From top to bottom: Neptune and Jacob Winters. Original artwork by annria2002.
Hyperdimension Neptunia is Real!
is a Neptunia Fan Fic by author Some Random Tosser. It is a Self-Insert Fic of Hyperdimension Neptunia—one that does its damndest to avert and even defy the usual tropes.
The story follows Jacob Winters, a young Australian high schooler on break, whose life takes a turn for the weird when his console—which currently has the Hyperdimension Neptunia game disc loaded up—blows up.
Then a girl named Neptune falls through the roof and second floor.
One chapter later, Jacob finds himself whisked off to the realm of Gamindustri. And he wants to go back home.
Sadly set to end at Chapter 40 (the end of the Leanbox Arc), due to the author's fatigue with it.
Tropes that apply to this fanfic:
- Acoustic License: Lampshaded. Jacob wonders how he could hear Neptune screaming kilometers above his house. Before she installs two holes and a crater into it.
- Author Avatar: Jacob for SRT, naturally.
- Awesome Aussie: Jacob, like his author, is Australian, but he starts out as a normal person. He earns his "awesome" over the course of the fic.
- Badass Normal: Jacob takes strides towards this after a near-death experience with Arfoire's "spear-lance thing". He gets the help of a jetpack and weaponized gauntlets, and gets martial arts training from Nisa.
- Break the Cutie: When Jacob reveals that Gamindustri is a world from a video game, Compa starts to have an existential crisis. Luckily, Jacob talks her out of it, and the other non-silhouette characters take the news much better.
- Buffy Speak: Neptune describes Arfoire's weapon as a "spear-lance thing".
- Cannot Keep a Secret: Compa accidentally blurts out that Jacob has breasts (which is really just fat).
- Deadpan Snarker: Jacob.
- Deconstructor Fleet:
- Of the Self-Insert Fic, in a few ways. Jacob doesn't want to be inside of the world of some game he just bought. He just wants to go home. Plus, he has absolutely no ability to kick ass. That means that he has to start from scratch, using whatever gear he can to survive. There's also Jacob's family—something rarely addressed in other self-inserts. Vignettes often pop up, covering how the Winters family is coping with Jacob's disappearance.
- When Jacob finally explains what Gamindustri is to Compa and IF—that is, a world inside of a video game—Compa gains an existential crisis that gnaws at her for a landmass or two.
- Nep uses her Purple Heart form to get Jakob some weapons. Unfortunately, the clerk who is won over to help them? She gets fired offscreen for giving expensive stuff—like the jetpack—to non-paying customers.
- Defied Trope: The original game's turn-based battle system is a time-honored tradition in Gamindustri…a tradition that Jacob has absolutely no frickin' patience for. Neptune and company, including later arrivals, come around to his line of thinking, forgoing the system for a more practical approach to combat.
- Jacob later exploits this in the party's favor while first fighting Arfoire. They pretend to be playing by the turn-based battle system…before going all-out on the witch. It almost immediately bites Jacob in the ass, as Arfoire stabs her lance into his stomach in retaliation.
- Another defied trope is the Battle Ticket Downloadable Content mechanic, which normally prevents characters like Nisa and Gust from joining in battle unless the player shells out some cash. Jacob responds by putting Nisa and Gust in positions that force them to fight without the tickets, leading them to forgo that system as well.
- Everyone Has Standards: When Compa suggests that Jacob would be better off sharing the guest bed with Neptune, Jacob immediately shoots it down.
- Genre Savvy: Jacob. Of course, it doesn't help much in combat when he's a mere mortal with no guns or martial arts to defend himself with. However, he doesn't know much of the story beyond the beginning, he doesn't know how his family is doing in his absence, and he doesn't see
Red coming at all.- Red. She's able to discern Vert's nature as a "good" character, with the combination of details such as "big breasts" and "no lipstick"—the latter trait being something that Big Bad Arfoire does possess.
- Heroic BSoD:
- Jacob has a Down-Played for Laughs one when his PS3 first explodes. All he can say is a lot of Flat "What".
- Nisa has a more serious one when she helps her friends escape Leanbox's Basilicom, after they poison Neptune.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: In their first battle against Arfoire, the witch skewers Jacob in the stomach with her spear.
- It Was His Sled: This is basically IF's reaction to Jacob's revelation that Gamindustri is in fact a video game world, in contrast to Compa's existential crisis. So that's why there're so many Internet and video game references lying around.
- Lampshade Hanging: Oh so very much.
- Only Sane Man: Jacob, usually. Someone has to be, what with Neptune leading the group. There's also IF and Gust, of course.
- Outside-Context Hero: Jacob, in a sense. Nobody from Gamindustri is quite sure how to react to this male who isn't another silhouette, and they certainly aren't sure what to expect from him in a fight (or, more accurately, what not to expect).
- Ordinary High-School Student: Jacob Winters.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Jacob. Doesn't. Know. Why the goddesses pushed Neptune off. So stop asking.
- Sensible Heroes, Skimpy Villains: How Red discerns Vert being "good".
- Tagalong Kid: Jacob, in the beginning.
- Technical Pacifist: Jacob. He's okay with fighting, but not with killing. And while he can handle defeating artificial monsters, Jacob draws the line at living and breathing creatures like the Roc.
- Tempting Fate: Happens often.
- Wake-Up Call Boss:
- The Guard Vermin disregards the turn-based rules outright, before Jacob successfully convinces his party to abandon them.
- The first encounter with Arfoire, for Neptune, Compa, IF, and Jacob. Moreso for Jake: Arfoire skewers him in the stomach with her weapon, leading him to realize that he can indeed die in this new world. Neptune and the others are shocked, but proceed to drive Arfoire away before getting Jake to a hospital.
- Wham Line: In-universe example. Jacob assumed that Black Heart was responsible for Neptune as Purple Heart falling from Celestia. Black Heart angrily debunks that assumption, throwing the party for a loop.
