Story
So not to spoil too much, Senran Kagura Deep Crimson follows up after the events of the Burst, leaving the girls to decide their perspective paths and rethink their reasons for being a shinobi. The story itself is relatively short, especially since this is a game that can finish each perspective chapter in less than 5 minutes. I found myself beating the whole story for about 2 hours, but that's because I rushed a lot of the scenes. The story itself has some nice substance to it and gives fleshes out each characters personalities, beliefs, and so on. The main focus of the story though, are the two new characters introduced into the series, simply known as Kagura and Naraku, who play key roles in the story
Graphics
The games graphical aspects have slightly improved, giving the models a slimmer, smoother appearance. But what really shines though in this game is the massive increase in frame rate. In Burst, the frame rate was always sluggish, even with the 3D off, making the game feel slow at a bad 30 frames per second. A bad thing for games that have a fast paced beat'em fashion. But Deep Crimson thankfully fixes this issue to a degree. Running at a smooth 60 frames per second with most scenes and action sequences with 3D off, it made playing the game much more enjoyable. Playing the game in 3D is nice too, but it does tend to lag more often, but compared to burst, it certainly played faster even with 3D on.
Gameplay
As with it's previous title, Deep Crimson is a beat'em game, but changes slightly that the game isn't fixed in a linear setting. In Burst, while able to freely move around in a room in 360 degree's, the moment combat is engaged, the characters awkwardly shift into a straight left or right line and fight in this way. Making hitting enemies hard to tell since attack range is disproportional in Burst. In Deep Crimson however, it allows the character to attack in any angle, and gives a more accurate gauge on whether you make contact with the enemy or not.
Mechanic wise, Deep Crimson changed that it no longer has a Yin Yang System, and instead introduces a new feature in the game known as tag battles, where you gain control of another character. An AI runs the other partner unless you tag, then you control your partner while your primary is switched with the AI. As you battle together and engage in tag battle actions like combined shinobi arts or counters, your affection meter rises, which in turns changes characters dialogue with one another during opening, combined shinobi arts, and end battle sequences.
Of course, with tag battle introduced, there is a multiplayer option that works locally and even online. However, as I found out myself, not many people play online as I barely found any people to play with online. The game also has streetpass capabilities, but it's rather hard to get tag unless you're somewhere heavily populated, a convention of some sort, or japan
Music
In terms of music, the game has a plethora of music to chose from. There was actually a lot I liked to listen to and where rather nice. Orchestration to rock, dramatic to vocal, the music pieces on the game are surprisingly nice for a beat'em up game
[youtube]BzvX-HBt924[/youtube]
Extra's...
One more thing I want to add is the extra's that Senran Kagura Deep Crimson has. In Burst, it had a mode where you can dress up your characters to wear certain outfits, but was vastly limited. But in Burst, the options have expanded immensely, to the point that I felt a bit overwhelmed by the vast customization to each character. There are tons of clothes with different styles and variations of color to chose from, as well as bikini's, accessories, etc. I'm not really yo keen to these kinds of features, but god damn it was fun as hell dressing up some of the characters.
(I actually took a picture of this using my 3DS using the AR photoshoot mode in the game Verdict
A vast improvement to it's previous title, Deep Crimson is much more fun to play. It's replyability really depends on you. I personally play it a lot to level up my characters to their maximum potential. Which will take awhile. So if you have some cash to spare and looking for a beat'em up without minding the overly sexualized characters, then this game is right for you
Story: 7/10
Gameplay: 10/10
Graphics: 8/10
Music: 8/10
Overall: 8.5/10
