Review: Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory

Several years after preventing Arfoire’s revival, Gamindustri has remained at peace without any major issues. The CPUs and their younger sisters have been enjoying their quiet lives for a while… 

Pros:

• Anime graphics.
• Japanese voice over available.
• Detailed options menu allowing you to change things like: speed up text, invert controls etc.
• Tutorials throughout the game with full screen pop ups.
• The game has its own challenges menu that once completed pops up in the corner and gives you bonus stats. Challenges start off easy with tasks like jump 20 times, All the way up to crazy tasks like swing your sword 1000 times.
• Game play is open dungeon exploring and you can see the enemies walking around.
• In dungeons there are chests lying around and contain items and other valuable bits and bobs.
• Central hub is where you can teleport to other levels, buy/upgrade/sell items. You can also interact with other characters, go to your room in a hotel and listen to unlocked music, re watch videos/tutorials and look at unlocked images.
• The guild can be found in the central hub and is the place to visit to get and hand in quests. You will usually get given a few quests and can be left running in the background and will complete during normal play. Completing quests will advance the story and in turn advance your rank and increase the difficulty of the quests.
• Earn cash,exp and items by defeating enemies in battle.
• Battles are turn based but with a free roam aspect. Move around the battlefield to get the advantage. Some characters will let you do multiple attacks by pressing the buttons quickly. Other characters may have moves that specialize in certain things like break or power or rush.
• You can transform into a HDD version of yourself which basically means you have a wardrobe change and have better attacks that deal a lot more damage.
• You can zoom the camera in and out.
• Level up to increase your base stats.
• Find plans, collect the ingredients which are items, Completing the list will unlock the item to be bought from the shops.
• Can fast forward,skip and pause text conversations.
• Huge world map with many levels in them, Find new hub worlds as you progress through the main story.
• The game is really easy to pick up and play, Accessibility is high with this one.
• Whilst in dungeons you can scan the area for hidden treasures, Only a small area of effect  but very effective.
• The story itself is a quirky tongue in cheek piss take of the game industry on the whole. At many points you will get a strong feeling of familiarity as the text scrolls down the screen.

Cons:

• Enemies respawn back quickly which is annoying when you are trying to find a way out of an area.
• First half an hour is spent reading screens and screens worth of text.
• You spend more time reading and listening to the story than you do actually playing the game.
• No proper lock onto enemies so attacks feel messy and inaccurate.
• No real prominent notification of completing a task.
• Side quests have no real relevance and to be honest you soon forget they even exist.

In Summary, The game is good but could of been so much better. There is just too much story and not enough actual gameplay. If the idea of pressing X a load of times does it for you then this the game for you, Otherwise its a interactive storybook with action adverts in between each chapter. The core game could have had a bit more meat on it as the combat itself is satisfying and a visual treat. But the quests dont relate to the story and feel tacked on, Crazy to think that an ARPG has JRPG tacked on but never mind. Despite its flaws I still find myself playing it and even enjoying it. For I take my time in each dungeon and get my grind on, The combat is just that good. And in truth I will still be playing this game in a few months time just because of the combat and wonderful characters. New players will hate the dialogue diarrohea it spews but will love the RPG element that is just screaming to burt out like a facehugger on steriods. Watch a few videos and give it a try. If music is your porn and in particular J-Pop, Then you are in luck, For the music in this is excellent and with a dedicated music player section in your hotel, You can whack the headphones on and get your tunes on! In short more game less text next time!