PlayStation 3 User Reviews

The original Neptunia game had a decent foundation, but it has some rough edges holding it back. It is very enjoyable to play, with a "Build your own combo" styled combat engine, enjoyable story, endearing characters, solid voice acting, and great music, held back by lower quality graphics, and performance hiccups. Luckily, the games post Vita port fixed a lot of issues, and made the series enjoyable.

Honestly, this game is very mediocre. The gameplay is repetitive, slow, and can freeze. The characters, story, and humor are good, but I wouldn't recommend this game to anybody. It's nowhere near as bad as critics are saying, but this is a fan service game. Of course it would be bad.

A Great Game, Only has bad reviews because people are too dense to spend 15seconds to adapt to this battlesystem, story isn't the best in the series but gets the job done. Just don't go in expecting some tripple A game

While the combat system is pretty rough, Hyperdimension Neptunia is where the series got its signature blend of turn-based JRPG gameplay and visual novel-style storytelling. If you're a fan of the later games, you owe it to yourself to see where it all began. The characters and humor that made the Neptunia series a fan favorite are here in full bloom.

The people who think this game is bad, needs to be checked into a mental ward. They would be incredibly insane to rate this game so low. Distinct, diverse maps. Good songs. Albeit because of sound direction, I had to rate it a 9. It needed to be placed better. It also has a bad habit of reusing Record of Agarest War assets. The forests, the noble bedrooms and the list goes on. Go and compare Record of Agarest War and Agarest Zero and compare it to Neptunia. You'd be surprised with that one. Even further, you can incorporate saved images on your HDD and use them as weapons. I will also counter claim the complaints of the healing system. It is my favorite mechanic, because you can change it in mid-battle. Giving a tactical feel. It helped me beat Final True Arfoire. There's also so much depth here in this anime game, that it even makes Vert tolerable and this game massively splits from Re;Birth 1's story. There's entire cutscenes gutted from this game, in Re;Birth 1. You have to be mentally daft to rip on this game. Or a hater. Or a pleb who barely plays the game to begin with. In the end, this is actually one of the better titles and I suggest you pick it up for that old school feel.

Story: I knew a good portion of the plot from playing Re;Birth1 a year ago, but there are some differences. Firstly, compared to Re;Birth1, the characters seem very self-restrained; Neptune is no longer a mindless pudding addict meme-maker, and I think that's a (really) good thing. In fact, the word pudding is never mentioned. She makes no jokes about Noire's loneliness every frame either. This sums up to the aura of hostility between each goddesses; they are reluctant to help Neptune in doing anything. The only real buddies Neptune made throughout the game are IF and Compa. Talking about them, since they receive more screen time, or I was not paying much attention, Compa is potentially a very funny character with her grandfather's quotes and other absurdities (like a part of one of the legendary weapons being a heirloom from her grandfather, who conveniently found it on his yard). Every optional quest has a little backstory read by 5pb on her radio channel. The problem with the story in this game is how slow-paced it is; Neptune finds the first Key Fragment very early in the game, then there is a lot of filler (go to dungeon, watch cutscene, repeat) with uninteresting stuff, just to resume unfolding on the late stages of the game. Compa says that the most important are the beginning and the ending, but this is obviously not true. In any case, the concept was well established for the sequels (which the developers apparently didn't expect to make, given how this game ended). Still talking about story, what surprises me the most about Japanese games is the amount of effort they invest on side content, which may not be viewed by the player, easily skippable if one does not pay attention. The game does not explain how shares work nor how to recruit the goddesses, yet there are voiced cutscenes after you recruit each one of them. Combat system: Trinity Universe cemented the path, while Hyperdimension Neptunia took the opposite way. It shares a lot of similarities with the previous game, since a lot of content was recycled from TU (most enemies, some maps); both are traditional dungeon crawlers, wherein a battle is triggered every X steps taken, creating an isolated instance. TU is a mix of RPG with hack n' slash mechanics; 4-button long combos are inputted to deal more damage, linking attacks from everyone in the party to unleash even greater combos and damage. Basically, Cross: light physical attack (high hit count), Square: heavy physical attack (low hit count), Triangle: magical attack (multi-target) and Circle: custom skill (eject, healing etc). I liked that system a lot (is there any other similar game?). However, the developers decided to scrap the solid system combat from TU to make something anew in HDN. The combo system is still there, but the player must create them with every skill obtained. Needless to say, but I just spammed the same combo for every character during the whole game; I'm not a fighting games player to memorize all these damn combos. They thought that "customization" was a good thing no matter where it was applied, although Cross Edge flopped for its wide amount of complex customization. The real issue is how healing takes place; there is a menu called "Item Skills", where you distribute percentage points to increase the likelihood of being healed or receiving different buffs during battle. Dying to a boss because my HP was at 51% and not 50%, thus not triggering the healing effect was utterly frustrating. To worsen things, some Item Skills are given priority over others (if you're at 30% HP, it's the Item Skill whose condition is to heal under 50% that gets triggered, healing in a smaller quantity of HP). Environment/art: dungeons are still large corridors with repeated layouts, but at least there is a greater variation of them here. I think the graphics are pretty good, mainly the 3D models for the characters, that no longer look like they are made of wax. The frame-rate is slightly choppy in some dungeons (factories) while stable in others (snow). I read that lowering the resolution to 720p amenizes the issue, but it didn't bother me that much. Oh, yes, there is a 3D Macaroon in this game (shopkeeper in TU). Of course, the major selling point of the game: living, beautiful sprites drawn by the talented artist Tsunako. I love her style. Talking about the sprites, they seem thicker in this game, as well as the manga-style expressions. The font chosen by NISA for localization is very stylish. Background images in cutscenes appear to be more varied. OST: I have read amountful comments stating that the sound-track is mediocre, but I liked it. Not every song thrilled me, but I think that each one of them suited well the themes for every dungeon where they play. During cutscenes the song played is changed to match the situation portrayed, which shows the care they had in making cutscenes. I ran out of words but, I suggest checking this game if you're a fan of the franchise.

As a fan of JRPG's generally speaking, I had high hopes that I'd enjoy Hyperdimension and initially I enjoyed myself, getting a few laughs out of the often clever game industry parody humor, even if the over-sexualised characters and innuendo occasionally made me feel a tad uncomfortable. However, once the actual game play was introduced, that's when things got pretty ugly. The combat felt extremely clunky and unresponsive with characters often taking a pause after each individual strike despite my having pressed the button to continue the combo and while it was something I could have adjusted to, the lack of a traditional healing system made things extremely frustrating. While I didn't hate the system and even believe it would be great in conjunction with a traditional system to make things more efficient (Ie, a character auto-heals themselves in battle using a specified item or ability when they drop too low instead of you having to tell them to do it), on it's own it quickly left characters too low on health to trigger the heal before they were knocked out, thus leaving them stuck on 1 HP. The graphics on the other hand, are a mixed bag. The anime-style frames and scenes look extremely nice and clean however the actual modeled game world and character sprites leave a lot to be desired. They really didn't look good and many of the dungeon designs were extremely simplistic and uninspired. Someone enjoying Hyperdimension Neptunia is going to ultimately come down being able to look past a multitude of problems with the core mechanics. If you enjoy anime or JRPGs and can look past the shortcomings in the combat system, the average game world graphics and the over-sexualisation of the characters and dialogue then there's enough clever humor to have your share of enjoyment. Otherwise, it's probably best to stay away. + Clever game industry related humor + Great game to play 'Guess the reference' + Anime style frames and scenes look great + Extensive combo building system - Clunky and unresponsive combat system - Frustrating healing system that takes too much control away from the player - Ugly and uninspired graphics outside of the anime styled scenes - Repetitive dungeons - Over-sexualised characters and dialogue can leave the player feeling uncomfortable (Especially due to characters being presented as quite young)

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

While the gameplay and combat can be a bit underwhelming, it's more then competently put together, especially in comparison to other Jrpgs coming out around the time. This can be forgiven for the rest of the game, the setting, story and characters are all unique and charming enough to completely carry the game. The character interactions probably being the best part. The video game references are all pretty good too, nothing that insults your intelligence or terrible 4 year old memes that other developers like to put in their games. Easily the most charming game of the series, and the sound track is pretty good too, though hopefully you'll be able to deal with the combat (Unless Rebirth is out by now in which case play that) I wish IF localized their own game though (once again they did for Rebirth)

As much as I loved this series, the first game in the series is pretty bad. And I'm not gonna be biased about it at all as I've played through the game and went through hell accomplishing some of the stuff thrown at me by this game. Repetitive combat, boring dungeon layouts, and a messed up item system hurts the gameplay of this game, made worse when some of the backgrounds and enemies are ripped STRAIGHT from other games (Trinity Universe and Ar Tonelico being some of them). I also should mention that battles become nothing as soon as Neptune learns a certain move that you can spam over and over with no penalty until you win. Character DLC is pretty crap too since said characters join your party but you need to buy a ticket in order to use them, save for the actual DLC characters that came after them. What hurts it more is the game doesn't explain anything about how the shares system works, which is essential if you want to recruit 3 specific characters. It also doesn't say that restarting a fight that you died on hurts shares too so if you die too much and just choose to retry when it asks you to, it secretly removes your shares, which will make it impossible to recruit those characters. The story itself isn't that bad, and its good for laughs, but then the game just starts repeating itself storywise once you get further. Even then, the final boss is disappointing, who returns in the next 2 games as a stock boss enemy. Overall, I wouldn't really touch this game again since the other two games from this series are a whole lot better than this one. I'd only recommend it to a VN fanatic or a crazy otaku who doesn't mind playing a half baked game involving girls who represents today's consoles. RPG fans should look somewhere else since this game would most likely not be worth their time. Even though this exact game got me into this series, I really don't see myself touching it ever again.

Just Love it. Nothin more to say, just love it. Would recommend to everyone with a good taste for games. Its funny, have a good story, have a very good visual design. Just everything is fine =) Thats how a game should be! This game is entertainment.

Gameplay - 9/10. Graphics - 8/10. Sound - 7/10. Overall - 8/10. Overall, this was a good game. It has an interesting story concept a ton of customization if that's your thing. It was enjoyable, and I didn

Amazing JRPG despite all negative reviews many critics have given them, mainly because of the humour and lovable characters. Light-hearted with an interesting concept, this game is definitely a must buy.

I will never ever let my friends see me playing this game but it's actually really enjoyable. I like the story, there's lots of references to other game series, the combat is engrossing as you have to build combo's and customize them and really this game takes about 30 hours minimum to beat so it goes the distance. If you can play this game without anyone discovering your secret shame do it!

Just finished platinuming this game last night and I can honestly say I enjoyed every minute of it. I've only platinumed Uncharted 2, Assassins Creed 2, Sly Cooper 1 & 2, and this was my 5th. It's a unique JRPG, and yes the combat system is at first terrible but so is riding a bike until you learn how to do it. If you genuinely like JRPGs, you need to give yourself more than a couple of hours into this game and play it. It truly is a great game.

Critics are completely missing the point of this game. This is a classic-style NIS game, which consistently breaks the fourth wall (for instance, during her lengthy transformation sequence in battle, Neptune says, "No attacking while I'm transforming!" Or, for another example, a minor character dies at some point, and someone exclaims, "I figured he was going to die at some point in the story. He didn't even have a portrait." Or, also, "Don't bother arguing with him, Neptune. He's an NPC, you can't fight him."). The general idea of the game is simple, but excellent implemented with some key RPG problems being averted. For instance, you know how in most RPGs, after healing, you lose your turn, only to lose all your health again? Here, you auto-heal and auto-revive with elements if you take enough damage, making it so you don't have to worry about that, and can always focus on attacking. The combat mechanics are very good, and extremely flashy. Random battles really ****, but thankfully, they're sporadic in this game, and you can go a long while without running into one. But, really, let's just forget everything else: This is a game about extremely attractive manga girls fighting in a game that only they seem to know is a video game, where you do quests and advance the story and watch humorous event sequences. It's fun, funny, lengthy, loaded with potential DLC, and the character graphics and animations are exceptional. Transformations in particular are just gorgeous. As long as you know what you're getting into in this game, you already know whether you'll like it or not. Like manga girls in an RPG that makes fun of itself and its own genre, is full of ecchi, and is entertaining and hliarious? Well, here it is. Definitely recommended.

The press unfortunately destroyed an innovative and unique JRPG. Character design will please anime fans without the shadow of a doubt. The others will pass but it's a niche game : no need to consider all the players when reviewing it. A sense humor never seen in the West, repetitive but addicting gameplay, good difficulty balance and surprisingly deep scenario makes it a must-have for any JRPG/anime lover.

For a game that they say it's lacking or terrible, I actually had a lot of fun: the battle system is deep and complex with the possibility to custom your combos, the characters are weird but not annoying (sometimes!) and the story, which is NOT supposed to be taken seriously, is fun and ironic with lots of game references and fan services. There are few flaws in the battle system, like the item system based on the % that you give on a specific item or the impossibility to escape unless you get an escape button. There are 4 lands to explore but sadly you can't visit cities (the shop is supposed to be online so...) and eventually each land tend to be the same routine (look for quest/event->go to dungeon), which is too bad since they are all different. And another big flaw are the characters who, although you'll have 6 spots, you will be playing most of the game with just 3; the other 3 are available near the end of the game! Now this is actually a big issue in my opinion because during the game you actually have 2 more characters with **** GUESTS! Yes, you won't be able to use them unless you Download AND pay them from the internet! And it's not only for them: basically anything can be downloaded if you want to play at full speed, like costumes, events, armors...even level caps! They're not costy but I'd rather want a more expensive but complete game instead of a cheap but poor game. Bottom line, I'm giving it a 7 because I had fun but it lacks so much content that makes you wonder why they didn't put all of this stuff in the game from the beginning....

Hyperdimension Neptunia is published by NIS. If you were already reaching for your wallet when you saw "is published by NIS", but are now taken aback by the abysmal metascore of this game, let me tell you, NIS fan to NIS fan, that your instinct was correct: you will love this game. The dub really is stellar (and the Japanese option doesn't have its own subtitles). The item mechanics might raise the "you must be at least this tall to ride" bar, so to speak, but are very fun and especially fresh if you've been guzzling potions after every fight since Final Fantasy 1. The combos are spectacularly powerful even very early in the game (give Compa an XXXX combo that ends with a Bonus: Combo Link sklll, such as I'll Do My Best. Scaaary.) IF's battle-comment about her sleeves, it never gets old. Normally I'd say that User Scores (divided between people whose anger at having wasted money on a disliked game drove them to post, and between people eager to put a smiley-face next to their investment of time and money) are thoroughly trumped by the more serious Critic Scores, but here we have another dynamic: users don't buy games that are obviously not to their tastes, but reviewers still need to try to review such games. And the petty, nasty, I've-never-even-heard-of-"OS-tan" appeals to the reviewer's own ignorance, the OMG-the-cutscenes-are-2d appeals to the reviewer's own bad taste? Those actually make me feel like my purchase was especially lucky; I think: it's a very good thing I wasn't persuaded by these reviewers!

If you're not into RPGs, this wont be the game for you. However if you are then this game is really fun. Sure it may not be a good as some of the other RPGs out there, but it is still a good game that you should pick up.

Excellent game with unique turn based combat, interesting allusions to the gaming industry, and outrageous humor. Many game companies, including Sega, collaborated in the production of this title. Fans of Phantasy Star Online, Street Fighter, Mario, Zelda, and several other titles will appreciate the references and jokes about those games.

this game is not for everyone, but it's very entertaining as long as you know what you're getting into. If you're not into RPGs, then don't buy it. If you're not into weird/wacky humor then don't buy it. If you're not into moe stuff, then don't buy it. However if you are into those things then you will find this game to be quite entertaining. There are some minor problems here and there, but not enough to make me dislike the game.

I'm on IF_Awesome's side here. I have read reviews where people were talking trash about neptunia and yet, they aren't even rpg fans! There is no point in talking trash about a game that you KNOW you won't like. All of you out there who love anime and can tolerate(or like) a little fan service should definitely buy this game. Especially for the comedy, which i think is something we can all agree on as hilarious

As someone who has played it all the way through, I would only recommend this game to anyone who really likes Visual Novels / Anime enough to be able to look past this game's shortcomings, if your looking for something that has decent Gameplay, I suggest you look elsewhere.

Seeing as not any of the so called official reviewers can pull their head out of their asses I shall have to compensate for it here a bit. Despite what you have might have read about this game, you should definitely try it out.

Don't believe the review sites, this is a great game! Neptunia and Trinity Universe are two of the most unique games you could ever play. The healing system all of the critics whine about is not based on luck at all, but on percentages. At either level 8 or 9 Neptune already has 100 points and thus can get an automatic heal every time. Most of these "professional" reviewers simply played the game for an hour and were upset that Neptunia is something different and proceeded to unjustly bash the game. And honestly look at the cover of the box. If you don't like or are offended by Moe, bishoujo, or anime girls in general then why in the world would you buy this game of be assigned to review it? Rant aside Neptunia has some of the best english voice acting in any game ever. The dialog is superbly written and is absolutely hilarious. The battle system is pretty good, and does take some getting used to. The music is great, and it is too bad that we did not get the sound track as Japanese gamers did. This game is worth buying just for the characters, voice acting, and story alone. Overall a great unique game that is perfect for anyone who likes JRPGs or anime.