Senran Kagura

Senran Kagura limited editionXSEED recently uploaded one of their famous localization blogs for the upcoming Senran Kagura: Estival Versus and released a bunch of new info for the game (be warned there are minor spoilers in the blog). Their post focused mainly on something often overlooked in the translation process; the contents of a limited edition. And since this is XSEED we’re talking about, a lot of their games have received special editions.

Senran Kagura
Holo-foiled again. I guess it wasn’t in the cards.

Beyond outlining some of the cool items included in the limited edition (a 108 page art book with manga inside and a pack of pin-up cards with the effect of holographic foil) the blog also explained what digital goodies would come with the game. Senran Kagura: Estival Versus has been out since March 2015 in Japan and some DLC has dropped since then. The good news is that most of the additional content will make it to the West. This includes interesting modes like special missions (which has one group of the girls facing off against another) and ‘Dual Shinobi Hearts Ticket’.

“[This mode] presents several new missions pairing various characters up in comedy duos… [These] were particularly fun to localize. Some of them pair up characters you don’t usually see together, some show new sides of the character duos we already know – witness Rin’s reaction to learning Daidōji’s one weakness – and some lean on the fourth w all in fun and inventive ways.”

Along with DLC costumes, new characters will be available to download. While these includes Naraku from Senran Kagura: Deep Crimson and Ayane from the Dead or Alive series the three Ikki Tousen characters (Sonsaku, Kan-u, and Ryofu) will not be available due to licensing issues.

Senran Kagura Ayane
Ayane’s in game model.

While the prospect of what version of the game we’ll be getting might not seem that interesting, it also ties into free content that has been released through updates. Estival Versus will ship with version 1.06 (due to the Vita’s cartridge limitations) but there will be a day-one patch that upgrades the game to at least version 1.17. With that patch you’ll get new multiplayer match types, Rin and Daidōji as playable characters and the usual host of balancing tweaks and menu options (including a dedicated button to show you which version you currently own). XSEED also teased the possibility of more updates coming down the pipeline so you might see some more free stuff after the game is released.

Senran Kagura
Getting dressing to go ninja-ing.

Preorders are still available for Senran Kagura: Estival Versus for both the PS4 and Vita versions. You’d better hurry since the release date of March 15th will sneak up on you faster than a poorly dressed ninja.

Leif Conti-Groome
Leif Conti-Groome is a writer/playwright/video game journalist whose work has appeared on websites such as NextGen Player, Video Game Geek and DriveinTales. His poem Ritual won the 2015 Broadside Contest organized by the Bear Review. While he grew up playing titles such as Final Fantasy VI and Super Double Dragon, he doesn’t really have a preference for genre these days except for Country; that’s a game genre right? Leif’s attention has been more focused on the burgeoning communities of niche Japanese titles, eSports and speedruns. He currently resides in Toronto, Canada and makes a living as a copywriter.