I've always wanted to play this game ever since I heard the news a while back about a guy in Japan who married his DS. Decided to play this just to know what it's about.

After finishing the first part of the game (I chose Rinko), I played the real time mode for a week. It's repetitive and there's nothing much to do. I guess that's what real life is all about, if you think about it.

But still, this isn't a horrible game. I commend it for what it has tried to do. It has nice graphics (for a DS game), the characters are nice and it has a unique real time mode. It just lacks some things to make it a compelling game for me.

Dreams are born from chaos.

The mainline Neptunia series has become better and better with each installment, culminating in what I think is the best game of the mainline entries so far. And yes, I said mainline entry because this series has a ton of spin offs, but we won't count that for now.

Story - The story, while still having a lot of comedic factor, thanks to our Protagonist of Protagonists™ Neptune, is more darker and interesting this time around. The whole game is divided into three acts (each with their own opening!): Zero Dimension Neptunia Z, Hyperdimension Neptunia G and Heartdimension Neptunia H. Each act contains a somewhat different story but ultimately ends in a single conclusion. I like that the story takes us to different dimensions in each act. On the first act, you're traversing an apocalyptic version of Planeptune, on the second, we travel back to present day Gamindustry, etc. I would even call this game a trilogy, as each of the three acts is very substantial and different on their own.

Characters - The story is also helped by a huge cast of new and returning characters, from the CPUs, the CPU candidates and villains. The new star of the show is of course, Uzume Tennouboshi, a tomboyish character that we first meet in an apocalyptic version of Planeptune. She always tries to put out a cool outside persona, but as we all know deep inside, she's a softie. Aside from Uzume, there's also the older and more mature version of Neptune, who remains mysterious throughout. And much to the displeasure of Noire, seems to share her younger counterpart's sense of humor. And of course there's also Arfoire who gets physically (and emotionally) beaten up by Neptune and co. but still remains a good villain throughout the game.

Combat System - I like the combat system of MDNVII. It is turn based, but also has some sort of a tactical aspect to it as characters can move around the battle area. Characters can be freely moved (limited in area) around for better positioning. Each character can also do three different types of attacks, Rush, Power and Standard. I find that Rush attacks are best at building the EXE Gauge while Power are best at dealing damage. Speaking of the EXE Gauge, it's consumed by using certain skills and transformations, so it's best to keep it filled as much as you can.

Music and Sound - Voice acting is still pretty good. I can't say a single bad thing about the cast other than I wished that the English dub had more lines that are voiced. As with all Compile Heart games, the Japanese dub is 100% voiced but the English dub is around 60 - 70% voiced. It's not as bad here as in their other games cough Dragon Star Varnir cough but I just wish they would put more budget into this as the English dub is really good.

The various sound effects are fine, nothing stands out but nothing's bad either.

The music is also one thing I think this game excels at. While it's not in the level of Nier Automata, I'd say there are some pieces of music from this game that I've listened to again and again. Fun fact, the main theme for this game is composed by Nobuo Uematsu.

SUMMARY
Overall, Megadimension Neptunia VII is a good starting point for anyone who wants to dive into the series. It has a self contained plot that is different from the rest of the mainline entries. And even though there are a lot of returning characters, you'll easily catch up to who they are.

Just remember that this series started off as a parody of the console wars during the 7th generation of consoles (Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii), that's why you'll see a lot of gaming references throughout and it doesn't always take itself too seriously.

So if you're down for some fun, quirky JRPG, give this game a shot.

Also, Uzume is best girl.

From the wise words of Kenichiro Takaki: "Tits are life, ass is hometown".

This guy's a legend. Too bad his games tend to be mediocre at best. Eh, but who cares, as long as the fanservice is great we'll keep coming back.

The character designs in this game are more beautiful than Senran Kagura's IMO, and the combat is pretty fun. The repetitiveness and the lack of variety bring it down though. If they slashed the game time by half this would have been more bearable. Ah well, at least you get to see more of the girls.