It’s one of the multiple remakes for the Neptunia games that have been released in the Vita system and the west, most of the games have been kept for Japan and only a few have been made localized to the west, this being one of the polished remakes for the PlayStation Vita in 2013 and 2014.
The series has multiple spinoffs and remakes that may be confusing, for the time being we will take only the first Rebirth game on handheld console as the Vita.
Developed by Idea Factory, Compile Heart and Felistella. Published for Compile Heart, Tecmo Koei, Idea Factory International and NIS America.
It has seen multiple releases alongside the PS3, PS4, PS5, PSVita, Windows, using the PhyreEngine.
The Hyperdimension Neptunia series it’s an RPG and single player as main target for most of its games.
The world Gamindustri is beneath the Goddesses land Celestia where they are fighting for the Console War, the power of the CPUs is based on the shares of their believers in each land, Lowee, Leanbox, Lastation and Planeptune.
Highlights for Hyperdimension Neptunia Rebirth
Story
A nurse student sees something falling from the sky nearby, picked by curiosity she goes to the place where the object landed or smashed the earth precisely, however, she found a person and not an object that fell from the sky.
The person is a purple haired girl called Neptune, for some reason she is nicknamed Nep Nep by Compa, Neptune says she can’t remember anything but her name. This leads Compa to think that she has amnesia.
They hear that monsters are suddenly running loose, they decide to hunt them; after going to a second dungeon, they find an adventurer IF to explore it together after the dungeon Neptune invites If to join her party.
Gameplay
The battle system is modeled in 3D to explore and fight multiple kinds of enemies that has some charm for the otaku vibes, lot of gamer and anime references.
Most of the game progress is visualized in the screen as a visual novel, the characters talk and move a little as the conversations follows but the content and most of the actions off combat is only to “read walls of contents” in Iffy words.
The exploration is very basic like any other JRPG, the protagonists run to attack a monster to enter in the battle as the player can be attacked as well and start the battle is disadvantage.
Each land has a guild, store and other functions to strength our party and complete missions. Completing missions, we will see how the shares are oscillating for each land, these are going to be important on the final chapters.
During battle we can see the turns order in the corner, also the amount of AP to every party member and the respective moves that can be performed during the turn depends how you manage these actions.
While the enemies have 2 bars, one for health points and other for guard points, when you attack both bars go down depending on the action selected once the guard bar is down the enemy will be stunned suffering more damage while is down.
Plans
It’s the customization of the world, as long as we progress trough the story there are multiple events around the world, if you check them constantly you see lots of NPCs talking a random message and give you a plan to create something, it can be a weapon, armor, accessories and other stuff more important as it can be dungeons and its customization.
You can have plans to fortify enemies, weaken them or to change the loots from each dungeon, this can let you have special bonus in battle.
The plans to add items and Add enemies are most common among the dungeons, you can turn them on or off depends on what you need, ideal for side quests and to create plans.
Adding enemies can put different icons on the map while you explore, be careful to check them often to not enter in battle with a Strong enemy or a Dangerous enemy in low levels.
Graphics
The looks are modeled for the PS3 era and the Vita in early days of the PS4 intergenerational days, they look good on the JRPG manga/anime style, they are not realistic at all as the new games of the same art style but it has its own charm.
The visual novel parts are more detailed and captivates the fans with the hilarious script and characters interactions.
There are special events where the pictures are displayed on the whole screen to give that special feeling in the conversation and make emphasis on the importance of these outcomes.
Sound
Most of the game series OST are composed by Kenji Kaneko. The sound is pretty accurate and doesn’t seem to have any out of place, the music is very similar for the dungeons and world map.
Weapons and actions have clear sounds and basic timing, fells very well matched as any other visual novel. There are classic sound effects for actions parodying the classic anime fanservice situations and such.
Performance
The remake of the PS3 version for the Vita version is known for the good improvement and adaptation to handheld device. It has mixed reviews on the west.
The game runs smoothly most of the time facing some frame drops when the Exe ability is performed in the 5th hit of the combo. Most of the time is the only issue seen.
Conclusions
- The game is a parody of the current videogames industry with anime and fanservice references everywhere.
- The game doesn’t have any big innovations or something precisely outstanding among the genre but has a special charm that makes you want to play it even if it’s just a joke.
- The mixed visual novel and 3d exploration battles are the game main gameplay.
