Senran Kagura: Peach Beach Splash Interview — Producer Talks Development and Future of the Series

Azario Lopez June 28, 2017 8:30 AM EST

Senran Kagura: Peach Beach Splash is a title that is sure to make some gamer’s summer so much cooler. The game features the entire cast of Senran Kagura girls going head to head in an all-out water gun fight. With a story mode and additional online features, the game is gearing up to take this summer heat head on.

DualShockers had to opportunity to sit down with Producer Kenichiro Takaki and talk about the game’s development and what some of his future plans are. If you’d like to read more about the game, we also interviewed Takaki-san when the game was initially revealed last year.

DualShockers: How does it feel to have Senran Kagura: Peach Beach Splash come to the west?

Kenichiro Takaki: I’m very happy that the game is releasing outside of Japan. Making this title a third person shooter, one of the motives was to expand the series to a greater audience, especially overseas where this genre is more popular.

DS: Looking at this game’s reception, has the western fans been excepting of this new genre direction?

KT: Yes, absolutely, with every release it seems the series finds more and more fans even with this new TPS title.

DS: How about the reception of fans when the game was announced in Japan?

KT: Third person shooter is not as big of a genre in Japan as it is in other places. When we first announced it, some of the long time fines felt like they wouldn’t be familiar with the style or how it works. However, I made this game to be easy to jump in and get used to for new players or those who are unfamiliar with the genre. Now that the game is out in Japan it seems that fans there have warmed up to it and it’s doing very well.

We normally just do whatever we can within the Japanese rating system.

DS: With every game you work on, is there a question in your head that thinks, “How far can I push this sexual theme?”

KT: Up until now we consider the Japanese rating system to be the standard and I think we’ve pushed that as far as it’ll go, or rather, as far as they’ll let us. Bringing the games overseas hasn’t really sparked any problems. We normally just do whatever we can within the Japanese rating system.

DS: After the game comes out, do you have ideas for DLC or any other updates?

KT: It is a singular title all by itself, but we have been doing some balancing patches in Japan. You can expect the same amount of DLC that released in Senran Kagura: Estival Versus, being new costumes as well as new characters.

DS: Where does Senran Kagura: Peach Beach Splash fit into the canon of the Senran Kagura story?

KT: This takes place directly after Estival Versus and will serve as a direct continuation.

I’m planning on looking at how well Senran Kagura: Peach Beach Splash does to see if perhaps it can become it’s own series.

DS: Where would like the series to go from here?

KT: The next game in the series will probably return back to the action roots of the previous games. However, I’m planning on looking at how well Senran Kagura: Peach Beach Splash does to see if perhaps it can become it’s own series.

DS: Is there anything you can tell about the Nintendo Switch game you are developing?

KT: The Switch game was included in the Nintendo Direct in Japan. Since then, we haven’t really said much about it, but it’s going to be a different flavor of a Senran Kagura title. It’s going to use HD Rumble to its full extent and the idea is that it’s going to be an interesting game to allow the player to feel the girl inside the game.

DS: Do you want the game to be localized?

KT: We definitely want to localize it, but we have to see what comes of it and if it’s possible.

DS: If you were to leave the Senran Kagura series behind, what would you like to do?

KT: Just recently I had my first child, a daughter, so if I was to go off in a new direction I would want it to be content for children or something that maybe my daughter would enjoy.

It’s going to use HD Rumble to its full extent…

DS: Are there any plans to return to Senran Kagura releases on the 3DS?

KT: The 3DS series is pretty much complete. Senran Kagura: Deep Crimson pretty much summed up the entire story so I have no plans to release any more 3DS titles.

DS: With one of your game’s, Uppers, still in high demand from fans of your work, do you still push to get the game localized?

KT: I totally wanna get that out, so I’m still pushing for that!

DS: Have you played any of the PC versions of your games?

KT: I normally only play them while they are being worked on, but have yet to play the finished versions. I feel like after enough time has passed and I’ve forgotten what those games were about, I’d like to go back and play them on PC.