Tokyo-based manufacturer Daiichi announced with a press release that it’s ready to launch e-Senran Kagura, dedicated to the beloved Senran Kagura series, but before you get excited, it’s a pachinko machine.
We hear that it’s equipped with the Zetsu-Hiden RUSH Lucky Tigger feature, has the highest ball entry ratio among current machines, it’s top.class in terms of ball output performance with a jackpot rate of 2,400 balls and a bunch of other stats that likely don’t mean a thing to either you or me.
It’s designed to have intuitive gameplay so that it can be enjoyed not only by pachinko fans, but also by beginners and fans of the original Senran Kagura series.
Thanks. I guess.
Unfortunately, the Pachinko and Pachislot business in Japan is where many old game and anime series that used to be beloved go to die, like an incredibly noisy boneyard where the air you breathe is 50% nostalgia, 40% passive smoke, and 10% oxygen.
Many franchises that are considered too old or otherwise unsuitable to get new games or anime often find their last resting place in Pachinko parlors in Tokyo, Osaka, and all over Japan, which are usually enjoyed by a senior demographic that still remembers and cherishes them.
This is the latest (and hopefully not the last) episode of the incomprehensible story of Senran Kagura, a series that used to be quite popular but that has been incredibly mismanaged by Marvelous Entertainment.
After tons of console games and anime series, Marvelous has confined the franchise to the aging mobile game Shinobi Master Senran Kagura: New Link and recently released another mobile shovelware endless runner titled Senran Kagura Run.
In the meantime, the supposedly next mainline game Senran Kagura 7even was announced all the way in 2017 and has since dropped into a limbo, most likely destined to never be completed, despite the fact that Marvelous doesn’t even have enough respect for the fans to officially cancel it.
The only game for consoles and PC we got semi-recently is the crossover title Neptunia x Senran Kagura: Ninja Wars in 2021, with the franchise summarily handed to Compile Heart likely because Marvelous doesn’t care to touch it directly.
This is even weirder when we consider the fact that Marvelous has been struggling to release successful games and its financials definitely reflect it. The company has basically become a farming RPG one-trick pony while ignoring a franchise that fans have been begging for rather vocally for many years.
History lesson aside, the press release about the inevitable pachinko machine (they always come to taunt gamers who are fans of dormant franchises) mentions that the pre-release location test event has been a “huge success.”
A sample machine will be exhibited at Gamers in Akihabara between January 21, 2025, and February 3, when e-Senran Kagura will officially launch in Pachinko parlors nationwide.
You can check out a trailer below so that you can feel taunted just as much as I do.
