On Senran Kagura Burst Boobies And Objectivity

Hi there, we’re sprucing this place up with a clean sheet. Hopefully, it’s appealing, since the old stuff on here was pretty broken by now. It’ll make room for some more off-the-cuff content, since that’s what blogs are meant for. Serious stuff can be found on the site; this is purely personal tinted. Opinions, we call them. Is that disclaimer good for everyone? We cool? Good, then let’s never mention it again.

I should be playing Horizon right now, but that’s a stern and serious thing to do, once all your workload is done. So, instead let’s talk about boobies in Senran Kagura Burst. You may have noticed our review for that this week. It’s an alright title, but that’s about it.

Still, that’s actually quite surprising for a game with such…magnitude. In Senran Kagura burst, everything revolves around sexualization of schoolgirls. There’s a separate dressing room to ogle the girls in skimpy outfits, models are only affected by physics in exaggerated breasts and characters are constantly discussing something involving titillating subjects. It’s pretty gross if you’re not into that sort of thing. More so than that, it’s totally unnecessary, since its only connection to the sex material is the subject in itself. There’s a clever loophole to implement clothes tearing into a damage scheme, but even that could’ve been replaced by anything. It’s never pointed out just what makes this jiggly nudity part of the game, other than some fetishist’s dream to make it so. It’s crammed down your gullet enough though, just never really explained. It is just there and you’ll damn well better love it, because it’s the driving mechanism everywhere.

As a fitting byline, there even are measurements for all the girls, all the same 36-22-33 configuration, which sounds as naturally improbable as it is. I was a bit bummed that the same courtesy wasn’t applied to the dudes in the game.

Knowing that, it’s pretty remarkable that Senran Kagura Burst exists how it is. On one end, it’s received localizations both in America and Europe. Here’s the exact quote given as the reason:

Thanks to unprecedented demand from fans, SENRAN KAGURA Burst will now be making its way to Europe.

People want this thing, actively looking towards it. I think we can all agree that it’s not coveted due to its gameplay; that’s as straightforward as can be. It’s cool, but nothing I’ve not seen in dozens of other games before. It’s all about the boobies.

On the other hand, Senran Kagura Burst has a Metacritic rating fitting of its candor at 68. Here’s where I’m really surprised, since it’s easy to dismiss it. In fact, I’m sure quite a few of the lower scores have indeed weighed in on the sexualized content, since the top marks all come from Nintendo publications. Something about confirmation bias there. It’s probably also lucky to currently sidestep the ire of more political outlets. You know the ones.

You're all in this with me, one gratuitous porn flip at a time.

That’s also where I struggled. I love boobies; I really do, but when there’s no connection to why they’re being violently thrown in my face time and again, it just gets awkward. Later on, it even gets uncomfortable, as the more ridiculous characters start parading around. One in particular, Haruka, is just the most grotesque thing. Other than actually riveting at the thought of being degraded, her breasts are so disproportionate that they operate on different physics levels. It’s just so damn jarring, each and every time. That and comments like “I’m the only one who can sexually harass!” had me cut down my play sessions short. There’s a line. I want to play a game; I don’t feel like getting introduced to a molestation seminar.

I can’t, however, fail the game for that. Just like with Platinum Games and their gross xenophobia in games, if the thing in itself works, it works. It’s an exercise you have to put yourself through when you write about games. I’m not talking about games you like, by the way; I mean actually writing about games of all sorts, to inform your audience. There’s nothing wrong with having specialties you can call upon when reviewing content, but if you only stick to what you know and like, you are a hobbyist, my friend. Your opinion is moot, since you inherently don’t take in a spectrum of likes and dislikes. I do it, all the time. Senran Kagura Burst was one of those games. I didn’t like it, but I soldiered on and gave it the score it deserved. It’s a functional fighter with a pretty respectable amount of content and some diversity included. It’s not stellar, but it sure does try to be.

I guess what I’m ranting at here is that it’s pretty cool that we can all agree, right now, that games like Senran Kagura Burst, but not limited to the particular sexualized theme, can be more than some of their parts. Call it a “niche” genre, for a corner of the market I’ll never understand. I never understood God of War either, but that doesn’t make me see less quality in it. Often times, this niche is discredited as being inaccessible and while I come down hard on closed off games, this isn’t the case here. It just caters to a really specific audience, which I don't think I'm part of. There’s a difference.

Credit where due, Senran Kagura Burst, you gross piece of filth. I’m even glad I got to experience you, so I can satiate my morbid curiosity and for certain know that it’s not something I enjoy. Thanks for being off-putting. Never change.

I need a shower.