Hyperdimension Neptunia: Action Unleashed | Review & Analysis

I've played worse musou games. This is certainly better than Shogun's Blade, at least.
Game Page: store.steampow...
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Discord Server: / discord
Branding art is drawn by: / modularpon
Lovely outro background is drawn by: / lbrcloud
Outro music is "Always Be A Unicorn" by Helen Austin.
Background music is composed by The Confused Composer, Leandro Abreu, and my dear friend Lucilla. Used with permission.
#neptunia

[@Jay_76]

Addy, since you were talking about Musou-style games, have you tried a game called, M.A.S.S. Builder?
It's a decent Mech based, hack 'em up with a fair amount of customization. It's a bit grindy and the story isn't complete yet but, it's still pretty good.
Just keep doing what you do and I'll keep watching.

[@AddyLovestar]

I'll give the demo a look

[@renamon5658]

👍👍

[@LaPollaAtomica]

So just like I thought, this is another Vita port. The gameplay reminded me of Senran Kagura, specifically the Versus games, a series focused on overdeveloped protagonists and fanservice that has surprisingly relatable story elements that are at odds with the otherwise light and somewhat skeezy tone. The versus games are blends of Musou-lite and 3D battle arena fighting games. I'd say that their decent at each element, like Neptunia on fairly low-budgets that originally premiered on the Vita. Not that the AI is all that great for the Musou style mooks, but the character VS fights seem to be more the draw. Imagine my shock then when looking up 2014's Action Unleashed that, oh hey, it's developed with Tamsoft, the same company that develops Senran Kagura. Which is kind of a shame because a low budget (and budget conscious) alternative to the Warriors series is a niche market that I think could be filled, and the Versus games do a pretty decent job by giving you two different transformations with different capabilities (effectively three movesets per character) and the option to choose when you want to use them. There's a strategy there on when you pop your transformation, even if it's usually just "Shinobi, because it restores my health and defense." I just wish they weren't so skeevy with the fanservice. Shinovi Versus at least has the option to turn off the worst of it, which helps the flow of battle as well.
So I guess what I'm saying is, it's weird that a company that's made TWO decent budget games with Musou elements made one with such an oversight that it basically overshadows the entire rest of the gameplay experience.

[@AddyLovestar]

Tamsoft was making musou since back in the PS2 era, but their catalogue is all over the place in quality. Shogun's Blade and Action Unleashed are pretty bad, but Onechanbara and Shinovi Versus are pretty good

[@Buddhakingpen]

I think the transformations in senran kagura are just as gimmicky. The thing is, these games are made to be broken, even systemically. You dont even need the transformation in senran kagura games because you can dash and block cancel absolutely everything. So if you do transform, its rarely tactical, unless youre already playing suboptimally. light>light>block/dash stun locks entire hordes limitlessly. So if anything, this game fixes that flaw in that combat system.