Hyperdimension Neptunia - Game consoles personified

I'm perplexed by Eurogamer's review. Seems that their very abysmal rating is due not only to the game mechanics (fair so far, I don't know Idea Factory's games but I often heard they are of the "good idea, bad execution" type), but because they find the game "sexist". OK, but I have some doubts that a much more hyped game as Duke Nukem Forever will be slammed, and its rating lowered, for the same reason. Unless Eurogamer UK (oddly, the Italian branch's review is on the opposite side of the spectrum) has suddendly gone to a moralizing spree.

Is someting trivial like sexism even a legitimate reason to take points away from a video game in the first place?

Either way, many(not all) of the negative reviews sound like people criticizing a game that wasn't meant to appeal to them in the first place. And the constant use of "sexism" is giving off a heavy feminist vibe...

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Granted the gameplay wasn't too spectacular, but I've seen much worse games get much better reviews before. So it looks like the majority of criticism comes from the fact that some of the reviewers are just prudes.

edited 9th Mar '11 12:06:04 AM by Signed

"Every opinion that isn't mine is subjected to Your Mileage May Vary."

For another talk I'd like to have about this game...

• I know the Big Bad in English is called Arfoire, named after DS' R4. But from what Magiquonne comes from? M1? What kind of custom firmware is she named after?
• What kind of characterization Magiquonne/Arfoire has aside being the personification of Digital Piracy Is Evil? Is she a Complete Monster, is she a mere Eldritch Abomination Omnicidal Maniac that's just being there or summoned by the hearts of men (because you know, things like R4 are just devices, it's the matter of who used it when it becomes a tool for Digital Piracy)? Or is she an Anti-Villain (not likely, since how much you know Sony has been waging war against piracy)? The TV Tropes article don't seem to explain further, but I think she'd be bad. Real bad.

Well there is a flash cart called the M3 Real.

And there's also a sequel announced for the PS 3 about handhelds, a link was posted in the N1/Disgaea thread.

I see.

And judging from the stuffs, it would seem that they got Arfoire as some sort of Complete Monster... Or perhaps Card-Carrying Villain?

All in all, this game seems to make me uneasy, and not due to the overabundance of Loli, though...

edited 16th Apr '11 8:26:47 AM by ChrisX

Double post.

I wonder if the representation of Arfoire/Magiqonne is supposed to include the likes of GeoHotz and Anonymous? Or just GeoHotz while Anonymous is kinda like a cult of humans wishing to use Arfoire to their own nefarious ends, making them even more monstrous than the Goddess already is (A case of Humans Are Bastards and Eviler than Thou).

I think it's hacking and pirating in general so you could include those under them, and the exact effect of Arforie is that she's making monsters appear in the human world.

.... Oh, right. Humans Are Bastards and NIS just don't mix after all.

EDIT: WAIT A MINUTE...

If Arfoire is supposed to be the representation of underchecked piracy... then I think it's more likely that she's supposed to be what happens when Sony did not leave piracy checked, leading people to ignore the real product and buy the pirated ones. Neptunia's victory over Arfoire could only mean about representing how Sony won over the case with GeoHotz...

Now, Anonymous aren't pirates, they do not actively make modifications like GeoHotz, so they terrorize Sony and there's the recent PSN Outage. It's looking more like while the people are glad that Arfoire is gone, there's a small cult that was enraged with her destruction and aside of doing activities to bring Arfoire back for their purposes, they attacked Blackheart...

And if the stuff about the sequel is right, this 'Anonymous' cult would've succeeded and Arfoire's influence returned to about 80% of the people.

Come on, with events like this, what would prevent Sony to make fun of it?

edited 23rd Apr '11 8:32:46 PM by ChrisX

So I noticed some things about this game.

• It looks really, really PS 2. Why is this a PS 3 exclusive again?
• It uses recycled monsters. Not that I really care, since they're just generic monsters anyway. It does kind of bother me how some of them seem to be shinier than the character models, though.
• The portraits breathe. I like this. It looks pleasant to me for some reason.
• The combat is reaaaaaaaaaaly slooow (I know you can skip animations.)
• The character models are darker than the portraits.
• The katana look too plain compared to the big swords. >_>
• Green Heart (Xbox 360) has larger breasts than Black Heart (PS 3) even though based on in-game dialogue you would think that the machine with the best specs would have the largest breasts.
• The Titan enemy is really short in this game. He's barely taller than Neptune even though he was like 3 times taller than the male adults in Cross Edge.
• Planeptune has the most advanced stuff, even though it's the oldest console.
• Lastation is considered affordable. Isn't the PS 3 the most expensive of the three?
• Compa and IF have no EX skills.
• The other characters show up waaaaay too freaking late into your party.

I also have no idea where La(station), Lo(wee), and Lean(box) came from for the land naming. Also why is Lastation steampunk? It's described as futuristic and steampunk...how does that work?

Also it annoys me how Lyrica is paid DLC-only. >_> Not that i'm actually playing this, but still.

I wonder if the sequel's main villain would be the personification of the used game market, seeing how there's people saying it's worse than piracy.

If people learned from their mistakes, there wouldn't be this thing called bad habits.

Lastation is futuristic compared to Leanbox (which is medieval fantasy) and Lowee (which is fairy-tale/magical). Planeptune apparently doesn't count, probably because they got kicked out of the war early (representing Sega, I believe).

The Leanbox characterization is what really confuses me though. What kind of image does the Xbox have in Japan...?

Perhaps it's mainly famous for the Fable games there, what with FPS' being unpopular?

Somehow I doubt it's famous for the Fable games anywhere. The impression I get from the goddess herself is that it's considered a luxury for rich, hardcore gamers, and generally "foreign" in that she has all the foreigner stereotypes, but where does medieval come in?

It might be just an excuse to show off greenery.

Also Lowee is a lot less blanketed in white world map wise.

edited 3rd Jul '11 2:52:13 PM by Edmania

If people learned from their mistakes, there wouldn't be this thing called bad habits.

Wasn't X Box only known for 1)an incomplete Tales Of Vesperia and 2)Idol Master in Japan?

"Every opinion that isn't mine is subjected to Your Mileage May Vary."

Well Green Heart does explicitly state that Halo : Reach is coming out and plays a zombie game...

...though that was in the dub so...

If people learned from their mistakes, there wouldn't be this thing called bad habits.

"Hoop": Reach. But yeah, she talks about FP Ss and Zombie shooters quite a bit. As well as throwing LAN parties, which generally involve games like that (RP Gs aren't exactly multiplayer).

So apparently someone said that Keiji Inafune is REALLY gonna be in the second game as a Bonus Boss. Really? I think he's going to be a representative of those sick of gaming trend these days (especially after his many comments of how Japanese games are dying, blah blah blah...), as Fallen Creator in a worse case than Magic the Hard that he decided to wipe out both Gameindustri side and Arfoire's side together. Of course only those from Gameindustri got the right to beat him...

Performing a little thread necromancy here for Mark II.

Mark II is shaping up to be a very different game from the first one, with actual healing skills instead of a gambit style system and combat field movement system similar to Trails in the Sky.

The first two DLC characters have been revealed to be Falcom, who is basically Girl!Adol, and Cave, who dresses like a Deathsmiles character and speaks in a surprisingly low, mellow voice.

The game itself has undergone a lot of changes, it feels a lot like Compile Heart was not expecting the first one to be a hit and has been forced to make adjustments now to create an actual franchise. The tone seems a bit different as well. If I were to take a wild stab, Inafune's influence over this game may be responsible for how the whole game now feels more like a commentary on the gaming industry in general.

How big a commentary?

One of the monsters is called a Horsebird.

Is it me, or do the Goddesses's character not fit the consoles they represent?

I mean the Wii being an angry, potty-mouthed douchbag who can't write stories to save her life?

I also look up Noire's bio on the her wiki page and it stated that there was scene in a manga of her holding a Wii Remote. Cue Sony Purists facepalming.

Yep, I'm still here.

So this is the game I keep hearing about in the Disgaea thread. ... Yeah, fuck this shit.

Also, GODDAMMIT Japan!

edited 20th Aug '12 3:50:21 PM by Marioguy128

You got some dirt on you. Here's some more!

This discussion is already completely merged into the NIS thread. Why the necro?

edited 20th Aug '12 3:53:10 PM by burnpsy

Jonah Falcon

Err... No.

As I said in the post right before yours, all discussion about this series happens in the Nippon Ichi thread, like every other NIS America title. Why did you think this thread was dead for so long? Everyone who cares has been talking about the series over there.

edited 7th Mar '13 1:46:27 PM by burnpsy

Agreed; locking up.

Unlocking.

Since Neptunia and Disgaea do not have much in common, and the only reason a common thread was used is because Neptunia is published in the US by NIS, it makes sense to have a separate thread, as requested.

"If you aren't him, then you apparently got your brain from the same discount retailer, so..." - Fighteer