Game Over: Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 1

For months now, I’ve been collecting Idea Factory RPGs. I’ve no idea why, as I haven’t really been in the mood for JRPGs for a while, I just really liked the art style. Also, I blame one of my colleagues. But anyway - I've recently finished Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 1.

The Neptunia games have been around since 2010 on the PlayStation 3 - this is actually a remake for the first one (hence the Re;Birth in the title), and was released in 2014. It redid basically everything but the basic plot - battles, characters, script, voice acting, music…

The story begins with the four goddesses of Gamindustri (pronounced “game industry”) having a fight. They team up against Purple Heart AKA Neptune and knock her out of Celestia, down to the planet below. She lands in her region - Planeptune - and is rescued by Compa where it’s discovered that Neptune doesn’t remember anything. Also, because Compa can’t pronounce “Neptune”, she calls her Nep-Nep. This is a running theme.

As the pair explore, they meet IF, who they nickname Iffy, as well as half a dozen or so ladies from other dimensions who know their “local” Neptune. To get Nep’s memories back, they have to find key fragments for the mysterious voice of Histoire, who is a tome and locked away somewhere. This involves travelling to the other lands and teaming up with their goddesses: Noire of Lastation, Vert of Leanbox and Blanc of Lowee.

As they travel, they discover that a woman called Arfoire is trying to steal their powers, and cause confusion in their lands so that people stopped believing in the goddesses. Needless to say, once Histoire is rescued, the focus changes to stopping Arfoire.

In all, finishing Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 1 took me just over 28 hours to complete. Steam says that I played it for 34 hours, which means there were six hours that I spent fighting bosses before dying and reloading, suffered crashes, or accidentally left the game running in the background. But nevermind that.

I honestly enjoyed the heck out of it, which admittedly surprised me. As mentioned, I haven’t been in the mood for a chunk of JRPG for a while. Also, I was quite aware that there might have been a ton of cheesecake waiting for me. Apart from the lesbians, the breast-obsessed brothers and the occasional CG scene with bouncing boobs, it was pretty tame. Yes, you can see up Compa’s skirt quite often, depending on how you use her in combat, and transformations are usually accompanied by some bouncing, but all in all it was tame.

Each of the characters have their distinct personalities and equipment, and it is fun to see their interactions with one another. The voice actors are very good too, apart from Neptune’s super flat delivery after she transforms into Purple Heart. It’s awkward and stilted, and if IMDB didn’t assure me it was the same actor, I wouldn’t have believed it.

The music is catchy, and I bopped my head along for a lot of it. The graphics are bright and colourful, the character and enemy designs are pretty great, there’s not a lot of grinding and there is a ton to do apart from the main story.

That, apart from Purple Heart’s voice, is the only negative thing I found. They have this whole Re;Birth system, which allows you to remix levels by changing the enemies and items. It also lets you unlock items and equipment that you wouldn’t be able to obtain any other way. However, I barely used it except out of curiosity and a couple of times to get stronger enemies for grinding purposes. You need specific items for it all, but there’s no way of knowing where to get said items (if they even randomly drop for you) without a guide.

I’m eager to move on to the sequel, Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth2 Sisters Generation, and play through more of these games. It’s certainly proven more memorable than the last couple of JRPGs I tried getting into, and the light cheesecake certainly doesn’t hurt.

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Check out my Let's Play of the game on the below links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bZL0L0z_9A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBgZL9SF5NA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0vLYjHVBjg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpY6wSVboNM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9EdZbzLhtg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYphFwmUYA8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfJHSyBw6l8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoWchTokkZk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XwNczqpSNk