This game is definitely one of the more questionable games I have played as of late. SENRAN KAGURA Peach Beach Splash ditches the hack and slash nature of its predecessors and instead has the girls duke it out with water guns. Despite this complete change of pace, the game is still a lot of fun to play!
Pros:
Fun shooter mechanics. One would imagine that the combat in a game like this would be subpar, but Peach Beach Splash actually has some rather complex combat. Sure, it boils down to just spraying down enemy players, but there are several other additions to make the experience more exciting. This includes the variety of weapons, the different movement mechanics, and the plethora of power-ups in the form of cards. It was a bit overwhelming at first, but playing through the tutorial and singleplayer campaign helped alleviate this. By the end of the campaign I was dashing around, popping cards, and flying through the air with my leveled-up gear. It was a blast.
Amount of stuff to do. Peach Beach Splash is packed full of stuff to do. There are a number of singleplayer modes, including an entire campaign made up of multiple arcs. There are also smaller gamemodes to take advantage of in the dressing room, such as touch mode. Characters, weapons, pets, and cards can all be leveled up, using boosters earned from playing the game’s various modes or purchased directly from the shop. This leveled-up gear can then be equipped in multiplayer, which sounds unfair for the other players, but I was actually unable to try the multiplayer due to lack of players so I cannot confirm that.
Unlockables and customization for days. In a game like this, customization is a must. Fortunately, Peach Beach Splash delivers on that front excellently. There is a bunch of content to unlock and a lot of customization to be done. There is even an entire mode dedicated to just customization, the diorama mode. I spent quite a bit of time messing around with the game’s different customization options, it was quite fun. Those looking for unlockables will not be disappointed either, as a core mechanic of the game (the cards) revolves around it. Additionally, the majority of the game’s customization options are unlocked as the player progresses through the different modes.
Cons:
Frustrating AI. The bots, especially the bots on the player’s team, can be incredibly frustrating at times. The bots completely lack common sense sometimes, not using cover and making no effort to avoid enemy attacks. It grew tiring seeing all of my teammates down all the time, needing a revive. Once all of your teammates are down, the enemy bots tunnel on you, making reviving teammates a difficult task. Some of the story missions were very difficult to complete as a result. I had to turn down the difficulty on some of these levels just to pass them.
Sound effect issues. I had this issue where the sound effects in my game would disappear, leaving just the background music playing. It happened numerous times and seemed to be triggered by card use in most cases. Half of my first attempt at the final boss was played like this, without the sound effects. Further research shows that this was not just me, leading me to believe that this is indeed a bug. The soundtrack is not even that bad, but losing the sound effects halfway through a match was just annoying.
Game crashes. My game crashed a total of three times while playing through just the singleplayer campaign. These crashes only ever happened during the loading screens, after my progress was saved, so luckily I did not lose any progress. Still worth noting though, as that is something that definitely needs to be fixed.
As a singleplayer experience, SENRAN KAGURA Peach Beach Splash is a lot of fun. The mechanics, customization, and amount of content are all great for this type of game. Bad AI and some technical issues do hinder the experience, but not enough to completely sour it. Would only recommend as a singleplayer title tough, as the multiplayer is completely dead.
You can buy SENRAN KAGURA Peach Beach Splash on Steam here.
I was provided a free review copy of the game in order to write this review. Read more about how I do my game reviews here.
cublikefoot 