An amusing and charming little game with a lot of heart and plenty of humor
The battle system has been completely revamped from its predecessor. The game is turn based, requiring you to navigate your characters around the battlefield one at a time to vanquish your foes. When you get close enough to a foe, you lay the smack down on them with your own customizable combos. You also have a choice of using a skill, using an item, or skipping a turn to rack up SP and AP. AP determines how many times you can attack in one turn, as well as how many items you can use. You gain AP each turn. By attacking the enemy you rack up SP, allowing you to use skills. As your characters level up, they learn more combos and skills. At later levels, with enough AP you can string together 50-80 hit combos! The battle system is very easy to pick up and very fun. Characters also gain exp even when not in battle so you don't have to constantly switch up your party members.
Now for the story and characters. The story is light hearted, fun, and enjoyable. Its riddled with video game references and puns. I really liked this aspect of the story. They nod to a number of games and game systems and the jokes were great. Its not "fall over, red faced, choking on your own spit" kind of funny, but HDN is still funny. It made me chuckle a few times. There is a large cast of characters in this game. There are 12 playable characters in addition to its many side characters. HDN is a comedy, so expectations are key. In a comedy, you don't expect a whole lot of character development and deep and engaging characters. In a comedy, you would expect characters to be funny and entertaining. Rest assured, these characters are both indeed. You'll have a good time and a good laugh guiding your eccentric band of weirdos on a quest to save Gameindustri. Each of these characters either represents a game console, or a game company (all companies that had a hand in making this game). They've all got some kind of weird and funny quirk to them.
Now for the graphics and art. The graphics are just eh...This game probably could have run fine on a PS2. These aren't breathtaking graphics but they are passable. On the bright side, the world of Gameindustri is fun and colorful. In a way the graphics make me feel like I'm playing an older JRPG for the PS2 or Gamecube. The characters are all super cute, and the art used on the cutouts is great. I enjoyed the music a lot. I loved all of the boss themes and a few of the dungeon themes. Its a shame that the best dungeon theme was only used once. The cutscene music was also far far FAR less annoying than that hilariously terribad music that frequently played during the cutscenes in the first game.
There is also something I wanted to address about this game: the fanservice. Oh yes, you knew this was coming. The things people say to trash this game, and even the trailer NISA released leads you to believe that this game is sexist moe garbage. Its not. I don't find anything in this game sexist or offensive. And the fanservice was surprisingly light. I've seen way WAY worse things in ecchi anime and even on television dramas that come on regular TV. There is no explicit nudity, and there is no sex, implied or otherwise. There are suggestive moments, there's a super awkward scene in the beginning, and there are skimpy outfits but that is as far as the game goes.
Sad thing is, the little fanservice that's in there isn't even needed, the game would have been just fine without it. But if you're interested in this game, do not avoid it because you think its going to be some kind of freaky hentai game.
I have a few complaints about this game as well. The frame rate can be kind of choppy. When you first turn on the game or first switch in a party member, there is a slight 2-4 second pause that always happens before the characters attack. The game is fairly easy, the only enemy I really had trouble with was CFW Brave, but that was easily solved with a little level grinding. It would have been really nice to see some full motion or anime cutscenes instead of just static characters and text boxes. Also, Uni and Nepgear's mk2 HDD outfits are just a tad too skimpy considering how young they look. Its kind of weird. Dungeon layouts are short and reused frequently. The audience it tries to reach is also very narrow. It seems to want to reach a niche crowd INSIDE a niche crowd. Even if you like JRPGs, there is still a chance you may not like this game. I also don't see anyone who does not like anime liking this game.
Overall, this is a good game if you love anime and JRPGs. Its fun, its amusing, its cute, and its charming. The battle system is fun, and with the new game plus feature, coliseum, and multiple endings, this game has a lot of replay value. Its not a genre changing JRPG but its still pretty entertaining and good for some simple and silly fun.