The third and most recent Senran Kagura title has finally left japan to invade the American Vita market and it’s quite different from what one would expect. The ninja women of Homura’s Crimson Squad and Hanzo Ninja Academy have put aside their differences and traded their kunai for spatulas while taking part in a cooking battle royale. Is Senran Kagura: Bon Appétit worthy of being a main dish, or was it taken out before it was done?
Senran Kagura: Bon Appétit starts with a roster of ten endowed shinobi women of caliber that each have their own reasons for taking part in a hyper cooking battle where the winner is given a ninja scroll capable of granting a single wish. Naturally, each heroine has her own reason for wanting the scroll (some don’t even care about the scroll, instead hoping to score some of the leftovers after the curtain falls on the competition). Similar to the previous the two Senran Kagura titles to arrive stateside, the dialogue is littered with pop culture references, multiple layers of innuendo, and gag comedy that might go over the heads of those unfamiliar with Japanese culture.
To start, Senran Kagura: Bon Appétit offers ten ninja women, ten songs (eleven with Daidoji’s random appearance in the story), and ten (eleven) dishes to create. A whole half of the roster is locked out from the onset because they were originally part of a second game that arrived in Japan that features Gessen and Hebijo Academies. XSeeD merged the two titles together in one game, however playing the second set of women will require a separate DLC purchase. As Bon Appétit only costs $15, there’s a decent amount of content to keep players interested without needing to spend another $15 for the second half of the roster. Daidoji and Rin are also added to the roster and remain as separate purchases unless you have previously bought them for Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus.
Much of Bon Appétit feels like a fan service compilation rather than a brand new game at its core. Previous DLC purchases including costumes and characters from Shinovi Versus carry over, which I was not able to test out personally before penning this review. Rather than being a standalone title, I found it was best to appreciate Bon Appétit as a vehicle to check out various costumes and spend more time with your favorite heroine from the Senran Kagura series. The full dressing room accompaniment from Shinovi Versus makes its return with a whole slew of costumes and cosmetic options to dress up your shinobi. For those with a cruel streak, Bon Appétit also makes full use of the Vita’s touch/tilt/microphone controls to tease the ninja women in various ways (with a trophy and reward of signature underwear for persistence).
