Megadimension Neptunia Vii Review

Before starting the review, I figured I should clear up a couple questions that a lot of gamers probably have about Megadimension Neptunia VIIR. Back in 2012, Idea Factory and Compile Heart released Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory as the third game within the main series. A few years later, a sequel titled Megadimension Neptunia VII came out.

Reviewed by playing a with on April 23, 2018.The four goddesses have been on many memorable adventures since their debut back in 2010. This time around, you can interact with them in virtual reality but does this new feature make purchasing Megadimension Neptunia VII again worth it? Out of the way, Dogoos; I have a cool new dungeon to explore!

What the heck is VIIR?Before starting the review, I figured I should clear up a couple questions that a lot of gamers probably have about Megadimension Neptunia VIIR. Back in 2012, Idea Factory and Compile Heart released Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory as the third game within the main series. A few years later, a sequel titled Megadimension Neptunia VII came out. That's right; it's 'V-2', not '7'. Anyway, Megadimension Neptunia VIIR is a remake of sorts that features VR support, rebalancing, and a few additions to the core gameplay.

As seen in the past, these remakes can be substantially better or a bit of a letdown. Thankfully, VIIR adds enough to delight hardcore fans but those who already own Megadimension Neptunia VII and aren't dying to jump back into its delightful world might not find it worth buying yet again. Is PlayStation VR required?No it isn't. In fact, the only parts of the entire game that use PlayStation VR are short scenes known as 'VR Visits' that take place in your virtual living room. To be clear, these scenes can be enjoyed without the use of a VR headset as well. Anyway, in these scenes, the goddesses enter your room via a portal then do something silly like show off their game collection, eat snacks, or talk about philosophical issues.

Once, one of them asked me if I wouldn't mind if they tried a game on my console and I said 'No' as in 'I wouldn't mind' and she was disappointed that I said no. Hey, I didn't mean that! It's silly stuff and doesn't have any sort of impact on the core game which is kind of disappointing as they could have done so much more with PlayStation VR support. I don't think that boy will be so pretty when Nep-Nep's done with him. An adventure in 3 partsWith those questions out of the way, let's get to the review! For those who never played Megadimension Neptunia VII, allow me to say that it's one huge and satisfying adventure. For starters, it takes place within three distinct parts.

The first part (Zerodimension Neptunia Z: Twilight of the Desperate CPU) is a bit dark and desolate. It helps you thoroughly understand the core mechanics of battle and party management as you journey through a dilapidated city with Neptune, Nepgear, and Uzume.When you complete that portion, you'll begin the second section (Hyperdimension Neptunia G: The Golden Leaders, Reconstructors of Gamindustri) where you can choose between the four goddesses and play through each of their scenarios. Believe it or not, this section introduces a ton of gameplay features as the world truly begins to open up. You'll meet a lot of familiar characters, explore an array of memorable dungeons, and enjoy plenty of humorous scenes (including ). It's fun stuff and this middle section really shines with humour and delightful personalities that are portrayed by a fantastic English voice cast.Finally, you'll begin the third portion (Heartdimension Neptunia H: Trilogy Finale: Into Legend) where you'll journey to rescue the goddesses who have been kidnapped.

Things start to get a bit serious in this chapter and even the villains from the previous section (members of Gold Third) join your side. From there, things escalate and you'll eventually watch one of two different endings. You have to love a good Famicom reference Character progression done rightOne thing that Megadimension Neptunia VIIR accomplishes very well is feature oodles of ways to customize your characters. On top of levelling up and equipping better gear, you can also craft items, increase the rank of equipment using catalysts, and create custom discs that have attributes of video games.

Each character also has relationships with the other characters in the form of Lily Rank and can perform cooperative attacks with them in battle. Speaking of which, skills can be purchased and there are a ton of them which gives you a great deal of options when it comes to honing your party into monster-slaying machines.Besides just growing your party, the world map also contains some rewarding mechanics. For starters, you can create shortcuts between locations which is both handy and innovative. Also, you can invest in various aspects of a city such as commerce, industry, and public relations in order to earn items and have the shop sell more stuff. Finally, each town's guild contains a collection of quests that you can try and complete in order to earn loads of bonus cash as well as some nifty items. There's definitely a lot to do. These giant boss battles can be quite exciting!

Nep-Nep puts up a fightFinally, I should discuss the battle system. It should be very familiar if you played any mainline Neptunia game as you take turns moving your characters around an arena and unleashing attacks that have the potential to damage multiple foes. Of course, you can give monsters a whack within the impressively large and detailed dungeons in order to gain an upper-hand. As you fight, you'll have to juggle between attack combos and defensive skills in order to emerge victorious.

There is an AP system in place where you spend points to perform actions so optimizing each character's turn is key to success. Whether you're unleashing flashy special or cooperative skills, transforming into your HDD Form, or strategically using items; it's a solid battle system that can be rather rewarding.All of that being said, I found the majority of the campaign to be super-easy. Whenever I happened to get a game over (which only occurred a couple of times), it was because I was being complacent. I usually overcame these segments immediately after equipping better stuff and using upgrade points wherever I could. So, if you're looking for a hardcore JRPG then this will likely disappoint.

Uzume levels up like a bossMegadimension Neptunia VIIR is possibly the best game in the series. It may be a remake of a game that came out only a couple of years ago but there's enough here to delight both hardcore fans and newcomers alike. Maciejewski (crazyaejay): Thanks for reading my review of Megadimension Neptunia VIIR. Feel free to ask any questions about the game or provide feedback and I'll gladly reply.andelbam: I rather have seen a new game. Hard to convince full price, after owning the original.A.J.

Maciejewski (crazyaejay): I agree. What's here is great but a new game would be even better. Can't wait to see what they come up with next!:DKairo Fujima (kairofujima): I heard that VIIR doesn't have a new game plus option like the previous version. Is that actually true?A.J. Maciejewski (crazyaejay): This is true. There is no New Game+ and there is only one save file which is kind of a bummer.

Completely off-topic: I just found out that the R stands for Realize so this game's full title is 'Megadimension Neptunia Victory 2 Realize'. So silly.Kairo Fujima (kairofujima): Damn, that sucks. Kinda hard to justify a purchase when I already own the original. Oh well, I might cave and get it eventually regardless because I'm a whore for S-Sha.A.J. Maciejewski (crazyaejay): S-Sha's awesome! XD So many overt Square-Enix references. To be fair, I think the different endings are much more linear in this version in that you can get them one after the other so you don't really need a New Game Plus.

I'm not 100% sure, though.Kairo Fujima (kairofujima): I just like going through the game again with OP gear and oneshotting all the problem mobs that gave me trouble my first time around. It helps feed my post-game god complex.

XD Also, having access to your full party as a NG+ unlockable was pretty fun.A.J. Maciejewski (crazyaejay): Yes, that's always fun!

I remember when I first came across New Game Plus as a concept when I finished Chrono Trigger for the first time back in the late '90s. I was like 'What's this?' Then it all made sense when I played it through again and again. And again.

When Neptunia originally released, it was a mediocre RPG that treated its premise like a gimmick and was trying especially hard to sell its core premise. Since those humble beginnings Neptunia has gained some popularity, along with improving pretty much every aspect of the game. Now that we have the first entry on the PlayStation 4, Megadimension Neptunia VII, will the series continue to evolve or will the move to the next-generation result in a return to old habits?

Unlike earlier installments, Megadimension Neptunia VII tells multiple different stories that are all vaguely connected. The story starts with Histoire warning Neptune that she needs to prepare for some upcoming struggles, a plot that largely references the shift we see when consoles enter a new generation in our world, only for her to find an ancient console that takes her and Nepgear, to the Zero dimension to solve their problems. From here the story follows them saving that world, then goes back to the shift, followed by giving each goddess their own subplot, before finally ending it.

Out of all the stories, Zero dimension is the best because it shows how good the concept can be. This whole story, which has a lot of ties to the iconic Dreamcast, is filled with subtitle references that offer those in the loop a little more, without taking away from those without said knowledge. However, this isn’t the only thing Megadimension Neptunia VII does right in terms of storytelling.

Since the story is broken up into multiple distinct storylines, it gives the chance for the other characters to shine. Sure, as Neptune herself will tell you, she is still the main character, but that doesn’t mean the series should revolve around her or the other goddesses shouldn’t have their chance to shine.

For as much as the story gets right, the same, unfortunately, can’t be said about the gameplay. Throughout the series Neptunia has had issues getting the gameplay right. The main issue is that, despite there being a lot of mechanics, the depth only exists if you choose to bother with it. Megadimension Neptunia VII takes a step back in terms of mechanics, while also taking a step forward in regards to difficulty, but come the end of the day the core problem persists.

At first Megadimension Neptunia VII can seem frustrating, largely because you need to grind, you’ll constantly have to swap between characters (who might be under leveled, need gear or you simply lack resources) and constantly swap your combo skills. But as you progress, you’ll eventually hit a point where you can abuse EXE skills to win every fight, hit the level cap in mere minutes, have more than enough credits to buy 99 of every item in the game and even win every battle by using the same move. Even though some of these things can be forgiven, the real issue is that some of these problems have existed though multiple entries.

When push comes to shove, the best way to handle almost every situation is to use rush attacks. Even if you use a worse weapon because it has more rush attacks, the boost in EXE gauge will definitely pay off in the long run. In fact, most fights, even when you don’t vastly overpower an enemy, can be won by having a single character charge your EXE gauge, use an attack or two and win before you run into a DPS problem. The other problem is how the enemies attack.

Similar to your team, the AI has quite a bit of power and is more than capable of taking out your whole team in a couple of strikes. Simply put, some enemies just do a lot of damage forcing you to either end the fight quickly, build around it or waste resources. In many ways the combat is little more than DPS checks, with anything else, besides healing or reviving, being a hindrance to your team.

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The scout system is also back in Megadimension Neptunia VII and, like previous installments, doesn’t serve a real purpose. In this version scouts can collect items, find additional scouts/dungeons/treasure/boss monsters and change the dungeon (more XP, less credits, different enemies, etc). At first these things sound great, but since you need to wait for scouts to finish looking, a task that can take up to 30 minutes, you can progress too quickly to maximize their effectiveness and come post game, you’ll be able to unlock every reward faster than you can complete all the tasks.

Dungeon exploration, item development and quests also took a big hit in Megadimension Neptunia VII. In addition to being fairly linear, most dungeons don’t have a lot of treasure or secrets to find. Even the tasks required to unlock the hidden treasure, which requires you find it via scouting, are more annoying than anything else. Defeat every enemy, destroy so many things, kill this enemy so many times and then you’re rewarded with a fairly underwhelming item. As for item development, there isn’t much need to chase after most items and unless you’re farming or specifically want to develop items, odds are you’ll fail to make most of the items in the game. As for quests, well, since so many of them are linked to scouting, you almost have to go out of your way to complete them and even then most of the rewards are worthless.

Verdict

Megadimension Neptunia VII is a classic example of one step forward, two steps back. While the character interactions are amusing and something fans will enjoy, the overall plot just sort of exists. The combat, which requires some serious effort in the beginning, will quickly devolve into using rush or EXE attacks until you win. Sure there are other things to do, such as scouting, developing items with drops, exploring, quests and more, but so many of these things are as underwhelming as the combat or serve no real purpose unless you play the game in a very specific way. Combine that with various shortcuts, a handful of places to go/enemies to face and you’re left with an experience that is only worthwhile if you enjoy the characters. If not, then you have a fairly shallow RPG with silly characters not afraid to break the fourth wall.

[Editor’s Note:Megadimension Neptunia VII was reviewed on PS4 platform. The game was provided to us by the publisher for review purposes.]

The Good

• Amusing character interactions
• Challenging start
• Awesome moves

The Bad

• Gameplay could be better
• Many elements could be better
• Limited exploration
• No real post game