Tamsoft’s brawler spin-off of Compile Heart’s premier franchise starts strong, but quickly falls into a repetitive cycle which becomes dull very rapidly.
| Developer | Tamsoft |
| Publisher | |
| Franchise | |
| Genre | Action; Brawler; Hack ‘n’ Slash |
| PSTV | Yes |
| Physical English | Yes – EU/NA |
World-building & Story
Set in the ever-eventful world of Gamindustri (albeit an alternate one than the Re;birth titles), Hyperdimension Neptunia U follows the Goddesses and Candidates as they fight a mysterious unit called the ‘Next-gen mech’ who threatens the peacefulness of the world as well as the Goddesses’ own power.
For anyone unfamiliar with the source material, the Hyperdimension Neptunia series is based around the ‘console wars’ and follows personifications of each of the major console manufacturers in the form of a Goddess who rules over each respective land. It’s an often-hilarious send up of real life events and while never subtle in its approach, always manages to humorously lambaste real-life events in the form of a game.
It’s often the characters that provide the core enjoyment of the experience and things are no different here, with Neptune providing the irreverent comic relief and Vert providing inappropriate comments throughout. The Candidates are included in this release – based on handheld consoles such as DS and PSP – and these help to provide a slightly different dynamic with Uni providing an extra dose of tsundere to Rom and Ram’s wide-eyed optimism. In general the cast is very likeable which makes the story worth seeing.
Unfortunately the plot itself is rather pointless, going nowhere throughout the 15 hour campaign. It follows two new characters – Dengeki and Famitsu (based on Japanese gaming magazines) who are attempting to write a story about the Goddesses, only to witness them losing in battle to Next-gen mech (representing the impending threat of next-generation gaming machines). Other than a few bonding scenes beyond this, nothing else happens and there were times I was left wondering whether I’d missed something major along the way. The Re;birth games didn’t have complex plots, but at least there was always some threat or event happening to keep things ticking along.
As such, it’s difficult to feel at all engaged when playing – the character interactions are fun, but not enough to keep you coming back to the plot. Thankfully the world here is still the brilliant place the Neptunia series is known for, full of parodies of real-world games and events.
Presentation & Sound
Throughout a playthrough, Hyperdimension Neptunia U looks brilliant. Everything about it from models to environments has an extra level of sheen that puts it above other entries in the series and many games on a similar budget, although repetitive enemies and areas detract from the package.
Tamsoft have done some brilliant work on the character models, making them look even more sharp and detailed than seen before in the franchise. They look great in motion – chaining attacks together and flitting around the screen while occasionally launching a special move to light up the screen in colour. A clothing damage feature is also present, but thankfully this can be turned off (by equipping certain items) fairly easily.
Enemy models are less detailed but still look the part and there a number of foes used ranging from otaku to giant dogoo (a mockery of the slimes from Dragon Quest). Unfortunately they’re given very little to do, often just standing around not attacking while you pummel them – but worst of all is how often they’re reused. You’ll enter arenas with the same enemies over and over and it definitely takes away from the overall presentation when you realise just how much is cut and pasted.
This is a complaint which can be extended to environments as well. On their own they look great – a variety of colourful locations from snowy fields to the insides of volcanoes, but they’ll be used over and over to the extent you’ll be sick of seeing them. It’s made worse by the fact that nearly every location is simply lifted from a previous game, making them feel incredibly stale if you’re a seasoned Neptunia player.
Sound is similarly recycled, with music and sound effects nearly solely lifted from Re;birth 1 & 2 (although there are still some killer tunes in there, and some of the new music in there did evoke a strong nostalgic vibe of the Battle Arena Toshinden series for me). At least voice acting is a saving grace, with each actor putting in a killer turn (but in particular Neptune and Vert’s actresses knock it out of the park).
Soundtrack highlight – Battle is Romantic
Gameplay & Content
Following the standard brawler formula re-popularized by the Senran Kagura (due to developer Tamsoft’s involvement), Hyperdimension Neptunia U remains a shallow affair that does little to evolve over a 15 hour playthrough. There’s definitely fun to be had in short bursts, but you’ll quickly grow tired of the game’s repetitive systems.
The core gameplay mechanic in U is brawling – a mix of the hack ‘n’ slash gameplay found in Koei-Tecmo’s Warriors series within a much more confined arena. Your chosen character (from a fairly weak roster of four Goddesses; four Candidates and two reporters) can chain together various combinations of square and triangle to produce combos and fill a special meter to unleash a more powerful attack. They feel fairly mobile – able to jump, dash and guard and in general I had no difficulties controlling them.
In general, the game will send you on a mission to a certain map where you’ll be able to explore, but when you encounter enemies your progress will be blocked and you’ll have to beat them all to continue. These areas will generally be quite cramped and cause havoc with the already temperamental camera which makes fighting more difficult than it should be. It also makes the game feel rather linear, offering little freedom in how you go about things and instead just funneling you down a series of corridors.
Enemies themselves are braindead, rarely attacking you and simply there to make up the numbers (and they’ll often spawn for what feels like forever). The only difficulty comes from the damage they’ll do when they choose to attack – early on they’ll cause 0 damage while later enemies can K.O a character in one hit, which feels like a bizarre balance oversight on the developer’s part. Occasionally you’ll spawn a more difficult boss enemy but you’ll beat these in exactly the same way you beat any other foe, which is very disappointing and worlds apart from the shinobi bosses you fight in Senran Kagura that actually posed some challenge.
And you’ll repeat this mashing hordes of enemies in confined arenas over and over again across Neptunia U‘s different modes. The story gives you various different scenarios to overcome in a fairly standard progression structure; while Neptral Tower challenges to 100 floors of foes with whichever characters you wish (although you’ll grow tired of this far before halfway). There’s also a rather neat tournament mode that allows you to fight the other characters in duels and progress to the next round upon victory, that felt a lot more like a fighting game than brawler and was actually one of the game’s strongest points.
Overall, there is a lot to do in the game between the different modes, but the big question is whether you’ll have the endurance to see it all. There is a fun base game here – but that’s all it ever is, leading to some very stale feeling combat by your 10th or 20th hour.
DLC
It’s briefly worth noting that you can download swimsuits and extra quests for the game (most of which are free, although quests will set you back a measly 79p), but none of these are particularly enjoyable or add much to the game unless you’re particularly in the mood for more to do.
Conclusion
It was enjoyable to see Neptune & co’s universe from a different, action-based angle with U and your first few hours will likely be a lot of fun due to the spectacle of defeating hordes of enemies with flashy special moves. Yet it never evolves beyond this – you’ll use the same attacks on the same foes while never really being challenged in difficulty, leading to a disappointingly flat experience. With the addition of the pointless story it leaves a game that’s fun in short bursts, but otherwise too dull to really recommend (although it is really pretty to look at while it lasts).
5.0/10
kresnik258gaming 