Do you even Nep? · 7:02pm Feb 11th, 2015
This is Neptune, the cutest Nepper to ever be called Nep-Nep. This little cutie is the heroine of the Hyperdimension Neptunia franchise.
My latest gaming addiction, Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;birth 1, was recently released on steam. After some setbacks mentioned in my latest blogpost, [Rant] How Terrible Internet Taught Me Something, I finally managed to get this little gem downloaded. With twelve hours of gameplay under my belt, I decided now was a good time to give a first impressions review.
At first glance, Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth looks like your typical fanservice JRPG, more focused on the moe oppai explosion than anything else. Beneath the squishy exterior of some of the more endowed cast, you actually have a very interesting game, and I'm not just saying that because Neptune is cute.
The first thing you have to remember when approaching this game is that it is a parody unto gaming itself. Most of the things you encounter are a reference to something in gaming, right from the beginning description. The World of Gamindustri is divied up into four regions: Planeptune, Lastation, Lowee, and Leanbox, each with its own atmosphere and appearance, representant of a specific video game console. In the very beginning, the player witnesses the four Goddesses, or CPUs of those regions, fighting each other for 'shares' in a Console War, hoping to gain leadership of all of Gamindustri.
Right off the bat, you have your alegory to the actual cosole war. I'm sure if you look at the region names long enough, you might even recognize most of the consoles being referenced... except maybe Planeptune. Until you start doing a bit of research into gaming history... at which point the 'fall' of Planeptune's Goddess in battle, Purple Heart, becomes all the more profound when you recognize the history behind that company. So while you've got your fanservice, you've also got an underlying story that is remarkably similar to the presentday state of that company.
After the fall of Purple Heart, where Purple Heart quite literally falls to Planeptune, you are treated to your first encounter with the game's primary method of storytelling, ye old visual novel format. The more important dialogue is voiced, while the more 'fluffy' stuff goes unvoiced. The running theme is that, after her fall, Purple Heart has lost her memory and reverted to the human form of Neptune. After a dream sequece that in part mocks the otaku sort who play games in a dark room and have figures everywhere, as well as introducing the main point behind the story arc: Histoire, a magical tome, asking for the player's help. Then another scene introducing your first party member, the nursing student Compa, who found Neptune. Neptune and Compa head back to the place she was found. From her, the player is taken to the World Map, which serves as the primary transit between dungeons.
This acts as the tutorial dungeon, leading the player through combat tutorials [combos, the purpose of rush, power, and break attacks in combos, tech skills, defense and initiating combat], understanding the gathering system and Treasure Search, and culminating in a boss battle introducing one of the first interesting pieces of combat gameplay: Hard Drive Divinity. As Neptune is the goddess Purple Heart, she can take on her goddess form in battle at a cost of about a fifth or a quarter of her total SP. In addition to changing her appearance, she becomes stronger and a bit more durable.
After 'finishing' this battle, the two return to the world map and you et the first introduction to the Guild, which gives out quests, many of which are repeatable, yielding credits, items, and changes in shares [which are apparently important for unlocking extra caracters and the Good Ending]. You get a quest to check out a cave, meet your next ally IF, and then pick your way to three consecutive boss battles, the second of which is actually pretty much a guaranteed lose in the first playthrough. The second/third battles introduce the game's primary antagonist, and throughout all of it, the game is ripe with self-awareness and a hint of metahumor.
The characters are pretty interesting, especially Neptune who, in the English dub is voiced by the same woman who voiced Ed from Cowboy Bebop—almost the exact same silly, happy-go-lucky voice, too. Top notch quality voice acting.
Overall, the game is pretty great, even if I'm only in Act 2. What can I say? I'm a power gamer when it comes to RPGs. The game has a fun combat system, interesting gameplay mechanics such as plans [which can unlock dungeons, dungeon modifiers, gameplay modifiers, or even special characters and materials for the shop], EXE attacks and finishers, HDD mode, and more. This is definitely a great game and worth playing.
I give this 5/5.
Seven Neps out.
Incidentally, for those who are fans of A Blouse Unbuttoned, you may or may not see a new Dee Pad art in the future. May or may not be related to this post. I will Nepper tell.
I've been eyeing this game for a while, on the fence about actually getting it. Now I know I'm getting it!
What about the visuals? They don't exactly look topnotch if those are the screenshots. Actually looks quite a bit like Elsword.
2788109 They're decent, which, for a PS Vita port, isn't all that bad. Runs nicely at 720p on my desktop with no slowdowns, no screen tearing, et cetera. You probably aren't going to be seeing anything fancy like bloom, and depth of field effects are probably not going to be conducive in the third person view centered on the party leader's/active combatant's back. Not sure if there are any DX10 vfx injectors like there's the ENB series for DirectX9, but I'm not an expert in that sort of thing [even if I configured my own personal ENB settings for Skyrim].
Nop.
I LOVE NEPPY~》Already starting a Neptune/MLP xover fic
2788606 I imagined one where Button Mash wishes for a friend who shares his passion for video games, and Neptune comes into existence.
Yes I do Nep, own all 3 PS3 games that were released Stateside, and thanks for telling me this was on Steam, bought it as soon as I read this
2793190 Huzzah! Seven is now a successful advertisement.
2793193 XD Now I just have to wait till Re;Birth2 and Re;Birth3 come out now
2788606 This is one Crossover I'll support ^_^