Review: Hyperdimension Neptunia

Hyperdimension Neptunia

Reviewed by: Fuuko
Type: Game
Platform: PS3

Part 1: Neptune's Amnesic Adventure

Yo! Fuuko here and this is my summary and review of Hyperdimension Neptunia.

In Hyperdimension Neptunia, a Console War has begun in Celestia where Goddesses Purple Heart, Black Heart, White Heart, and Green Heart are fighting. Black Heart suggests that they team up and defeat one Goddess and the decision was to eliminate Purple Heart (majority rules! And on the main character too!). 

To be honest, I thought I would start playing as Purple Heart when the battle scene came up but it instead shown all the Hearts attacking (3 vs 1) and Purple Heart got defeated and then blacks out. 

After having an encounter with a figure known as Histoire in her dream, as Neptune, she wakes up in a house of Compa, a young nurse-in-training, in the landmass called Planeptune but doesn’t seem to remember anything. Compa tells Neptune that she has Amnesia. During that conversation, this happens…

Nice plot, no? (^_^)

They later started going to a couple of dungeons to fight monsters and met a girl (that Neptune bumped into) named IF, a traveling guild member. After completing IF’s mission, IF joins the Party (due to a “RULE” they must follow in Gamindustri) and suggested that they should go to the Basilicom for permission to travel around Gamindustri.

IF-chan kawaii~! (^_^)

Part 2: Nep-Nep! Ready, GO!

After getting permission from the Basilicom, Neptune, Compa and IF explore Planeptune and the other landmasses of Gamindustri by land jumping or “Terraportation”. Each Landmass has a couple of events that must be completed before the story can continue since they each have a certain Key Fragment.

In Lastation, Neptune, Compa, and IF must help a business person named Chian with her struggles against Avenir, a mega-corporation. They also meet a girl named Noire, Lastation’s leader (aka their Goddess), who they believe also has “amnesia” like Neptune and try to help her gain her memory back (though they don’t need to anyway…). When Noire is not with Neptune and co., Goddess Black Heart shows up and attacks them (this happens about 3 times). 

Neptune: Guess who!? (^_^) *hugs Noire*

Around that time, this event got stopped halfway and I had to travel to the other landmasses and complete part of their events as well as some quests before continuing this one again… (_ _; )

In Lowee, there are 2 events that occur here. One involves the guild that IF is in. They are people who don’t worship their land’s Goddess and worship another land’s Goddess. They are also known as heretics. There are 2 types - Extremists (hate other Goddesses and those who worship them) and Moderalists (don’t have anything against any Goddesses and their worshipers like IF). It’s mostly about the uprising of the Extremists. The other problem is Goddess White Heart herself. She attempts (3 times) to finish off Neptune but fails in the end.

White Heart reading a book. [My Goddess! (^o^)]

Battling White Heart was kinda hard for me. I lost almost every healing item I had…especially Round 3.

In Leanbox, Neptune and co. are involved with the Aristocrats and their conflict against Leanbox’s Basilicom. But first, Archbishop Yvoirie tries to finish off Neptune by poisoning her. The Aristocrats save the team from what Yvoirie did and Goddess Green Heart only battles the party once since she’s wondering why they were with the Aristocrats. The team later starts helping Green Heart as she tries to stop the Aristocrats. It also shows that Moderalist IF worships Goddess Green Heart.

Green Heart just waking up

I was really bummed out that I couldn't use Neptune after that event with the poison… (_ _) I think when I got Neptune back in the party; she was 2-3 levels lower than Compa and IF’s levels.

A lot of random events also occur like meeting people or animals like “the King of the Woopa Troopas” (no hints needed) and reading the Blogs the Goddesses post like Green Heart blogging about “Hoop: Reach” (no hints needed again). 

Some Blogs from White Heart and Black Heart

Within their Journey, they meet Nisa, a warrior of justice, and Gust, a petit, usagi attire wearing traveling merchant. They come in handy in the game (Nisa shows all the Landmasses’ shares; Gust discounts everything in the shop) but they’re not playable unless you buy their Battle Ticket (aka DLC). 

Two others are also not playable but also have their own events if you buy their Ticket are 5pb, a radio star whose real name is Lyrica, and RED, a girl looking for a “YURI” moment (so basically, searching for a wife). I've never played 5pb’s and Red’s events so I can’t really say anything around this point… (^_^; )

Other than that, 5pb also does a short radio show (Hi-five Radio) which is part of the search menu in the game.

Part 3: Histroie and the Legendary Weapons

Around this point, Neptune and co. finds out that Arfoire, the person that they keep bumping into in Lastation, Lowee, and Leanbox was the root of their troubles they had to endure. Arfoire was aiding Extremists and Guild members with Monster-summoning Discs (I want to say Pokéballs for some reason…) and create chaos as well as spreading rumors of Overlord Momus to get people’s fear for power.

The Party returns to Planeptune with the 4 Key Fragments and rescues Histroie.

There's no way this book becomes a cute loli that I want to pet after saving her! (O_O;)

Histroie then tells them the truth about Neptune and who she really is. She also tells them to go to Celestia and defeat Arfoire there for good but they need the 4 Legendary Weapons held by the 4 Legendary Heroes who previously defeated a Goddess to act as the key to open up the gateway to go to Celestia.

So they travel Gamindustri once more and find the Legendary Weapons which are:

- The Trinity Blade - a giant sword held by Hero Yuzusuki of Planeptune

- The Dual Revolver - a revolver gun held by Hero Kuterogi of Lastation

- The Trust Spear - a spear held by Hero Miamoato of Lowee

- The Wisdom Bow - bow and arrow held by Hero Gheytz of Leanbox

(These Heroes are famous in real life too [if you know who they are and/or spell their name differently]) (^_^)

But Arfoire is there and will try to stop them.

At this point as well, the option of getting the other Goddesses is available once Neptune regains her memory thanks to Histroie and get at least 40% of their shares in their respective nations.

I seriously have no idea how to do the shares system at that time until the sequel came out so I never got any of the Goddesses in my team… (_ _; )

Once the Weapons are gathered, the gateway to Celestia has now opened and their Final battle against Arfoire awaits!

Part 4: The Final Battle

Neptune and co. are at Celestia and are about to go to their final battle against Arfoire. Arfoire has 2 forms in this fight.

There are about two Endings in this game, a normal ending (which I got) and a True ending (I gave up on this one).

The Normal Ending is where after the battle, Neptune and her party continues and fight the remaining monsters.

The True Ending happens if all the Goddesses join the Party and Neptune regained her memories. Afroire’s third form (aka her true form) is the True Final Boss. 

After the battle, the Goddesses agree to use Histroie’s power to eliminate all the monsters, give up their powers and make a new Goddess that will rule Gamindustri as well as prevent another Console War. They also turned Human and live new lives.

Overall, during the Battle Parts, after playing it for a certain amount of time, I started to fall asleep because that battle style is too repetitive and walking around dungeons randomly being attacked like in Pokémon where you walk in the grass or cave and run around waiting for something to pop out kinda pissed me off in this one because “I DON’T HAVE REPELS!” (>_<; ). 

The story however kept me very well entertained that I forgot all of my complaining and watched and listen to their conversations.

My personal score for this one (out of 10) is:

Story: 7 (It was good, entertaining, and somewhat solid [to me]; At least kept me awake at most)

Side Events: 7 (Funny and entertaining)

Music (in-game): 5 (Got annoying mid-way playing though the game)

Music (OP/ED): 9 (Loved it! I repeated the OP multiple times!)

Battle gameplay: 6 (It was great Battle Style but it gets too repetitive after a while)

Dungeon Exploration gameplay: 4 (It’s like you’re traveling in a cave with full of Zubats most of the time)

CGs and Animation: 10 (Looked pretty amazing)

Characters: 10 (They all look Moe/Beautiful and amazing!)

Voices (JPN): 9 (Most sounded familiar to me)

Voices (ENG): N/A (never actually played it with their English voices)

Overall Score: 7.4

In closing, if you’re new to Hyperdimension Neptunia, this game should be a good start for you to learn about the first set of characters before trying out the sequels (they actually have a different timeline from this one). 
Though I did get tired of it once I finish it (Exactly 1 month, 3 days before Hyperdimension Mk2 came out), it doesn't mean that I don’t hate it. I actually want to play it again sometime in the future but I’m letting someone borrow it at the meantime.

I think I typed too much… (^_^; )

Anyways, “Which Goddess will you follow?” 

(I know that i'm with Blanc/White Heart all the way!)

See you all again!

-Fuuko