Review: Hyperdimension Neptunia U: Action Unleashed (Vita)

by Jim Smale · Published May 27, 2015 · Updated May 27, 2015

Prepare yourself for a whirlwind of 3D hack ‘n’ slash action! Help these Gamindustri gals fight through frenzies of enemies using extravagant skills and custom combinations of aerial and ground attacks!

Pros:

New graphical approach, Visually looks stunning with a Anime comic style used.
Gameplay is a battle arena brawler.
You have a stable of 10 characters:Neptune, Noire, Blanc, Vert, Uni, Rom, Ram, Dengekiko, Famitsu and Nepgear.
Missions allow you to pick a team of two for each mission. Except Set quests where the characters are picked for you.
Extra missions can be unlocked by chatting with people in town.
Variety of missions like kill X amount of enemies, Kill a boss or find the exit or simply collect chests.
same hub world as is the case in Neptunia games. Here you can go to town, check Lily rank, setup characters or save.
HDD transformations still present.
taking damage causes your clothes to rip off.
Damage numbers and critical hits show up on screen.
Combo counter.
End of level rank for enemies killed, Time taken and damage taken.
earn Exp and level up characters automatically.
Setup: each character can be individually setup with options like change outfit, head gear, weapons and any accessories which affect stats.
Change music with music player option.
Full Platinum trophy.
Fast loading times.
Japanese/English voice work.
Tutorial section with ongoing tutorial help and a section to re read old tutorials.
All enemies drop a coin with their face on it. Collect enough of these coins to unlock further buffs and start increases.
All levels have recommended levels for your characters.
Loading screens show a bio of your characters and what they look like in HDD form is applicable.
Lily rank is the rank awarded when characters team up. Higher the rank, The better they perform together.
Viewer mode is accessible from the pause menu. It is basically a photo mode as you can pan the camera, zoom in and remove the HUD.
Can fast forward, pause and speed up text.
Quest cleared percentage progress bar.
Varied level locations from the jungle to snow to a Tetris looking block world.
PlayStation TV compatible.
Simple easy to learn controls.
Minimal HUD with button prompts to help pull off moves.
Downed team mates heal and revive over time.

Cons:

Camera is the true enemy as you are constantly fighting against it.
Not everyone will appreciate the stripping mechanic and to be honest it serves no real purpose at all.
Re uses alot of music from previous Neptunia games.
A few of the levels are just condensed versions of previous used levels.
Hardly any touchscreen.
Difficulty spikes.
Disables network features.
You get an audio “now loading” everytime.
There is a lot of loading screens, It may be fast but still.
Repetitive gameplay.
Needless padding to make the game last longer. Especially levels where you have to kill like 1000 enemies then deal with 3 bosses.

In Summary, Its not your typical Neptunia game as it ditches the RPG side and goes for an all out brawler. For the first few hours you will love all the fancy animations, combo killing and team work aspects. But soon you will tire of the constant fights as you struggle to differentiate them from the fight before, They extend the games life the cheap way by adding a load more enemies. It has its bright moments and it does do combat really well but it loses all the excellent story telling and fun of the RPG genre. In short, Its a good blast for a few hours then it’s just same old time and time again.