Senran Kagura: Peach Beach Splash (PlayStation 4) Review

As is the norm with the ladies of Senran Kagura, Peach Beach Splash finds them dragged into a combat festival where each of the four schools have to compete against each other for supremacy, with a simple story playing out for each team. This time, though, instead of battling with katanas and shurikens, the girls are having a grand old water fight, each equipping water cannons to soak the competition. Think Splatoon. Kind of. Replace the Inklings with almost naked anime girls. Oh, and imagine that the weapons could blow off clothing. Oh, and that the girls regularly engage in groping and molesting each other. Also that there is a mode dedicated to groping the characters, too… Okay… maybe it's not really much like Splatoon…like, at all, but it's a team-based, water-shooting third-person-shooter! Just with a huge amount of fan service and a bigger amount of grinding.

How is the actual gameplay, then? There's a series of different gameplay modes where the girls are equipped with a variety of water guns and face off against other ninja ladies, hordes of enemies, or the occasional boss encounter. The water guns come in a range of styles that each play quite differently; there's a water machine gun, water pistols, water sniper rifles, even a water rocket launcher. Regardless of the type of gun, they all accomplish the same thing. Unloading enough water onto the opposing ladies knocks them into a stupor where they are susceptible to a "Splash Chance."

This is where the pervy nature of the game comes fully to the fore (along with the bouncy physics and focus on certain camera angles); while the injured opponent lays prone, a barrage of water can be used in a minigame where first-person firing becomes the focus. Aiming down the barrel of a squirty duck, the aim is to rapidly fire at the downed girl's bikini top or bottoms and blast them off, leaving the girls moaning and trying to cover themselves. Peach Beach Splash knows what it is and revels in its lewd and absurd nature.

On top of the basic combat system, there is also a focus on special cards that can be used during battle to release special attacks, equip protective bubble shields, or even to summon helper pets that attack the enemies.

There's a story mode to play through and it's perfunctory enough. It's obviously not going to be winning any awards for its writing, but it carries on some plot points from previous entries and gives each of the groups of ladies a simple enough scenario to play through over ten stages with basic objectives. It's usually deploying a team of five girls and facing off against one of the opposing schools while hordes of trash mobs roam about feebly. Occasionally, the stages include special scenarios, such as washing soap suds off a giant naked girl, shooting down a giant licking robot helicopter thing, or just putting out flaming barrels in a bathhouse.

On top of the Story Mode, there is also a series of Paradise Episodes, text-based story snippets that play out little tales for each of the cast. There is some voice acting, but no video or art, making for a rather dull experience, with usually just a single image punctuating the completion of the episode. Finally, there is also a mode entitled "V-Road Challenge," which is a series of four "Cups," each a tournament made up of a set of five rounds that are time-limited showdowns between teams of five characters. The team with the most kills when the timer runs down to zero wins. This is the best way to get hold of packs of cards and in-game currency Zeni, especially on higher difficulties.

There is also a multiplayer aspect to the game, with options for Ranked Matches online to climb the online leaderboards, Free Matches for fun, and also Co-op Survival mode for taking on waves of enemies, revisiting stages seen in the Story Mode.

The cards previously mentioned are a big part of Peach Beach Splash. Completing a stage in any mode rewards a pack of cards and they're also available through an in-game store for either Zeni or real money via the PlayStation Store. Extra copies of the same cards that are collected are used to level up cards, whether these be the characters, the weapons, or the ability cards collected. Levelling up to max level requires an absurd amount of cards and tons of grinding is required, so much so that players will get completely bored with this game before maxing out a single team, never mind attempting to level up their weapons and equipment, too.

As with the previous games, there is a special mode that allows the character models to be…well, "played with" is possibly the most apt description. This is the "Dressing Room and Showers" area. Within this room there are a number of options. "Dress Up" allows each and every one of the girls to be customised with a varied of bikinis, full outfits, hairstyles, accessories, and, of course, a wide choice of panties. "Intimacy" mode allows a single girl to be touched, squirted and groped. Yes, really. The analogues can control a floating pair of hands that can grab, hold, pinch, and slap any part of the ladies. Finally, "Diorama" then allows a group of up to five girls to pose and be prodded before taking photos.