Game Review | Senran Kagura Reflexions
I’m not going to sugar coat it. Senran Kagura Reflexions for the Nintendo Switch is an insult. An insult to Senran Kagura fans. This “GAME”, and I use the word game loosely, shares a few elements with the mainline series that it derives from, yet it fails to provide the same appeal.
It’s got great graphics, cute characters, Adorable voice acting, and delicious fanservice. All for the low low price of ten dollars. Quite a deal right? Wrong. Have you ever heard the saying; you get what you pay for? Well with this title you get less than that if you’re coming in expecting anything more than fanservice.
Senran Kagura Reflexions sees you playing as an unknown character who happens to be Asukas senpai. You meet her in the classroom and must help her understand her feelings by rubbing, groping or otherwise indulging in other acts of debauchery. Oh and don’t get me wrong, I love me some lewdness as much as the next guy, but I’m also a classy guy. Buy me dinner first, take me to a movie, make me feel like a person before you toss that sweet squish my way.
Zero Depth
The version of Asuka presented to us in this game is a cheap, less interesting version than the one we get in the other games. Her personality though adorable, and well complemented by great voice acting is without depth. The writing in this title doesn’t develop more than just (hi, I like you, touch me). It’s literally that shallow. This can’t even be called a dating sim because there are no dialogue choices. She leads the conversion with a few words then asks you to rub her hands after which she allows you to massage her with a myriad of objects or hands. This is all done by use of the joycons and complemented by the HD rumble.
The rumble effect varies from object to object, but don’t really give the illusion that the game is clearly going for. Worst yet the motions required to use these objects sometimes don’t register. This results in awkward holding of the joycons while attempting to perform what the title wants you to do.
Each massage session has a gauge in the top left corner of the screen. This fills the more you perform the required movement, with the rate increases depending on your ability to keep a good rhythm. To make the process more challenging, there is also a timer in the top left corner of the screen. Filling the gauge before the counter hits zero gets you more points for filling a vial which when filled unlocks a section of Asoka’s heart.
As you play there will be a number of different scenarios with Asuka in different outfits. The dialogue is the same throughout, and only differences you’ll have are outfits and the objects available to you. These unlock as you play so the more you play the more you’ll have, its as simple as that.
A Glorified Tech Demo
Visually senran kagura reflexions is almost identical to other titles in the series. In fact it looks so good that I can’t wait to see other games in the franchise on the switch. It’s basically like a tech demo that demonstrates the capability of the platform to run the Senran Kagura engine.
The game also has paid and free DLC. The paid DLC gets you other girls from the franchise including; Yumi, Ryona, Murasaki, and Yumi. There are also outfit DLC, and price-wise it’s pretty cheap, but I wouldn’t recommend wasting the money on them because they’re basically as Asuka with different voice acting.
Final Verdict
Reflexion is like that loose girl or bloke in college who everyone had a chance with. It offers no real form of challenge or dept, and so it ultimately lacks value. What we’ve gotten is a mini game collection, and poor one at that. The switches HD rumble feature is nothing more than a gimmick for people to show off to their friends when they come over, and until a developer actually puts it to good use whereby it actually enhances the gameplay then that’s all it’s going to be. Reflexions may just be ten dollars, but because something is cheap doesn’t mean that it should be purchased. As a huge Senran Kagura fan I must unfortunately discourage the purchase of this title. You’re better off saving and getting one of the other Senran Kagura titles to scratch that ecchi itch.
The copy of Senran Kagura Reflexions used for this review was provided to us by it’s publisher, XSEED Games.
