Hyperdimension Neptunia is an imperfect JRPG, but still has it's moments, and is a fairly decent title.
My search brings me back to Lastation. Welcome to one of the weirdest games to hit this gaming generation. With a name that stands out too. Hyperdimension Neptunia. Hard to remember, eh? Well, I will repeat it for you. Hyperdimension Neptunia. The latest from Idea Factory, and for some reason is exclusive to the PlayStation 3. You can easily say that this could pass as a typical anime. Kawaii-desu ka? Haaaaaiii! Check! Cat-cute females with outrageously large melons? Check! Obvious sex jokes related to the previous question? Check! Eyes the size of the palms of my hands? Check! Absurd, and hilarious dialogue, with laughable dubbing on top of that? Check! Unrealistic features? Check! An easy target for fanfiction? Check! Oversized weapons? Check! Otaku paradise? Aaaaannnd check!
So, why do I think it's weird that this game is only on PS3? You see, Neptunia is a game that is loosely based on the console wars, and the folks behind the game have cleverly made a JRPG which references as such. If you don't know very much about the console wars, I shall briefly explain it. In today's day and age (2011), it's a fight to the death between Sony's PlayStation 3, Nintendo's Wii, and Microsoft's Xbox 360. These three companies are after your hard-earned cash, and are trying to convince you to join them and witness their games and features. For the more older gamers, you should remember that Sega used to fight the war too. It goes as far back as to when the Megadrive (Genesis) and the Super Nintendo were competing back in the early 90's. Genesis does what Nintendon't, and SNES is what Genesisn't. Sega survived right up until the Dreamcast, which not too long after it's release, was eliminated by Sony's PlayStation 2, Nintendo's GameCube, and Microsoft's Xbox. And so, war wages on...
Before I properly begin this review, it's safe to say that Hyperdimension Neptunia isn't for everybody. While you can say that about most RPGs, you still have to see it to believe it, really. I can, however, safely say that if you don't like dungeon-crawlers, random encounters, and/or turn-based battles, then you'll already know to stay away from this title. However, if you enjoy these features in a typical JRPG, come hither.
The plot is a bit silly, but at the same time, it's quite clever. The game is set in a world called Gamindustri (yeah), and is split into two parts. Celestia, where the goddesses dwell, and the human world. As already stated above, Neptunia parodys the console wars, and gives the competing consoles goddess features. There are four of these goddesses (aka. CPUs) in Celestia who all despise each other. We have the Black Heart (Sony), the White Heart (Nintendo), the Green Heart (Microsoft), and the Purple Heart (Sega). These four goddesses have been fighting for generations, and they decide they want to finish the war. So they eliminate one heart, so the end can slowly draw near. They decide to team up on the Purple Heart and defeat her (which makes sense, if you think about it). The Purple Heart wakes up on her homeworld of Planeptune, in the new form of a bubbly teenage girl, named Neptune. She has no recollection of what just happened, and she is unaware of her goddess status. As well as settling in the human world, Neptune has been guided by someone mysterious who is sealed away called Histoire to save Gamindustri from the evil goddess Arfoire. Now she is on a quest to collect Key Fragments to unlock Histoire.
Character design is about what you'd expect in an anime spoof game. But they're a pretty cool bunch, who add to the game's cheeky atmosphere. Neptune's personality is very bubbly and carefree. She is accompanied by two other allies for the most part. We have Compa, who is a nurse in-training and wields an oversized syringe (yikes). She is what I like to call the "clueless sidekick", who has no idea what's going on, but helps out anyway. We also have IF (or "Iffy"), who is a bit more "wise" and a bit more serious in personality. You can also come across supporting allies who don't fight, but are good to help out. The strange part about these characters (the main fighters and the supporting allies) is that they're all named after the companies responsible for the game. Neptune is loosely based off Sega; Compa, Compile Heart; IF, Idea Factory; Gust, well.....Gust; and Nisa, Nippon Ichi Software.
When the beginning cutscenes finish off after starting your journey, you are immediately thrown into the game's first dungeon, which will teach you how it all works, including everything that you need to know in dungeons and the basics of the battle system. As it is a dungeon-crawler, all character control is done in dungeons, while the rest of the game is all menu-based (which I've never been a fan of, but because of so many lazy modern JRPG developers that have done this, I'm quite used to it). Every dungeon has a certain objective, whether it be to find the boss and defeat it, find a specific number of a certain item, beat a specific number of a certain enemy, reach the exit, etc. Dungeons will also contain treasure chests for you to open and find some good loot. The three main allies also have a special ability each which can be used. Neptune can destroy obstacles blocking your path; Compa can summon difficult monsters to kill when she is standing on a dark-purple circle (good EXP, might I add?); IF has the ability to guide you to hidden treasure chests. That's basically all needed to be said about the dungeons, really. No detailed extras to add. The real problem I have with the game's dungeon system is that they can get very repetitive with objectives, as well has repetitive scenery. Some may find this a bit tedious.
As well as there being the main scenario-based dungeons, there are also the side-quest dungeons which have a ranking system. Your rank isn't based on how well you do, but rather the time it takes to finish the side-quest. The longer you take, the lower rank you may get, depending on the challenge. Ranks can also be uploaded to an online scoreboard, where you can show off your epic speed skills to the world (implying that many people have actually heard of this game). However, I've heard rumours about the game freezing if a connection problem fails to upload your time. I cannot back this up, as it hasn't happened to me yet, but I've heard others complain about this, making some advise you to play this game offline. If that be the case, here's hoping they've fixed this glitch up by the time you read this review. Actually, scratch that. Let's hope PSN is fixed by the time you read this review.
The battle system has it's ups and downs. Neptunia has random encounters, which some loathe. Personally, I don't mind them. Battles are turn-based with an attacking system which is very Xenogears – esk, with bonuses. You have a certain amount of AP to use up in a character's turn. Once the AP reaches zero, your turn is over. Then it's onto the next character or enemy's turn, where the same thing repeats. You can use combos, which are fully customizable by you, which I quite like. You can use four button presses per combo, and you can edit the abilities that can be used when a certain button is pressed in a certain button slot. For example, you can make it so you can use an ability by pressing circle after attacking with triangle. And so on. Figure out some good strategies for your teammates.
The item system is also worth talking about. Your allies each have individual item skills, which are also somewhat customizable in the menus. Items are used somewhat randomly, and cannot be used manually. In the menus, you can edit the chance of using these item skills. They have explanations of what they do and when they are to be used, and you can change the percent chance of using it. For example, when Neptune gets lower than 30% HP, you can make it a 70% chance of her automatically using a healing item which heals 50% HP. There are other item skills related to reviving characters, as well as healing statuses. Item skills also require certain items to synthesize, which can be easily bought, and/or earned after winning battles. If you don't have enough of a certain synthesizing item, then you can't make the item to use. This item system is an interesting idea, but can be a bit annoying at times, especially when certain skills can only be used by certain characters. Another thing to note is that your synth items get used a lot later in the game. So spend, spend, spend!
The battle system overall in Neptunia has some interesting ideas and all, but it isn't perfect, and a bit goes wrong here and there. It's good, nonetheless.
The difficulty starts out pretty simple, but gets harder as the game progresses, and not really in the good way. Sure, I like challenge, but when it comes down to epic frustration, I'm not a fan of high difficulty. There are three difficulty settings, but they only really alter the amount of damage dealt rather than the A.I. of the enemy. Level-grinding is also a must if you want to get through the frustrating bosses. While the monster summons may be good with that, even THEY can be somewhat frustrating. The problem with the hard enemies is that they're cheap. Really cheap. This can be quite tedious when only one of your allies is able to revive a character in that moment in time. It isn't really that hard of a game, but hell, is it frustrating. To be honest, I grow tired of all these frustrating games. Also, it doesn't help when you finally beat a hard boss and Neptune says something stupid in the battle results, such as "Easy-peasy", 'cuz I'm pretty sure it most certainly wasn't!
As mentioned earlier in the review, exploring the main regions is all done in menus. In these menus you can access the shop to buy new items and equipment, as well as watch certain events moving you on the game, as well as find new dungeons to explore (whether it be part of the main scenario or not). You are also able to access a radio, and blogs recorded by the goddess of that particular area, so you can find out more about the place.
By watching certain events, I mean cutscenes. As well as being heavily, dungeon-based, Neptunia is also very heavily cutscene-based. Most of these cutscenes are rather absurd, but entertaining. The personality of the three protagonists, Neptune and Compa especially are priceless. The dialogue can sometimes end up parodying many video game references (Like the Shroom Kingdom and King Wowser, seriously! Also, Zach Unfair and GG7.), and even in story cutscenes, does it get like this. Of course, there are times when the story cutscenes get "somewhat serious", though there will always be a corny line of dialogue to degrade that a bit. I'm not saying this is a bad thing. In fact, it seems alright for a game like this. After all, with such a concept parodying the console wars, it's hard to take seriously in the first place.
The graphics in Neptunia aren't the best ever. I won't lie. I really like the graphics. I think they're pretty good. But they seem like they would be more Wii-suitable than PS3 suitable. They don't have that HD feel to it, and seem more last-gen or Wii like. When the game goes into cutscenes, with that visual novel feel, they artwork's really good. But in game graphics feel a bit dated, and not exactly PS3-like at all. Dungeons and enemies can sometimes get a bit dull-looking too (as well as plenty palette swapping). This doesn't mean the graphics are bad or anything, in fact, they're actually quite good. A lot will probably complain about the fact that it doesn't have that PS3 game-look. The artwork on the other hand is fantastic, and I will give the graphics a high mark just for that. So basically, 2D is excellent, 3D is average, giving the overall impression of the graphics about a 7 out of 10.
The soundtrack really isn't that bad. It isn't fantastically composed or anything, but it's still half-decent. There are some rather catchy tracks in there, and I highly approve of the wide range of battle systems (one for every different themed dungeon). The dungeon music and the region themes are all quite good. The problem I have with the soundtrack in the game is the amount of overuse and repetition that is used. There are two tracks in particular which are used in almost every cutscene, which can get quite tedious at times. One of them being this weird, goofy song which is supposed to add to humour in cutscenes. It works the first few times, but after hearing it so many times, it ends up not enhancing anything at all, because of it's overuse, and it starts lacking meaning. The voice acting isn't too bad in Neptunia. Usually, when it comes to English dubs, most of the time they're revolting. However, I have no problems with it in this one. I don't know if it's because of the cheesiness of the game, or of they actually hired some decent voice actors. In any case, I don't have any troubles with the voices.
Well, it comes to down to this. Hyperdimension Neptunia is an imperfect JRPG, but still has it's moments, and is a fairly decent title. I'd only really recommend this one to those who enjoy dungeon-crawlers, and/or have a sense of humour, as Neptunia makes fun of many other titles, and of course, the console wars itself. It's not necessarily meant to be taken seriously, but the plot is still very cleverly written. The battle system is also far from perfect, but is still interestingly done. Overall, it isn't going to best game you'll play this year, and it isn't exactly my fourth mind-blowing JRPG, but I think it's still worth a go.......that is if you can still find it in stores by the time you read this.