SENRAN KAGURA Bon Appétit! - Full Course Review

Dumb fun is great, especially when you’re bogged down in deadlines or stress. What better way to unwind than with good ol’ dumb fun in the form of SENRAN KAGURA Bon Appétit! - Full Course. Taking it by the bucket loads of over indulgent second helpings in a three course meal of cheesy writing, bombastic music and fan service galore! In this rhythm based cook off that makes me wonder what Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma would actually be in game form.

If you can’t tell already I love this game for what (and all) it’s worth. It’s a rhythm game that features a nice mix of Japanese style songs that range from instrumentals to full blown J-Pop/idol songs that left me rather dazed. The difficulty curve of each song and level is a mixed bag due to the beats per minute (although that’s not shown, sadly) and complexity of the notes required, utilising WASD and arrow keys (or D-pad and ABXY for controllers) for the input. I found this combination to be surprisingly challenging, reminding me of the old arcade dance machines that have seem to become extinct in the UK. Having played through all of the songs at Normal (with varying success) it’s clear to say that unless there’s a song that’s your bane, story mode is relatively beatable at normal difficulty.

What? I came here for the story *looks nonchalantly away*

However, what set the bar high for me in this respect was the hard difficulty, the exclusion of the up notes somehow dazed me and tripped me up ridiculously. This is similar to how the Project Diva handles difficulty but ramped up with the dual input that will definitely give players an experience. Although easy is almost too easy with the pacing, but you get you play.

Visually the game is great, but a mess of particles at times. I tried running it on my Acer R13 and struggled to maintain a steady 30fps on the third stage, rendering it unplayable with it’s -ahem- panning shots. This means the steam is actively hindering your gameplay, which I found ironic even at the worst of times. But that steam isn’t any old steam it’s the magical kind that appears in times of indecency - which there is a lot of.

Who doesn't love big things in their mouth, eh Asuka.

This is where I will draw the line, I wish there was a less visually intensive screen - without the arcing panty shots and steamy particles. Don’t get me wrong, I love the ridiculous fan service nature of the Senran Kagura series, I even liked the Anime despite it being hot garbage. But when you’re focusing on the game, yes I didn’t just ogle over the bare naked breasts, it’s very difficult to make heads or tails of notes at times. If a unlocked illustration could be used instead that would be an a really nice quality of life gameplay improvement. It could be argued that this should be in by default, but I’d interject that if you wanted a really good rhythm game you’d have gone elsewhere.

Writing is cheesy as hell along with the cutscenes that gave me glimmers and bursts of laughter over the food reactions being of the top and made me want to rewatch Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma (an Anime series that features over top reactions to good food that’ll leave you screaming in ecstasy). It’s almost a staple for Anime games to feature this and whilst I love them. I do find them slightly self indulgent and when ask myself would I recommend this, it falls into the dilemma that it’s a great niche game that won’t have mass appeal simply because Capital A for Anime style games aren’t everyone's cup of tea (even without the fan service). My only annoyance with the game is the lack of skippable perfect victory scenes (where the fan service is served on a silver platter) and the lack of scalability with the game’s particles.