Megadimension Neptunia VII Review
新次元ゲイム ネプテューヌVⅡ(Neodimension Game Neptune VII)
Compile Heart's unlikely flagship series has seen an incredible number of sequels, remakes, ports, spinoffs, even an anime. The original PS3 game in late 2010 was nearly universally panned for its poor gameplay, but the characters and setting have gained a loyal following. Set in a world with four goddesses representing Sega, Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft's game consoles, the characters wage a literal console war for market share, both against one another and from outside threats (like piracy and hackers).
新次元ゲイム ネプテューヌVⅡ(Neodimension Game Neptune VII)
Compile Heart's unlikely flagship series has seen an incredible number of sequels, remakes, ports, spinoffs, even an anime. The original PS3 game in late 2010 was nearly universally panned for its poor gameplay, but the characters and setting have gained a loyal following. Set in a world with four goddesses representing Sega, Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft's game consoles, the characters wage a literal console war for market share, both against one another and from outside threats (like piracy and hackers).
Fighting in the Colosseum
Megadimension Neptunia VII ('Victory Two') is the fourth mainline game and the first on the PS4. The four main goddesses are still around and play important parts in the story, but they share the spotlight this time with Uzume, a goddess representing the Dreamcast console, and the 'Golden Thirds', characters representing powerful third-party game developers ('B-sha' is Bandai-Namco, 'C-sha' is Capcom, 'S-sha' is Square-Enix, and 'K-sha' is Konami).
The gameplay remains mostly the same as the last entry. Characters fight in a circular battle area, and can move a set distance around the field on their turn to position themselves. The game comes with a fresh coat of PS4-graphic paint, a smooth framerate, a couple new features, and several balance tweaks. The framerate slowdown was a major problem in previous games, so I was happy to see that it was gone in Neptune V-II. Positioning-based combination attacks have been added - for example, three characters might share a formation attack where all enemies surrounded within the triangle of their positions will be attacked. The EXE drive gauge fills gradually through each battle, and can be spent to transform your characters or perform special attacks. Unlike the previous game where the EXE drive carried over between battles, it's reset to zero each encounter this time. I consider this a big improvement because it gets rid of the whole 'grind to max EXE level against normal enemies and then go empty the gauge on the boss' strategy that plagued the last game. This also forces characters to use their normal forms more often, and encourages more strategic use of goddess transformation, since that EXE gauge could be used for powerful special attacks instead of transformation. After a certain point in the game, the four main goddesses (Neptune, Noire, Blanc and Vert) will get a second-level transformation, 'NEXT' form. You can't switch directly into this new form, you have to go one step at a time (use 1 EXE drive to transform -> wait until next turn and use 1 more EXE drive to further transform to NEXT form). Again, the basic system hasn't changed that much, but the changes that did make it in are all good ones.
The gameplay remains mostly the same as the last entry. Characters fight in a circular battle area, and can move a set distance around the field on their turn to position themselves. The game comes with a fresh coat of PS4-graphic paint, a smooth framerate, a couple new features, and several balance tweaks. The framerate slowdown was a major problem in previous games, so I was happy to see that it was gone in Neptune V-II. Positioning-based combination attacks have been added - for example, three characters might share a formation attack where all enemies surrounded within the triangle of their positions will be attacked. The EXE drive gauge fills gradually through each battle, and can be spent to transform your characters or perform special attacks. Unlike the previous game where the EXE drive carried over between battles, it's reset to zero each encounter this time. I consider this a big improvement because it gets rid of the whole 'grind to max EXE level against normal enemies and then go empty the gauge on the boss' strategy that plagued the last game. This also forces characters to use their normal forms more often, and encourages more strategic use of goddess transformation, since that EXE gauge could be used for powerful special attacks instead of transformation. After a certain point in the game, the four main goddesses (Neptune, Noire, Blanc and Vert) will get a second-level transformation, 'NEXT' form. You can't switch directly into this new form, you have to go one step at a time (use 1 EXE drive to transform -> wait until next turn and use 1 more EXE drive to further transform to NEXT form). Again, the basic system hasn't changed that much, but the changes that did make it in are all good ones.
Try not to break your controller in frustration in Neplunker.
Besides
the normal battles, a new system was added of 'giant boss battles'
where a huge skyscraper-sized enemy is engaged in aerial
combat. Your characters stand on a circular arrangement of floating
rocks and can jump from platform to platform to position themselves
around the boss. Normal attacks can't be used, but character
SP regens every turn to more easily use special attacks. This had the
potential to be really cool, but unfortunately the battles are all
painfully easy (I was not overleveled) and they require little more than spreading out and spamming
your strongest special attacks to win. There aren't that many of these
battles in the game, so it's not worth worrying about too much. Lastly,
two special 'Neplunker' dungeons were added, based on the old
'Spelunker' game. These are basically platforming dungeons - you enter
the dungeon field with a set number of lives and a time limit, and you
have to avoid hazards and falls to make it to the end. I found this
minigame incredibly frustrating, but it was satisfying to finally beat
the hardest of the two Neplunker dungeons. Since these dungeons are
required for the platinum trophy, I'm sure that some players who care
about trophies but don't care for Neplunker will be banging their heads
against the wall.
Meet the Golden Thirds in the character subchapters.
The narrative is broken up into three main chapters. In the first, Neptune and her sister Nepgear get teleported to a strange wasteland of a dimension, where they meet Uzume Tennouboshi. Uzume has amnesia (it seems to run in the family) and doesn't remember all of her past, but she's fighting against a giant monster that terrorizes her post-apocalyptic feeling world. Uzume's personality in her normal form is of someone who is trying really hard to sound 'cool' - she adores being seen as cool because she associates it with being a strong and reliable protector of the remaining denizens of her dimension. In her goddess form she's the polar opposite, a bubbly girly-girl who daydreams a lot. The act slips every now even when she's not transformed and lets her true nature leak through in some amusing scenes. If you're old enough to remember the ill-fated Dreamcast console, you should get a kick out of her theme and story. We also meet a more grown-up Neptune in this dimension, she's a dual-sword wielding planar traveler with a familiar magic grimoire. In the second chapter each of the four main goddesses has their own character subchapter focusing on them and introducing one of the new 'Golden Third' characters. Fans of any of the companies the characters represent should get some amusement out of the reference-filled stories here. For example, K-sha's character is a mix of Konami's dating sim games like LovePlus, while also representing Metal Gear Solid - an interesting mix to say the least.
There are multiple endings, and the true ending is very difficult to get without a guide. It took the Japanese players a full week or so after release to figure it out, so you're not likely to trigger it on your own. This game has a New Game+ with several handy timesaving features, so on your first playthrough I suggest you just play normally, and then you can use a guide in your second playthrough to get the true end.
The Neptunia series isn't exactly known for being the pinnacle of gaming - I think even most of its fans probably don't think of it as anything more than a fun trope-filled setting with a decent game attached to it. I was pleasantly surprised by Neptunia VII, though. It exceeded my expectations and it's the best mainline Neptunia game to date. If you've been playing the previous games recently then you may want to cool your heels a bit before dipping into this one since it is still very much similar to the most recent entries (I do wish they would change the battle system that they've been re-using since Neptunia mk2 up a bit more), but if you're hungry for more then this entry won't let you down. Also, the game does expect you to already be familiar with most of the cast, so if it's your first foray into the series then I would recommend starting with Neptunia Re;birth 1 (available on PC or PS Vita) instead.
There are multiple endings, and the true ending is very difficult to get without a guide. It took the Japanese players a full week or so after release to figure it out, so you're not likely to trigger it on your own. This game has a New Game+ with several handy timesaving features, so on your first playthrough I suggest you just play normally, and then you can use a guide in your second playthrough to get the true end.
The Neptunia series isn't exactly known for being the pinnacle of gaming - I think even most of its fans probably don't think of it as anything more than a fun trope-filled setting with a decent game attached to it. I was pleasantly surprised by Neptunia VII, though. It exceeded my expectations and it's the best mainline Neptunia game to date. If you've been playing the previous games recently then you may want to cool your heels a bit before dipping into this one since it is still very much similar to the most recent entries (I do wish they would change the battle system that they've been re-using since Neptunia mk2 up a bit more), but if you're hungry for more then this entry won't let you down. Also, the game does expect you to already be familiar with most of the cast, so if it's your first foray into the series then I would recommend starting with Neptunia Re;birth 1 (available on PC or PS Vita) instead.
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Overall Score: 8/10
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B-
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Reviewer & Review Date: Mellow, June 3 2015
Version: Japanese
Release Date: April 23, 2015 (JP), NA/EU 2016
See All Reviews
Version: Japanese
Release Date: April 23, 2015 (JP), NA/EU 2016
See All Reviews
Idea Factory International announced that they will be localizing Neptune VII as 'Megadimension Neptunia VII' , so I adjusted some names in the review from the original time of writing. You can follow IFI's Neptune VII website here. Their current listed English release date is 'early 2016'.