2186: Hyperdimension Action

I’m well into the post-game of Hyperdimension Neptunia U Action Unleashed (or, as certain parts of the Vita interface refer to it, Hyperdimension Action Unleashed Neptunia U, and I’m pretty sure there are a few other combinations too) and enjoying the game a great deal.

It’s not the deepest game in the world, I’ll be the first to admit: while there are a few levels that take place in “dungeons” — in true Neptunia fashion, these are, of course, recycled from the mainline games — on the whole, it’s mostly an arena-based brawler in which you hack and slash your way through hordes of enemies using a few different moves with each character.

It is a game where you can win most of the levels by hammering the Square button repeatedly, but experimenting with the combos and special moves somewhat produces a much more satisfying experience. In many ways, I kind of wish there was more reward for doing so — some sort of style bonus, or a bonus for completing a level particularly quickly, or even a time limit — but seeing the combo meter rise into ridiculously high numbers is, to be honest, reward enough for me.

What I like about the post-game is that there’s several different things to do. Firstly, there are some extra quests in the game’s story mode that, in a twist on the game up until that point, only allow you to use a single character instead of the usual duo. This means you don’t have the safety net of a partner if you get knocked down, and make these missions actually quite challenging for the characters you haven’t levelled quite as much as the others. I had a bit of difficulty with Famitsu’s mission, for one, but actually rather enjoyed this, as it forced me to figure out how her moves actually worked and use them effectively rather than just, as previously mentioned, hammering Square.

Once you’re done with those, there’s the Gamindustri Gauntlet, which is a tournament of one-on-one fights between a character you choose — in this mode, the characters’ HDD/goddess forms are treated as separate characters — and a random (or player-chosen) selection of others. There are three difficulty modes, with the first being ridiculously easy (like, one-hit-kill easy if you’ve levelled your characters even a little bit) and the middle offering a decent but not insurmountable challenge. I haven’t tried the top one yet. This mode reminds me a little of Neptunia U’s stablemate Senran Kagura Estival Versus, which was a similar kind of game with a strong focus on one-on-one battles rather than hordes. It works quite well, though I do find myself wishing for a lock-on system at times. This mode does nicely highlight the fact the characters do all play rather differently from one another, though, with the contrast between ranged characters such as Rom, Ram and Uni and the rest of the cast being most apparent.

After you clear Gamindustri Gauntlet once, you unlock Neptral Tower, which is a string of 50 arena battles that, if you want the Platinum trophy, you’re going to have to do with every character. Thankfully, a pair of characters reaching the top does count as them both having cleared it, regardless of which one you were playing as when you won, and Neptral Tower as a whole acts as a solid means of grinding out both levels for characters and Lily Ranks for bonuses — the latter, of course, being essential for the Platinum trophy, too, because what would a Neptunia game be without an epic Lily Rank grind?

Neptral Tower is quite interesting to play through because progress is recorded on a per-character basis, meaning you can’t just take your strongest character all the way up and change partners as you max out Lily Ranks. Instead, you can voluntarily reset progress at any point and start bringing another character up as you so desire. While you could get that Platinum trophy by clearing all 50 floors with each character one at a time, it’s much more efficient — and interesting — to make strategic use of this reset function to grind out the Lily Ranks you need and level your characters before making a break for the top floors when you’re good and ready.

Neptunia U is a good game, then, and it makes me rather curious for the upcoming Megatagmension Blanc and Neptune vs Zombies, which is coming later this year. It’s also been reminding me quite how much I love Neptunia, and it’s got me very much in the mood to finally get around to playing Re;Birth 2 and 3 when I’m done — just in time for Megadimension Neptunia V-II, which looks quite likely to release next month.

Nepu!