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Hello everyone, and welcome to the 87th Journal Page; Page 100 doesn’t feel so far away now, does it? Before we start the usual routine, if you are a fan of the Atelier series, here’s your friendly reminder to check last week’s Page about Atelier Meruru DX!
And now, your usual recounting of what I’ve done this week; I finally achieved my prime objective in Rune Factory 5 by marrying Lucas, my favorite male character in the game! Now, unfortunately, I don’t have much left I want to achieve, apart from unlocking both my vacation home and my sweet couple’s children (Huh… I mean, you do unlock them, but that just sounds awkward to write…); as such, I decided to take a pause from this title (to EmeraldDM8’s surprise), and I instead started an Otome game that I had lying on my Otome Shelf™, “Lover Pretend“. It seems to be quite funny so far and I have been really enjoying it, as it does a great job depicting both the highs, and the lows, of what happens in both movie production and the modeling industries, so I think I made the right choice. 🙂
Additionally, one of the characters in that title, called Kamikubo, is voiced by the same voice actor who played my favorite Cupid Parasite character, Allan, so that may or may not have had some effect on my choice of what to play.
If Lover Pretend keeps being this good, absolutely do expect a Page about it!
A quick note before we move on to the game of the day, if you are a recurring reader of the Journal, you might remember that I’ve actually already reviewed a spin-off of the Neptunia series, Superdimension Neptune VS Sega Hard Girls, so if you’re interested, please feel free to have a look! Don’t worry, this blog won’t be going anyway, so you can come back after reading that one. 🤣
With that suggestion out of the way, it’s time for me to start my journey to the land of Gamindustri to talk about…
| Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth1 |
|---|
This is an RPG developed by Compile Heart, which was released for PlayStation Vita back in 2013, exclusively for Japan, although it was brought to the rest of the world in the following year; it then received a Steam port in 2015, before getting a final port to the PlayStation 4 in 2018. While this could be recognized as “the first game in the Neptunia series”, it is actually a remake of the original Hyperdimension Neptunia for PS3, offering a huge overhaul of both the story and the gameplay (more on that later on). As with many games of this kind, I played it on my Steam Deck.
We follow the adventures of the poor and ditzy Neptune, one of the four goddesses (called CPUs) of Gamindustri who, during the Console War, was defeated by the other three, and exiled from her home, Celestia, to the Lower Realm, where her believers, the humans, live. There is an issue, however; Neptune has lost her memories and, as a result, has forgotten that she is a goddess, and now an evil force is trying to claim control of Gamindustri…
Will Neptune and the new friends that she makes along the way be able to defeat such a powerful enemy?
As you might have guessed by reading the plot premise above, this game wants to recount facts from one of the various Console Wars (specifically the one between PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360, belonging to the seventh generation of gaming), albeit in a funny and sometimes inaccurate way; in fact, the other three goddesses who defeated Neptune are personifications of those consoles and are always fighting for supremacy (you might be asking, what about Neptune then, is she a console too? … Well… I have no idea. 😅). Even so, in order to face their common enemy, they’ll have to team up, despite their differences.
EmeraldDM8’s Note: I did some research (I generally do the research on games like this, because I’m unlikely to ever play them myself, and Blisscast doesn’t want to risk coming across accidental spoilers), and, according to the Wiki, it would appear that Neptune likely got her name from the unreleased “Sega Neptune”, which was meant to be released back before the “Sega Saturn”, but was cancelled due to concerns regarding oversaturation of the market, and that it would, in turn, end up being an unintentional competitor to the Saturn. However, whether or not anything more than her name was based on this lost console, I am not sure. Here is an interesting article I found regarding the Sega Neptune for anyone who may be interested in learning more.
Gameplay-wise, this title is played similarly to that Neptunia spin-off I mentioned above, Superdimension Neptune VS Sega Hard Girls, where you have your own classic JRPG party that battles random enemies in dungeons, but with a twist; during each turn in battle, you’ll be able to move your character in a certain range, and then stop in a specific spot to launch your attacks, which have a predetermined in-built area they can hit which, if there are enemies within said area, you’ll be able to hit them. What’s intriguing about this is that, with some careful and pixel-perfect measuring, you can actually hit more enemies than you’d normally expect, and make more use out of your moves, so really, the game has a large focus on the strategic nature of arranging your party’s placements in order to make the most of your given situation. Once you have chosen to use either a combo of a few attacks or a skill, your character’s turn is over, and another character can intervene.
EmeraldDM8’s Note: So, in an admittedly rare twist in which I reveal something about myself, thus breaking down some of the mystique that I have worked so hard to build across this site, I have recently finished Persona 5 Tactica (No, I will not be releasing my own blog on it, since, as we all know, I only release a solo blog once in a blue moon, plus it’s a game that Blisscast will probably want to use for the Journal), and the position-based combat gameplay of it sounds strikingly similar to how Blisscast has described Neptunia. Although I imagine Death End re;Quest would be a more apt comparison.
Blisscast’s Note: Impossible! He acknowledged Death End re;Quest?! Speaking of, when are you going to play it again?
EmeraldDM8’s Note: I don’t know, maybe when you decide to give Shining Resonance Refrain another shot. Or maybe when you actually finish the “About this Blog” Page.
Blisscast’s Note:Gah! Quick! Change the subject! 👀
So, how do we make our characters able to fight properly? We can either spend our hard-earned gold on armor, weapons, accessories, and clearly useful cosmetics, or we can… grind. Yes, sadly this is one of those games where it’s required for you to grind many levels, although I’ve found that it initially looks to be harsher than it actually is, as battling mini-bosses does the job just fine; plus, the title offers an unlockable Easy Mode, which doesn’t make the game easier per se, but reduces the number of levels you need to grind.
EmeraldDM8’s Note: Sorry, me again, but I felt I had to ask; why would a game ever make you unlock Easy Mode? Isn’t that meant to be the mode for beginners in order to ease them into a game until they feel ready for Normal Mode? Pokémon weirdly did this as well back in Black & White 2, where you had to transfer the option for Easy Mode form another copy of the game that had already beaten the Champion. It’s such a strange choice, and one that I’m glad the Gaming Industry hasn’t carried with it into the future.
And what about the dungeons? Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth has plenty of dungeons, which might ring a few bells to anyone who has played a spin-off or a sequel before trying this title, as they’re all recurring stages from the series; they’re usually filled to the brim with incredibly easy enemies, a couple of deadly mini-bosses, and items you can use to make Plans, which is the game’s way of handling unlockable features and upgrades. If you make good use of this system, you’ll get several rewards out of it, such as additional mini-bosses in such dungeons, your required cosmetics, and some intriguing weapons. While some of these were tricky to obtain, I appreciated being able to breathe some life into earlier dungeons I had already completed.
Leaving the gameplay aside, let me talk about what actually makes this game worth playing: the characters.
Now, while the story is admittedly nothing to write home about, the characters and the comedy they are involved in are the reasons why you’ll want to try this game. Apart from the dozens of gaming references, which will make every fan of these consoles quite happy, the game is also a parody of many anime and gaming character tropes, and will often break the fourth wall; the protagonist is your usual ditzy girl who can’t get anything right, yet she is somehow the protagonist, whereas the Wii’s goddess, White Heart, writes fanfiction (while you might roll your eyes at it now, when I was a young teenager every single girl was writing fanfiction on Wattpad, and reading about White Heart makes me immensely laugh), whilst the PlayStation 3 one, Black Heart, is a tsundere (and is even voiced by the same Japanese voice actress who played another famous tsundere, Makise Kurisu from Steins;Gate, which makes her even better), and finally, there is the Xbox 360 one, Green Heart, is an avid gamer and anyone with the same hobby will certainly relate to her. Plus, there are a couple of new additions that weren’t in the original, but actually come from the later games, such as my favorite, MAGES., who is the personification of Steins;Gate (she makes a ton of references to it, and she’s so fantastic that I’d even go as far as saying she makes the game worth it by herself, if you’re a Steins;Gate fan); and no, she isn’t voiced by Kurisu’s voice actress…
Thus, as I mentioned before, all these characters try their best (or their worst) to solve the issues plaguing Gamindustri, all while delivering one joke after the other; you’ll surely laugh at every cutscene, and you’ll hopefully quickly find yourself feeling attached to the various characters. Now, the only real issue in this is that this game’s plot gets hidden behind these jokes, and as a result, even the more interesting plot points get barely explained. You see, as I mentioned in the “details paragraph”, this remake of the original PS3 title heavily changed the original story; apparently, the original title was particularly dark, with the other goddesses being cold-hearted and a bit mean to Neptune, and the overall game being more serious-toned as a result.
As far as I’ve seen, you wouldn’t get all the jokes you got here, and the focus lay more on the plot than on making you laugh all the time. Even the music itself is much darker (I’m listening to it while writing this), and undoubtedly confirms the seriousness of the original plot. The fun part is that, for some obscure reason, when they made the second game, dubbed mk2, they went with this remake’s same tone, and kept at it for the rest of the series; as a fan of more serious plots, while this remake is certainly perfect as a lighthearted game, I feel a bit confused at just what was going on at the time of making the second one, and I can’t help but wonder what went wrong. Even so, it is what it is, and if you want the original story, feel free to play the PS3 version instead.
At least, I’m grateful for the overhaul in the gameplay, as the original one lacked the positioning mechanics, and forced you to use items only when the RNG gods were kind to you; plus, apparently, the game was excessively grindy, and had a massive difficulty spike at the end. As I’ve not played that version, though, take my words with a grain of salt; if you’re afraid of the gameplay, luckily, you can always opt to watch a playthrough of that version on YouTube, after you’re done with this one, and maybe one day I’ll do the same.
All in all, despite its weirdness and extreme lightheartedness, I recommend you play this game, especially if you are a JRPG fan, love anime-based games, and want to play a less serious game for once.
Thanks for reading, and I hope I’ll see you in next Thursday’s Journal Page!
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References
- Retro Gamers Guide: Sega Neptune – https://retrogamersguide.com/sega-neptune/
- Neptunia Fandom: Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth1 – https://neptunia.fandom.com/wiki/Hyperdimension_Neptunia_Re;Birth1
- Wikipedia: Hyperdimension Neptunia (video game) – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperdimension_Neptunia_(video_game)
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