Written by Natalie Houghton
This is the best Hyperdimenson Neptunia game out there
so far - there I've said it. If this is
your particular poison then run out to the front lines and grab a copy and
prepare to Nep your way into oblivion for what may seem like the 100th time
this year.
Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth3: V Generation starts
with a firm boot to the head where all of the Goddesses (CPU's) are attempting
to rid themselves of Neptune by beating her to a pulp so that they can take
over Gamindustri once and for all. This inadvertently starts off a chain reaction
which leads to Neptune being sucked into a portal and then falling hilariously
face first into a 1980's tinted version of Gamindustri.
After a dose of re-orientation to this new and
seemingly outdated land (but not before helping Neptune acquire her
transformational powers again), it is determined that in order to return
Neptune to her own dimension, she must raise the shares of Neptunia
sufficiently enough so that a portal can be opened and in any Neptunia game
this can only mean one thing: an epic quest fest.
In the mean time, she plays along with the CPU's of
this alternate world and gradually re-discovers her old friends as well as making
some new ones. Enter Plutia - a welcome addition to the cast who initially
starts off as the only CPU for Planeptune. At the onset she comes across as
being a complete and utter airhead. However, in her HDD form her personality
does a complete switch and she turns into the sadomasochist otherwise known as
'Sadie' - this helps to create some of the most amusing scenes in the game.
The whole premise is to essentially get Neptune home and
in one piece whilst traversing the console wars of the 80's and 90's, battling
monsters and avoiding the evil machinations of the Seven Sages who will do
almost anything to try and eliminate the CPU's and control Gamindustri
themselves. Along the way there is also a multitude of quests to complete,
dungeons to explore, special monsters to smash, items to gather and plans to
unveil.
Characters level up in the usual way, although they can
also have their skills and stats enhanced by effectively upgrading themselves
with plans that can be found. Plans apply not only to characters but to almost
everything in the game, dungeons can be changed, weapons and items discovered
and monsters strengthened or weakened. So it's imperative that you utilise
plans effectively.
The lily system also makes a return - characters who
fight together will eventually find true love together. Maybe not quite... but
they will both become stronger if they are coupled together, one in the front
and one in the rear - seriously! The higher each character's lily rank the more
abilities they will each gain when in one another's sweet embrace.
Most of the previous game mechanics are left intact or
are very similar - Stella's dungeon (a roguelike mini-game that consists of
Stella endlessly climbing a huge tower in search of loot) also makes a return. Combo
skills are the basic attacks that are utilised in battle and they can also be
heavily customised to your specific tastes or elemental preference. Gradually
you'll unlock more slots which can result in some quite impressive combo moves.
The usual ream of skills is also present along with a wide array of challenges
that increase character stats and unlock various upgrades the more that are
completed.
In order to combat the EXE drive abuse that was the
optimum strategy for the last game, HDD mode is now tied to the amount of SP
that you have. SP is restored by hitting monsters and whilst this is good in
theory, the rush attacks give you a lot more SP than any other kind of attack
so a lot of the time, you'll simply be hammering rush attacks and then
unleashing either your special moves or EXE drive. This means it has simply
swapped one unbalanced tactic for another. Bosses or stronger mobs do at least
require some more thought as you have to break their armour down first. The
battle system, whilst good could easily have been a bit deeper and tactical.
The dungeons are typical Neptunia fare and I've no
doubt that you'll have seen a few of them already if you've played any game in
this series before and this is where the game falls down slightly with re-used
dungeons, monsters, textures and music all beginning to seem a bit too familiar
with most of them having been almost copied and pasted from the 2nd game. Graphically,
the colour palette is energetic and as vivid as usual and all of the models do
look quite sharp on the PS Vita with absolutely no slowdown experienced.
Overall, the dialogue is quite interesting and the
characters know how to poke fun at themselves and the game industry as a whole.
However, they are in desperate need of an editor as the cut-scenes are overly
long and often tend to have a bit too much pointless waffle included. There are
indeed many subtle nods to the console wars throughout various eras and the
differences between them.
The soundtrack has quite a light hearted upbeat tempo which
suits the game quite well (as it is after all intended to be an adventure that
doesn't take itself too seriously). For all intents and purposes, given that
the characters are almost 100% clichés and the plot is filled with a ton of
video game references and cultural in-jokes I shouldn't have liked this... but
as always and once again, it turned out to be quite a juicy guilty pleasure.
Overall 7/10
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