Hey guys i got my copy and despite the lack of intimacy mode on the PS4 which honestly you become numb to after awhile with the other games especially reflexions and PBS which provide more to do than Burst Renwal by comparison so it’s not really a complete loss but it is a problem which is becoming more apparent with sony lately even now given they’re trying to pretty much censor everything from japan so only time will tell if there’s anyway to stop this but that’s not what we’re here to discuss. let’s get on with the review.

So yeah this is the first remake in the US for 2019 but more of a remake of 2018. there’s been a lot of that lately and with good results and Burst Renewal for the most part is no different but this isn’t as in depth to changes as other remakes which I’ll get into later. Burst Renwal is the combination of Skirting Shadows and Burst from the DS games and pretty much removes the side scroller beat'em up game with the Musou style that made the game stand out since Deep Crimson and only had more improvements with each game. the stories are still the same and from what I know the voice actresses reprised their roles to pretty read the dialogue that’s had some updates from the original. the graphics are the best this series has gotten to date even compared to the switch with peach ball and reflexions but that’s kind of a given seeing as how Sony has a more powerful drive to handle graphics than the switch. a couple new mechanics that make this game stand out better than estival versus that only did minor tweaks from shinovi versus is the fact you have to pick if you play the mission normally or in frantic mode before you start which basically means you wanna play normal or do wanna play on all out offense and no defense. the story is more condensed and focused on small groups which in all honesty works better here and is a shame they didn’t do this more often. PBS tried to do this as well but the issues that had were how they tried to tie in a big story in that manner with little to no pay offs and didn’t really connect well to each other. with Burst however not counting the DLC stuff which I’ll go into later the 2 main stories are separate yet still tie together and fill in gaps the other leave out on purpose. focusing on a small group of 10 characters gives the advantage of telling a deep enough story and gives enough character developments without too much issue which is good in this case. the big change is how the story is being told. yes you’re still getting the visual novel story telling but unlike every other game before this Burst Renewal took a new step forward by telling it with the camera actually shifting around the 3D models in the stages they’ll be in without much need to use 2D art background. you’ll still get moments of just text and background images with no views of the characters so that’s kind of a bummer. the other new thing in the gameplay is the fact you now have a parry system added into your blocking where you have to time it right. if you master parrying then you’ll be stunning everyone easily and this is made easier by the fact you get a warning and little area of effect notice before an attack comes from small fries or bosses or other SK girls acting as bosses. the stages do feel more challenging than estival and PBS by comparison since the minions and bosses put up more of a fight than before. there is a lot you can do in the dressing room now even without the intimacy mode since I honestly do see the appeal intimacy mode but after PBS and reflexions Burst Renwals is lackluster so I don’t think we lost out on much there but I know that’s not where the true beauty of dressing room is at. it’s dressing up your waifus where now the newest feature is adding in skin color where they be lighter or as tan as Homura. there’s a lot of ways to dress them up and change them up. so dressing room is another improvement from PBS which already did improvements by giving your dioramas more 3D movements with the camera.

now on to the actual negatives. sadly images like this one above, and the character portraits are the only changes to the art style from the original. yeah it’s great they even have the original art Yaegashi Nan did for the DS versions but compared to how his art evolved over the years it seems very lazy to go this way and a missed opportunity to hire the man to redo those images and still have the originals to purchase in game since this is meant to be something of a celebrated re-release of something not many expected to last this long at first. in fact this is even more apparent when you look at the Yumi and Miyabi DLC event images where that stands out by comparison. it may be minor to some but part of doing a remake is being able to make changes that represent the original but show it’s updated and in this case show casing Yaegashi Nan’s art and how it’s evolved compared to the original DS games when he started and it’s come a long way. other negative is definitely the opening sequence. again I understand the logic but the opening animated sequence is basically an edited youtube AMV with foreground and background lighting and sparkles with a different song which isn’t terrible by the way, it’s very I think melancholy is the right term to describe that song. the other negative I have to say is certain costumes you had in estival versus have had their special “defeat” cut ins removed. I don’t know if that’s the case for the steam version as well but considering PBS it’s likely all versions don’t have that. example in the Estival the bath towel when defeated slightly comes open and the SK girl wearing it covers up out of embarrassment. I haven’t had a chance to see if stage defeats are still a thing like estival but either way this to me comes of as a negative where for most of the short comings Estival had it was very creative in making various defeat poses and conditions that can be happen. the other issue comes from continuity. let me explain, not from the main stories but from Yumi’s story. in the season 2 anime we are led to believe Kurokage had twin sons which adds in to how Yumi and Fubuki are related cause that’s apparently what Takaki wanted however for the DLC story Kurokage had a daughter who gave birth to Yumi then was killed by other shinobi out of revenge because of Kurokage’s actions. this one of those reasons it’s hard to give Senran Kagura praise in terms of writing and story when the creator can’t decide on his continuity or even make up his mind for some story and character developments. This goes into another issue which is the DLC stories. now from what I’ve been told the Miyabi DLC story is actually much better than Yumi’s but the issue still remains that we have 2 stories that don’t really tie into anything or add anything for Burst or Skirting Shadows story lines and honestly for the faults they have feel like they were wasted potential that could have been used for a different project that ties in to a prequel for Yumi and Miyabi’s groups where yeah we could argue Shinovi Versus does that already but given the content in these DLC stories have and what they aimed for I think there’s more missed opportunity than gain especially if the idea is to somehow tie Yumi and Miyabi’s groups in the original first timeline or establish what went down before shinovi versus happened.

so with everything said and done what can I really give it? well in terms of an overall game it’s very niche which panders mostly to the fanbase which let’s be honest even compared to something like Boruto we’re pretty much like a cult following for Senran Kagura where at best this would mostly be a 3 out of 5 kind of game for the average gamer but in terms of a musou game and senran kagura game it definitely stepped up on a lot of areas which in that category is a 4 out 5 game and in terms of just comparing it to the other remakes that have come out in 2018 and still coming out in 2019 with RE2 Remake and Medevil remake come out in october supposedly it’s still a 3 out of 5 compared to other remakes and would be somewhere at the bottom of those titles and at best it would be in a tie with Disgaea 1 complete where both of these remakes have good and bad points where they could’ve gone in terms of improving while staying true to their originals. so my final verdict as in all fairness the game is a 3.5 out of 5 in my opinion where you’re gonna enjoy it fine despite the faults i mentioned but for the most part hardcore fans are gonna notice some or all these issues where they enjoy the game but the other issues are the kind of things that are noticeable to them. so if you’re a fan I can recommend it but if you’re not especially if you hate the idea of fan service in your games then isn’t really for you.

as always give your thoughts in the comments below and tell me what you think of the game itself and how it holds up.