2418: The Bonds of True Friendship

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As someone who, for the most part, tends to put narrative concerns front and centre when considering what to entertain himself with, it probably won’t surprise you to hear that the main thing that draws me to my favourite genre of video game — RPGs — is not the stat-crunching mechanical goodness that goes on behind the scenes (though good mechanics can make a game I’m already emotionally invested in even more satisfying) but the almost overwhelming sense of camaraderie and “all being in it together” that a good ensemble cast brings to the table.

When considering narrative tropes, this sense of comradeship is regarded as “true companions” or sometimes nakama, from a Japanese word that translates to “friend” or “comrade”. Indeed, if you turn the Japanese voices on in many JRPGs, you’ll hear the word nakama used pretty liberally when characters are talking about their friends and travelling companions in the party; it’s a contrast to another Japanese term referring to friendship, tomodachi, which is typically used when talking about friends in a more social, casual manner. To put it crudely, your nakama friends are the ones who travel with you, who will go to the ends of the earth with you, the ones who are closer than family; your tomodachi friends are the ones you go down the pub with once or twice a month and talk about girls or football.

This sense of true companionship is, for me, what defines a great RPG story, and it’s a big part of why I find solitary experiences like Skyrim and Fallout — which, mechanically at least, ought to be right up my alley — so fundamentally unsatisfying: you don’t get that sense of being part of a group of people with complex and interesting relationships.

So with that in mind, I thought I’d share some of my favourite ensemble casts from the past few years. You can probably guess at least one of them.

Neptune and the gang

Yup, you were right! The biggest thing that keeps me coming back to the Neptunia series time after time — and the thing that kept me persevering with the shaky first game in the series — is the wonderful sense of camaraderie between the characters.

Interestingly, Neptunia’s cast can be split into a few different elements, each of which overlap a little and which all have Neptune as their common element.

First up, you have IF and Compa, who will always have an important place in any Neptunia fan’s heart due to them being pretty much the first characters you have a meaningful conversation with in the series. IF and Compa are friends, but also a study in contrasts; IF is somewhat sullen and tsundere (with a secret otaku side) while Compa is feminine, ditzy and honest. They’re good foils for one another, and with the chaotic personality of Neptune in the middle, just these three make for a good cast by themselves, and indeed a significant portion of the original Hyperdimension Neptunia consisted of just these three core cast members fighting alongside one another.

Then you have the more well-known faces of the series, the CPUs Blanc, Noire and Vert. These were introduced in the original Hyperdimension Neptunia almost as antagonistic characters, but over time their personalities have softened somewhat, and the four of them (including Neptune) have become very close friends with one another. Once again, they work as a group because of how they contrast with one another. Noire is determined and driven to a fault, but secretly wishes for close friendships; Vert likes to play the older sister but in many ways is one of the most immature of the group, often disappearing for days at a time to indulge in her hobbies rather than doing her job; Blanc, meanwhile, despite her youthful appearance, seems calm and mature until something — it doesn’t take much — attracts her ire, at which point she becomes a devastating force of fury.

mk2 onwards introduced the sisters of the CPUs to the series, and again, they made heavy use of contrast to make them stand out from one another. Neptune’s sister Nepgear, for example, is the opposite of Neptune in almost every way: she’s smart where Neptune is dim; she’s articulate where Neptune tends to let her mouth run away with herself; yet she’s timid where Neptune is (over)confident. Blanc’s twin sisters Rom and Rom contrast both with each other and with Blanc, with Rom being quiet and shy, while Ram is loud and rambunctious. And Noire’s sister Uni, in her own way, contrasts with the rest of the group altogether by actually being similar to her sister — a little too similar at times, so closely does she follow in her sister’s footsteps.

All together, you have a substantial ensemble cast with a variety of contrasting character types. They often clash with one another, as contrasting personalities tend to do, but their shared hardships and common goals bring them together time after time. The particularly dark mk2/Re;Birth2 story is arguably the catalyst for their closeness, thanks to the especially unpleasant events that occur therein, but by now their relationship has grown so close that each new Neptunia game feels like being reunited with a group of old friends. It’s a delight.

The Witcher

The Witcher series is an unusual case in that they’re not party-based RPGs, but they nonetheless carry a strong sense of camaraderie, friendship and even romance between their major characters. This is helped along in part by the fact that the games are based on some already extensive pre-existing lore from the original novels, but even if you’re unfamiliar with the source material, The Witcher’s relationships are a real highlight of the whole experience.

For starters, despite protagonist Geralt usually working alone for each of the games, there’s a strong sense of comradeship between him and his fellow School of the Wolf witchers, some of the last remaining witchers in the world. Months or even years can pass between them seeing one another in some instances, but when they do meet up with one another, it’s like no time has passed. The Witcher 3 in particular plays with this delightfully in a scene where Geralt and his witcher buddies get absolutely hammered before going to try on the fancy outfits of sorceress Yennefer, Geralt’s significant other (or onetime squeeze, depending on how you’ve chosen to play that particular subplot out) and play with her megascope. In game terms, it’s utterly irrelevant to the main plot and doesn’t give you any mechanical benefits, but it’s a beautifully captured moment that emphasises the fact that despite the work of witchers typically being solitary, they, too, still have need of the ties of friendship.

Then there are the recurring characters like Dandelion the bard and Zoltan Chivay the, um, dwarf. These characters show up throughout the novels and all three games, and their relationship with Geralt is likewise one of close friendship and trust. Indeed, the bond between Dandelion and Geralt is so seemingly close that all the in-game journal entries tracking your quests are written not from Geralt’s perspective or even that of an omniscient third-person non-participant narrator, but as if Dandelion is narrating Geralt’s tale in the past tense to an eager audience. It’s a nice touch.

The Witcher prides itself on shades of grey, though, and this is true for Geralt’s relationships, too. In The Witcher 3 in particular, Geralt will come into contact with a number of people with whom he’s had dealings in the past, many of whom will seem like unquestionable friends if you’re unfamiliar with their history. Yet depending on the choices you make and Geralt’s subsequent actions, their relationships can take some very surprising — sometimes tragic — turns. The arc with former spymaster Dijkstra in The Witcher 3 is particularly interesting to see play out.

The Witcher, then, definitely has an ensemble cast of the kind I find particularly appealing, even if they’re not all there obediently running along behind Geralt for the whole game. In the case of The Witcher 3 in particular, it’s proof positive that it’s more than possible for the Western open-world RPG to pull off this sense of “true companionship” — even without a persistent party — and that Bethesda should consider trying a bit harder in this regard with future Elder Scrolls and Fallout games.

Tales of Xillia

Two of my favourite RPGs in recent years were Tales of Xillia and its sequel, and the strong ties between the party members in those games are what made those games special for me.

The first Xillia had two overlapping storylines that were mostly identical apart from their very beginning and a significant chunk in the middle. The two protagonists were Jude, a somewhat idealistic young medical student who gets swept up in a series of rather peculiar events, and Milla, a mysterious young woman who claims to be the earthly incarnation of the deity Maxwell.

The journey through the two Xillias is very long, but its epic nature works to its benefit, because it allows us to get to know the two protagonists and the party members they gather around them very well indeed. There’s Jude’s childhood friend Leia, who is clumsy but charming; there’s butler Rowen, who turns out to be a highly regarded former general; there’s the cynical mercenary Alvin who seems like a pleasant enough “big brother” type but is clearly hiding something; and there’s young girl Elize, who captures the feeling of a young girl being alone in the world and finally finding people who understand her perfectly.

Xillia’s cast works because of the game’s frequent use of “skits”, where action stops for a moment and the party members have a quick chat about something. This might be important to the plot, or it might be seemingly irrelevant information, but all of it is essential to the characterisation of the group as a whole. In the first game in particular, Milla is the centrepiece of the group, and we come to understand the world of Rieze Maxia through her eyes, with her party members explaining and supporting her along the way. That said, Milla isn’t a helpless waif by any means; on the contrary, on more than one occasion her companions have to hold her back from getting a little too inappropriate with her explorations of life among the humans.

Xillia 2 takes an unusual step in this day and age by actually being a direct sequel to the first game. All the characters from the original make a reappearance, along with a couple of new ones — just enough to keep it feeling a bit different from the original, while still familiar and recognisable as a continuation of the same story. Interestingly, Xillia 2 introduces a new protagonist named Ludger, and for your first playthrough he’s an almost entirely silent protagonist, his contributions mostly being limited to grunts and gasps. (Calm down.) There is a narrative-related reason for this that I shan’t spoil for you here, but the use of a silent protagonist is also often a way of making the player feel like “they” are in the world rather than just controlling a character who isn’t them.

Regardless of the reasons for his silence, Ludger forms a suitable nucleus for the party in much the same way as Milla did in the first Xillia game, and once again we’re treated to a variety of enjoyable skits on a variety of subjects, both plot-relevant and inconsequential. By the end of the two games, you really feel like you’ve been on a lengthy journey with a group of people who have come to be close friends.

Persona 3 and 4

Shin Megami Tensei purists may thumb their nose at the later installments in the Persona series, but for me the thing that made them special to me is their strong emphasis on the bonds between people.

In both Persona 3 and 4, these bonds take many forms. They might be the bond between the protagonist and a member of an extracurricular club he attends, who gradually grows comfortable enough to open up a bit about their own concerns. Or they might be the bond between party members who come to understand one another as events start spiralling out of control around them.

In Persona 4 this latter case is particularly true, given that the majority of the dungeons are themed around one of the characters confronting their “true self” and admitting something that they would previously rather keep quiet about for one reason or another. The game goes to some surprisingly daring places in terms of subject matter, though it also leaves a few bits and pieces just ambiguous enough for you to come to your own interpretation of what you just witnessed.

Like Xillia, one of the biggest strengths of both Persona 3 and Persona 4 is the sheer amount of time their respective quests take — and the fact that, in both games, you can actually see how much virtual time you’ve spent in the world thanks to the ever-present readout of the in-game date, which also acts as a reminder that each month, you are on a tight deadline to ensure things don’t go horribly wrong for someone you know.

The sheer amount of time you spend with the characters in both Persona 3 and 4 coupled with the game’s setting in a school and its surroundings means that you really come to think of these characters as friends by the end of the game. This makes a relatively minor aspect of Persona 4’s ending, where you leave on a train and see all the people whose lives you touched standing on the platform to see you off, incredibly touching and borderline heartbreaking. It is likely no coincidence that one of the most frequently heard pieces of music on the soundtrack is called Heartbeat, Heartbreak.

The Witch and the Hundred Knight

This is an unusual one in that it’s an action RPG in which you play a distinctly non-human silent protagonist and don’t actually have a party gathered around you at all times, but nonetheless it manages to have that strong sense of “true companions”, with numerous characters who go through significant developmental arcs over the course of the complete narrative.

In The Witch and the Hundred Knight, you play the Hundred Knight, a mythological creature that turned out to be a bit disappointing in the flesh. You were summoned by the witch Metallia, who lives by herself in a swamp and is pretty much a psychopath. Your stated aim at the outset of the game is to spread Metallia’s swamp across the land so she is able to move freely and dominate the world — she can’t go far from her swamp — but over time things become much, much more complex.

The Hundred Knight, despite being the playable protagonist, is in many ways the least important part of the plot, though his actions do serve as the catalyst for most of the major plot beats throughout the narrative. Instead, the story is about Metallia: why she is so angry, why she is so violent — and why she is so sad. The tale itself features some gut-wrenchingly horrible moments to depict Metallia’s seemingly “beyond redemption” status, but her growth as a character across the entire narrative — a process witnessed and helped along by a young cursed noblewoman called Visco, who eventually becomes very important to Metallia — and the three possible finales, none of which can be called particularly “happy”, makes for a game that takes the unusual step of being an outright tragedy in terms of its narrative.

The story works, once again, because of the close bonds between the characters. We see how horrible Metallia is at the beginning of the game, and we see how poorly she treats Visco. But we see how Visco keeps coming back for more, obviously seeing something in Metallia that others don’t, and we see how Metallia, despite continuing to be foul-mouthed and aggressive, softens a little as she realises that she is developing feelings of friendship — arguably more — for this young woman cursed with the face of a dog. I shan’t spoil the “bad” ending (which is actually the most significant ending, despite the game’s terminology) but suffice to say the Metallia at the end of the game is a completely different person from the one at the beginning, and as the Hundred Knight, we’ve been there to see that whole process.

Fairy Fencer F

And perhaps most relevantly, given that I’m still playing through it at the moment, I was delighted to discover that Fairy Fencer F has a wonderful ensemble cast, too — and despite its aesthetic similarities to the Neptunia series thanks to artist Tsunako on character design duty, it has an overall darker tone to its stablemate, allowing for its characters to share hardships and sadness as well as good times with one another.

Like Neptunia, FFF’s cast can be split into a number of components. There’s the core cast of playable characters who centre around protagonist Fang, who is initially lazy and cynical, but later turns out to be far more responsible and caring than he would care to admit. Then each of these characters has a companion fairy, who form a sub-cast of their own who are usually with their human partners, but sometimes get the chance to do things by themselves. Then there’s a cast of villains, too, but without spoiling too much, let’s just say that on the Goddess route, at least — the narrative path that comprised the original Fairy Fencer F, rather than one of the two new ones introduced for the PlayStation 4 version — the lines between “good” and “evil” are frequently blurred to quite a significant degree.

An crucial moment at the midpoint of Fairy Fencer F carries more emotional weight than I’ve ever seen from a Compile Heart game, eschewing the company’s usually breezy comedy and satire — both of which are present in Fairy Fencer F when appropriate, make no mistake — in the name of something truly awful happening as a catalyst for one of the three subsequent divergent narrative paths that follow. This moment only works because of the first half of the game, in which we get to know Fang and his ragtag group of companions very well indeed, and because of its sharp, surprising contrast with what we, the player, had been led to expect would happen at that point in the story.

I haven’t yet seen how things turn out. I can guess, but given that this game has already surprised me more than once with the direction its narrative takes — mostly with regard to how dark it gets at times — I’m not going to believe it until I actually see it. It’s been an enjoyable journey so far, though, so I’m looking forward to seeing how it ends. And then seeing the other two ways in which it ends after that.

2228: MegaNep: Thoughts After a First Playthrough

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Well, I finally finished Megadimension Neptunia VII for the first time. Took about 62 hours or so in the end; that was taking it fairly leisurely through the game and taking the time to unlock stuff here and there that I perhaps didn’t need to do on a first playthrough. Next up for me is a New Game Plus run in which I go for the “true” ending, which leads on to a post-game segment during which you can clean up any bits and pieces you didn’t finish off first time around. Or trophy hunt.

For now, though, I want to talk about my experiences with the game after a complete playthrough.

The first thing to say about the game is that, as I’ve mentioned before, this is Compile Heart’s finest work to date. There are no significant technical issues beyond a couple of very minor frame drops in a few places; the script and translation is excellent (although there are a few more typos than there should be); and the gameplay is satisfying, enjoyable and well-balanced.

The first and last points there address two of the biggest criticisms the Neptunia series has had since its inception. From the original PS3 game onwards, the series — and Compile Heart’s work in general — had been plagued with technical issues, most notably atrocious framerates that weren’t really justifiable given the relative simplicity of the graphics compared to bigger-budget titles that ran a whole lot better. And, again, from the original game onwards, game balance has been an off-and-on problem: the original game (and the total overhaul Re;Birth1) was inconsistent in its difficulty, erring on the side of “suddenly way too hard” without warning; sequel mk2 and its Re;Birth counterpart was much too easy (and rather short, although it does still have the widest variety of endings in the series); Victory and Re;Birth3, meanwhile, got the closest to nailing the formula, but still had a few elements that could be a bit of a pain, most notably the heavily RNG-based Scout system.

So how does MegaNep counter these original problems? Well, in the case of the technical issues, it seems that Compile Heart is significantly more comfortable developing for PS4 than PS3. MegaNep runs at a pretty consistent 60fps pretty much all of the time; the only time it drops is in particularly busy scenes such as the “sakura”-style dungeons with cherry blossoms everywhere. MegaNep is even an improvement over the company’s last game Omega Quintet, which ran very nicely in battle scenes, but which juddered a little bit in the (admirably large and sprawling) field areas. It’s not going to win any awards for looking amazing, of course, but the graphics are perfectly acceptable and, as is the norm for the series, the character models and animations are very nice indeed.

As for the gameplay balancing, Compile Heart really feel like they’ve nailed it this time around. At no point did I feel like the game was too easy or too difficult, and progression was paced well. It’s not a game that you need to grind to level 99 to be able to beat the last boss, either; my clear party consisted of characters between levels 40-60 (Nepgear being the highest at 60, not that I show her any favouritism, nosirree) and they dispatched the last boss without any difficulty. In other words, it’s a game that you can stumble your way through from start to finish without running into too much trouble, but if you go a little off the beaten track from the linear storyline, there are plenty of ways to challenge yourself — and plenty of things to do in New Game Plus, too.

The game systems, having been significantly revamped from the Victory/Re;Birth formula, work extremely well. Skills don’t feel over- or under-powered, and the basic combo attacks each character can perform are actually useful for things other than building up the EXE Drive meter now, too. Each character feels unique, too, with a variety of different skills, weapon types, combo arrangements and multi-person formation attacks to play with; there are a clearly number of “optimal” party setups that provide you with the most flexibility in terms of formation and partner moves in particular, but the systems are balanced well enough that you can take pretty much any combination you like into battle and have a good time. Oh, and while there are a few recycled dungeons from past games — it’s series tradition by this point — there’s also a ton of brand new, original content, including the wonderfully inventive (and infuriating) Neplunker dungeons as well as the mapless Senmuu Labyrinth.

Now, narrative and characterisation has never really been an issue for the Neptunia series, though my one criticism has been that it tends to have slightly weedy finales, particularly the final boss fights, which have previously been quite underwhelming at times. Pleasingly, MegaNep’s finale (at least in the ending I got) is spectacular, dramatic and even emotional; it really tugs on the heartstrings as you see what these characters — characters who many players have spent many hours with — are going through to resolve the latest crisis.

The story in general is very good; split into three distinct acts, each with their own focus and expanding scale, it’s interesting, enjoyable, varied and clever. It’s not a rehash of the previous games’ stories at all and it has worthwhile things to say, but it’s never forgotten the series’ roots in satire and parody. It’s laugh-out-loud funny in places, tearjerkingly emotional in others. It’s the best script the Neptunia characters have ever had to work with, and, like so much else about this game, feels like such a magnificent step up from the previous games that it’s a delight to see. I’ll talk more about this after I’ve seen the “true” ending and how it resolves things in an alternative manner.

In other words, it’s not just a great Neptunia game, it’s a great RPG, period. The only thing that saddens me is the fact that so many people will write it off without even giving it a shot for themselves; still, I guess that makes it all the more special for those of us in the know who can enjoy and appreciate it, both on its own merits and as, to date, the absolute pinnacle of the series.

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2218: Megadimension Neptunia: Report from 21 Hours In

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Good Lord, this game is good.

As I mentioned the other day, Megadimension Neptunia V-II marks something of a watershed moment for the series in that it’s no longer “good, but [insert caveat of your choice here]” and is just plain good. Great, even.

I’m about 21 hours in so far. I’ve finished the first of the three main stories that make up the complete experience — Zerodimension Neptunia Z — and am now in the second, Hyperdimension Neptunia G. This part — at least the first bit of it; I don’t know how long it is in total — is split into four distinct scenarios, each of which focuses on one of the four main goddess characters (and one of the four new “Gold Third” characters, who personify various Japanese game companies from Capcom to Square Enix), and so far I’ve played through Blanc’s route from start to finish.

Like Compile Heart’s previous game Omega Quintet, MegaNep spreads out its mechanics over the course of quite a few hours. 20 hours in, I’m still getting tutorial messages when I’m afflicted with a status effect I haven’t suffered before, though I think that most of the main core mechanics of the game have now been introduced by this point. Unlike Final Fantasy XIII, which often draws the ire of commentators for taking a similar approach to spreading out its new mechanics, MegaNep never feels like it’s artificially constraining you, though; the new systems I’ve seen so far were all introduced at the changeover between Zerodimension Neptunia Z and Hyperdimension Neptunia G, which was an eminently sensible way to do things, since it allows Z to stand by itself as a complete-feeling experience, then G to move on and feel distinctive in its own right thanks to the additional things you have to juggle.

What of those additional things, though? Well, aside from the things that Z already shook up — the world map is now node-based a la Final Fantasy Tactics, and you can have random encounters while moving from place to place; the battle system has been completely revamped from previous installments — G introduces (and, in some cases, reintroduces) a number of new systems.

First is the Scout system originally seen in Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory. Essentially, this is a small army of chibi characters (series veterans will recognise them as the “Chirper” characters who fulfil the role of incidental NPCs) that you can send out to dungeons, and they will then report back with what they find. Whereas Victory’s Scout system simply required you to enter and leave locations a certain number of times before the Scouts would return, MegaNep’s Scouts head out in real time and then report back with items, money, new dungeon features (boss monsters or clues to hidden treasure) or whole new dungeons. There’s still a heavy degree of RNG involved, but it’s a fairly painless process, and the real-time element means you can easily leave it running while you’re doing other errands in-game. Scouts also provide passive bonuses to you if you’re exploring the same dungeon they’re deployed to, so they’re helpful in ways other than just finding stuff, too.

Next is the Investment system, which allows you to develop towns by spending your hard-earned Credits in three areas: Commercial, Industrial and Public Relations. Upgrading Commercial increases the stock in the shops; upgrading Industrial gives you access to new crafting recipes; upgrading Public Relations triggers events that can reward you with items, new Scouts or simply an entertaining scene. That’s pretty straightforward.

Then you have the Route Building system, which is also reasonably straightforward. Discover a new dungeon and you can’t just click on it on the map like in the older games; you have to build a node-based pathway to it first, which costs money.

Then you have the Hidden Treasure system for each dungeon, which replaces the old games’ spamming the “sonar”-type ability to find invisible items. Here, to find a hidden treasure, first of all you have to have a Scout discover a clue to its location, then fulfil the conditions in the clue, then collect the treasure. Sometimes dungeons have more than one treasure, which means you have to do the process twice, though the conditions are usually different. The conditions make the dungeon-crawling a bit more interesting, because they have a decent amount of variety in them: some require you to collect all the regular treasures in a dungeon (some of which may be in awkward places or behind barriers that require the “Breaker” ability to smash) while others require you to execute 8 “Symbol Attacks” in a row without getting spotted by any enemies, which challenges your stealth and pattern-spotting skills. Others still require you to defeat each and every enemy symbol in the whole dungeon at least once — they don’t all have to be dead at the same time, but you do have to keep track of what you’ve already killed and what you haven’t.

In Blanc’s route, we get a number of different characters to play with, each of whom handles rather differently, fixing the issue from the older games where most of the characters felt rather interchangeable with the exception of their special skills. Blanc herself has a marked disparity between her physical and magic defense, for example, while her sisters Rom and Ram have half of Blanc’s HP but much stronger magic resistance and the ability to attack both at range and over a wider area. The brief time you get to play with Capcom personification C-Sha is a ton of fun, too; her combo skills are all named after fighting game terminology, and it’s more fun than it should be triggering Rush attacks called simply “PPPK” then seeing her doing a punch-punch-punch-kick combo on the enemy.

The story is proving to be surprisingly compelling so far, too. The Zerodimension episode had a mixture of lightheartedness and post-apocalyptic bleakness and worked well. Blanc’s route of the Hyperdimension story deals with a plausible view of a dystopian society where everything and everyone is controlled by the state, and how revolutionaries fighting against this sort of regime aren’t always in it for the right reasons. Neptunia’s stories have always been far more clever than most reviewers give them credit for, being heavily allegorical for the most part, but so far MegaNep seems to have taken things to a new level. The writing and localisation is good (aside from a few easily ignored typos here and there) and, crucially, the new characters — of whom there are quite a few — fit right in to the world without breaking a sweat.

It does feel very different to previous Neptunia games, but after the three Re;Births that all had the same basic mechanics, it’s refreshing to have a game that feels both comfortingly familiar and fresh at the same time. I’m delighted with the experience so far, and am looking forward to playing it to death over the course of the next few weeks. Expect further reports to follow.

2213: Paying Not to Play vs. Games That Let You Break Them

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I’m currently grinding my way through to the Platinum trophy on Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 2, and in the process I’ve unlocked a considerable number of the “Plans” in the game’s “Remake” system. For those who haven’t played any of the Re;Birth games, these are essentially a crafting system that allow you to bolt various bits and pieces onto the base game. These bits and pieces range from a boost to the amount of experience points you gain from battle to new items being available to purchase in the shops.

Re;Birth 2 goes further than its predecessor did with the Plans by pretty much allowing you to break the game altogether. Between the Plan which allows you to automatically defeat enemies you outlevel on the dungeon screen without having to actually do the battle and the “Symbol Attack Gains” Plan, which allows you to still get experience, credits and items as if you had done the battle, grinding to the game’s various endings is arguably a little too easy, particularly if combined with boosts to experience and suchlike.

At least, I’d say this was a little too easy were it not for the fact that I’ve played a bunch of Compile Heart games now, and their endgame is always like this: characters continuing to level after the usual cap of 99, stats increasing to ludicrous levels, superpowered equipment boosting them still further. In Neptunia’s case, the exaggerated power levels of the endgame is arguably all part of the satire and parody that the series is based around: RPGs are known for having big numbers in them in their final hours, so here are bigger numbers than you’ve ever seen (outside of the Disgaea series, that is) popping out of enemies as you batter them around the face and neck repeatedly with various sharp implements.

In the case of the Re;Birth games, how much you break the game is entirely up to you. You don’t have to turn any of the plans on if you don’t want to, but if you do so, it makes working your way through the alternative endings considerably easier — and manages to remain fun in the process, since there’s more to the game than just battles. It’s inherently satisfying to see Nepgear closing in on level 400 as I approach the “True” ending on my third playthrough, and I’m fully intending on blasting through the other endings after this too.

Hyperdimension Neptunia U allows you to completely break it, too, particularly in its endgame. As you clear various components of the game, you unlock various cheats which range from having infinite EXE Drive power for super-special moves to not actually taking any damage from enemies, essentially making you invincible. And yet that game managed to remain fun despite the option to completely break it; testament to its overall charm and the fact that it had a metagame structure that I found enjoyable to grind through in the name of a Platinum trophy.

As I play these deliberately broken games, I can’t help but compare them to what a lot of mobile games do. In the case of mobile games — free-to-play ones, anyway — you generally have the option to pay real money to break the game in some way, be it eliminate grinding, get an overpowered new character/item/weapon or somehow otherwise break the usual rules of the game. Some games are more aggressive than others in trying to convince you to part with your cash, with the most egregious technique being the vile “Energy” bar that throttles how much you’re allowed to play in a single session without either waiting or paying up.

In essence, by paying up to get an advantage in mobile games, you’re more often than not paying not to play the game: paying not to have to collect things, or grind experience points, or earn money, or fuse cards to make better cards, or whatever. Most well-designed free-to-play mobile games do have a means of earning the premium currency required to do most of these things, but in many cases this is painfully slow — fast enough to give you a taste, but just slow enough to make you think it can’t possibly hurt to pay 99p for 15 gems or whatever. And once you do that, any sense of achievement is gone, because you know you didn’t really “earn” whatever you got from it: you just bought it.

Contrast with, say, the Plans in Re;Birth 2, which are also providing the opportunity to not play part of the game — battles with enemies much lower level than you — but demand that you earn the right to do that before you’re able to take advantage of it. Or contrast with Neptunia U’s cheats, which unlock by completing aspects of the game: again, you have to earn your right to make the rest of your grind easier.

In the latter cases, it’s still a player-friendly move that helps save them some time while still being able to explore and enjoy everything the game has to offer, but it carries with it a sense of achievement: the feeling of having earned and unlocked something, rather than just reaching for the credit card when things get a bit tough.

I sincerely hope free-to-play games don’t become the norm, simply for this reason. Paying to skip things or acquire things without having to earn them makes the whole thing feel rather meaningless to me. I know not everyone feels this way, but so long as there are still full-price premium games that don’t want to keep charging me to keep playing — or to not play — then I’ll keep buying ’em.

2200: Happy Birthday, Tsunako

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Tsunako is the artist responsible for the character designs in the Hyperdimension Neptunia series, and consequently she is responsible for bringing more joy into my life than pretty much any other visual artist I can name. (Which isn’t all that many, admittedly, but from the moment I got into Neptunia I liked the art enough to find out who was behind it.)

In celebration of it being Tsunako’s birthday today, I thought I’d take the opportunity to share a selection of favourite images. Most of these are from the Neptunia series since I haven’t yet got around to experiencing other series she has worked on such as Fairy Fencer F or Date A Live and thus don’t know enough about them to be able to comment with any real authority.

Without further ado, then…

companep — The first image you see in the original Hyperdimension Neptunia and its Re;Birth1 remake. Pretty much sets the tone of what to expect.

cpus — This image, from the alternate universe in which Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory and Re;Birth3 take place, pretty much sums up the relationship between Neptune and the rest of the cast.

candidates — The “CPU Candidates” — little sisters of the main characters, representing the PSP/Vita (top left), Game Gear (top right) and DS (the twins)

makers — These characters, from Re;Birth1, are the “Makers”, personifications of various software companies. Like most characters in Neptunia, their designs beautifully encapsulate their source material.

kiss — mk2 and Re;Birth2 made the implied yuri in the series a little more up-front.

nepschool — For me, one sign of a good character is being able to put them in a new situation/outfit and they still be recognisable; I think you’ll agree that the goddesses in school uniforms still have very clear personalities.

noire — One of my favourite images of Lastation’s leader Noire.

purpleheart — Neptune’s transformed CPU form Purple Heart, demonstrating Tsunako’s biggest strength, so far as I’m concerned: her ability to draw curves to die for.

vert — While much of Neptunia is self-consciously moe, there’s little denying that Vert goes beyond “cute” into “beautiful”.

neppurp — This image is not lewd at all, and if you think it is you are the one who is the pervert.

miku — And here’s a Tsunako-drawn Hatsune Miku, just so this gallery isn’t entirely Neptunia.

2194: Second Re;Birth

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Having beaten Hyperdimension Neptunia U Action Unleashed to my satisfaction by successfully attaining the Platinum trophy, I immediately started on Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth2, the Vita-based remake of Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2, previously my favourite game in the series, if not mechanically then certainly in terms of story and characters.

Re;Birth2 is less of a drastic difference from its predecessor because mk2 was already using the initial, slightly unrefined version of the systems seen in Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory and beyond. Re;Birth2 is still worth playing if you’re already familiar with the original, however — not only has the battle system been updated to be in line with the solid, enjoyable mechanics of the later installments of the series, the game has also been updated with new scenes and new characters, including the welcome reappearance of RED, one of the best characters from the very first Hyperdimension Neptunia game, and one who was sadly absent from Re;Birth1. Not only that, but the presentation has been brought in line with the rest of the series, too — rather than mk2‘s somewhat muddy character models used in dialogue sequences, Re;Birth2 makes use of the beautiful Live2D incarnations of Tsunako’s art like the other games.

Also added to the base game is the Remake system previously seen in Re;Birth1. This is essentially a crafting component, but as well as crafting items — which you do to make them available in shops rather than adding them to your inventory — you can also craft new game mechanics and visual options. Re;Birth1 had a few interesting options in this regard, but Re;Birth2 takes the idea and really runs with it, going so far as to add everything from a whole real-time passive minigame called Stella’s Dungeon that you set running in the background while you play the rest of the game to the ability to make the girls’ eyebrows stand out more on their 3D models so they look more like the 2D artwork.

As is tradition for most of the Neptunia series, Re;Birth2 is a gradual evolution rather than a dramatic reinvention, but some of the new additions and changes are very welcome. One of the craftable Plans in the Remake system, for example, allows you to obtain items and experience points from enemies you “symbol attack” on the field screen. In the original mk2, if you attacked an enemy that was significantly lower level than you on the map, they’d simply die and you wouldn’t get anything. It was for clearing your way through a dungeon rather than grinding, but it actually wasn’t all that useful, since you often wanted to fight enemies in order to collect their drops for various purposes. Re;Birth1 added the option to turn this off via its Remake system, which was a start, but the ability to get rewards from this is new for Re;Birth2, and extremely welcome in the late game, where you’re likely to completely destroy most enemies as you grind out Lily Ranks and rare drops.

Coming to this game straight off the extremely light-hearted and silly Hyperdimension Neptunia U Action Unleashed was quite surprising: the overall tone of the whole experience is very different. It’s significantly darker, particularly in the opening sequence, and it features some of the best villains the series has seen, each of whom are complex and interesting characters. The use of the extremely girly Nepgear as protagonist was inspired in this instance, since the juxtaposition of her innate sweetness and naive nature with some of the nasty shit that goes on — particularly in the Conquest ending path — is very effective indeed.

I’m only in Chapter 2 of Re;Birth2 so far, but I’m already having a blast with it and reminding myself how and why I love this series — particularly its mainline games. It’s going to be a Nep-Nep-filled few months, I’m afraid, since there’s Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth3 to go after this, by which point a lovely shiny copy of the actually-brand-new-and-not-a-remake Megadimension Neptunia V-II for PlayStation 4 will finally be in my grasp. Can’t wait.

2191: On the Objectification of Waifus, and Why Anita Sarkeesian is Wrong (Again)

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The yawning portal of despair that is Anita Sarkeesian’s mouth once again creaked open earlier today, and as usual a stream of ill-informed rhetoric belched forth, bringing pain and misery to all within earshot. This time around she was mad about arses. She was mad that female characters had nice arses that game developers liked to show off, but she was also mad that male characters had their arses hidden by cloaks if they are Batman.

The above is, of course, a rather sweeping simplification of what she was arguing, but I don’t want to provide an in-depth critique of her latest video, largely because I can’t stomach watching her smug face whining any more. Instead, I want to refute one of the core aspects of her overall argument: the fact that women are objectified in games, and that this is bad.

Actually, no; I’m not going to refute the fact that women are objectified, because they are. And so are men, but I’m not going to focus on that aspect, either; let’s stick to the women. So to speak.

The key point that Sarkeesian perpetually misses when talking about the depiction of women in video games is that the most popular characters — male or female — are pretty much always popular for reasons other than their appearance. We’ll go into some specific examples in a moment, but it’s also important to acknowledge that appearance is important, and that objectification does occur — it’s just not the sole, driving force that Sarkeesian seems to think it is, and it’s frankly rather insulting to everyone for her to suggest that men are only interested in looking at nice arses and nothing else.

Men are, of course, interested in looking at nice arses, and here’s a key point. Objectification and judging by appearance occurs immediately the moment a player is first confronted with a new character — and particularly when the player is offered a selection of characters to choose from. At this point, the character becomes the “face” of the product that is the game, and it’s perfectly natural for someone to gravitate immediately towards someone they like the look of for whatever reason. Depending on the person, this reason may well be that they find the character physically attractive — but it can also be that they find them amusing or relatable, like the way they’re dressed, remind them of someone else, remind them of themselves or any number of reasons.

Importantly, though, whether the player is inclined to stick with that character in the long term is not determined by objectification and their appearance. It’s all to do with personality, character and capability. A character can be the most gorgeous, hottest piece of ass you’ve ever seen, but if they’re boring, they’re not going to hold a player’s interest.

Let’s consider a few examples. These are based on my personal experiences with these characters, and anecdotal evidence of what I have seen others saying about them.

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This is Lightning from Final Fantasy XIII. She’s an extremely attractive, striking character, but in an understated rather than self-consciously sexy way. She’s slim but toned, wears a short skirt, has pleasingly tousled hair, has perpetually pouted, parted and moist lips, and wears sexy boots.

She’s also one of the most widely disliked characters in the entire Final Fantasy series thanks to being seen as “boring”. This is partly due to her single-minded nature, partly due to the rather monotone delivery by voice actor Ali Hillis and partly due to the fact that, as the main player-protagonist character in the game, she was pretty obviously kept as a bit of a “blank slate” for the player to interpret and identify with as they saw fit.

I personally don’t think she’s all that bad, but there are far more interesting characters in Final Fantasy XIII. Lightning does, however, act as a suitable proxy for the player to interact with the world and its inhabitants, and in that respect she’s a successful game protagonist. I just don’t see many people declaring her as a “waifu”.

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This is Neptune and Nepgear from the Neptunia series. They are very popular “waifu” choices, but you’ll note that they both err rather on the side of “cute” rather than “sexy”, leaving aside their plugsuit-style HDD/goddess forms seen in the background of the image above. Actually, that raises an interesting point: those who proudly declare Neptune or Nepgear as a favourite character or “waifu” tend to do so with their human incarnations in mind, not the sexed-up HDD versions.

Why are Neptune and Nepgear popular then? Because they have strong personalities, and are interesting characters. Neptune is one of the most incompetent RPG protagonists the genre has ever seen, although her scatterbrained nature acts as an eminently suitable metaphor for the chaotic way most people play RPGs — putting the world on hold to go and grind out some sidequests — while Nepgear is the perfect foil to her sister, being nice, polite, quiet, intelligent and, frankly, a bit of a doormat to everyone around her.

While I won’t deny that there are people out there who want to sexualise these two (there’s plenty of Rule 34 artwork out there to confirm that) it’s also true that the vast majority of Neptunia fans who pick a favourite — whether it’s Neptune, Nepgear or any of the other main cast members — are doing so not on the basis of which one they want to fuck the most, as Sarkeesian suggests, but rather the one that they simply enjoy spending time with the most.

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Here are the various incarnations of Lara Croft from the Tomb Raider series over the years. While Lara tends not to inspire the same sort of fanatical “my waifu!” declarations that female protagonists of Japanese games — and the reasons for that are a whole other matter worth discussing another time — she’s still a popular character, and not because she’s sexy.

Oh, sure, her tiny shorts and enormous rack made for some striking box art back when the original Tomb Raider came out, but if there was no substance to her, she wouldn’t have been able to hold down a series for so long. A series that has been “rebooted” twice, yes, but a series in which she has remained a fairly consistent character, all told: a strong, confident, somewhat posh British woman with a plummy accent, a penchant for gunplay and acrobatics, and a desire to constantly challenge herself.

Moreover, she manages to be a female character that doesn’t alienate anyone: she’s not “girly” in an exaggerated manner, but nor is she overly masculine or aggressive. She manages to occupy a somewhat understated middle ground similar to what Lightning’s creator Toriyama was presumably going for, only with arguably slightly better results. In other words, she has appeal elements designed for lots of different people and, despite her “sexiness quotient” being toned down a bit over the years, particularly in the most recent games, she’s still a good-looking lady. But, importantly, that’s not why people like her.

atelier meruru, atelier rorona, atelier totori, kishida mel, merurulince rede arls, rororina fryxell, totoori

Finally for now — I could happily go on with this all day — here is Totori, Rorona and Meruru from the Atelier Arland series. All pretty young things, I’m sure you’ll agree, and all clearly designed to initially draw the player in with their attractiveness — or, perhaps more accurately, cuteness, much like Neptune and Nepgear.

But, again, anyone who proudly declares any one of these girls as their “waifu”, or just as a favourite character, is not doing so because they want to fuck them. No; they’re doing so because they like Rorona’s optimistic but clumsy nature; Totori’s inherent sweetness; Meruru’s lively, bubbly personality. Again, it’s a case of wanting a “relationship” of sorts with these characters — of wanting to hang out with them as people, rather than objectifying them as something to jack off to.

Objectification and aesthetics play an important role in determining our initial attraction to something. But a relationship built purely on physical attraction and nothing deeper is a relationship that will not last long — and a relationship that will be forgotten shortly after it has ended. This is not what modern gamers are looking for — and it is not what the vast majority of modern games are providing.

Men are complicated creatures. No, people are complicated creatures. To boil down everyone’s thinking to “everyone judges everything by appearance” is both reductive and unhelpful. And yet this is exactly what Sarkeesian is doing — just another reason she continues to lose credibility with pretty much everything she says.

2188: Neptunia Games I’d Like to See

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With Megadimension Neptunia V-II and Megatagmension Blanc and Neptune vs. Zombies on the way to the West, hopefully with Neptunia vs. Sega Hard Girls to follow in the near future, a Neptunia fan such as myself has to ponder what might be next for the series, particularly now it’s made the jump to PlayStation 4 and PC as well as Vita.

With that in mind, I had a think about some Neptunia games I’d like to see, particularly in the vein of “spin-offs” such as Hyperdimension Neptunia U Action Unleashed and Hyperdevotion Noire. Here are said thoughts, expressed in the style of a overly excitable PR blast, overuse of exclamation marks and all.

Hyperdimension Neptunia Infinity Dungeon

Gamindustri is in peril once again… and the CPUs are nowhere to be seen?!

Top Guild agent IF is assigned to the mystery and quickly discovers that the monsters pouring out into Gamindustri appear to be coming from a new dungeon that opened in the vicinity of Planeptune. Not knowing what to expect, she begins her quest to uncover the fates of her friends, the CPUs and the CPU Candidates. Just how deep does this mysterious dungeon, whose walls seem to shift and twist before her very eyes, really go?

FEATURES

The first Neptunia roguelike! Explore an infinite array of procedurally generated levels as IF and your favourite Neptunia characters as you attempt to discover the source of the Infinity Dungeon’s power!
An all-new twist on Neptunia’s crazy combat! Tactical turn-based movement allows for seamless transitions between exploration and combat; meanwhile, for the first time in the series, make use of the environment in creative ways to defend yourself and inflict massive damage on your foes!
Looking for a more direct route? Make your own! All of Hyperdimension Neptunia Infinity Dungeon’s levels are fully destructible, with IF and friends’ special moves just as likely to bash holes in the walls of the dungeon as they are to smash their enemies into oblivion!
Mix it up with Irregular Quest conditions! The Infinity Dungeon works in strange and mysterious ways; some floors will challenge you to clear them against the clock, while others will task you with defeating the enemies as stylishly as possible. Uncover and fulfil the Irregular Quest conditions to maximise your rewards!
A wide cast of playable characters! Explore the dungeon as IF, Compa, Neptune and the rest of the gang — plus a few special guests!

Coming soon to PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 4, featuring Cross-Save support. Pre-order your Limited Edition now, featuring a 2CD soundtrack, artbook and fully poseable IF figurine.

Hyperdimension Neptunia U2 Action Unchained

Peace reigns once again in Gamindustri, but the world — and its CPUs — are restless.

Enter, once again, intrepid journalists Dengekiko and Famitsu, who once again have an offer for the CPUs and their Candidates: a means of entertaining both themselves and their people, plus a way to keep their fighting skills in shape.

FEATURES

Hack, slash… and think?! Hyperdimension Neptunia U2 Action Unchained’s dungeons are like nothing you’ve ever seen in the Neptunia series, combining challenging combat encounters with head-scratching puzzles that will require you to use your smarts, dexterity and a bevy of interactive items to progress. Nep-Nep might need some help with that last bit!
Custom combos GET! Edit your favourite fighter’s moves and abilities as you see fit from a wide palette of options that expands as you progress. Develop your own personal fighting style for each character and display your skills with a selection of different weapons, each with their own movesets!
Fight one-on-one or go toe-to-toe against the horde! Hyperdimension Neptunia U2 Action Unchained’s combat encounters range from challenging one-on-one battles against both monsters and incarnations of Gamindustri’s great heroes to large-scale battles against overwhelming odds. Can you stem a seemingly never-ending tide of monsters?!
Fight smart, and fight cool! It’s not just about beating your opponents; it’s about making yourself look great! Mix up your combos, SP Moves and EXE Drives to impress the audience and earn more Shares to maximise your favourite character’s abilities!

Coming soon to PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 4, featuring Cross-Save support and Cross-Play online co-op for 1-4 players. Pre-order your limited edition now, featuring a 2CD soundtrack, huge wallscroll and collection of chibi Neptunia figurines.

Hyperdimension Neptunia Gamindustri Idol Project

“Is anyone else getting a distinct sense of deja vu?!”

A new foe threatens Gamindustri — and this time it’s not the fault of the monsters. No, the CPUs’ very power is threatened by the rise in popularity of idols — and this time there’s no Producer to help them out! Fortunately, old friend 5pb. is on hand to give the CPUs and their Candidates a bit of advice on winning the love of the people back…

FEATURES

Rhythm action gameplay developed in collaboration with SEGA and Crypton Future Media, developers of the Hatsune Miku Project DIVA series! Enjoy 35 songs, including classics from the Neptunia series and originals composed specifically for this game, as you challenge taxing note charts at four levels of difficulty!
Customise the CPUs as they aim for idol glory! A huge variety of costumes, accessories and stage props are on offer for both the CPUs and the Candidates; some even have special effects, but you’ll have to experiment to find out what works best for you!
Two ways to play! Take on a new story of the CPUs and the Candidates attempting to win back the support of the people of Gamindustri, or play for fun in Arcade mode as you try to top your best scores!
Take the battle for best idol online! Join the Guild online to track your progress and best performances against players from all over the world! Share your customised CPU Idols and stage setups as you attempt to dominate not just Gamindustri, but our world too!

Coming soon to PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 4, featuring Cross-Save support and Cross-Play online functionality including social features, sharing and leaderboards. Pre-order your limited edition now, featuring a 2CD soundtrack, commemorative concert programme and collection of pendants, allowing you to proudly show the world who your favourite CPU Idol is!

Note: I know these games are not real. I also know that Hyperdimension Neptunia: Producing Perfection is a thing. Thank you in advance for your time and your desire to point these things out to me, though.

2186: Hyperdimension Action

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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!

2182: The Comforting Familiarity of Nep-Nep

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There’s a reason I frequently quote the Hyperdimension Neptunia series as my favourite game series of all time. And it’s not because any of the games are particularly outstanding — though, it must be said, each and every one is far better than most reviews give them credit for — or because they’re particularly impressive. In fact, technically speaking, outside of some excellent character models and animation, the Neptunia series as a whole is fairly flawed, though since making the jump to Vita, PC and PS4 rather than PS3, its average framerate has gone through the roof.

No, the reason I love Neptunia so is its comforting familiarity. Firing up one of these games is like meeting up with the sort of friends you always have a good time with. The kind of friends you might not see for months or years at a time on some occasions, but the kind of friends who allow you to pick right up where you left off when you do meet up again.

There are a number of ways the series achieves this. The first and most obvious is through its main cast: the combination of Tsunako’s gorgeous character and costume designs, the excellent voice acting (in Japanese, anyway; I haven’t spent long with the English dub) and a sharp, witty script really brings these characters to life and, over the course of all the games they’ve starred in to date, they’ve developed and become distinct. The Neptunia writers and localisers aren’t under any misconceptions that these characters are particularly deep, flawed or, for want of a better word, “literary”, but this adds to the series’ charm; it’s infused with a gentle sense of good-natured humour and an aesthetic that combines the bright, primary colours of a children’s TV show with a strong sense of self-awareness and recognition that yes, grown-ups play this and appreciate a few dirty jokes here and there. It’s unpretentious and casual; you never feel like you have to make an effort to enjoy spending time with the Neptunia characters, and, perhaps paradoxically, this makes you want to spend more time with them, to find out more about them.

The second way Neptunia brings a sense of warm familiarity to me is through its aesthetic. Developer Compile Heart frequently gets lambasted in reviews for recycling graphical, sound and music assets wholesale from game to game, but somehow this has never mattered to me; I like the fact that you know what a Neptunia game is going to look and sound like before you boot it up. I like the fact that the series has developed its own kind of non-verbal language using its soundtrack to denote what is happening on. And the fact that the same dungeon maps are used from game to game — or even, in some cases, recycled within the same game — has never mattered to me; on the contrary, these places are now familiar and comfortable to me, even if the occupants may differ from visit to visit and occasionally incorporate superbosses that splatter me up the nearest wall.

The third reason Neptunia makes me happy is because the whole thing is clearly infused with such joy and love for these characters and the setting in which they live that it’s hard not to smile all the time you’re playing. While it’s questionable as to whether or not Compile Heart knew precisely how popular the series would become when the original Hyperdimension Neptunia was released in 2010, it’s clear to see today, six years later, that the creators still adore their creations as much as the audience do. And, more to the point, the various spinoffs in the series allow fans to celebrate their favourite characters in a variety of different ways, be it through the clothes-ripping hack-and-slash action of Hyperdimension Neptunia U, the strategic battling of Hyperdevotion Noire or the purely “social” gameplay of Hyperdimension Neptunia Producing Perfection. We’ve seen these girls at work, rest and play over the course of these games, and it doesn’t take long to fall in love with them.

Me, I’m at a stage where I honestly think I might be quite happy playing nothing but Neptunia games until the end of time, assuming that Compile Heart continued to explore collaborations with other developers such as Sting (Hyperdevotion Noire) and Tamsoft (Hyperdimension Neptunia U) as well as producing strong mainline installments in the series. Of course, this is an exaggeration, but one thing is true: I never have a bad time playing a Neptunia game, and I never feel sad while I’m playing a Neptunia game; I hope we continue to see them for many years to come.