Developer: Idea Factory & Compile Heart

Publisher: Compile Heart (Japan) & NIS America (N. America)

Genre: JRPG

Rating: 16

Platform: PlayStation 3

Release date: out now

Hyperdimension Neptunia Mk2 is a game that is set in a world where consoles have a physical body and who must protect the world from an evil organisation.

I personally enjoyed Hyperdimension Neptunia Mk2 as the idea of a video game parody of the video game industry did make me chuckle a bit. The game contained a lot of video game jokes which some people may not get at first glance with characters making jokes about game storylines, RPGs etc. The game also knows it is a game with characters breaking the fourth wall and characters singing part of the Final Fantasy VII fanfare after levelling up.

While the game is funny there is also another interesting side and that is the fact all the main characters are girls and male characters are pretty much nonexistent apart from some you hear the odd time. Also you might think one of the characters is a guy but don’t be fooled it is a girl. On the evil side there are some male characters with 3 bosses being male characters.

The games plot is a pretty standard RPG story which involves Nepgear a CPU candidate trying to save her sister and the other CPUs who were captured by the evil organisation ASIC after they attack Gamindustri. After the attack the world is left undefended and ASIC take control of shares of the four major countries that the captured CPU represented. The loss of shares means the sisters of the CPU who are called CPU candidates must rise to the challenge to save their respective countries and the world by gathering shares for their country.

Nepgear’s journey is guided by each countries oracle who she must meet up with her friends Compa and IF as she must gain special discs to gain enough power to defeat ASIC. To gain the disc of the country you must complete various dungeons which will see you fight various monsters and members of ASIC. During the journey the other CPU candidates join Nepgear along with various other heroes to try and save the CPUs.

The heroes and CPU candidates which join your journey all have their own unique personality which makes the plot more interesting and you can see some good character development between all the characters. I must note that the non CPU related members that join are quite interesting because the heroes represent real world companies that helped develop the game. For example the character known as Nisa represents the publishing company NIS America and her attacks are based around the Disgaea series which NIS America publishes. I felt this was a funny and light hearted touch and it seemed to suit the theme of the game well.

The game keeps it video game world theme going with the world map being shown in 8 bit. The world map is where you enter the major hubs of each country and also where you enter games various dungeons to either complete tasks from one of the oracles, through a guild quest or to just grind experience.

The trash enemies in the dungeon can easily be described as a colourful bunch as nearly all of them parody a creature from another video but with slightly altered names. Some of the basic trash include space invaders, animated tetris blocks and my favourite enemies a visual novel scene (just by the last enemy you know you are in for a good laugh).

Combat in Hyperdimension Neptunia Mk2 is your standard JRPG approach with you triggering turn based combat if you attack an enemy or if they attack you. When combat is triggered your four chosen characters will fight against a random number of enemies.

There are various bars on both sides which are health, action points (AP) and skill points (SP) for your characters and your enemy has a health and guard gauge.

AP is for your basic attacks and item usage which start at a set number and when it reaches a level where you can no longer perform an action your turn ends. There are three types of AP attacks which focus on either damaging the enemies guard, allowing multiple hits or direct damage. You can also perform combos (when allowed) with specific AP attacks. AP regenerates and increases when it is the characters turn again. SP is similar to AP, but at the beginning of a dungeon it starts at zero. SP is used to perform each characters most powerful moves which range from heals, buffs or direct attacks. SP moves also require a set number of AP to perform them.

The guard gauge is an extra type of defence for enemies and against though enemies you may have to deplete it first so you can do maximum damage.

In combat CPUs candidates have a special ability called processor units which can be activate when you have more than 100 SP. The downside to using the processor unit as it does slowly drain your SP and when it reaches 0 it automatically turns off. Personally I didn’t find myself needing to use the processor units all that much.

Hyperdimension Neptunia Mk2 also has a partner system which can be used in combat. This allows active and non active characters to work together with non active giving active characters a character specific boost. The boost ranges from extra defence to experience boosts.

Overall combat in the game is pretty easy even in boss fights since you will likely be over powered by the time you reach a major boss due to the amount of types you redo a dungeon for guild quests, but of course if you skip guild quests and stick to the story you are in for a tough time.

Of course there is more to the game then just fighting enemies in dungeons. In the game you can visit the each countries major city were you can receive quests from the local guild to gain shares, shop for new items, craft new items or talk to the people in the city using the chirper system.

Quests from the guild are ranked E – A in order of difficulty and are either a collection or kill quest. The rewards for completing a quest is usually an item or two and shares for the country that sponsored the quest.

The shops in the cities sell items (healing potions etc.), weapons, armour, ornaments, costumes, accessories and processor units.

Item crafting or as it is known in game as item synth is very easy to do. To craft an item you must find a recipe and the items it requires both of which are hidden in dungeons. Some items require you to be partnered with a specific character. Personally I found the crafting to be boring an unneeded as items both in shops were far more powerful.

The chirper system allows you to talk to people in the city. On rare occasions you can trigger an event conversation with a party member in the chirper, you will know when an event conversation is possible when event appears under the characters name. Event conversations are good as they give character backstory and more.

In Hyperdimension Neptunia Mk2 players can customise various parts of each character with new weapons, armour, ornaments, costumes, accessories and processor unit if it is a CPU or CPU candidate. The most interesting thing I found about the customisation was that you can see the change your characters costume or accessory when run around dungeons or when you enter battles, but in dialogue boxes the characters appear in their normal starting clothes.

The processor unit can also be changed via 6 sub sections where you can mix and match various unit parts or just have one type of unit across all the sub sections. Also on Nepgear’s processor unit you can customize the texture of the torso through images you can upload to your PS3.

The game also has some extra features like character info, bonus voices, enemy info, CG images, lily rank and more. Most of these are self explanatory apart from the lily rank. The lily rank is used to see how much the other character like you. From what I could tell it was primarily used for making specific items in item synth.

Last but by no means least you can unlock an area called the coliseum where you can battle past enemies without fear of losing the game.

The game has some great voice actors with Christine Marie Cabanos voice acting Nepgear. While Christine has had her critics for her voice acting in anime like squid girl she does a good job here at bringing the characters emotions to life during spoken cutscenes. Overall all the voice actors did a good job bringing their character to life and making them all likeable characters.

While the game was almost perfect I did notice a few issues with lip sync issues and some grammatical errors in dialog boxes. The ending I felt was a bit disappointing as I felt it kind of came out of no were as you fight the final boss and defeat it rather easily (My highest level character was 57). The game also has multiple endings which include good ending, perfect ending etc. I got the good ending which made up for the weak final boss due to some more great comedic acting from the characters.

At present the game also has a lot of downloadable content which includes various costumes, weapons etc. which you can buy. There is also free DLC which includes a starter pack and a free cutscene.

Final score: 80%

Summary: If you are hardcore video game fan or an anime fan you will love this game. The story is rather good for a game that could be described as a parody. The characters are fun and are likeable as you begin to get attached to them. On the downside the battle system is pretty easy and the only real way to fail is if you are heavily out levelled, item crafting does seem needed as items from the shop are more powerful. There are also some issues with lip syncing and grammar but I think that is just nick picking.

Here is some gameplay I recorded from Hyperdimension Neptunia Mk2.