| Developer: Idea Factory, Compile Heart |
| Publisher: Idea Factory International |
| Price: $59.99 (PS4) |
| Genre: Visual Novel, JRPG, |
| Release date: Feb 2nd, 2016 (US+EU) |
 Where to Buy: PSN, Official Store, Amazon, Gamestop |
The latest localization of the popular fusion of Visual Novels meet Jrpgs. Megadimension Neptunia VII brings us back to the two sisters Nepgear, and Neptune. You will meet more of the series cast along the way but I will not mention whom. Well other then the two Nep sisters. Along the way Neptune finds herself a old console just laying around. Along with faint cries for help. She retrieves the console and brings it back to her younger sister Nepgear.
Gameplay is practically the same as the other games in the series. If you never played any of the other games in the catalog. They are pretty much have a hybrid Jrpg-tactical kind of combat system. The story flows through pretty long scripted cut scenes in the form of visual novels. Contenting usual drama and comedic valve. What is a new upgrade to the game is its three different story arks. Each contenting characters of the stories of old and new comers along the way. Its new battle system is pretty much dusting off its older standard with adding a way to use a “Next Form” form for each one of your CPU characters in the game. This changes their personalities. Some bits of their outfits change in the transformation. This is required for more challenging larger enemies in the game. Basically think of it as even more skimpy outfits, like Pokemon but with mega fan service added. It does spice up the already familiar cosmetic the game has for the on going battles you already have. If you played the older game it really is not completely new. But has a vibe of freshness faintly hitting it. They also applied a partner system to it to enhance main party members in battles. You can tag out each party member if one gets low in hit points or life with a fresh party member. Giving you a total of eight characters to control. The battle system is fun as ever. It features a simple to understand for even the most simplest of thinkers. All you do is position your characters and attack. Using the right combinations of attacks also play a key factory. But that is mostly mentioned in the how-tos in the beginning of the game. The game houses many things you know of in Jrpgs, in the over world acts like the games crafting station, and shop front. You can purchase weapons and such from grinding enemies for their parts mostly and just the next best thing to your weapons. Armor as well. I am used to doing this kind of thing to be honest. For others who might be casual to the genre it could pose as a annoyance. Sure you can find chests through out the game that contain freebie weapons. But I mostly just sat here grinded enemies then sold the parts off for cash. Call me out fashioned. It felt more helpful to build my characters anyway. The first boss you encounter is called Uniceldos. I will not ruin too much to how to beat him. It introduces the break off system where most enemies house a defense buff due to limbs they process like a shield, armor or whatever else. It takes a while to wind down most enemies and heir defense, at least for the introductory boss fight. Almost annoying then completely enjoyable. Down the line it becomes more smoother to do so. I am not expecting instant gratification here, just some sort of Nerf here for damage sponge bosses. The over world map handles like a game board, or like Super Mario Bros 3. When you move across pin points it could trigger a enemy encounter. These are the same like the ones in the dungeons you explore in the game. They are mostly to slow down the pace of progression and to give you some extra experience points along the way.
After the first chapter you then enter another, with a new theme, involving the change of the realm of Gamindustri. This time around you can get a party up to four CPUs. Making combat actually a lot more fun then the previous chapter. The over world also gets a few things added too. Such as being able to craft game discs. These game discs vary even down to USB drives too. Crafting you slots that include resistances to skill elements like fire or whatever. From this point on the game puts you up against the Golden Three. Even though there are clearly four members. What ever I suppose. They replace the CPUs in charge of each realm in the land. The objective from that point I will leave a blank slate for you to find out for yourself if you so choose to play the game.
The games visuals are sharp and so pretty to look at. Characters showing lively animation and peppy animation. One downside I was hoping for among its release was a free to swap Japanese voice actor/actress within its options. It was a bit of a downer. I was never a big fan of the English voice cast as much as most could keep sanity. Alas, mostly a opinion not a hurting aspect to the game. I do hope a patch or something comes along to allow us to pick whatever language we can hear for the dialog. The game itself is on a story chain where you do get some decent dungeon/ landscapes to wonder through and smack down video game themed like enemies. Otherwise you are shown cut scenes like that from modern day anime visual novels.
In Closing:
The game hits all of the sweet spots. It offers a narrative that seems to never cut back from dialog between characters issuing a balance of personality. This shows a built structure of relationships between said characters too through character pairing in battles, and off the grid in dialog. The game offers so much depth of a battle system that it could be missed by folks who lack the patience to want to understand. This perhaps could be due to the games cutesy nature many Jrpg fans also too could be turned off by its fan-service fused characters. I am not really a huge fan on that kinda character design as I usually state all the time. I found a lot of fun just by the combat and playful humor within the game more so then the bouncing boobs every where. Just me. Overall the characters that are housed within the structure of the game kept things spiced up.
One downside to the game was its lack of side quests. I personally loved to do these and hoped for a crap-load to do. Oh well. One of the other things to note about the game is you can pretty much ignore the whole dialog and play it without having to listen to any kinda of conversation and play it bare. Just by going to quest point to quest point. I did not myself, but heard of others originally just flying through it and not enjoying the story. I guess some could not if they could not speak Japanese, huh? Haha. Overall I found this game was a treat and if you enjoyed the other games in the series be sure to get it on PS4.
Recommended! –
If you love Jrpgs with a good story. Visual Novels with clever sexual humor. Old fans of the series will find more of the same with a bit more depth to the battle system. And love a game with good challenge.
