Senran Kagura 2: Deep Crimson arrived on the Nintendo 3DS in 2014, built by Tamsoft and published across regions by XSEED Games, Marvelous AQL Europe, Marvelous AQL and CyberFront. It is a 3D side-scrolling action game, and it comes from the same team that made Senran Kagura Burst. That lineage matters, because Deep Crimson spends most of its running time refining what Burst started rather than finding anything new to say.
The pitch is simple. You fight through side-scrolling stages, you customize your cast, and you can pose them against your actual room using the 3DS camera. Two of those three ideas work.
Trailer, via AllGamesBeta.
Pair battles change how a stage plays
The headline addition is pair battles. A second character fights alongside yours, and you give that partner commands rather than controlling them directly. It is a real mechanical change, not a cosmetic one. The mode gives the player a second fighter to direct, and that is the whole of what the source establishes about it.
Tamsoft built the game, and it is the same team behind Burst, so you can feel the continuity. The pair system does not reinvent the genre. It layers a light command layer over combat that was already settled. That is fine as far as it goes, but it is an addition, not an overhaul.
The game sits in the fighting and hack-and-slash lane, with a third-person camera and single-player focus. The source lists single-player as a mode and says nothing about any other.
Customization is the deepest system in the game
Where Deep Crimson actually opens up is character customization. The playable cast can be reshaped to your liking, and the options are specific:
- Outfits can be changed.
- Accessory size and position can be adjusted.
- Hair color can be changed.
That is a genuine toolkit, and it is the part of Deep Crimson that rewards time. You are not picking from preset skins. You are placing accessories, sizing them, and coloring hair, which means the roster can look however you want it to look.
The system is not deep in the way a fighting game’s frame data is deep. It is deep in the way a dress-up mode is deep, which is to say it is about expression rather than competition. For a game with a single-player focus, that is a reasonable place to put your effort.
Augmented reality is a gimmick that knows it
Deep Crimson also includes augmented reality functionality. You can pose playable characters against a real-life background, in a variety of poses, using the 3DS camera.
This is the most 2014 feature imaginable. But taken on its own terms, it does exactly what it says. You point the camera at your desk, you pose a character, and you get a picture. There is no pretense that it is more than that.
How the pieces stack up
It helps to see the three pillars of Deep Crimson side by side, because they are not equal in weight.
| Feature | What it adds | Does it hold up |
|---|---|---|
| Pair battles | A commandable second fighter in every stage | Yes, as a layer on existing combat |
| Customization | Outfits, accessory size and position, hair color | Yes, the strongest system in the game |
| Augmented reality | Posing characters against real backgrounds | No, tied to the 3DS camera |
The table tells the story of the whole game. Two of the three additions are worth your time. One is a curiosity. None of them is a disaster.
A 6.5 that lands about right
Deep Crimson holds a published critical score of 6.5 out of 10, drawn from an IGDB critic aggregate across seven outlets. That number is not a knock. It is a description.
This is a game that does its job. It runs on the 3DS, and it delivers the side-scrolling action the series is known for. The pair battle system gives stages a second layer of decision-making. The customization suite gives you a set of tools to work with. The augmented reality mode gives you a party trick.
What it does not do is push. The pair system layers commands over combat the team had already built for Burst, and the source does not claim the fighting itself changed. The AR mode is a feature you will try once and then forget, because it is bound to the 3DS camera.
The customization is where Deep Crimson earns its score. Outfit changes, accessory sizing and placement, hair color — that is a real set of tools, and it is the part of the game the source spends the most time describing. The combat is competent. The customization is the reason to stay.
So the 6.5 is fair. Deep Crimson is a solid, unambitious sequel from a team that knows its formula and is not in a hurry to break it. If you already like Senran Kagura Burst, this is more of that, with a partner system bolted on and a camera gimmick attached. If you do not, nothing here will change your mind.
Senran Kagura 2: Deep Crimson — 6.5 of 10.
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