Ain't no bikini small enough.
There are two main modes of play, Story Mode, which is a very linear affair and Mission Mode, made up of 40 challenges. There's a practice mode, which is an interesting addition as it shows you the correct timing for your combo-button presses, as well as a customization mode. Spoilers, most costumes and pretty much every hairstyle are paid DLC, so it's super basic. And 70% of the costumes are fanservicey, so no getting around that silly bikini. Actually, I equipped both bikini sisters with the same costumes as their more clothed sisters. I also took off their hats because they looked dumb.
I gave the story a try, I really did, but the game has the same budget as Scarlet Nexus, so 80% of the cutscenes are told through comic-book style panels. I ended up skipping everything and anything that wasn't a proper cutscene. I played the game with the English dub and the lip-synch was non-existent, and characters moved their mouth so little I'm betting the original Japanese audio isn't any better.
On the other hand, I did like the in-game presentation. The graphics aren't particularly great, but I'll admit they were pretty meticulous with all four girls, as you can even notice their ribs! The game looks and plays like an Arcade game, as it's super colorful and super simple, but the in-game action oozes style. You can tag-in and tag-out any of the four playable characters at pretty much any time, even mid combo or mid-air combo, heck, you can unleash some powerful tag moves if you tag-in another character at the right time. Basic combat is super simple, you just mash square and triangle with the occasional X input to chase an enemy into the air for good measure. Every character has two weapon styles and you can also swap style mid-combo. Your weapons will slowly get dirtied with blood, dealing less damage and becoming slower, so you must either perform perfectly timed combos, which was impossible for me, or find a window of opportunity to tap L1 and refresh your weapon. Lastly, you have super moves and super forms. Each girl has three super moves and three levels of each, and you can use them by spending energy you stock by getting combos, while the Super meter slowly builds as you defeat enemies and pressing L3+R3 lets you temporarily enter a super move that makes you super strong, constantly builds the Super Attack meter but slowly saps your health away.
It's not the deepest combat system ever made, and I feel like enemies can soak up too much damage at first, to the point I was getting hand cramps, something I didn't even suffer when I played Dynasty Warriors or Devil May Cry. The lock-on system is total garbage, the girls are reduced to a walk and the lock-on loves aiming towards enemies BEHIND gates you can't destroy until every monster inside has been killed, the cherry on top is that you must press L3 to toggle between targets, so it's anyone's guess who you'll get next. Some bosses require touchpad input QTEs, which aren't too bad, but the game NEVER, EVER tells you what the blue arrows on the screen mean, so either check the instruction booklet or guess, I guess.
Something I did like a lot was just how many moves and weapons you can purchase with in-game currency. Most weapons are pretty expensive, but you'll be able to get at least a couple of ultimate weapons during the course of the story mode, and even more stuff if you play the missions that reward you with a ton of points.
It's dumb and it's not super fun, but it's not completely disastrous. While combat isn't the deepest thing ever I think there's enough visual flair to keep players interested, and it's the only thing that will as the story is boring and uninteresting. The customization mode could've been an interesting addition, but most costumes are purely fanservice, and most of the stuff that is worth a damn must be paid for, as there are, what, 8 costumes total you can use, four of them being their defaults. Basically, I understand why weaboos like these games, but definitely not for me. I feel like I could enjoy these games if they did away with the fanservice, I do.
6.0
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