This is gonna be a hot take - this is one of my favorite Neptunia games in the entire series. Which is weird to say, because this game is VERY hated. And the hate, in my opinion, is justified, with such riveting issues as:
- Frequent framerate issues. This game struggles to maintain a playable framerate a lot of the time.
- Unnecessarily long 40+ minute cutscenes. Yes you can legitimately fall asleep to some of these, especially when they bring nothing of value.
- Brutally difficult gameplay that, much like its predecessor, requires hours upon hours of grinding to progress.
But then why do I consider it one of my favorite games in the series? Two things:
1. The redesigned gameplay that became a staple of the series that later games and re-releases would adapt and iterate on.
2. The story itself.
Yes I did say the cutscenes can be unnecessarily long and bring nothing of real value to the player. But to me, they are the reason I love this game so much. In this game, Neptune gets transported to a dimension that starts from almost 0. It starts out parodying the video game crash of the 80s, and picks up right when only Sega and Nintendo were the big shots. And, throughout the game, you get to see the rise of the gaming industry and see not only the new consoles (nations) that rise up, but also the problems they encounter on the way.
This game is fantastic. It is memorable and just fun to revisit. I have gotten every single ending in this game and have finished 4 separate playthroughs of the game, totaling to about 450 hours in this game. I enjoyed it and I really loved it.
- Frequent framerate issues. This game struggles to maintain a playable framerate a lot of the time.
- Unnecessarily long 40+ minute cutscenes. Yes you can legitimately fall asleep to some of these, especially when they bring nothing of value.
- Brutally difficult gameplay that, much like its predecessor, requires hours upon hours of grinding to progress.
But then why do I consider it one of my favorite games in the series? Two things:
1. The redesigned gameplay that became a staple of the series that later games and re-releases would adapt and iterate on.
2. The story itself.
Yes I did say the cutscenes can be unnecessarily long and bring nothing of real value to the player. But to me, they are the reason I love this game so much. In this game, Neptune gets transported to a dimension that starts from almost 0. It starts out parodying the video game crash of the 80s, and picks up right when only Sega and Nintendo were the big shots. And, throughout the game, you get to see the rise of the gaming industry and see not only the new consoles (nations) that rise up, but also the problems they encounter on the way.
This game is fantastic. It is memorable and just fun to revisit. I have gotten every single ending in this game and have finished 4 separate playthroughs of the game, totaling to about 450 hours in this game. I enjoyed it and I really loved it.