Let's get straight to the point: I absolutely adore
the Hyperdimension Neptunia series. If I had to establish a top ten of
my favourite Vita games, the first two HN instalments would undoubtedly
be part of it; and if I had to pick up my three favourite Vita series, HN would
absolutely be one of them.
This may come as a surprise, given that I hardly ever mentioned the series on
this blog and never reviewed any Hyperdimension entry. What happened is
that I played HN Re;Birth 1 last summer, right before holidaying abroad;
as a result, the planned review of that game was lost forever as holiday
laziness and newer playthroughs pushed it out of the scene before it could even
make an entrance. However, I absolutely adored that game and have the fondest
memories of that playthrough; and one year later, I decided to treat myself
again to a healthy dose of HN goodness by playing HN Re;Birth 2.
To my utter delight, I was reunited with all the HN staples I had come
to know and love over the course of my HN Re;Birth 1: the adorable zesty
characters, the witty story poking fun at the videogame industry, the
pint-sized dungeons that are really more akin to grinding patches than genuine
dungeons, the hardcore boss battles every two steps, the side quests by the
truckload, the exhilarating special attacks and their over-the-top animations
and, last but not least, the metric tons of grinding.
HN is nothing if not a series that strives on grinding and wears its grindy quality like a badge of honour. Dungeons may be pint-sized, colourful and bristling with hilarious-looking foes, but each one of them is a difficulty spike per se that requires a healthy amount of grinding to be navigated safely. And let's not even talk about the boss battles, which are ruthless engagements that can prove challenging even with a conveniently levelled up party—and utterly impossible to win with an underlevelled party. HN reprises the old-school trope of the Boss that's unbeatable unless you boast a Certain Level, and I fell pray to it during my playthrough of Re;Birth 1: due to a lack of regular level-grinding on my part, I totally failed to beat the final boss. Said final boss had a regenerating ability, and the combined attacks of my underlevelled party were not dealing enough damage to counter its automatic healing. (The amount of grinding that would have been needed to overcome that hurdle of a final boss would have been staggering, so I wisely—or cowardly—decided to give up.) I was determined not to end up in the same kind of bind again during my playthrough of Re;Birth 2, and I started grinding dutifully and regularly from the get-go. That was a most inspired decision, because Re;Birth 2 is harder than Re;Birth 1, if that's even possible. So far, my playthrough can be divided as such: 85% grinding, 10% boss battles and 5% story-related cutscenes and inventory management. You've been warned, fellow gamers.
Of course, I absolutely lap up this heavy grinding,
and this is due to a sole reason that is none other than the fighting system.
To put it simply, HN's fighting system is my favourite RPG fighting
system ever, all subgenres combined. It clicked with me like no other
fighting system ever did, because it combines everything I love from the three
main RPG fighting systems. It sports all at once the exhilarating
button-mashing of real-time fighting, the relaxing deliberation of turn-based
combat and the fine-tuned positioning of strategic/tactical fighting—all
sprinkled with sharp, glorious animations that make even the meanest fight a
feast for the eyes. I'll spare you a boring technical explanation of how the
whole thing plays out; any video will do a much better job at this than me.
This fighting system is the ultimate RPG fighting system hybrid, and it's so
sleek and utterly brilliant that I wonder why no developper ever thought of
mixing these elements together before HN. Maybe is was not technically
possible, or maybe it was too cutting-edge for most audiences; and given how
little praise is lavished upon HN's fighting system and how mixed are
the reviews of these games, I suspect that the latter might be the truth.
Although I adore it, I have to admit that HN is pretty much a
hit-or-miss series. If you love grinding and click with the fighting system,
then you're in for a treat; if not, then you can forget about the series
altogether, before there is really nothing more than grinding to be found
there. Exploration is totally absent because of the tiny dungeons and the fact
that the next objective in line is always highlighted; and the story, although
excellent, is too minor to justify playing the game solely for it. Seeing cute
personifications of the Game Gear, the PSP and the DS as well as luminaries
such as Compile Heart, Idea Factory and Nihon Falcom in RE;Birth 2 is
certainly a delight—and I enjoyed it all the more as a portable gamer at heart,
obviously—just like discovering all the clever puns about the gaming industry
hidden in the game; however, it certainly won't help a player allergic to
grinding to stomach the vast amount of it present in the HN series.
Grinding is the meat and potatoes of HN, and all the rest is but
accompaniments.
I'm currently 25 hours into Re;Birth 2, and I can feel that the end is drawing near. My current party comprises Nepgear, Compa, Cave and newly recruited Falcom and I'm pretty satisfied with that line-up—heck, Cave's Black Label supermove alone can terminate boss fights in a couple of turns. I'm starting to suspect that I may need a party made solely of CPUs to beat the final boss; but that shouldn't be too much of an issue thanks to the awesome inclusive levelling-up system, which gives experience even to the characters who are not in the party. At any rate, I'm planning to undertake a massive level-grinding marathon before the final boss, because said final boss will surely turn out to be an Everest-sized difficulty spike. See you in a few hours of grinding, dear fellow gamers! Thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!
I have yet to
take the plunge and buy a Neptunia game! >_< I almost bought them during
the latest Golden Week sale (the 3 Rebirths would total around 30 something €)
but hesitated and ended not buying any of them.
The games sound fun as hell and look colorful but I know that, if I like one,
I'll want to play the rest and that will wreck my backlog plans! Seriously, I
still have games from 2009 to finish on my PS3 plus all the new recent GBA/SNES
translations that keep coming out.
"If I like
one, I'll want to play the rest": that's exactly what happened to me, my
friend. I played Re:Birth 1, had this massive crush on it and ended up
purchasing every single HN available on the Vita, i.e. seven games and
counting. ^^
Ha, who cares about the backlog? :p If I wanted to finish mine in less than ten
years, I would have to stop purchasing games right now AND to stop working to
dedicate all my waking hours to gaming.^^ Follow your heart and your gaming
urges; you can always fall back on your backlog when hot gaming trends are not
to your liking anymore!
True, true! Guess I'll have
to raise the white flag sooner or later and finally buy the games. :p
Eh, the only reason that I'm concerned with my backlog is because the PS3 is a
very fragile system. I'm concerned I won't be able to finish my backlog before
it dies. And while a new PS3 is pretty cheap nowadays, they end up breaking
kinda easily, unfortunately.
Oh, I understand your worries now... The perennity of gaming consoles is definitely an issue when one has a huge backlog, and Sony's systems unfortunately perform quite poorly in that regard. (Although I´m not sure Ninty's current consoles are much sturdier, mind you.) Ever since I started playing on the PSP and Vita, I've harboured occasional worries about how long they will perform... These two consoles are sleek and gorgeous, but they also look and feel dangerously fragile!
Thing is, the Vita and the 3DS, and even the PSP, feel like strongholds compared to the PS3. I don't understand how a console can be so fragile. And the same thing can be said about the PS4. They feel so "blocky" and cheap compared to older consoles. My Saturn or my Game Boy, for instance, still work perfectly fine. Even my PSP works fine despite the battery being almost dead and having the back paint scratched out.
Wow, the PS3
and PS4 must really be frail and delicate pieces of kit if the PSP and Vita
feel like "strongholds" in comparison. That gives me yet another
excellent reason to stay away from home consoles! :p
Gosh, the Gameboy was such a sturdy handheld! It's like a nearly undestructible
brick of gaming awesomeness.^^ The Game Gear, on the other hand, didn't exactly
age gracefully, especially when it comes to its cheap screen...
Perhaps I'm
being too rough on the PS4; it is undoubtedly an improvement over the PS3, but
not like that's much. The PS3 just feels really cheap.
The Gameboy was a beast. It's not by chance that one literally survived a
bombing and was put in a museum. Those things were made by some secret Nintendo
alloy (Nintendium) that resisted almost everything. I never got the chance of
having or even holding a Game Gear, but I heard it was pretty sturdy. And also
that it infamously burned batteries like there's no tomorrow! :p
Apart from the issue with cheap screens falling apart with age, the Game Gear was indeed pretty sturdy. And yes, it ate batteries like candy!! :P If not for the fact that there was a device to reload used batteries in the family home, I don't think my Game Gear gaming regimen could have been sustained for very long.^^ I mean, this thing literally devoured six AA batteries every 4/6 hours!
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