1426: Day of Rest

I have done absolutely nothing “useful” today, and instead spent most of the day playing Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory in an attempt to actually finish the bloody thing before the year is over.

Thankfully, it finally seems as if I am going to succeed, since I’ve successfully attained every single one of the trophies except the three that relate to the three endings. I’m on course to complete the “True” ending in this first playthrough, then I’ll race through and get the Normal and Good endings in subsequent playthroughs. If Victory is anything like its predecessor, the actual “game” side of things will end up being extremely short if you’re not doing any side content and skipping story scenes you’ve already seen. Despite this, however, I’ve somehow now spent over a hundred hours on this game — so I think I can definitely say I’ve got my money’s worth.

I’ll be sorry to see the back of it when I’m all done, to be honest, because the Neptunia cast, while tropetacular, is immensely lovable and has a wonderful chemistry between them. Mostly I’m impressed that they’ve managed to spin out what I imagine probably began as a bit of a joke — hey, let’s imagine the “console wars” as if they were actual wars between goddesses — for three games, with more on the horizon. Oh, and I’m slightly annoyed with myself that I accidentally put myself on the “true” ending path first, because my brain always prefers saving the “best” ending for last. Still, it’s too late now, plus the “true” ending is the only path where you get certain characters required to achieve some of the trophies, so it’s probably a good thing: I’m getting all the “grindy” stuff out of the way now so my subsequent two playthroughs can be straight runs to the two respective finish lines.

While I’ll be sorry to see the back of Neptune and the gang, it’ll also be nice to be able to play other stuff without guilt. Neptunia Victory has been on my shelf since April of this year, though my starting to play it was delayed by quite how much I ended up loving the Ar Tonelico series. I was then further delayed partway through by reviewing Time and Eternity — a game that I maintain is nowhere near as bad as a lot of people made out — and Tales of Xillia — which was utterly fantastic. Both of those were lengthy RPGs — 40 hours or so in Time and Eternity’s case, nearly 100 for Tales of Xillia and consequently something had to fall a little by the wayside in order to play them and be able to review them in a timely manner.

Next on the schedule once Victory is down for the count is the highly anticipated 3DS RPG Bravely Default, which isn’t out in America until February, so I’m going to get a head start on it ahead of reviewing it for USgamer. To be honest, I know absolutely nothing about Bravely Default save for the fact it’s by Square Enix, it’s a spiritual successor to Final Fantasy: The Four Heroes of Light (which I never played) and that it has distinctly Final Fantasy Tactics-esque art. Beyond that, I’m going in with complete beginner’s mind, which I find is often the best way to be, as it minimises the possibility of disappointment and maximises the possibility of pleasant surprises. We shall see, I guess; doubtless I’ll have a few thoughts to share on here ahead of the official review closer to the North American release date.