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Neptune and her friends, Compa (left) and IF (right)

Hyperdimension Neptunia (Chō Jigen Game Neptune in Japan), otherwise known as just Neptunia , is a series of JRPGs about the Console Wars that were developed by Compile Heart, and published by Sega in Japan for the first game, Idea Factory for all later titles in Japan, NIS America worldwide until Producing Perfection (including the mobile app), and Idea Factory International as of Re;Birth1 worldwide.

Yes, you read that correctly. The Console Wars AS A VIDEO GAME SERIES! No, we have no idea what brought Sega, Compile Heart and Idea Factory to do this.

The series started with Hyperdimension Neptunia, a game notorious for its gameplay, which is generally seen as bad (and can be blamed on having No Budget), with the highlight being the story between the gameplay, which mainly contained meta-level video game jokes and interactions between its small cast of Moe Anthropomorphisms of game consoles. Despite this, it nevertheless managed to get a quite big and devoted fandom. In fact, it became Compile Heart's top-selling title, and sold so well to Western audiences (for a niche title) that NISAmerica was not hesitant in the slightest to bring the second installment overseas.

The continuity was rebooted in its second installment (thus the title Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2), both in order to not force people to play the first game to understand the story, and because the first game's true ending left no room for a continuation without a complete cast change. The story in that installment focused more on piracy throughout the game, whereas it wasn't as big a force in the first game's plot until near the end. This, as well as further games in the series, use the same premise, but improved greatly upon things that caused complaints in the first game. In fact, the first game was later remade to correct these complaints further.

The series and all of its spin-offs and supporting media tends to not follow a specific continuity, but the general setting is the same. In a world on another plane of existence from humanity, there is Gamindustri (or whatever name other continuities give their variant). Here, there are four nations inhabited by characters based on several game series, companies and characters. These countries are based on various game console companies, each led by an immortal goddess (or CPU), who may have younger siblings (CPU candidates) who are also immortal. They compete for supremacy, but the leaders eventually become friends (many works within the series even start them off as friends). Conflicts within the series mostly come from third... err, fifth, parties, while the competition between nations is quickly relegated to Friendly Rivalry status.

Despite starting in the second half of 2010, due to its popularity and being Compile Heart's flagship series, the series already has a great many games and spin-offs in other mediums.

Main Games:

Remakes:

Spin-Offs:

Other Media:

  • Chōjigen Game Neptune ~Megami Tsūshin~ [manga, Famitsu Comic Clear]note 
  • Hyperdimension Neptunia The App / Neptunia & Friends (Kami Jigen App Neptune) [iOS and Android app, Compile Heart]note 
  • Chōjigen Game Neptune: TGS Hono no Futsukakan [light novel, MF Bunko J]note 
  • Hyperdimension Neptunia The Animation: Hello New World [manga, Dengeki Maoh]note 
  • Hyperdimension Neptunia the Animation [anime, David Production]

There are also several Drama CDs based on the series.

For further background, see the Console Wars, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Sega Genesis,note , Sega Dreamcast, Other Sega Systems,note  Super Nintendo Entertainment System, TurboGrafx-16, Nintendo 64, PlayStationnote , SNES CD-ROM, Nintendo DS, and PlayStation Portable pages.

See Hi-sCoool! SeHa Girls, except that it involves Sega consoles. Also see World War Blue for a similar take on the Console Wars.


Tropes common between all games note :

  • Absurdly High Level Cap: With the exception of mk2, the main series have sets of three DLC that allowed the characters to reach level 999. It doesn't serve much purpose in the first game, given levels past 99 only give one point per stat, no AP or HP, and is only useful for item points. This is especially apparent in VII, where due to the way the story is divided into three Story Arcs where the characters often separate into teams or groups, it ends up having one of, if not the, lowest endgame-level requirements of the franchise. This is partly balanced by the changes to the battle mechanics and adjustments of values.
  • Arbitrary Headcount Limit: Only three can fight at a time, with three others that can be rotated. This is increased to 4 from the second game onward.
  • Arc Word:
    • Bifrost. The first game's opening was named "Shooting Star/Meteor of Bifrost". The second game's opening has a line that can be roughly translated as "return to the place marked by the meteor of Bifrost". The anime's opening randomly flashes the word Bifrost on the screen for a full second (right before the line "Ping→link!!"). One of the anime's ending themes has the word appear in the lyrics for seemingly no reason.
    • This can refer to only two things in the entire series, and both are somewhat of a stretch. The Other Wiki states that Bifrost is a burning rainbow bridge in Norse mythology that connects the world of man to the world of the gods. In the first game, towards the end you unlock a path to the world of the goddesses that was previously seen in flashbacks and the opening cutscene to face the final boss. In Victory, depending on your ending routes, several characters go through portals between dimensions a few times, with the true ending creating what appears to be a permanent link between both dimensions that were playable in the game.
    • Re;Birth1 makes it clear by quoting the name of the original's opening as soon as the road to Celestia opens.
  • Ascended Extra: Notably, the goddesses in Re;Birth1 are now available much earlier and interact much more with the other characters than in the original game. In Re;Birth2, the Oracles also get Promoted to Playable, while former DLC characters Falcom and RED both get larger parts in the main story.
  • Bishoujo Series: With the exception of Umio in VII, all of the important characters are women, while the guys are either villains (mk2, Victory, VII, Sisters, Game Maker) or NPCs (the aforementioned games). In fact, the first game depicted its male characters as a silhouette in a portrait. This concept gets lampshaded in the first game in one mission where Compa says they can recognize the boy/girl they're going to save because he/she is simply an NPC silhouette.
  • Bland-Name Product:
    • The "Dunglemaps" and "AMAZOO.NEP" sites in the first game, plus Chirper in the second.
    • Underling also mentions YourTube in mk2.
    • VII finally established the existence of N-chan.
  • Blank White Eyes: Used frequently when characters are surprised by something. Nepgear in particular has a variant with hers inside white ellipses, which is the perpetual expression on Nepgya.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: Many instances can be found throughout the games. Neptune, Compa and IF thank you for playing in the ending of the first game, although everyone gets into this at one point or another. Neptune does this to the point that the other characters actually have to request her to stop doing it in Victory. Neptunia VIIR just plain gives up on the fourth wall, the VR segments being Neptune opening a door INTO a comfortable area seemingly almost backstage to the ENTIRE GAME. Yes, She didn't just break the fourth wall, she opened a door past it!
  • Break Meter: It only last about ten seconds in the first game, making animation skipping a must to get the most out of it. It lasts much longer in the second game and they finally found a balance in Victory. This feature is removed in VII to further encourage use of the Combo Effects system.
  • Broad Strokes:
    • The first game (and its remake Re;Birth1) to the rest of the franchise. As stated before, the second game rebooted the series and has been in that continuity since (same with Re;Birth2 going to Re;Birth3 and then converging back to VII). Neptune still fell from the sky, lost her memories, met Compa and IF, made friends with the other CPUs, met Histoire, and a few other things. However, the ending left no room for a sequel without a complete recast (Re;Birth1 also had a pretty definitive ending, though it changed the original's Bittersweet ending to a Happy ending). Later games would even fill in some of the blanks such as how Nep met IF. In the original, she and Compa met her in a cave while it is explained in VII it is explained that Neptune fell off a tower on her (not the fall that made her lose her memories, after Compa helped her).
    • Shown some more between Re;Birth1 and 2 with the CPU Candidates. The original game did not have them but Re;Birth1 adds them in and shows that they have met each other. This is in contrast to Re;Birth2 where they know of other CPU Candidates but not who they are. They are both born from the power of the shares though.
    • Also present in the spinoff games. They seem to consider Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2 (or its remake Re;Birth 2) as the only solid canon. For example, MegaTagmension Blanc + Neptune VS Zombies has the characters from Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory Re;Birth3: V Generation, Hyperdimension Neptunia U: Action Unleashed, and Megadimension Neptunia VII but they are treated as having met for the first time in this game and with different backstories. In Cyberdimension Neptunia: 4 Goddesses Online however, both the Hyperdimension and Ultradimension CPUs are familiar with each other.
  • The Cameo:
  • Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Each girl wears clothes that match the company she represents. Their colors are also matched by their HDD forms.
  • Design-It-Yourself Equipment:
    • You get to decide what image appears for some attacks in the first game - you get to supply them yourself.
    • In the second game, you can edit your character's outfits and the goddesses' processor units for some stat adjustments. This is continued in the third game, however instead of just being able to edit Nepgear's canvas, you can edit all the CPU's. There is also a disc system that lets you add passive abilities to a character.
  • Disc-One Nuke:
    • Get Neptune's Neptune Break and you'll be killing all enemies in one hit. Subverted as subsequent games Nerf it.
    • It's almost painfully easy to get access to stupidly overpowered equipment by taking advantage of the Scout system to unlock endgame and post-game dungeons, allowing you to obtain plans and items for the plans. For example, in Victory you can make Vert's Infinity -1 Spear less than halfway into the game through this method.
    • In VII, Save Scumming can let the player obtain Infinity Minus One Swords from the mystery boxes sold once-per-playthrough in the Nepstation shop segments of each city. They're stronger than most things you can get until the last Story Arc. The shop events themselves are very easy to unlock. Lastly, due to the way Drive is gained in this game, if any character is in possession of an AOE EXE Drive, one-round clears are very feasible if the player fights smartly.
  • Dub Name Change: The games localized by NIS America (The original trilogy and Producing Perfection) have numerous changes to in-game names and terminology, most of which are carried over into the Idea Factory International localizations.
    • For starters, the Goddesses are called "Console Patron Unit" or "CPU" instead. Likewise, Goddess Candidates are referred to as "CPU Candidates".
    • The structures known as Basilicoms are simply called Churches in the original Japanese. The localized term is a portmanteau of "Basilica" and "Computer".
    • Magiquone and Nippon Ichi, who are named Arfoire and Nisa, respectively. Magiquone is a play on Magicon, the name of a flash cart sold in Japan, whereas in America, the most popular flash cart is the R4 (so they changed the name of the boss so people would get the anti-piracy overtones). NISA is an acronym for the aforementioned NIS America.
    • Neptune's nickname for IF goes from Ai(I)-chan to Iffy.
    • In the second game, the villains that are named [Blank] the Hard are renamed as CFW [Blank]. In this case, CFW stands for Criminal of the Free World, and is meant to make people think of Custom Firmware. This is to mimic a similar localization for [Blank] the Hard used for the goddesses, CPU.
    • Pururut's name was changed to Plutia, possibly to clash well with Neptune's name. The original name could have been thought to be a pun on the colour purple, but listening to the dialogue in game, it's pronounced "Pururuto", meaning the Pluto pun was there to begin with.
  • Exponential Potential: You get so many attack choices that you will lose track of around one-fourth of them.
  • Fanservice: Both games have this from the start. For example, the first one starts with Compa wrapping bandages around Neptune's naked body... just because, while mk2 starts with the CPUs getting ravaged by cable tentacles. Of course, both games have buttloads of non-sexual fanservice as they are, after all, about the console wars. VII is quite a bit more risque at nearly every available opportunity in relation to previous entries.
  • Forced Tutorial: Games since mk2 have "Help me, Histoire!", a series of segments that explains new features as they pop up.
  • Girly Run: Most characters capable of moving around in the overworld run like this.
  • Guide Dang It!: It's an Idea Factory game, which means an incredibly obscure undocumented system must be used to reach the Golden Ending.
    • The first game fails to mention that Neptune dying in battle has a hidden penalty and that if she dies too many times it can permanently lock you out of events — including the events to reach said ending!
    • Victory suffers from this quite a lot when it comes to the optional content, especially where Scouts and Risky/Tough Foes are involved.
    • Though it's usually much better about it than the previous games, even VII doesn't escape this in regards to how a Scout's stats affect his or her exploration of a dungeon. And of course, it's noteworthy for having several time-sensitive requirements that can and will lock with no warning, even from the very first chapter of the game, that must be all achieved in order to reach the Golden Ending.
  • Have You Seen My God?:
    • The first game sees Planeptune's Basilicom understandably upset when Purple Heart doesn't show up when the goddesses start arriving. And in the Golden Ending, all four goddesses call it quits and leave Historie to create a new goddess to rule in their place.
    • Planeptune goes through this again when Neptune gets sent into Ultradimension in Victory. It eventually leads to it being overrun by Rei's rebellion.
    • And in VII, the same situation repeats itself, but worse because this time Nepgear also gets sucked into Zerodimension with Neptune from the start. And after that is over with, all of Gamindustri suffers through this when the G Arc rolls around. Granted, the goddesses are still around, but most of the citizens just don't remember a thing about them.
  • Healing Herb: Plant based healing items recover a fixed number of HP.
  • Healing Potion: Nep Bull and its other variants recover a fixed percentage of the user's maximum health.
  • Improbably Female Cast: Every playable character is female, ranging from young or young-looking girls to older women. It wasn't VII where Umio, a male fish, became a playable character, making him the first (and only) male playable character in the franchise.
  • Informed Equipment: Semi-averted. The rings and bracelets merely give a description of what the item would look like and change a character's stats, but the hats/hair accessories and dresses actually show up on the character's person and are most likely there for the sake of customization since those items tend to not affect stats very significantly.
  • Instrument of Murder: 5pb uses a guitar as her weapon. If she uses a special attack, she will play it. But in normal hits, she will smack the target with it.
  • Lampshade Hanging: Being an RPG that knows it's a video game and pokes fun at video games, there are a lot of times where the characters, namely Neptune, make note one a particular plot point, trope or localization change that happens within the series. One of the notable bits of this is over their enemy in the first game and mk2, Arfoire, who is known as Magiquone in Japan, her name based off two brands of flash cartridge which are used with ROM images cloned off the consoles to play illegally owned games, which in the real world cuts into the market share of the games companies all the time.
  • Lazy Backup: If your three frontline characters die, it's a game over with no explanation whatsoever when you have eight (ten if you include 5pb and RED) characters in your party. The second game also has this problem except you have fifteen characters to choose from and yet when the four on the frontlines die, it's a game over. It gets even worse when you remember you can equip characters to each other to produce secondary effects. It would make sense that when the character dies, the equipped character takes over, but sadly, this isn't the case.
  • Limit Break: Everyone gets one in the form of EXE Drives. Some characters (chiefly the CPUs and their Candidates) get two, while Neptune achieves the distinction of being the only one with three in VII. They also exist in two different types of Combination Attack variants: Formation and Coupling. Coupling is always a two-girl team-up skill that requires one to be the Coupling partner of the frontliner, while Formation may feature anywhere between two and four characters teaming up. Said characters must always be active in the field. VII further adds the requirement of the characters having to surround their prospective target in order to use it, as well as being on the same transformation tier. Regardless, depending on the characters and the characteristics of the skill, these fall anywhere between Awesome, but Impractical to full-on Game-Breaker. If a character uses her regular EXE Drive on a boss-type enemy, the EXE Drive will change to a longer version that deals more hits and more damage.
  • Lost in Translation: The joke about Neptune's name being hard to say. This makes much more sense in the original Japanese, where it is honestly harder to say.
  • Mascot Mook: The Dogoos, which are themselves a parody and a Shout-Out to the Slimes from Dragon Quest.
  • Minimalist Cast: Only playable characters, villains, and oracles are ever shown. Everyone else either never appears physically or is a generic NPC silhouette. The first game lampshades this when someone's lost their child and you're told that you'll know it's him because he's a generic NPC silhouette. Averted from Re;Birth1 on, where even NPCs get little portraits for themselves.
  • Mirror Match: Any of the CPUs versus their doppelgangers in the "Versus Fake [Color] Heart" Quests from the original.
  • Moe Anthropomorphism: The point of the game. Let's just start with the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii and the (unreleased) Sega Neptune. Aside from goddesses representing consoles, the "Makers" (that is, the humans) are representations of companies and video game series. You need look no further than IF and Compa to see where this is going.
  • Multiple Endings: A staple of the series that there will be at least three endings.
    • One unambiguously Downer Ending, usually because the player missed some critical plot events that could have averted it. Each of the bad endings have one of its main characters be brainwashed into evil or undergo Demonic Possession, killing or attempting to kill the other characters as a result, or having the main villain succeed in their destruction or conquering of Gamindustri. It's also common for the game to cut off and end earlier. The most infamous example of the former is mk2's Conquest Ending, where Nepgear is put on a Kill the Ones You Love situation once she gets a hold of the Gehaburn (though unlike the other bad endings she felt remorseful for her actions).
    • A Normal Ending which is positive in tone, but may have shades of being a Bittersweet Ending in some aspects. How different from the best ending route it is depends on the game in question. The biggest example of this may be VII's, in which the world is saved but Uzume dies, along with Zerodimension and Heartdimension.
    • A Golden Ending that is unambiguously good and everything ends well. There will often be hidden requirements to get it that will be barely alluded to, if at all. Depending on the game, the transition point between the Normal and True ending routes may feature different gameplay scenarios of varying degrees.For example: (VICTORY SPOILERS) 
  • The Multiverse: There's a lot of dimensions involved in the series. Each new installment tends to add on a new dimension (since all of the spin-offs take place in a new dimension, e.g. Hyperdevotion's Gamarket) and a few even add an additional one just for kicks (e.g. the anime's Ultradimension or Producing Perfection's Earth dimension).
    • Given all of the changes involved in the remakes, it is entirely possible that those are in additional universes as well, or are meant to Retcon the existing counterparts, which only serves to make things more confusing.
    • One of mk2's Nepedia entries mentions that events that happen in a Hyperdimension filter down into other dimensions, commenting that if ASIC managed to completely take over, the connected dimensions would have piracy overrun and destroy their gaming industry.
    • Probably the easiest way to sort out the Mind Screw is this: Each name is associated with a cast of characters. There are multiple dimensions with the same name. The name is in the Japanese title. If it's not in the title, then it probably doesn't take place in the same dimension.
    • Victory features two counterpart dimensions in its plot, although Alternate World Map only really comes into effect at the end. Then VII takes it up another notch by featuring no less than three different dimensions in one game! Although one of those exists inside of another, and both of them are actually dreams, so as some of Ultradimension elements have plot relevance, it's more like "two and a half-dimensions".
  • New Game Plus: This feature is present in all games, although the first game gives you the option of playing in an End Game Plus, which is convenient for getting all of the endings. Notably, VII's feature is the first to let you pick what you want to bring over, allowing the player to customize their next playthrough to their tastes.
  • New Work, Recycled Graphics: The series is notoriously bad for this, with the developers reusing everything they can constantly, from the enemies to attack animations to voice clips to sometimes even portions of the songs. This was understandable with the first game due to its lack of budget, but when a particular map is recognizable in practically every game.
  • Nobody Poops:
    • Averted twice in the first game:
      • One instance where Nep-Nep nearly misses out on Nisa's introduction by spending most of the preceding battle on the toilet.
      • Another cutscene had Neppermint admit to being a little too excited about a visitor.
      • Played straight in gameplay. Face a foe who has a significant number of levels above you and Nep-Nep might start the fight by requesting a change of underwear.
    • Nepgear had to use the bathroom during her first visit to Lowee. When she helped Rom out on her way back to the group, she took so long that IF assumed she either fell into the toilet or was having fun by herself, depending on the second game or its remake.
  • Officially Shortened Title: In the West at least, the series used to be known as Hyperdimension Neptunia, with the "Hyper" part sometimes being substituted by other prefix's depending on the game (for example the fourth mainline title is called Megadimension Neptunia, while Blanc's spin-off outright replaces the "di" in "dimension" for MegaTagmension). Super Neptunia RPG would be the first game in the series to ditch the "[Prefix]dimension" all together, and by The New '20s Idea Factory International has condense the series' name to just Neptunia.
  • One-Steve Limit:
    • The dimension that the original game and its remake take place in, as well as the dimension that the reboot and subsequent mainline titles take place in, are all called 超次元 (Chou Jigen, roughly translated as "Super Dimension"). NIS America translated 超次元 as Hyperdimension (Yes, ONE word). To differentiate between the 超次元 of the first game and the 超次元 of the later mainline titles, the former dimension is referred to by fans as the Super Dimension, while the latter is still called the Hyper Dimension.
    • Superdimension Neptune VS Sega Hard Girls has Superdimension (one word) in the title, despite its maps being based on the 1980s version of the Hyperdimension, and not being set in the Supderdimension in the first place. Neptunia reVerse clouds it even more, as despite being touted as a "definitive remake" of Re;Birth1, which as mentioned is set in the same Super Dimension as the original game, the term "Hyper Dimension" can be in the opening video.
  • Only One Name: None of the characters in the game have a last name until mk2, where the oracles who aren't Histoire each get one. VII introduces Uzume, the first main character to have a last name.
  • Palette Swap: Many of the monsters are palette swaps, especially in the first game.
  • Panacea: This item cures every status ailments at once and heals 30% health of maximum health. The Super Panacea can heal up to 50%.
  • Party in My Pocket: During a boss fight, only three or four characters are shown, even if you have, say, 15 party members. Then again, you can switch out the on-screen avatar, which is actually important in the first game because different characters have different functions on the map screen. For instance, Neptune pulls out a hammer to smash obstacles, Compa rings a bell to attract monsters, and IF uses her search mode to uncover invisible chests.
  • Post Endgame Content: Most games open up new areas to explore upon reaching an ending.
  • Plot Tunnel:
  • Rainbow Pimp Gear: Generally averted with the outfits and accessories you normally get for the characters, but you make some truly outrageous processor combinations for the goddesses.
  • Rank Inflation: Timed dungeons. The faster you finish the dungeon via beating the boss, finding the secret treasure, or getting lucky with item drops from random encounters, the better your rank will be. This always often leads to a Bragging Rights Reward when you beat the record times of other players.
  • Rule of Three:
    • Only 3 landmasses (Planeptune, Lowee and Lastation) have CPU Candidates.
    • The three CPUs of Planeptune that we've seen have shown themselves to be highly eccentric individuals.
  • Stellar Name: Besides Neptune and Plutia, a couple of the Optional Bosses in mk2 and Victory are named after stars, with a certain one being named for the Dolphin constellation. These bosses are named, Antares, Sirius, Procyon, Deneb (all Killachines), Pollux (Palette Swap of Trick), Regulus (Palette Swap of Brave), Alnair, Alkaid, Aldebaran (all use Judge's model), Fomalhaut (CPU Breaker's exact model, not even a Palette Swap) Phoenix (by coincidence) and Delphinus (A Palette Swap of Arfoire, and needed for a special trophy in mk2)
  • Saving the World: In every installment of the franchise, including the anime, the CPUs, their sisters, and occasionally every other character usually end up saving Gamindustri from the destruction of the main antagonists (i.e. Arfoire). Additionally there are cases were the heroines save other worlds besides their own; the first game takes this figuratively by having Histoire be the "Tome of the World" who is eventually rescued by the goddesses; Victory has them saving both versions of Gamindustri from Rei; and in VII they stop Zerodimension and Heartdimension from disappearing.
  • Sliding Scale of Continuity:
    • The second game takes place in an Alternate Universe from the first and Victory involves the protagonist and her sister from the second game Trapped in Another World. Despite having the same characters, the games taking place in AU versions of the same world and with AU versions of the cast make this a level 0 (Non-Linear Installments).
    • This continues with VII, which features mk2s cast dealing with a new crisis and new characters in their home world, as well as Neptune and Nepgear ending up in another Alternate Universe that isn't actually one. Victory's Ultradimension is not mentioned, for the most part, although a couple of elements from there do have considerable plot relevance. Namely, Croire, the power of Tari's CPU, and Ultradimension Neptune.
  • So Long, and Thanks for All the Gear: Zigzagged. Averted in the original, which unequipped Neptune each time she left the party (which required re-equipping her later). Played straight in mk2, Victory, Re;Birth1, and Re;Birth2; the Lastation CPUs leave the party temporarily partway through due to plot reasons. Though the extent of the loss tends to only be any Game Discs (in all but mk2) you may have equipped on them, given the nature of most equips being character-specific. Played with in VII. In the Z Arc, although there is a point where Neptune is separated from Nepgear and Uzume, each separate party retains access to all their items. In the G Arc, only Neptune retains all items; the other goddesses start empty-handed and it's up to you to correct that. If you have equipped Game Discs on anyone and they leave, though, those do stay on them until they rejoin you.
  • Stripperiffic: The goddesses' Chaos Forms from NepNep Connect: Chaos Chanpuru show a lot more skin than their normal HDD forms, including the already stripperiffic Green Heart. They are generally a dead ringer for the Inverse Forms appearance-wise.
  • Super Mode:
    • Hard Drive Divinity. In the original game, it lasts until the battle ends or the user is incapacitated, while in mk2, HDD lasts as long as the user still has Skill Points to spare, unless of course, the user is incapacitated. Subsequent games revert to the original game's model (no SP upkeep), but there's a series of processor units in VII that greatly increase the effectiveness of HDD at the cost of introducing SP upkeep. Per unit. Meaning that fully equipping the set gives you great boosts, but will almost certainly drain you fully of SP the following turn and keep you there.
    • Among its effects include the CPU in question assuming their true form, receiving boosts to all their stats, and depending on the character, some of their skills may change.
    • VII introduces the Gold Third and their Gold Forms. They are functionally similar to HDD, although all four have less SP Skills than the CPUs, like regular Maker characters. A difference is that their EXE Drives do not extend like the other characters; instead, the version they use depends on their current form.
    • VII also takes it to the next level with the NEXT Forms. Only achievable by the main 4 CPUs, their new transformations give them stronger processor units and armor. The main draws of the transformations is the increased emphasis on skill usage, as all skills cost 60% less SP, deal 1.3 times more damage, and have maximum range on all AOE Skills. They also gain access to a new EXE Drive that deals massive damage but costs you the transformation.
  • Superpowered Evil Side: The Chaos Forms from NepNep Connect: Chaos Chanpuru are augmented forms that characters undertake after corruption by "chaos energy". Alongside an Inverse-esque Darker and Edgier/Hotter and Sexier design, they also cause a personality shift that tends to turn the recipient against the heroes... though what exactly said personality shift is is pure Canon Fodder due to Chaos Chanpuru getting terminated.
  • The Syndicate: The Guild. Divided into two groups; Moderatists, who are criminal only in that they don't worship the goddess of their world but are otherwise completely normal people, and Extremists who are willing to resort to violence over pretty much anything.
  • Take That!: Unsurprisingly, there are a few zingers in here, but it's mostly gentle poking instead of straight-up insulting and no company really gets it worse than the others.
  • Thanking the Viewer: In both endings of the original, the main trio directly thanks you for getting them through the game.
  • Transformation Sequence:
    • Upon activation of Hard Drive Divinity, the user switches into a Stripperific bodysuit, her hair grows (or changes to drill hair in Uni's case), her eyes glow and sport power switch shaped pupils, and her weapon will increase in size or at least change how it looks to fit the appearance of the user. They also tend to experience some shifts in their personality. The most extreme examples are Neptune and Plutia, who go from immature flat-chested little girls to voluptuous adult women possessed of serious personalities (Neptune) or domineering seductiveness (Plutia). Peashy also has a ridiculous transformation, and Uzume goes from suppressing her Valley Girl persona to fully unleashing all that repressed girliness. The Transformation Sequence is very Sailor Moon-esque in the first game and rather lengthy at that, but can fortunately be skipped with the press of a button. Arfoire likewise gets a transformation in the first game as well; into a colossal and powerful dragon, that is.
    • Exaggerated in VII, where not only does every character capable of it have her own unique Transformation Sequence, but they're also accompanied by tons of posing, special effects and a new Theme Music Power-Up. Then taken even further when you get the NEXT Forms, which have even flashier sequences and their own Theme Music Power-Up that overwrites the previous one.
  • Transforming Mecha: Neptune's ship ability. Plutia in Victory shows the ability to turn into a stealth bomber.
  • True Final Boss:
    • The first game's Arfoire becomes significantly stronger if you face her after recruiting all the goddesses.
    • In VII, although the last big fight is against Dark Orange, the actual final battle is a Mirror Duel Boss with Kurome.
  • Video Game Perversity Potential: The first game allows players to use pictures stored in their PlayStation 3 units for "R/W disc" special attacks — even pornographic ones. The second game allows Nepgear's CPU outfit to be customized via the Costume Canvas system, and "nude mods" have been made. The third game extends the Costume Canvas system to the other CPUs and the CPU Candidates, allowing even more perverted potential. Have fun.
  • Weapon Specialization: Playable characters generally have a certain weapon class, with their customization allowing for different versions of that weapon. Among the main cast, Neptune uses single-bladed swords, Noire uses double-edged swords, Blanc uses hammers (axes while transformed), Vert uses spears, Nepgear uses beam swords, Uni uses rifles, and Ram and Rom use staffs.
  • World of Technicolor Hair: Let's see, we've got: purple, blonde, green, light blue, black, white, brown, pink, blue, and red. And this is just from the main cast.
  • Yuri Genre:
    • The franchise has a lot of Ship Tease and Homoerotic Subtext, but it usually with some exceptions stops here. Examples that fall squarely into this trope include the character RED who openly declares she's looking for a cute girl to make her wife, Iris Heart in Victory who has a very obvious sadistic streak toward her allies, Neptune and Noire's relationship in Re;Birth1 (though the text implies it to be in an If It's You, It's Okay sense), and in the same game IF and Vert's very, very close companionship is all but outright stated to be romantic.
    • While it depends on the continuity, some of the characters have shown at least some interest in men. For example, in most continuities Vert is portrayed as a devoted Yaoi Fangirl while also interested in finding a cute sister; in VII Neptune as Purple Heart flirts with Steamax, Uni shows some reciprocation of Steamax's crush, and Uzume considers Umio's fish body as handsome as his voice. Some other sources would subvert or avert this trope: The Noire spin-off actually portrays Noire as most likely straight and makes her 'practise' confession to the self-insert male character; the Drama CDsnote , event DLCs, and VR content involve interacting with the goddesses with romantic implications, or even wooing the goddesses.
    • VII has a lot of fun with this one: Nepgear can't stop thinking Uzume is adorable and gets very attached to her, Vert all-but petitions Nepgear while taking a bath, Uni pulls heavy-duty emotional support for Nepgear, K-Sha is Yandere for Noire and outright confesses while Noire is very emotionally invested in their friendship, C-Sha and Blanc's banter goes from playful ribbing to awfully suggestive on both accounts as they get closer (with Rom and Ram almost coming across as Shipper on Deck), Big Nep shamelessly calls herself "an ally of cute girls everywhere" and bluntly asks Vert for permission to fondle her (and gets it!), Million Arthur just barely hides that she wants a harem of girls as much as she wants to be King, openly enjoys the the Stripperific nature of HDD, and Neptune and Uzume connect with each other as fellow CPUs on such a level that Big Nep has to cut their reunion short even as she remarks that she "loves these lesbian-esque vibes" they've got going.
    • A lot of games in the main series are actually lampshading this trope in the gameplay itself with the Lily Ranks mechanic. As the trope page explains in its first note, "yuri" is the japanese word for "lily".

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