Full video review: https://youtu.be/wV6-3ozOKkU

It’s important to set expectations here. This may be a crossover, but this is ultimately just another Neptunia spin-off and it brings pretty much all the usuals associated with that label. The gameplay that has a good base, but some flaws on top of it, the story that takes up around 75% of the game’s play time, and the overall “not really taking itself seriously”-kind of attitude. This doesn’t make it a bad game though – just a Neptunia game.

Gameplay
Ninja Wars is a full-blown action-based combo brawler that is kind of reminiscent of the Ys games. You have your one basic attack string per character, but then a handful of character abilities that can be comboed together in different ways. The core to the combat here is fine – there’s a good amount of feedback and it’s not as weightless as it appears.

That said, the flow can be a bit iffy. The basic strings feel great to use and the character abilities too, but I was not a fan of how the game is effectively paused when you’re selecting which ability to use. That and I also did not like the fact that these abilities cannot be canceled mid-animation.

I guess it’s a way of balancing difficulty, but most of them have so much ending lag that it’s like the game is actively encouraging you not to combo them together. The entire combo system is effectively useless against bosses anyways since they do not stagger like regular enemies and you only ever have enough time to really get off one ability before the boss starts attacking again.

Bosses/Difficulty
And on the topic of those bosses – they’re actually pretty good. Multiple unique attacks, cool designs, and some surprisingly high difficulty. I won’t deny, some of the bosses took me multiple attempts, but it never reached the point of outright frustration. What started off as a relatively easy game became less so as it went on – granted, I also was a bit of a pro gamer taking on dungeons that were higher level than my characters.

Level Design
The dungeons are just okay. It is a Neptunia game, so I can’t say I was expecting much, but it’s pretty much just the usual long hallways, bigger rooms to accommodate enemy fights, and only a couple branching paths along the way. The loot you find is mostly healing items and the occasional weapon upgrade – beyond that the exploration is extremely limited.

Content
This can be seen in the overall game loop as well. You basically: enter level, watch cutscene, kill some enemies, take on a mid-boss, kill some more enemies, take on dungeon boss, and then watch another cutscene. Repeat this for about ten hours and you’ve completed Neptunia x Senran Kagura: Ninja Wars. It’s a fairly barebones overall package and the extra stuff on top of that isn’t really all that exciting either.

Customization
You can’t change character appearance and the only customization you gave is with your two equipped ranged weapons and your two charms per character – basically passive upgrades. The most advanced it gets is with the spirit gem feature, which allows you to align spirit gems on a board, each providing some passive buff that is only increased depending on how you lay them out on the spirit board. It’s a nice feature to have, but again, nothing too major here.

Story
At least the main story is fine. I wouldn’t say it’s… great, but if you like the usual Neptunia comedy-adventure duo, that is on full display here – just with the Senran Kagura girls as a bonus. The setting is this neat mix of Japanese history, but with that classic Neptunia sci-fi/video game twist and it kinda reminded me of Cyberdimension Neptunia. Par for the series – the story does not take itself seriously and you will get the usual bad guys turning good and other predictable plot developments.

Overall
Ninja Wars takes elements that make both series great and combines them into something just… okay. The combat is pretty involved as far as those two series go, but it doesn’t flow all that well. The boss fights are cool, but the aren’t enough of them and the game is over in just 10 hours – of which roughly only 2-3 were actual gameplay. The story, which makes up the rest of those hours, is also nothing special beyond the typical Neptunia fare. It’s not bad, just average.

Is Neptunia x Senran Kagura a good game? It depends...but I like it. Depending from what you want from both series it can be perceived as "bad".

So this game a Neptunia game first and a Senran Kagura game second. Which what I was kinda expecting anyway. That being said. I really wished the game instead had 2 campaigns with one side being Senran Kagura and the other being Neptunia. But instead it feels like a Neptunia game and Senran Kagura characters so happen to be there.

The game is whole lot of missed potential but instead of being salty of what could have been I enjoy it for what it is. Senran Kagura spin offs are have track record of being...not good. This easily the best one.
Neptunia spin offs also have a spotty track record but I think this one of the better ones.

I feel like this held back due to the T rating. The fan service is very tame even compared Neptunia U. Neptunia U had clothes ripping and that was T also. So here we go...theres no...clothes ripping, no dressing room/costumes, certainly no intimacy mode, no transformations, not even a 3D model viewer mode with poses Also there are only 4 Senran Kagura characters. And only 10 playable characters 2 of which are originals to this game. Considering both series have a mountain characters to choose from that's pretty underwhelming.

The core gameplay is Senran Kagura. Just not as good. The partner system from Senran Kagura 2 returns. There are still ninja arts. The game graphically looks really nice and is a locked 60 fps. I also feel like the game probably has some of the better map design from either Senran Kagura or the Neptunia hack n slashes. Though baffled by the choice to not have a heavy attack and make it triangle throwing ninja stars instead. I don't think the combat is as good as Senran Kagura or even Valkyire Drive but it's similar enough to be fun.

Since is a Neptunia game first and Senran Kagura game second. It has a Neptunia story and writing. I did find the plot a little amusing Neptunia and Senran Kagura characters team up to stop "Steem Legion" from taking over. It's nothing special but it's entertaining.

Overall I like the game. It took me about 22 hours to get the platinum trophy for the game and it was fun all the way through. But as a crossover it could have been so much more. I enjoyed it for what it is and I may like the game but I wouldn't be surprised if some coomer would like "no anime titties?! or fan service 1/10". But for me. I'd say it was pretty alright and I'd give it a 7/10

- Kiaaa!!! -
Voy a ser muy duro con este juego pq tiene muchos puntos bajos, primeramente es muy lento en su combate y siento que hay muy pocos recursos del mismo, sus enemigos son tan pocos que aburren, y algo que me molesta es el no poder tener casi prendas para las chicas y el ecchi que caracteriza a las Senran kagura no está aquí, junto con la poca cantidad de personajes (8 en total =/)
Esperaba que fuera un juego bueno-decente pero resulto ser uno mediano-malo :/
No tiene mucho que lo salve.

I'll preface this by saying that I love the Senran Kagura games. Meanwhile, outside of one or two exceptions, I really do not like the Neptunia series. So, I guess I only have myself to blame for my disappointment. I only bought this because it's, well, a Senran Kagura game (kind of), and I'll do anything I can to support the series. I've probably been a complete fool for thinking that buying this would translate to supporting the Senran Kagura series.

I had vain hope that this would still play similarly to one of the SK Versus games, but it doesn't at all. There's only ONE attack button that you mash to do your ONE combo; there's no heavy attack button. This has me kind of fucked up because even "HDN U: Action Unleashed" and "MegaTagmension Blanc + Neptune VS Zombies" had light and heavy attacks. Now, you can try to keep things fresh by throwing in Skills during your single-button-mash combo or by tagging in your partner, but that wears thin fast. Throwing a kunai/shuriken to sort of escape an enemy's range and apply a debuff to them really doesn't do it for me either.

What really grinds my gears the most though is that there are no dash cancels or jump cancels. If you're mashing your one-button combo, you cannot interrupt it by jumping or dashing, you have to stop pressing the button, wait for the last animation to end, and THEN you can jump or dash. It feels terrible.

Further more, you can take damage and even die when using skills. Blocking too, just feels really off and lacks any real impact. And no, there's no block canceling either. And getting a "Just Guard" does nothing except refills your stamina faster, which you can just do yourself with items from the shop anyway.

The Fuurinkanzan Drive feels lame and pretty one-note as a mechanic too, especially when the self-healing one will just seemingly keep you alive no matter what.

Now, this one's more of a nitpick, but when the Live2D sprites "talk" in cutscenes, their mouths just flap open and closed, and they aren't remotely synced to the actual voices. It looks really terrible and it would've been better to just not animate their mouths at all. The P & C Meditation minigame is a bore too.

This isn't a very good action game. Past Neptunia action games and all the main Senran Kagura games have had better combat & general game feel. The hour and a half I've put into this has really just kind of made me depressed.

Review on Reddit with Images

IMPORTANT THINGS TO NOTE

-Action RPG

-Dialogue only voiced in JP

-Short game overall. ~10 hours main story

-Very few side content

INTRODUCTION

The Neptunia and Senran Kagura series are both relatively long running series with their own spinoffs. The Neptunia games have generally been more RPG focus while Senran Kagura are more action focus. Probably expected by nobody, these two unrelated series have a crossover game in Ninja Wars. It is however, more focus on the Neptunia side while mostly featuring the Senran Kagura characters.

STORY

The plot of the game is a simple one and takes a lot of elements from the Senran games from the various ninja factions and conflicts with each other. Ninja Wars follows the ninjas of the Compa style (Neptunia) and the Honeypa style (Senran). The two factions have been fighting each other for a long period of time trying to conquer the opposing nation. The two sides have been deadlocked throughout their various battles until a new group, the Steeme Legion makes their appearance and attempts to conquer both sides. The ninjas from the two factions join side against their new enemy.

Despite the seemingly serious premise, the story is quite laid back and full of comedy. The story never particularly becomes serious which follows the spirit of the Neptunia games. It remains simple, predictable, but surprisingly entertaining at times. Expect a lot of fourth wall breaking and comedic quips.

CHARACTERS

The cast of characters include the four main Neptunia girls, some of the minor Neptunia members, the four Senran Kagura characters and a few original ones. For those familiar with the two series, the main characters are nothing new. They are pretty much identical to how they were originally portrayed. At least with the Neptunia side, they aren't particularly deep characters, but are interesting nonetheless.

I'm not too familiar with the Senran Kagura characters as the Neptunia side, but here, they aren't fleshed out or receive any actual character development. They also don't stand out as much too despite each of them having their own quirks. The Neptunia girls are just more quirky and exaggerated in comparison.

GRAPHICS

The graphics have always been a weak area for both series. At least compared to the other Neptunia games, the game does look better...slightly. The textures on the character models do look cleaner and not as faded as Neptunia's general models. The same applies to the enemies where even the common Dogoo looks better too.

The map designs are also an improvement. They have more details and the different maps have decent variety that do a decent job hiding the reused assets. They are all still on the linear side with a few branching paths, but ultimately small areas and rooms.

For a game that's on the very low budget side, the game at least looks better than the standard Neptunia game, but still pales in comparison to other bigger titles.

GAMEPLAY

The main story is advanced through a world map with a list of locations you can pick. The main objective in each level is usually just to get from Point A to B. Along the way are scattered enemies, and treasure chests. You can blitz through a number of parts and avoid the enemies along the way, but a have locked obstacles which may require beating all of the enemies in it or hit switches to open them.

You can bring any two characters to battle, but only one character appears on screen at a time. The character that's in the reserve will slowly heal their health during that time, but can be switched back any time.

COMBAT

The combat here is simple to learn and understand. There's only one attack button which you'll use a lot for the standard combo chains. There's also another button for special ninja art skills which consumes part of the stamina gauge. The gauge itself will recover over time as well as when dealing damage.

Other than the character's main weapon, you can equip both a shuriken and kunai that you can throw at enemies. These are essentially unlimited, but does have their own cooldown to avoid continuous spam.

Despite the simple combat, this isn't a game where you can mindlessly hack away at the enemies (most of the time). This is in part due to the high recovery frames from the standard combo chains as well as ninja arts. Furthermore, not every hit will stun the enemy so it is better to wait for an enemy to finish their attack animation before starting your own.

You can also dodge enemy attacks, but there are times when simply defending is the more optimal action considering the damage reduced is significant.

The regular enemies start off simple, but different variations will appear as you get deeper into the game. Not only do their damage increase, but their attack patterns are changed/enhanced as well. Some of the larger enemies do present a challenge, but the true challenges come from the bosses who hit much harder and are mostly resistant to hit-stun.

Overall, the game is still on the easier side since you can spam items during battle. The only drawback is that you are limited on how much you can bring, but still not really enough to make the game particularly hard.

CUSTOMIZATION

The game has a decent amount of customization through its spirit gems. These can be obtained from side missions or from enemy drops. The gems themselves are put into various categories like damage up, defense up, improved drops, etc... Each gem are ranked 1-10. You can combine two same rank gems to get one in the next rank.

Each character has a spirit board where you can slot the gems in. You can also gain increased effects based on the formation of linked gems that are the same type. You can even save a few different spirit boards to switch for different situations.

SIDEQUESTS

Other than the main story, you can complete optional side missions which reward you with money, weapons, gears or spirit gems. The side missions have no story and they use existing story maps that are often limited in scope. What do changes are the enemy placements and the various barriers. These missions aren't particularly noteworthy, but are nice to do when you need a break from the story.

The problem is that these side missions serve as pretty much the only optional content with meat to them. There's a balancing mini-game that can give you a temporary stat boost, but it's not something you'll spend much time on.

POST GAME

After clearing the main story, you have access to the Yomi trials which can be quite lengthy. There are nine maps (each with three levels) that are accessible. The mission content is similar to the side mission objectives, but what set these apart are the significant restrictions. Restrictions like no item use, no ninja art use, no projectile use, constant damage decrease, etc... Some restrictions are more dangerous than the other, but overall, require an adjusted approach to clearing these levels. In addition to the restrictions, the enemies' damage output (especially bosses) are significantly increased.

Some of the best spirit gems are gotten from these Yomi Trials so there's a nice incentive in completing them.

FINAL REMARKS

Neptunia spin-offs games have mostly been a miss for me, but Ninja Wars had surprisingly been a fun experience. The story was also entertaining. My main issue is the lack of side content and short story campaign. Overall though, a solid entry for Neptunia fans. Even though the Senran Kagura characters take a back seat to the Neptunia cast, their presence and the combat will probably appeal to those fans as well.

It’s probably fair to say that Neptunia x Senran Kagura: Ninja Wars is filler for both series, adding to the asset pool that will make it to the next mainline games, but it’s honestly a fun game all the same. It’s nice to see the girls interacting with each other, and while the translation is far stiffer than those for either series usually are, there’s a lot of charm and fun goofs in the script all the same. It toes the line to overstaying its welcome, largely because of the side quests, but it’s overall really enjoyable and has me excited for what’s to come next.

Mechanically, it wears out its welcome by the halfway point. I really did want to enjoy it, but eventually, it just became a chore. It's clear that it's a low budget game and the gameplay just became a mindless game of mashing buttons. I do like that you can time your blocks, but it never felt as satisfying as something like Bayonetta or Ys VIII.

The Senran Kagura character portraits are godawful. They look too stretched out in the Y-direction and its weirdly unsettling. Even the goddess herself, Yumi looks mediocre. Homura's eyes in particular are ridiculously weird and it's clear that the artists spent more time making sure the non Senran Kagura girls looked good. Character models wise, I do like Black Heart and Purple Heart's ninja designs. They're cool additions that strengthen the ninja aesthetic of the game. Also, it's clear that they just ported over the Senran Kagura models with minimal effort.

It's fine for fans of the games, but it would've been spectacular for them to actually put more effort in this project...

The story is standard Neptunia writing. It's got its fun moments that occasionally put a smile on my face, but those moments were few and far between. The more serious nature of the Senran Kagura games was not there. The game totally does the generic calling for everyone's help trope with very little effectiveness. It's really not anything to write home about besides how mediocre it is.

Combat feels too stiff. Dodging and guarding lacks the responsiveness you'd expect in an action game. At times, it would feel like the block wouldn't trigger. The forms are neat to some extent, though the costume changes are really lame. The special moves are fun to spam at times, but it felt like they either break the flow too often or cause you to end up taking too much damage. I like the shurikens and kunai, but throwing them felt too slow. Strengthening your characters also felt too indirect. Gems to allocate to damaging specific types of enemies, gain more EXP from specific enemies, etc. Not a fan since it was too specialized.

It's still nice to support Neptunia and Senran Kagura, but it felt like IF just leaned completely on the marketing. Also, I hate that mode where you balance on a peach with your controller. Was tempted to get all the achievements, but that peach mode and the general tedium I felt once I completed the game left me feeling pretty unmotivated.

A truly disposable spinoff of the Neptunia series, and it's just an odd one. The main reason to play Neptunia is the fanservice and self aware 4th wall breaking dialogue. Ninja Wars takes its stupid plot seriously, but to an annoying degree.

There is so much god damn dialogue in this game, and the story is so bland. Its a 6-8 hour adventure not counting very generic typical Neptunia side content, half of that is just characters blabbing about the typical "bad guys", and ancient scrolls and ninja honor and shit. Luckily, its skippable, but if you skip the dialogue in this game, you're basically paying for a C-tier 3D brawler that lasts about 4 hours.

Even if you love both series, this game is way too stingy with its 4th wall breaks, instead choosing to put a spotlight on these characters, who are essentially acting out a middle schooler's creative writing ninja epic with some very shoehorned in gaming themed winks to the camera.

The other Neptunia beat em ups are just as bland gameplay wise, but they also have the Sister CPUs and more goofy dialogue. Ninja Wars has very few good qualities in comparison. Cutscenes got a lot of CPU talk and much less Nep talk.

I like both Neptunia and Senran Kagura, so for me this is like the biggest crossover event since The Avengers but better! Story-wise this is a full-on Neptunia game with a couple Senran Kagura cameos, which is fine by me. You either really like or really hate Neptunia games and it's stories, though I was a bit disappointed with the Visual Novel cutscenes. Even the ReBirth games for the PSVita had character models that moved and reacted with lots of expressions, here it's really just a couple jpegs with many lengthy transitions between them.

Combat wise it was fine. Funnily enough this is not the first Neptunia game with Senran Kagura like combat. They already did that with Neptunia U Action Unleashed but there the combat was terrible imo. Here it's competent and actually fun to play. Because here they made a new combat system from the ground up instead of trying to fit RPG elements into existing Senran Kagura combat like in Neptunia U. This sadly also means that pretty much all of the fan-service stuff from the SK games are missing here. No clothes ripping, no questionable camera angles, nothing. This might actually be the most prudent game of both franchises to date!

The game is not that hard, not that deep and not that long but I like it when games know when to call it quits and not overstay it's welcome. This is a 2/5 or 3/5 game for most people but because I'm insane it gets the Neptune bonus to 4/5.

Story (1/3) - One of the weakest entries in the neptunia spinoff universe. It was really boring, and the writing for characters like Noire and Neptune felt off. The story was extremely generic, which is unfortunate, as they have good villains (like Steamax from VII) that appear then leave too quickly.

Gameplay (2/4) - Really underwhelming gameplay this time around. Better than Sister vs Sister, but the weird delay between actions causes the game to feel stiff. There are only 10ish enemies in the game, which causes it to feel super repetitive. The menus load very slowly, which gets annoying when you have to change equipment. The worst part of the game is when gameplay is cutoff to show an enemy appear or a gate opening 40x in a level. The abilities did feel strong and good to use, and I loved the throwing/ability mechanics.

Performance (2/3) - Game was smooth with no frame drops. VA is good, even though it is in Japanese only. Personally, I only liked Blanc's VA. No real technical issues other than gameplay impairments with loading screens and transitions.

That ending sequence was a work of art.

Vamos lá senhores, título crossover de Senran Kagura com Neptunia, esse game narrativamente foca nas meninas de Nep e o gameplay puxa mais pro lado dos jogos de Senran, então é um mix entre os dois mundos. É recomendável ter pelo menos conhecimento de uma das franquias antes de jogar esse aqui, já que a obra não se esforça em explicar quem é quem, mas apresenta um mundo original, onde podemos acompanhar o enredo sem ficar completamente perdido.

A história é apresentada em formato de visual novel enquanto o combate é separado por fases; o enredo em si não é nada de mais, tem algumas idiotices aqui e ali e o foco é totalmente no fan service do crossover; de extra temos missões secundárias, o mini game do pêssego e por fim um pós-game com desafios adicionais, totalizando 20 horas para completude.

O gameplay é divertido somente para aqueles que estão habituados com jogos desse gênero, que seria esmaga botão com pequenas variações de ataques distribuídos em uma paleta de skills; no entanto, ele possui algumas bizarrices como a inexistência de um contador de Hit, falta de ataque aéreo e somente 10 personagens jogáveis, sendo 2 originais (isso vindo de um jogo colaborativo é pouquíssimo). Ainda existem ataques com kunais/shurikens, ataque supremo e uma paleta elemental que nos dá alguns buffs.

De progressão, podemos comprar itens consumíveis e equipamentos na loja, assim como spirit gems que seriam nossos meios de fortalecimento no decorrer do game.

A trilha sonora é bacaninha, possui algumas faixas orientais que curti bastante, mas nada marcante.

O gráfico é decente, os modelos das personagens são bons mas o cenário em sí é bem simplista.

Uma coisa que eu achei broxante foi a reciclagem em cima das garotas de Senran, algumas possuem o mesmo moveset ou ataques únicos dos jogos anteriores, com as mesmas animações e tudo; já as meninas de Neptunia receberam uma devida atenção, seus trajes exclusivos para esse jogo junto com seus poderes foram muito bem vindos para esse game.

Por fim, recomendo esse título para aqueles que gostam de ambas as franquias ou do próprio gênero mesmo, ele é bem legalzinho, mas fora isso não oferece muita coisa e fica naquela repetição, então de preferência é melhor pegar numa promoção.

This game was decent but it isn’t great.
It’s always fun to see a crossover and see characters from different game’s interacting with each other but that’s the only real novelty of this game.

I have played some games from both the hyperdimension and the Senran series. What this game tries to do is be a weird combination of both which I feel doesn’t really work. Compared to the faster paced action/movement of the regular Senran game, this game tries to have some of the animations from the HDN games which makes the combat feel so slow.
Not to say some of the special moves weren’t flashy and cool but it doesn’t bring it up that much.

The HDN and SK games don’t take themselves too seriously with their stories and that shows here. The thing I found kinda disappointing is that this takes place in a world where all the characters already know of eachother so these aren’t the original versions of the characters from their main timelines. But it’s still neat seeing them interact. Although the 2D portraits for the SK characters just look really weird to me. Idk just seeing it trying to mimic their 3D models just doesn’t seem right visually.

The music is really good and some of the bosses were ok with their designs but you could sweep all of them if you can counter at the right times to essentially take 0 damage. I did also like that all party members passively leveled up with however your main 2 characters are so you don’t have to grind as much.

Would I recommend this game for it is? No. I’d say only get it (on sale) if you’re a fan of one or both series.