Defo came around it to some degree.
I think expanding the general cast (Senran Kagura's strongest part somehow) was a good idea on paper.
The problem is that the new characters are more wonky.
Katsuragi was the only outlier beforehand because they turned her into a fetishy lesbian and pervert, but still had good character trails (and she gets more development here).
But in this game, out of the 10 new characters, 4 don't land: Shiki, who is just, a rich girl entitled to whatever she wants, Minori who acts like a toddler and doesn't get development, Ryobi who could've been good, but is sadly tied to the final one, Ryona, who is just, a big masochism fetish in the worst way possible, and drags down Ryobi's character because they interact so much, and on this game, both barely feel that different in development.
Now the other 6 are good and great (Yumi's my 3° favorite character of the franchise), so overall its more winners and losers.
The gameplay change to more 3D didn't help much, as its still kinda repetitive, and having 20 characters leads to issues with feeling the actual variety, as you spend so little with each unless you go tackle the side stories, which are a nice distraction, but don't give anything meaningful.
Overall, its OK, it doesn't expand much, and when it does, it has mixed reception, but it still manages do to plenty of good, so can't really hate it, and I'd say its worth experiencing if you liked any of the other games.
I think expanding the general cast (Senran Kagura's strongest part somehow) was a good idea on paper.
The problem is that the new characters are more wonky.
Katsuragi was the only outlier beforehand because they turned her into a fetishy lesbian and pervert, but still had good character trails (and she gets more development here).
But in this game, out of the 10 new characters, 4 don't land: Shiki, who is just, a rich girl entitled to whatever she wants, Minori who acts like a toddler and doesn't get development, Ryobi who could've been good, but is sadly tied to the final one, Ryona, who is just, a big masochism fetish in the worst way possible, and drags down Ryobi's character because they interact so much, and on this game, both barely feel that different in development.
Now the other 6 are good and great (Yumi's my 3° favorite character of the franchise), so overall its more winners and losers.
The gameplay change to more 3D didn't help much, as its still kinda repetitive, and having 20 characters leads to issues with feeling the actual variety, as you spend so little with each unless you go tackle the side stories, which are a nice distraction, but don't give anything meaningful.
Overall, its OK, it doesn't expand much, and when it does, it has mixed reception, but it still manages do to plenty of good, so can't really hate it, and I'd say its worth experiencing if you liked any of the other games.