Game #1237: Senran Kagura Burst Re-Newal

 World's largest recycle job.

 After criticizing games like Senran Kagura for the longest time, I decided to give it a proper try a few years ago. And it was decent. so, when Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal was announced exclusively for PS4 and PC, no handheld version or anything like that, I wanted to see what they'd do with stronger hardware. Well, they did the cheapest thing possible. Let me put it this way, this is little more than a remix of sorts of Estival VS, one that has very little new, but is missing a ton of content from that game.

 This game is a pseudo remake of Senran Kagura's very first game, the one that released on the Nintendo 3DS, albeit with the gameplay of the PlayStation entries. I'll be 100% honest, I still don't care about SK's plot, so I just skipped every single cutscene. This also means that the game is a bit paired back in the character roster, as there are only 12 girls available. 14 if you purchase the DLC that lets you play as Yumi and Miyabi, y'know, the leaders from the schools added in Estival and Shinovi Vs. But here's the thing... the game pretty much reuses everything from EVS and SVS, so they are charging you for assets they had already made. I think they come with some story bits, at least. That said, buying the rest of the missing girls doesn't add story. So... yeah, the character roster is tiny compared to the previous two games, and they charge you for recycled assets. You can 

 And that's the most egregious part about this game, how shamelessly greedy it is. The game recycles every enemy and every background from Estival and Shinovi VS, the character models from the girls, as well as most of the clothes, come directly from those games. The DLC girls you can purchase? They were default characters in said games. Some of the customizable clothes might be new, but pretty much the only new thing about the game is the text you read, meaning the story, and maybe some cutscenes, oh, and a Final Boss. That's it. They completely outdid Capcom in their lazy and greedy endeavors. Once again, 90% of this game is made up of recycled content, and it's MISSING some of the recycled content which must be purchased. I don't think I've ever seen a more shameless game.

 The game plays pretty similarly to EVS and SVS, except that before any stage you must pick weather to fight in Yin(Clothed) or Yang(Frantic/Underwear) modes, while in the previous games you could enter Yang Mode at any moment. Using either mode will let you earn different perks, as each 'branch' has five different buffs your character can obtain. That's it.

 The customization element is still pretty decent, you can even change the haircut and skin color of every girl, and the combat is decent... at least once the girls are fully levelled up, as otherwise you might tap Triangle after a combo but won't get an attack since you have to learn it by levelling up. The lewd Knock-out cutscenes were removed too.

 Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal is, honestly, shameless. This could've, nay, should've been released as Estival VS DLC. And if it had to be a stand-alone release, all girls should've been default characters and not DLC, not only as not to scam players, but as not to make it feel like such a scam. It doesn't matter how good the story could be, fact is, getting any of the previous installments on PS4 or Vita is a much better choice.

 2.5