"Neptunia’s remake overhauls the PS3 train wreck completely, emerging it as a superior, superb JRPG."
Positive
- Rich story with excellently developed characters
- Fantastic, addictive gameplay and plenty of playable characters
- Brilliant visuals and supremely fluid animation
- Giant improvements in every single department
Negative
- Some minor frustrating story boss battles
- EXE Drives cinematics special attacks cannot be skipped
Re;birth1 is a remake of the original, PS3 exclusive train-wreck of a JRPG which, while it was fun, it was definitely lacking in everything. Re;birth1 does absolutely everything brilliantly to fix that disaster, from the overhauled gameplay experience that even feels comfortable on the PC, enhanced visuals and character animation, and a satisfying story replacing the unfulfilling old one. And after one week since its launch, developer Idea Factory had successfully fixed every bug and issue the game suffered, making it a magnificent gem of a JRPG for PC gamers.
The game takes place in the world of Gamindustri, with four goddesses fight in the century-long console war to become the sole goddess. Each goddess has her own land; Black Heart has the land of Lastation, Green Heart has Leanbox, White Heart has Lowee and Purple Heart has Planetune. But when the goddess decide to get rid of one of them, Purple Heart falls to the human world below and loses her memory, before meeting trusty companions Compa and IF to embark on a quest to bring her memories back. The game’s world and its lands are a representation of today’s console war, except for Planetune which represents a fictional Sega console. And this time around the story is told in a much, much better fashion than the original. The inexplicable amount of pointlessly repeated bosses is gone, and the CPUs (Console Patron Unit) are nowhere near as bitchy this time and far more likeable characters, struggling with their respective land’s issues. And how Neptune comes to know that she is a CPU is handled way better this time instead of prolonging it. The story’s context is still filled with cute, under-aged girls, giggling boobs and sexual harassment, but it’s a funny and interesting adventure filled with loveable old and new characters.
The original’s gameplay system has been completely revamped, and while the original’s combo system was a pretty good idea, it has been replaced with better gameplay mechanisms. Combat remains up to 3 characters and allows movement within a certain range, and a character can attack within a certain range as well. This way, the game doesn’t suffer as much from repetition and rehashed battles. There are still three attack buttons, but this time the AP has been removed, so a character can only attack one enemy at a time in each turn. Before, you could start attacking one foe, then move to another before the AP meter depleted, but this time you can only dish out 4 attacks, which could be the rush, break or power types. Then there are the SP skills and the EXE Drives for devastating attacks, and the returning HDD for the CPUs.
But unlike the original’s questionably small amount of characters to play with, Re;Birth1 has a hefty amount of characters to use. Neptune and her friends return once more, along with the other playable CPUs, joined by other fascinating and loveable all-female characters. They all play a bit differently depending on their fighting style. Radical random encounters have been removed in favour of approaching enemies on the field and striking them. And despite the helpful turn indicator, the system dubiously puts double turns and then removes them every time.
Aside from fighting there is quite a lot of do. There are a bunch of side quests to do along the main story, plus the good addition which is the Plan system. The Plan system allows some minor adjustments to the game, such as strengthening and weakening foes, changing dungeon items or summoning strong monsters, and even creating new ideas, all with the material you will gain from defeating monsters. A small amount of data is used when using the Plan system. It may consume a little bit, but if you want to unlock the 4 extra unlockable characters, it would require 1024MB for each, and unless you were aiming to unlock them from the beginning, you could remain sorely disappointed. Plus there is the Shares meter for each land, which are needed to be at certain levels to unlock the extra characters and in order to get the True Ending of the game.
While up to 3 characters in battle, there are 3 supporting characters, one behind each character. And it is the character behind the fighting character that can be swapped in battle, so the rest take the reserved spot. The Lily system allows you to synchronize allies for some special skills, particularly the CPUs, who can obtain an extra EXE Drive skill, apart from regular SP skills. Defeating strong bosses may reward you with medals that can be exchanged for Discs. With Discs, you can add a customization attribute piece of equipment. And for a change, plenty of costumes are easily acquirable with a little credit early in the game, but costumes for Compa and IF are completely missing. And why are there no Nisa and Gust, despite them being in the original release? Even though those two weren’t even playable in the original and their personalities seem to have been carried over to other characters.
There are quite a few bosses to contend with, including recurring ones that reappear time and time again. One of the issues with the bosses is that you are battling large foes, packed with seemingly endless health bar which regenerate bits in each turn. There is one particular boss who doesn’t allow you to use magic or items, making it in incoherent and frustrating grind. There are mini bosses in each dungeon which serve as tough enemies, which you probably can’t beat at the current level of the dungeon.
Re;birth1 looks perfectly vibrant and brilliant. Animation is much more fluid and the free running movement is much smoother than it had been before. The special attacks all look fabulous, packing lots of vivid colours and spectacular attacks that deal massive damage, but after seeing it for a couple of times, you realize that they cannot be skipped. The dungeon floors are more varied in the beginning than they had been before, but eventually, with more optional dungeons, the designs tend to be repeated too often. In-battle and on map character designs are fantastic to say the least, and the dialogue, expression-filled characters are expertly drawn and rendered.
The soundtrack gets its job right after having bordered on hellish in the original. Battle music tends to get repetitive near the end, but the rest is fresh and refreshing. The Japanese voice gets an award for being absolutely impeccable by anime standard, and it’s a pleasure to listen to their gleeful ranting and Neptune’s fourth wall breaking and nonsense. As if mirroring that achievement, the English voice acting is absolutely horrid, not to mention that it is completely off-sync with the characters, most notably in the special attacks animations.
As it was released, Re;birth1’s translation from the PS Vita to the PC had riddled it with some bugs, but after a week Idea Factory had completely fixed everything. There are no glitches and no bugs, nor the save loss that some players experienced. My only frustration was that the game didn’t award me after beating a chapter, despite awarding me the following ones. It was eventually solved with a second playthrough. The achievement level for the majority is quite easy. Trying a bunch of things in the game for the first time will reward you, and getting the multiple girls up to Level 99 can be an ordeal, but with rewarding extra bosses and fun gameplay, it can be achieved.
Re;birth1 is a masterful remake that revolutionized the original PS3 disaster with a step in the right direction in every single thing it attempts. The premise remains the same, and some of the gameplay ideas, names and attacks are still evident here, Re;birth1 establishes itself as a stellar gem for JRPG fans on the PC, and while the anime influence and fan service can be daunting for some, it’s nonetheless an attractive, funny and extremely fun game.
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Graphics = 9.0
Sound = 8.9
Presentation = 8.2
Gameplay = 9.3
Story = 8.4
Level of Challenge = Medium
Fair level of difficulty, except when it comes to certain bosses.
Recommendation Level = High
If you are an anime fan such as myself, and to does who dwell a bit deeper in that territory, this is an absolute top-notch JRPG for the PC.
Hours Played = 60 Hours
A playthrough takes about 20 hours to beat, and there are plenty of small side quests to do, new dungeons to discover, getting the secret characters and trying out new plans.
Steam Achievement Level Difficulty = Easy
Most achievements are rather easy. Some are earned when trying new things for the first time, getting normal and true ending, getting a huge cast of characters up to Lvl 99, and the only hardcore achievement is getting the 100 million credits achievement.
OVERALL = 88 / 100
Neptunia’s remake overhauls the PS3 train wreck completely, emerging it as a superior, superb JRPG.