The long awaited trilogy from Arfoire
The Hyperdimension Neptunia series has been around for sometime now which started on the PS3 has seen releases on various consoles and is a series that makes light fun and parodies of the gaming industry in real life and other forms of Japanese Culture. The series has also branched off into a manga and light novels, with the sheer amount of games released and sold outside of Japan it is clear the games do have a cult following although the games have seemingly stagnated as of late, still you can’t deny it is a series that is still going strong.
Previously available on the PS Vita the Hyperdimension Neptunia Rebirth Trilogy is now available to PS4 and PS5 users. With all three needing separate purchases is it a steal or another cash grab extraction?
In Hyperdimension Neptunia Re:Birth1+ you play as Neptune who had been defeated in Gamindustri by the other goddesses and banished from the heavens where she fell and lost her memory. In this low stakes adventure Neptune finds a book which has the collective memories of Gamindustri and is joined by companions IF and Compa embarking on a quest to save the world.
What makes the Neptunia series unique as a whole is the uniqueness of each character, no two characters ever feel the same and having a series of games where new characters become a part of the world, their unique traits and constant breaking of the 4th wall makes it an engaging JRPG experience if you understand the jokes and references, while it may not be to everyone’s taste if you understand the references it makes the game more engaging and hilarious.
The war in Gamindustri is that of a console war quite literally, the Neptunia series took all the mainline consoles and aligned certain characters to said console while of course changing their names somewhat for copyright reasons, obviously. Various other story elements were actually changed in the game altogether due to licencing issues. Each character takes precedence over certain nations within the world. Leanbox for example is a parody of Xbox, each nation consisting of a Basilicom, a holy organisation that serves each CPU’s nation.
Once you regain control of Neptune and set of on the long journey with IF and Compa you find yourself soon battling strange foes and exploring the world, noticeable right away if you did play the original version is the massive change no only to the story but to the interface, the interface is much more vibrant now and certain text elements are much easier to read. While I did not mind the original look and feel of the Rebirth, the developers have now developed it keeping it in line with its sequel and third entry.
Rebirth 2 introduces a new cast of characters Nepgear Uni Rom and Ram, these characters being the little sisters of the 4 goddesses who return also are aligned to handheld consoles, Nepgear along with the other CPU little sisters job is to free the older sisters who have been captured, a simple premise but works well and is a great idea and introduction to bringing in new characters and having a background to match with other consoles. Re:birth 3 has Neptune reprising her main role and gets sucked into a parallel dimension where everything has an 80s look, where she meets alternative versions of the other CPU’s and has a focus on the CPU wars of that time, while Neptunia tries to find her way home she attempts to stop the seven sages of the world who are against the CPUs controlling Gamindustri as they always have.
While the three games have different premise, they all feel very similar in gameplay, there is a map that has dungeons and towns which can be accessed by selecting where you want to go, each map has certain items and these can be changed by collecting plans or by fulfilling certain requirements and crafting, you can make different more powerful enemies spawn on weaker maps and defeating these early on can really give you an advantage however be prepared for the challenge. Completing quests will also offer quick money and Items to help you on your journey. These systems are completely optional but if you are focused on a full completion of the game and wanting certain achievements then this will be something you will need to look into. Certain metrics will also determine how the game ultimately reaches its conclusion, there is a lot to uncover and with the game requiring several playthroughs if you want to experience everything then the Rebirth trilogy is perfect in terms of replay-ability.
The gameplay loop of the Re:Birth trilogy is similar but unique as I’ve not come across too many JRPG’s that use its formula in the same way. While you can play each game without straying from the main path too much the game rewards you if you do, you can grind more powerful weapons early on if you wish and because of how the game is designed you can get an advantage early on, one way of doing this is the rings that give you a massive boost to Health, while enemies may take longer to wear you down having Compa heal means you can regenerate your party to full almost instantly with her magic, this is because her spells are percentage based rather than potency based, this makes fights such as Purple Heart early on who is generally hard to beat now a walk in the park.
Gameplay wise there is not too much difference in how battles play out, enemies can be seen on the map and by attacking them on the map you can get an advantage, you can move around within the circle sphere and attack enemies using on screen prompts, you can use a mix of powerful attacks or quick attacks which prioritise more hits against the enemy, the third type of attack focus on lowering the enemies guard and should you break it, following up with powerful and quick attacks usually makes light work of enemies. You can assign chain attacks yourself outside of battle using the menu offering some level of customisation, as CPU’s you can transform into a more powerful state, your appearance changed and this is where a lot of fan service comes in. These transformations are told as part of the story and many fights in the game you will already be in this state anyway but when you are not it is always worth using when you can.
Hyperdimension Neptunia Re:Birth1+ is the game that has gotten the most polish and that shows out of the trilogy, as the second and third game retain a lot of the textures and original menus only upscaled onto a console it is obvious to see a lot of the blocky shadows and pixelated on screen UI elements, these were originally Vita games so the upscale is very obvious when playing on a bigger monitor, Re:Birth1+ has better detailed character models and a visibly better UI, while it definitely does not look like PS5 quality in terms of graphics, the game running constantly at 60fps is nice and the environments retain some of that PS3 era looking graphics, which is very nostalgic even if you’ve not played the series before, everything loads at hight speed also which is always a bonus. While it has the most polish it lacks certain qualities that the second and third game fixed such as having a party of four as opposed to three.
All games come with previously released DLC including character costumes, with a plethora of different costumes that can be found and bought and weapons retaining their visual appearance depending on what is equipped Neptunia Rebirth allows you to make your characters look and play how you want.
In conclusion the Hyperdimension Neptunia Re:Birth trilogy has been something I have enjoyed playing even if a lot of it feels dated, as a fan of the games in general I have enjoyed revisiting where Neptunia started and comparing it to the most current games that have PS5 only releases. A lot of what makes these games bad, graphics, constant footsteps of your party members is drowned out by the fun gameplay loop, cast of characters and it is always nostalgic to hear Lite Lite and $100 for the billionth time.
A PlayStation 5 Review Code was provided by Idea Factory International
