Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth1

Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth1 is the second game made by Compile Heart that _ have played and what is certain to _ is that the developer is short on money or talented staff. It is a remake of the original Hyperdimension Neptunia with rewritten scenario and system based on the third installment. This is lost in translation of the title, but the original was a ‘hyperdimension game’ and the remake is a ‘hyperdidimension game.’ It takes place in a ‘different’ world.

All the time that _ played this game, _ wondered: why? why is this game made so poorly?

It has this nice concept of video game industry parody. The scenario resolves about goddesses (CPUs in English) representing console hardware fighting against the dark force represented by a character with the special ability to copy things, which clearly represent pirated software. The concept and characters are really well made.

The story starts with the four goddesses fighting against each other to gain Shares (representing market shares), although how this fighting influences Shares is not explained. Neptune - or rather Purple Heart - the protagonist, is fenced off Celestia and falls down to the Lower Realm where ordinary people live. She hits the ground with her head and loses her memory. She is noticed by Compa (representing Compile Heart, the developer), who, being a student in a school raising nurses, decides to help her. Other goddesses at this point went down from Celestia. _ can understand how Noire trying to gain trust of people by helping them would increase her Shares, but how does Hard(ware) War infuences Shares is beyond _. They do not seem to be fighting over territory. _ read on a forum board that the original scenario was more focused on this war, so maybe that game explains this one.

The scenario focues on Neptune being contacted by Histoire, who is locked down somewhere and instructs Neptune to collect four key fragments in order to release her before the world is doomed. The world has been filled with what IF (representing Idea Factory, the publisher) calls Enemy Discs, which spawn monsters. Neptune, along with Compa and IF travel around the world trying to find the key fragments and breaking these discs while at it. The conflict in the story resembles a fight between small children, which fits the setting and the characters really well. There are no fights to the death or anything like it. The story quickly comes to its conclusion once Histoire is released, though.

Neptune’s character seems to be misunderstood by English translators, judging by what _ read in Steam Trading Card descriptions and how her dialogues went in Hyperdevotion Noire. They seem to present her as a dump person, which is not true. While she speaks jokes and makes fun of everything all the time, which angers some of the other characters she meets, and these dialogues are honestly the centre of the game (the game is even titled after her), the game and Rie Tanaka that plays her role clearly tell that this behaviour of hers is her way of defending herself against the lost memory. She is scared inside of the world she does not remember, but at the same time strong enough not to show it, smartly hiding it behind her jokes. She willingly takes on the role of a joker, a moodmaker. When she transforms into Purple Heart, which is more grown-up, her character becomes more composed (as you would expect from an adult) and she stops with all the jokes. In the scenes when she transforms back and forth, the dialogues are simply hilarious.

And the comedy in the dialogues is the only reason to play this game to be honest. There are also other characters besides the goddesses, but they are not so important. The characters representing other developers are even treated like lesser beings, them learning zero to no skills and all. That said, Broccoli is pure gold. But you had to grow up watching Di Gi Charat to appreciate it. BROCCOLI of 2017 is a different company. The whole game seems to be targetted at people of this age range.

Let _ go back to the first paragraph now and focus on the game.

There is a world map, a static picture over which you move a cursor, and select a dungeon to explore from it, which is how the game is played. These dungeons are so small, so simple, lacks good design so much _ simply cannot believe it. You could make them in a day, without thinking too much about it. And it is not just that. They are reused and the only things that change are monsters that spawn and items that you can collect. It does not take five minutes to go from the start to the end in most of the dungeons. The environments are also not captivating either. Some may argue that it is because it was made for the Vita, but the Vita is able to handle more complex environments.

The monsters are wierd. Some are a parody of monsters from other games, some themselves are a parody of games, but their designs just doesn’t fit into the environment. It’s like the dungeons and monsters were made separately. Then again, they come from these Enemy Discs, so there you have it. It’s not that these enemies live in these areas.

The character models are really good, though.

The battle system is done well. You move in turns, in which you control a character one by one. You need to approach an enemy and then press buttons to make simple combos. There are also skills you can utilize. Combo attacks are customizable and split into three kinds of attacks: rush, break and power. Rush attacks increase a guage needed for more powerful attacks faster. Break attacks decrease the monster's guard guage. Power attacks deal the most damage. In theory, because there is no so much a difference between them, although enough to be noticeable. Or maybe it feels so because the monsters are not much of a challange and the bosses have so much of guard that you simply ignore it’s presence.

It is really fun to play and fight monsters with this system, even if that is all there is to the game in retrospect. There are certainly some balancing issues here. It feels like the system could be explored some more. _ think it’s possible to make a more engaging game with this system.

That there is a Remake System that lets you alter some of the game mechanics and add more dungeons and items to the game does not save it. These things are unlocked automatically in other games and it is just a replacement for NPCs on a town map or in-game menus.

Overall, _ really liked the game while reading the story dialogues and felt something amiss while running through the dungeons. It’s like the developers had a nice idea for the story and executed it well, but not an equally good idea for the video game around it. It is good, but there is something important amiss. This something that would make it into a very, very good game. Is it maybe that the world feels so empty? You read about things in this world but they are nowhere to be seen. _ am unable to pinpoint the reason.

_ recommend buying the game when it is on a discount. The full price is a bit too much in _ opinion.

P.S.: _ anticipated a good story with an epic plot with rememberable characters, because _ saw a lot of games under the Neptunia name. Neptunia games are not like this however. Characters in this game are actors. In each game, they are given different roles, a new stage to act on. You need to remember that and understand it while playing. You don’t play Neptunia games because the game or the plot is good. You play it because Neptune, Noire, Blanc and Vert star it them. If you don’t like the actors, you won’t like the game. Neptunia games are a good example of a character game.