attacks so the combat never gets too deep or complicated but I whole heatedly believe that is what a game like this needs. When clothing is blowing off left, right and centre I doubt a Dark Souls level of complexity is what you are after; it's more than likely you're here to just have fun.

Keeping it simple and fun is very core to this series. For example in the Warrior games you sometimes have to backtrack and run across large maps to defend or attack your objectives; Senran is much more to the point. There isn't much backtracking, it's just a case of beat all the people in the room and move on, with very clear directions as to where to find the next area full of people to beat. Estival also features some new techniques to shake up how you fight with wall run attacks/abilities and a new transformation that strips you down to just your panties! This activates a whole new attack boost as an alternative to your normal transformation that allows you to use big ultimate abilities and change your outfit.

Now as mentioned before the recurring theme in Senran Kagura is that the more you fight, the more damage you and your enemy receive in battle which can rip your cloths off bit by bit 'til at least one of you is left in just their underwear. If you're a good enough fighter with a strong enough win it could even be fewer clothes than that.

Now Senran Kagura is X-rated (or at least equivalent to a 16 rating by PEGI standards).
Although it is centred around nudity, more often than not characters will be cleverly censored by having these just off camera or in times where it's unavoidable we are given “beam of light” censorship. Previous games in the series used chibi versions of the characters to censor.  Although I understand this is pretty fun/comical I found it rather distracting.

At the end of the day I am a mature adult buying a game with mature themes, I am very understanding as to why there is no uncensored feature built into the game however I feel losing the chibi is a step forward. With this new edition on steam I'm rather hoping it gets mod support on steam workshop to make the characters more "atomically complete" for audience member's who seek it. Fortunately the humour in this game is very light-hearted and so however perverted you feel there's no doubt there will be a few characters who are even worse.

The overall plot of Estival is that our cast of girls has been transported to a beach setting for some kind of Shinobi tournament. However, this tournament and this beach world is that of the living and the dead. This opens up the chance to meet characters from the series otherwise thought (or even known) to be dead. Over the game there's some nice stories about each of the girls and each has a nice strong characterisation with motives and personality.  This is reinforced by anime cut scenes as well as CG interactions with dialogue boxes which feel a whole lot more expressive and emotive than ever before!

There are a few new cast members too and in a game where the theme is girls' clothes being ripped off, more girls are always welcome! Even better is that this release also includes DLC characters from Ikki Tousen (Battle Vixens).

The beach setting is also fantastic, I genuinely love the variety of girls and their bikinis. However, I do get a little sad when the odd character has a very basic looking bikini while the larger cast have imaginative character style bikinis to match their style or personality.


Besides the story there's a nice range of challenging side missions as well as individual character missions. This gives you so much you can do considering how many characters there are to begin with. The icing on the cake is good old unlockable content. The unlocks in this game happen to be outfits and underwear and BOY oh boy do I LOVE me some unlockable underwear outfits! This is yet another thing driving me to keep playing this game.

Even better when these outfits can be customised in anyway with any characters you like for before and after their transformations. There are so many bras and panties in the game it's unreal! They even have a lottery for you to unlock 100+ lingerie. If you're obsessed with outfits like I am it's more than likely you'll have enough money for them all after doing each and every mission in the game. I feel there are enough missions and game modes that by the time you have beaten everything you can, the only reason you might want to replay would be to get a higher grade on a mission. There are also a number of difficulties to make the game more challenging if you see fit.

Estival Verus is the newest in the series, originally released on PS4 (and ported to PSVita) last year and it has now been ported to PC and WOW! Does this game look stunning! Character models look all kinds of amazing and the finer details make me so happy! In past games in the series not all enemies would lose their clothes as they fight and from what I've seen every generic enemy in this rendition losses their gear as you hack and slash away. The size of enemy hordes seem a whole lot larger as well.



I really do like this game, its light-hearted and downright fun. Senran Kagura: Estival Versus has improved on previous entries by looking stunning and adding extra characters, abilities and transformations. The missions can feel rather samey and is only really broken up is via the change in characters between missions. If your are quite ok with repeating tasks then you may well like this but I can only find myself playing a few hours at a time before feeling I need a break.

It ports very well to PC I just hope we can get steam workshop support to make modding more accessible for those that want to try it. After all, modding is one of the greatest selling points of owning something on PC.

If you're already a fan of the Senran Kagura series you're no doubt already sold. If you like beating hordes of enemies with some tougher boss battles mixed in, then this may well also be for you. Mainly this is a game for you if you enjoy the “Female form”. If it's not your taste you might just sit there thinking it's unnecessary and distracting in some ways and sadly I can see it stopping some from enjoying the game as a whole.

Regardless of you preferences, Senran Kagura: Estival Versus is an enjoyable game with lots of character and I highly recommended it!