I will admit, Senran Kagura has always been a guilty pleasure of mine since the release of Shinovi Versus on PC. I have tried to play Burst on the 3DS and that was practically unplayable with the framerate being mostly stuck at 10 to 15 frames so I quickly gave up after 10 minutes in. As much as I personally enjoy Burst Re:Newal, it does break my heart a little that I have to be a bit harsh on the game. Here is what I’ve noticed during the first 4 hours of play:

+Combat is just as bombastic as ever before, beating up grunts at supersonic speeds without it becoming too visually noisy.
+The story has an actual sense of direction as far as I know which I find it odd considering the franchise’s light hearted nature. I think Shinovi Versus had some sort of story, but I personally didn’t read it so take that with a grain of salt. I know Estival Versus and Peach Beach Splash had a kind of goofy story, but later takes a 180 later on.
+Subtle changes in facial expressions between characters in the main menu is a nice touch to relay the current tone of the story.
+Button prompts properly display keyboard keys around the menus like it should have been with every other PC release on launch.
+The PC version is out of Sony’s reach so the intimacy mode remains untouched.
+The music never disappoints me.

+/-Enemies now display a danger zone whenever they’re about to attack. I honestly don’t know how I feel about this as I think this makes the difficulty easier whereas previous titles didn’t have this feature.
+/-There is a new burst gauge which is basically like an ultimate, only less cinematic and more to the point, but is practically an "I win" button.
+/-Levels are recycled from Shinovi and Estival Versus. Disappointing, but not the end of the world considering this is a remake of the first Senran Kagura so for now, I’ll give this a pass.
+/-The default key bindings are not very good, but at least I can rebind them into something more reasonable

--It seems they took a few steps back on optimization as the levels for some reason does contribute to the lost frames despite all of them being recycled from Shinovi and Estival Versus, but the real kicker is that the game can’t handle more than 5 or 6 enemies at a time before the framerate takes a nosedive down to 45 then down to about 30 at 15 enemies or more. I don’t get it. Estival Versus had more than 20 grunts at a time and the framerate is at a steady 60 all round (aside from the tutorial section) and Peach Beach Splash had the same issues here at launch day, but later resolved about a week and a half later. What happened here?
--First launched the tutorial and of course met with gamepad button prompts on the tutorial flash cards. It’s 2019 and they’re still doing this?
--As a remake of the first game, the roster has been cut down to the original 10 characters, being Hanzo Academy and the Homura Crimson Squad.
--If your favorite character is from Gessen or the 2nd generation of Hebijo academy (and a few others), they will be included later, but as paid DLC. Sure, you’re getting additional story arcs, but gameplay wise, it just feels wrong as you were able to play as them in previous titles only to jump into Burst Re:Newal and be told you have to cough up additional cash just to play as them. From what I’ve read elsewhere, most of them will be free to download and keep for a limited time, but afterwards, you have to cough up the cash if you missed the time window. I believe a better approach would be locking only the story arcs behind a paywall while the characters be part of the base game to be used in free missions and previously completed story missions, even though I would have prefered to have them not charge us for simple stuff like this to begin with. To be honest, this was how they operated when the game was still a Japan exclusive last year, but I have no idea if the business model will carry over to here, but my guess is most likely since you have to pay an extra $10 for the tailor-made edition just to play as Yumi.
--No multiplayer this time around. Sure, it’s not like a lot of people were playing multiplayer in previous titles, but it’s nice that it’s there if you happen to have friends who also play it and want to get together.

It really pains me to say this, but Burst Re:Newal is a terrible value proposition compared to the other Senran games launched on Steam, because the core gameplay is exactly the same as Estival Versus from the combat mechanics to its recycled levels, only this remake practically offered nothing new like the Resident Evil 2 remake or Yakuza Kiwami for example. The only thing that’s changed from the original 3DS game was the transition from a 2D to a 3D environment which is nothing new to the PC market at this point and over half of Estival Versus’ gameplay content has been stripped away only to repackage a fraction of it behind a paywall. I get that it’s a remake, but with a price tag of $40 ($50 for the tailor-made edition), practically the same price as Estival Versus, I just can’t justify buying Burst Re:Newal at full price unless you really want to experience the story, but even then, I’d wait for a discount. If you only care about the gameplay, feel free to skip Burst Re:Newal and pick up Estival Versus.

Like the characters are really fun and the models are well made. I actually liked this game before i even played it cause I think a couple of the girls are really hot/cool/funny.

But the there's like 3 level that they just repeat. The story is stupid and annoying. I get that this is like "haha tiddy anime game." but there's so much story and loading and cutscenes and dialogue that it constantly gets in the way of the titty time and the short ass levels and all of the above also get in the way of the semi-fun mashing buttons. I just wanted a fun musou with tiddies and I got 3rd grader writing and an mid tier musou in the same 4 levels, fighting the same like 4 bosses every couple levels with no variety at all. Fighting feels very rigid and locked. You get stuck in attack animations or dash just short or too far from enemies. Lock on always targets the wrong enemy, not the one in front of you, the one in the horde like three rows back. Also yeah the shinobi sequences are really good the first time you see them for every character but you're kind of supposed to do it EVERY level. and guess what? Cause it's like the main reason people play these games, they put a lot of work into them. So they are unskippable. Have fun watching that ten second animation for you AND your boss opponents only for the fight to end literally thirty seconds later

Every
single
time. :3

It's not like a horrendous experience overall, but after playing for like an hour, you've seen everything. I kept waiting for the game to like pull something new out to grab me or a string of fun levels that made everything come together the way it was supposed to, but that never happened. It's the same ♥♥♥♥ all throughout.

You're honestly better off just looking up the "stuff you want online" save yourself the time and money and save yourself the aggravation of the bad parts, like the game play and long, monotonous cutscenes.

If you like playing these games with KB/M, you'll be just fine.
If you prefer/require a controller, though, beware. You *might* not be able to get a controller to work with the game.

As much as I'd like to keep playing through the stories in this game, it seems something is broken in regards to controller detection. Sad to say, but this is a dealbreaker, as KB/M controls are unwieldy and uncomfortable for this game that was intended for a controller.

There weren't any issues a couple of years ago when I last played (that I can recall), and controllers detected just fine and worked. Now, despite a couple of hours of troubleshooting, I'm at a dead end. Everything else detects and reacts to this XBOne controller, and the game acknowledges that the gamepad settings/configs have loaded during startup, but it still fails to pick up any input from the controller.

While it *could* be my system that's at fault, I think it's more likely a fault with the game itself, in some fashion, as I recall having a similar issue whenever I tried to start playing Senran Kagura Peach Ball over the past couple of years. I never found a workaround for that one either. So I guess I just have to accept that I have two more games in my library that I can't reasonably play or finish.

I AM DISAPOINTED
i am a fan of this series and i own all the games (main series), and getting more and more every game this feels like they took all costumes and chars just to sell you as a dlc just because to greed, this is really something 117 if you want everything or if you want just to have your fav chars from yumi squad or miyabi squad you just need to pay a game worth of money.
this is a good game broken by greed, i cant customize i cant make creative things its due to how dry this game is of content that the only thing that you can trully appreciate is the story and the well written chars.
from estival versus to this game all i have to say is disappointment, they could make one hell of a remake or remaster, with all they have learn and content they have been offering in each game until now, in one package and all we got was this greedy game just to squeeze all money from the fans
estival versus was my all time fav marking my high school days, this is just another game, and a frustrating game on that due to how dry of in game content it is for that i give it a 6 out of 10, this being because the incredible story (being that a copy past from the original game) and the gameplay being those the only saving grace of this game, there is why this did never got the same player as estival versus neither the same overwhelming positivity.
again if you play for the story go for it even if this is a remake if you came for the customization or creativity stay with estival versus you will be better served

I hate to say this, but Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal (SKBR) is just not a good game without even comparing to its predecessors - and bad if you do compare them. I got SKBR as I was reasonably impressed with the combat in Senran Kagura Estival Versus (SKEV), and boy am I disappointed. Not a Senran Kagura title worth getting mistaken as a pervert for.

Let me start off first with the most pertinent issue for me, the combat. In SKBR, controls certainly feel smoother compared to SKEV due to it being responsive to guard/dash cancels. The problem here is the now more skill-focused combat isn't supported well by the combat system. In SKBR, guarding/parrying is highly essential and I don't have an issue with that - parry timings are ridiculously generous anyway. The issue is that the combat now lacks the visceral feel of past series and feels like you're playing Dark Souls but with an unsuitable combat system - very much at odds with what made past titles enjoyable. And because there's a greater focus on watching enemy attacks, the wonky camera issue that exists in past titles is a serious issue here because you cannot see what your enemy is doing nor the telegraphs; they were only an annoyance in past titles. I also cannot fathom the point of adding the new Burst power-up mechanic which is essential for full stripping, otherwise completely unnecessary. The progression system has been changed to have only 2 masteries, Yang/Yin, instead of Flash/Yang/Yin, and they now grant passive bonuses when you are in any form instead of being in a specific form. Unlike in SKEV, I'd say masteries are critical here due to the changes to combat. On a positive note, certain characters do feel better to play in SKBR than in SKEV, like Katsuragi and Yagyuu. If you like Ikaruga, she's got infinite dashes in SKBR and I think it's the same for Hikage.

I think the most annoying thing about combat for me is the fact that bosses, while being juggled in an aerial rave, can actually counter attack mid air (very often in medium difficulty) forcing you to back off - which defeats the whole purpose of chaining combos. There's also nothing you can do about their counter attacks until you learn the perk for blocking mid-air and parry-to-aerial-rave to sustain it. In SKEV, bosses can only counter in 2 scenarios, in air while backed against a wall or on the ground during wake-up game, by using wall counter and wake-counter respectively - these also apply to you as the player. This keeps enough action going and times you need to back off in balance. If you don't wish to deal with having to parry often, then easy mode is the answer. However, easy mode in SKBR is pretty darn boring - SKEV at least offers a bit of challenge. I also notice that aerial rave tracking seems way more floaty than SKEV and causes certain characters to be unable to connect aerial hits in a consistent manner. Mirai, for example, constantly misses the last hit in order to continue aerial rave.

In terms of visuals, SKBR is at best a slight visual upgrade to SKEV, and there are few blemishes that are hard to ignore. For one, there's a really wierd depth of field issue with character models being blurred during conversation scenes when they are the subject of the scene. As for the story, it is unengaging, disconnected and might as well not be there. There are some potentially humorous moments in the story but all that is let down by the lackluster execution of its visual novel, which is as bad as SKEV's. The missions are short, lack variation and are generally uninteresting - it's either fight grunts or limited to 1v1. Performance-wise, it runs smoothly but there are some frame drops, though nothing too terrible. I did ran into the game hanging on me near the end of a boss fight and had to restart. Also, the game sometimes get stucked in infinite loading screen and the only way is to kill the application (which unfortunately causes loss of progress).

The game is really short. Since the story wasn't good nor entertaining, I just skipped it, switch to easy mode and 100% the game at around the 14 hour mark - which included time grinding Yang/Yin masteries and getting all the secret files. The only thing I've found to be good so far is in the audio department. There are a few post-transform BGMs that are pretty good; my personal favourites being Katsuragi's "Anxious Blood" and Asuka's "In My Grandpa's Name".

In conclusion, I think SKBR can't decide if it wants to be a skill-based action game or a brainless visceral beat'em up, and it doesn't do well in either aspect. While I do appreciate the devs changing up gameplay for something new, it seriously lacks polish. Moreover, as a package, it's also lacking in value when compared to past titles which have a bigger roster and additional multiplayer modes (which can be played single player). Even overlooking the latter aspect, I cannot recommend the game because the core gameplay just isn't good at all. If you're a Senran Kagura fan who feels compelled, definitely get the Tailor-made edition during a steep discount as it comes with Yumi DLC and the soundtrack (in MP3).

Hold off!!

So, if you have an OP PC, you're not going to like the fact that the game is locked to 30 or 60fps depending on your hardware. That's first off.

Second is since I've been playing, I've seen preformance dips lower than any other port I've ever touched. It's genuinely concerning that I'm seeing single digit frames while running on an RTX 2080Ti. There's also a focus issue that takes the game out of full screen and freezes the game. Which it doesn't freeze the game, just the display. So you can still get hit without being able to defend yourself. Unsure what causes this.

Third is that you have to manually beat the prolouge in order to change any options, including controls and graphics. Hope you like K to jump while using WASD to move and mouse to attack and camera controls for it! You're stuck with that control set until you beat that level. Not to mention that the game defaults to 720p@60fps in Windowed mode. Quite annoying if you ask me.

Don't get me wrong, I love the Senran Series! I just had too much ambition for this game and bought it at launch.

Do yourself a favor, everyone. Hold off until they patch most of this stuff and fix some kinks here and there. Marvelous has some great stuff here, but it's not ready for the prime time.

At most, buy this on sale.

I'll edit my review as the patches roll in.

I wish I could love playing this game as much as I did shinovi versus and estival, but there's too many downsides to this game for me to even recommend this. Overall, the combat is what put me off the most. Characters are clunkier than ever compared to estival. Dashing locks you in idle animation (can be canceled with an attack, but most musou games should let you run after dashing). Lock-on doesn't do any justice in terms of attacking, your character attacks where they are facing even if you're locked onto an enemy, which causes a lot of missed attacks. I could go on, but I'll just summarize it in the pros/cons:

+ A slight visual upgrade from the previous franchises
+ Good optimization and can be played on some potato PCs

+/- Enemies have a sort of 'danger zone' indicator where you can easily know the range of their attacks, making it easier to parry attacks. Previous games didn't have this mechanic, and I think this game doesn't need that much hand-holding to play.
+/- Intimacy mode. They brought it back, but there's not much depth to it.
+/- Story is the same as previous games, but with more side stories added.

- Most characters are just downright clunky to play. Hibari is an absolute nightmare to use against bosses.
- Character customization in this game is a downgrade compared to previous games.
- Shop has less outfits and accessories, no previewing before buying.
- Combat is a massive disappointment.

Closing notes:
If you're an SK fan like me, i'd just recommend playing shinovi and estival for the time being and hope for another SK game in the future that is leagues better than this one. I'll probably keep playing more just to get all the achievements then uninstall this game and leave it collecting dust in my library. I had high hopes when I started playing it, but I just keep getting disappointed as I progress through the missions. Its like an empty shell compared to the previous installments. The price is decent, but I don't think its worth it, be it on sale or not.

Man i think this is a big mistep for this series. Everything is slowed down, everything has recovery every name character you fight has gone from being a one on one duel to a boss fight where they can pull off ridculous moves which they can use even to instantly counter with PLUS do during your combo if you can even break through their hyper armor to set them up for one.
This is on normal as well it's like they're trying to merge the MUSOU style with some idea of an arena fighter and it's not really working at all.

Edit: I should point out that other Named fights ability to simply just back flip or slap you out of a combo also applies to characters who super moves ARE combos such as Hikage's 1 bar or Homura's 2 bar.

I...don't really care for this game. It's not bad, it's just not good.

The game is capped at 60Hz, and it feels like a less interesting version of Oneechanbara that I'm playing over a decade too late.

Run around, mash X, figure out basic mechanics and figure out that even when the game is hard, it's easy. It's not ever really challenging a good way.

There's a story here that some people care about, I lost interest after several long interludes between levels. The character designs, voice acting, all of that's fine...and I do appreciate that the game is easily modable and that there's enough content out there to make the game as risque as you prefer.

That said, I'm looking at the reviews for this game and Fight Angel, and thinking my button mashing was more fun, the game play was more enjoyable, the graphics were better and the customization options were greater in Fight Angel (which cost way less) than they are in this game. Different types of button mashers, sure, but I was hoping this game would be significantly better than Oneechanbara was over a decade ago, and it just comes up short for me in graphics, customization, game play and overall fun.

Not a horrible game, but even on sale, I can't recommend the game.

Overall, Senran Kagura Burst Re: Newal can be fun for a while and have positive things, but compared to Estival Versus, it has suffered several cuts in terms of "salt" to hold me in the game even more. Instead of evolving, it simply regressed. And some of the problems present in Estival Versus (the camera and the design of the arenas) are still included in this Burst Re: Newal. You want a good Senran Kagura? Choose Peach Beach Splash. Want a good action game Senran Kagura? Choose Estival Versus. The Burst Re: Newal is below these two.