The Hyperdimension Neptunia series has always been one of the most unusual, freaky and ironic among all Japanese RPGs, which, in principle, almost all look a little overseas … Here, let me remind you, we play as four goddesses who rule the fictional world Game industry, where there are regions called Lastation and Linbox. And the history of this world began with the First Great Console War …
Well, stuff like that – a funny parody from geeks and for geeks, which has turned into a rather successful and popular franchise with its own manga, light novel and anime series. However, from time to time it seems that the authors are betting on quantity at the expense of quality – since 2010, over 11 years, they have released 17 games, including all sorts of offshoots and variations on the theme. And these are not always successful projects. The latest to date is Neptunia Virtual Stars , which recently made it to Steam. Why, during the passage, the question arose every now and then: maybe it would be better not to get there?
Speedone
It’s all about content
Another question I asked was something like this: God, what is this madhouse? Perhaps, it was in Neptunia Virtual Stars that the line between the usual geek parody of a game theme and joyful nonsense turned out to be especially thin. This time, the four permanent heroines – Blanc, Noir, Vert and Neptune – were called upon to save the planet Emote (Planet Emote), which exists in the digital universe of Virtualalandia. She was attacked by an army of content destroyers – the so-called “Anti”, led by a colorful and curvy girl named Kado. And Faira, a local goddess, asked our four for help.
Naturally, even the villains are pretty here.
It is the content created by the inhabitants that is the heart of the planet – without it, it will die. Therefore, we must not only fight, but also recreate the content. We save kidnapped Vitubers, turn battles into streams, where viewers make comments like “I wonder how long they will last?”, Fight with Twitter avatars, participate in dance battles to gain audience love and additional rewards.
Did you miss them? And jokes about the chest too?
Realizing the importance of content, Fira also pulled from their reality two popular witubers from the real-life duo (including musical) MEWTRAL . But this is not just for fanservice. Girls Mi and Yu not only added to the list of cute waifu that the series has always been famous for, but also became full-fledged playable characters. This, in any case, the developers were counting on.
Almost all the heroines are together. Mi is on the far left, and Yu is standing next to it.
A very Japanese show
Vituber is a very popular thing in Japan. As a rule, these are streamers and bloggers, represented by cute drawn anime girls, behind whom real people are hiding – but not the fact that girls. In Neptunia Virtual Stars, this theme is played to its fullest – we save them, they help us in return, give various bonuses in battles, comment and broadcast our battle streams, and so on.
These are the videos from the Vitubers that are constantly broadcast in the game.
And the appearance of Mi and Yu became the reason for numerous jokes, funny situations and disputes, who has more subscribers, who is the coolest blogger, and so on. Then other pretty girls bloggers (in particular, those who make content from restaurant criticism) appear in the script – with their cockroaches and funny dialogues.
In general, with humor, parody and irony in Neptunia Virtual Stars, everything is, as usual, in order. Moreover, on topical topics – about content that needs to be “created with love”, and about haters. Army “Anti” – this is actually the typical haters who, before every important battle, notoriously troll our girls and even periodically want to embroil them.
Our heroines did not expect this.
The humor is funny, there is intrigue in the plot, and everything would be fine, but here’s the entourage, the characters we meet, sometimes so colorful that from time to time, as I said at the beginning, you begin to feel like a visitor to a madhouse. When, for example, the following characters become fans of our Vituber girls:
This fan will play an important role.
He also has a sister:
Imagine that this whole circus is accompanied by extremely emotional Japanese voice acting.
Or here we are fighting with cookies and cakes on legs in the middle of the jelly banks, and even under the comments of the Vitubers:
You wanted something sweet, right?
This is not really a claim. Here you don’t scream with anger, but with a stupid smile you grab your head and through laughter and tears repeat: “God, where have I got to!” That is, you feel about the same as while watching very, to put it mildly, strange famous Japanese TV shows. Like these:
Speedone
That is, you need to understand that this is a game made in Japan, where there are such shows. And then everything falls into place. I mean, what is happening in Neptunia Virtual Stars from the point of view of content will be understood and forgiven by fans of the series, but the rest may need time to understand the essence and rules of this specific world. Well, and the help of a psychotherapist in advanced cases.
Quantity versus quality
But about the gameplay itself, everyone – both long-time fans and newcomers who accidentally looked at this anime light – will most likely have a very unequivocal opinion. On the one hand, there is a lot of everything. First of all, we, of course, participate in battles – this is an action game in real time and with the ability at any time to switch between heroines who use different types of weapons and skills. Neptune, for example, shoots everyone with a machine gun, Vert with a sniper rifle, Mi chops with a sword, and Yu shoots with a bow.
The picture really reminds of a typical stream.
In addition, there is pumping, skills that the heroines themselves learn during battles, and artifacts from rescued Vituber. There are platform elements, musical mini-games and a selection of new costumes with their own bonuses (well, where without that!).
You can also choose different gestures.
They are even allowed to buy and build shops for the collected spheres of emotions in order to shop in them, and hubs for distributing one-button quests from residents. And on the basis of the local goddess, you can deposit the same spheres of emotions, communicate with other characters, view open content and stock up on consumables before being sent on the next mission.
The hub for issuing quests is also very conceptual.
There is also a lot in battles: the counters are constantly accumulating and filling up so that you can turn on different modes, call someone, change the music from MEWTRAL, which gives bonuses, go to other realities and fight there, and so on. In battles with bosses, rhythm-game elements still appear from time to time.
In such situations, you just need to click on all available buttons.
But what is the point in all this, if it is inconvenient to switch between girls, shoot and aim, too, and all the work is easier to do with the forces of Neptune alone, which, without any additional modes, calls and rhythm games, “takes out” the bosses? And when it becomes more difficult, unfortunately, it does not become more interesting. The dull grind just turns on (you can return to the already passed locations, where the enemies will be stronger), which only multiplies the sad impressions of seemingly funny, but in fact, uncomfortable, chaotic and unbalanced battles.
And this is how “convenient” is the implementation of the evasion.
Why imbalanced? Yes, because after a fierce battle with a group of ordinary “Anti” Neptune can quickly disassemble the next boss into bytes. That is, the difficulty curve in Neptunia Virtual Stars jumps.
What there are definitely no complaints about is the work of artists.
And in general, the impressions of the game are the same, jumping. Now you smile at what is happening, then you grab your head, then you are amazed at the abundance of possibilities, then you wonder why all this is needed and how the authors managed to lump everything together so unsuccessfully. But in general, you understand that Neptunia Virtual Stars is a product strictly for its own people, who, for the sake of another meeting with Noir and Neptune, will endure everything. For others, this is just another very strange Japanese RPG, and also redundant, inconvenient and unbalanced.
Pros: a new game in the popular series, where you can experience adventures with your favorite heroines; a lot of really funny situations, characters and dialogues.
Cons: unbalanced and inconvenient gameplay; with an abundance of various gaming opportunities, many turned out to be superfluous or unsuccessfully implemented; outdated graphics; clubfoot control.