SENRAN KAGURA ESTIVAL VERSUS

I came into this one expecting a throwaway excuse to mash buttons at anime girls, and I'll be straight with you: the combat held up better than it had any right to. Estival Versus is Tamsoft's musou-style brawler built on light and heavy attack strings, air-launch combos, a Ninja Art gauge that powers a Shinobi Transformation mode, and a Frantic toggle that strips your character to their underwear in exchange for a damage buff. That last mechanic is exactly what it sounds like, and if that sentence alone makes you roll your eyes, this is not your game. If it made you lean forward, keep reading. The combat loop is genuinely functional. Each of the 25-plus playable shinobi has distinct stats, movement type, and a full moveset - some are dash-types with quick burst mobility, others are poise tanks with guard-breaking charge attacks. Aerial raves chain into juggles, and swapping between characters in the campaign means you're constantly re-learning timing and spacing. The Shinobi Transformation super is a clean power spike mechanic rather than a cheap panic button. Status effects, though, can get ugly fast: freeze and stun can stack in ways that lock you out of the fight entirely, and the difficulty curve inside the Kagura Millennium Festival campaign sometimes spikes with no warning. The camera is the other persistent headache, sitting too close to the action during crowded rooms and making it hard to track your own position during air strings. Multiplayer is where the game tries to be interesting. Up to 10 players can run free-for-all and team battles across modes including a standard Point Battle and the less-conventional Understorm and Capture the Bra. The modes are gimmicky by design and there is no ranked ladder to speak of. Finding populated lobbies was already a challenge on the PS4 version, and on PC, years after launch, you are effectively playing this for the single-player campaign or against friends. One reviewer at the time called the online multiplayer structure surprisingly robust but noted it struggled to find full rooms even at release - that situation has only gotten worse with time. Treat the multiplayer tag as a bonus, not a selling point. The PC port itself runs well. Full 60fps support, resolution options, and reasonably stable performance under load are all present. The controls are the one consistent complaint across reviewers: tutorials reference console button prompts regardless of your input device, which means mouse-and-keyboard players will spend time cross-referencing the settings menu instead of playing. Plug in a controller and that problem disappears. The Dressing Room mode, costume shop, and an in-game jukebox round out the content, and the story - split across the Kagura Millennium Festival campaign and the Shinobi Girl's Heart sub-mode - covers surprisingly earnest emotional ground alongside its more absurd material. Tone consistency is not this series' strong suit, but if you accept the whiplash as part of the brand, some of it actually lands. Bottom line on who should be here: if you want a musou brawler with genuine character variety, a massive roster, and you are already comfortable with the series' fanservice-forward identity, Estival Versus is the best the franchise had delivered up to this point. If you want active online lobbies, a ranked competitive scene, or a game you can leave on your second monitor without explanation, this is a harder sell. Fred, Scout Team