I just turned 25 yesterday and discovered neptunia when I was 15. Unfortunately I am no longer a big fan like I used to be a few years ago. I started losing interest in the franchise after Megadimension Neptunia VII . The lack of main games and too many spin-offs made me lose interest slowly over time. My dream as a neptunia fan back then was to get an open world neptunia game that would have graphics similar to Genshin Impact with Zelda breath of the wild gameplay. A game where you would create your own character and interact with the neptunia characters and explore Gamindustri. Hovever all we are getting now is recycled content, remakes of remakes . To this day they still have large sections of the games without voice which is ridiculous. Anyways, I still listen to the opening and ending songs and the characters still have a special place in my heart, I just which it wasn’t in the state it currently is in.
Man, I wish I also found the series earlier... Tho idk if my laptop from back then could even theoretically handle them. My new one can only handle VII in 30 fps on default resolution and low graphics settings
This series really did hold a special place in my heart, after the peak that was megadimension VII it’s a shame we never got a new mainline game, while I enjoyed 4GO most other side games just never got my attention and this franchise as a whole seems to have lost a lot of the momentum it had going on it’s a shame cause imo it’s such an iconic yet underrated series hold back by the pump of spin off/remasters focused on quantity rather then quality
Neptunia 1 is no joke basically my gaming savior haha. I kept seeing it in-store and being interested, but me thinking I was an informed, mature, game buyer now would check reviews on my phone. I'd always see the bad reviews (Gamespot gave it a 3/10, IGN a 6/10), and convince myself I shouldn't buy it. Instead, I was buying better reviewed games and playing them. Generally not having a great time. Stuff like Oblivion (9.3 on IGN), it was an absolute slog for me and I didn't have fun playing it. I eventually did cave in and pick up the first Neptunia game. I couldn't stop playing it, I was staying up all night over the weekend and having a great time. I could see the ways it was "bad", sure (You can do more DPS if you skip animations because of the break timer?!), but that's when I finally learned to just follow what you like and not treat reviews as gold. Listen to what the reviews say, and find reviewers you agree or disagree with to figure out if you might enjoy a game. I'll always love Neptunia for that!.
let's not kid ourselves, neptunia one is one of the worst games ever made...I like it a lot despite that, but that combat system is horrendous in ways that defy description.
@@bryanmoberg8408 Not even close my guy. There are worse gameplay issues in other Nep games. Just because you couldn't master the mechanics, does not mean its RNG.
Hyperdimension Neptunia on PS3 was something special. I didn't know what the "SOUL" meme was about until I replayed that game to compare it to Rebirth 1; the game is like the definition of soul.
I really hope the next mainline is a VII again in terms of quality. You really nailed that it felt like they were going forward, only to regress badly. I think the next mainline will determine the fate of the series.
@@angelicplay3419, I'd rather see more quality than more fans. Some people who join might not be the nicest or accepting of things like fanservice or the like.
@@PKSuperStar256 I'm an old fan, but to this day Rom and Ram fanservice feels like I should hand myself in for even buying the game... I adore Neptunia VII, and the series as a whole for the humour and characters, but I'll be damned if I said I understood some of their decisions around it.
@@PKSuperStar256 I get that, it just "feels" wrong to me. Like I don't judge anyone into that kinda stuff (out loud) but it's because they both look; and sound like youngins to me that I kinda just hit skip over scenes and animations that have them and fanservice in them together. I don't lump fiction in with reality like the internet extremists in the west, twitter and the western twitter base by any means, but I don't much enjoy it, either. (Though that applies to fan service as a whole for me so I'm sure that plays a part in it.)
I absolutely loved the Ninja outfits the goddesses had in NeptuniaXSenran Kagura. I also appreciated the fact that Purple Heart had a lot more personality in that game compared to the others where she's mostly stoic imo and doesn't have a lot of screen time compared to the other goddesses.
Producing Perfection's story is very simple. I enjoy it simply because we saw a different side to the goddesses. Basically it features YOU getting isekai'd to Gamindustri and you have to be a producer for the goddesses. What really stinks about the game is that you have to make a bunch of correct decisions in order to get the true ending and there is nothing that tells you that you're making the right decisions. I honestly have no idea how the people who wrote the guides figured everything out. With Hyperdevotion Noire. I feel like the whole YOU thing is completely underplayed. I completely forgot that you're some kind of general for the girls until you brought it up in this video. I love Super Neptunia RPG and I wish it would get a sequel. The only thing that bugs me about the game is that you can level up to 999, but there's no reason to. So I'm not sure why you can even do it. As for the other games. I love em' all! Sorry, I just don't feel like there was any stagnation, but I'm a super fan so that's the problem.
i'm always torn with hyperdevotion, the combat is fun, but very slow, the new characters are great and the writing is generally quite fun, but I found it borderline unplayable early on because the self insert stuff was so painfully cringey. PP just felt unfinished, the show mechanic needed more depth, either more active direction from the player beyond playing with lights and camera angles, or something more rythym gaming like rock band, likewise a bit more depth to the management stuff would have been nice, instead I just felt like I was playing a particularly bland visual novel with characters I really liked. Super neptunia was great, but i struggled a lot with the combat, once I figured it out i had a great time, but every time i come back to it I feel like I have no idea what i'm doing and can barely survive fights with trash mobs...kinda like the ff7 remakes really.
@@bryanmoberg8408 With Hyperdevotion, it actually took me two play-throughs to really get the hang of things. I didn't even know you could complete challenges in that game to get characters stronger. I thought the final boss was overpowered too, but once i realized that leveling everyone up made things easier, well the game became pretty simple.
Great to see you doing fun videos like this again. My favorite main game is actually VIIR. I don't know why but I like that version more than the original. My favorite spin-off would be Virtual Stars. In fact that's actually my favorite Nep game period and I don't even like V-Tubers like that.
Interesting video. I agree with most things, even though it is opinion based. The worst PC port without question is Hyperdevotion Noire since the game has issues starting up on at least 5 of our Windows 10 and Windows 11 PCs at home. I even tried many fixes but it didn't run for me. The funny thing is that I got it to work after getting a Steam Deck.
Neptunia is the best franchise of all time. Its an underrated masterpiece. 😊 I love all games and I'm going to play all games. I also played the very first game last year. :) Neptunia deserves many more fans. Its better than Mario, Zelda, Naruto, One Piece, Dragon Ball and other games.
@@Sonic171K I don't know what you have. The game has very funny or very deep stories, which is second to none. The characters are designed very lovingly and with a lot of effort. Look how it all began, from the beginning, even before Neptunia existed. It is absolutely playable and plays well. The characters do what you type on the controller or keyboard. There are many “big blockbuster” games where there are massive problems, e.g. Super Smash Bros Ultimate. Especially in online mode. Voices are always great. The writing of the story is unique. Music is just great, especially new music that comes along regularly. The range of games is great for their price range, especially when they are on sale. The games cost much less than the "big blockbuster" games. The end, i.e. credits, is unique. The basic ideas and concept of the game with personalized consoles etc. is not only incredibly creative, it is unique. Of course, there is no single masterpiece that is 100% perfect. Zelda Ocarina of Time, Super Mario Nintendo 64, etc. aren't perfect either. It's best not to look for games that are 100% perfect, you won't find any.
I loved this video. This is my favorite video in 4+ years. Your content is always well edited and thought-provoking. I really appreciate your opinions and coverage.
I’ve always enjoyed Neptunia since the comedy and even the times it goes serious always seem impactful and enjoyable. Gameplay tend to not be bad either.
Action Unleashed is my favorite Spin-off gameplay wise. Hyperdevotion Noire story wise. Megatagmension added more moves but is more stilted and slugish and the Missions are too short to really feel like your doing anything.
I couldn't get into Superdimenion. I remember feeling like the actual gameplay didn't feel good and the fever system wasn't implemented well. Like it was kind of hard to take advantage of the new mechanics. Meanwhile I played Rebirth 3 to an absurd degree basically treating it like a collect-a-thon rpg. Collecting every Plan and upgrade, buying all the equipment and clothes only stopping because a needed item required multiple playthroughs to obtain enough of.
Nepu forever. But i still can't help but feel like everything between V2 and vs. Sisters was a drop in quality. U, Zombies, and Virtual Stars felt repetitive, Super RPG feels unfinished, and Cyberdimension felt empty
Re;Birth PC ports don't have a proper resolution setting. They only allow you to change the output resolution so the game always renders internally at the same resolution. This combined with game's FXAA make these games extremely blurry. It's so bad that it was giving me a headache while playing which caused me to initially give up on the series when I first tried playing Re;Birth1 years ago. Later I discovered the Neptastic mod and it makes a night and day difference. With it I was able to play through all Re;Birth games. Also while Re;Birth3 is by far the best game of the 3 in terms of gameplay and quality of life features (I can't believe it took them 3 games to provide an in-game way to quickly check where you can find a specific material for the Remake System plans) it almost gets ruined by the random crashes during battles which I never ran into while playing the previous two games (the 4GB patch made the crashes less common but they still happen). VII and VIIR have the same issues with their resolution settings and while you can fix it in VII with the Megaresolution Neptunia mod, there's currently no proper fix for VIIR (you can change the internal resolution by modifying the executable however you have to disable post-processing which has a big impact on the visuals). Neptunia U also has this issue however in case of that game the resolution is based on your desktop resolution so you can use VSR/DSR on Windows or Gamescope on Linux to increase the render resolution. Regarding the story of the PS3 original while I do see your point, for me (I don't have a PS3 but I did watch a full TH-cam playthrough) the story was ruined by the awkward voice acting (which makes sense since it's the first game in the series but given how much better it got in later games it really stands out) combined with the long pauses during dialogue (probably due to the game having to load data from the Blu-ray disk).
i always feel they run too fast too, like...it says 60fps, but they almost feel like they are in 30 fps with the game just speeding everything up. Kinda like playing an old windows 95 game on modern hardware without a frame limiter.
@@bryanmoberg8408 It's possible. The Neptastic mod has an option to remove the ingame fps limit (except for Re;Birth3 where this setting is always enabled and if you want to use the mod with an fps cap you have to set it externally, by using RTSS for example) and when the game runs above 60 fps all animations (including the ones moving the camera) play faster the higher the framerate is. It's possible that this applies to lower framerates as well and all animations have been timed for a 30 fps cap on the Vita and even at 60 fps they are running faster than originally intended. As a sidenote the fps limit also impacts loading speed as the main menu loads faster when there's no fps cap.
VII was my first and still is my favorite. The only real drawback this game has is that you can only save manually, other than that, it’s a pretty well rounded game.
My least favorite PC port was U because something caused it to never load cutscenes and or freeze up due to having a Wacom installed. I wonder if they ever fixed that. Had it on Vita anyway but you know how steam sales go
Hey man, I don't know if you're reading these comments, but I just wanted your opinion: As a long-time follower of the franchise, do you think IF will make another mainline game featuring turn-based combat? If so, when do you anticipate it happening? I really don't think anything with the exception of 4 Dimensions has done real-time combat justice, especially given that Sisters v Sisters felt extremely clunky, formulaic, and not fluid to play for me.
VIIR has a pretty good PC port compared to VII. Less stuttering and smoother frame pacing all-around. Only issue is that it can crash randomly but the game has autosave anyways. MK2 looks pretty good if you upscale it with the PS3 emulator called RPCS3.
I seriously cannot fathom how this company refuses to make a good game for the past 5 years. They want to make clunky games that barely function. Its like it costs them 10000 dollars to make, so they can get 12000 dollars ROI. Cmon.
Sisters vs Sisters only being a sidenote on the worst-side certainly does not fill me with confidence for the rest of the series. I tried it and it was so bad, I am still unsure if I even want to try another game of the series. Though something that will always be great for me personally is that the Nintendo Wii is one of the 4 major characters in the series and has two identical DS-sisters that are just too much for her(Those were my first two consoles, being a kid in the 2000s and early 2010s). Appearently one of the storylines in the series is that she temporarily went broke too and reading that gave mild WiiU-flashbacks.
If you included soundtracks, which would you consider the best and worst? Really curious on that. I think best soundtrack would go to VII for main series, as it has a bunch of new tracks, excellent battle and dungeon music and a lot of variety. And SuperNepRPG for Spin-offs for being by far the most atmospheric and genuinely breathtaking environmental music. I don't think there's any other ost that felt so unique. Worst for main series easily goes to the first game, just really unsettling weird compositions in there.. (the one rare jazzy track was great tho) For Spin-offs.. hard to say, I guess the game that has the least amount of original tracks. So most likely Sisters VS Sisters.. which only had like.. 5 new tracks? Anyways curious what you think on that one.
Looks like we’ve got similar opinions. VII gets my vote for best main series soundtrack. A lot of great new music in that game. And Super Nep RPG is my favourite in terms of spinoff soundtracks. There’s a nice contrast with some more pretty and delicate music all the way to more grand sounding tracks.
@@YSN Imo, I'd rank OSTs by best singles vs best overall track. As for the best singles, VII has several. However, VII also has themes I despise (Neplunker offhand) and Super Nep RPG is just perfect.
All Neptunia games are good. I'll be amazed after all Spin-Off Neptunia Games, and Do a new game call Hyperdimension Neptunia VIII Guardian Of The Knights 4 Goddess meets 4 Knights in Earth Dimension. Gamindustri new universe level is Earth Dimension's
Neptunia mk2 is the best nep nep game for me than the reb2 except the Conquest it's so terrible, also i like the storyline of reb1 mostly the true ending and gameplay 💜🍮🍮🎮
played a few, i can't pick the best or the worst. they're average. nepgear is adorable but I wish uni or rom or ram get to be the protagonist in next title
For me the worst spin-off port is Hyperdimension Neptunia U, mostly because I moved to Linux and this game just loves to crash no matter what you do. Though to be honest I haven't yet tried other Nep games on Linux, but a glance at their protondb scores doesn't give me much hope as those are all over the place. (Like re;birth 1&2 have platinum while 3 has only gold. VII is even worse having silver alongside U, MegaTangmension and Hyperdevotion. ;d)
*(**2:10**)* Personally, I would say that the game with the worst gameplay isn't _HDN1,_ but _mk2._ _HDN1's_ gameplay is, at worst, turn-off-your-brain repetitive and grindy. But _mk2_ legit feels like the developers wanted to make a game that was as un-fun to play as possible. Oh boy, can't wait to grind enemies for what feels like an hour *_each and every single time_* I enter a dungeon just so the CPUs can transform... for all of five seconds, and then I have to do it _all over again._ 😀
SvS was the worst if you exclude original PS3 games honestly. Should've kept mainline games turn-based, especially if the replacement is this janky combat system, even 4G was better in terms of gameplay. And with translation taking further nosedive with the latest Fairy Fencer game(which was lazy even for compile standarts) IF and CH are as good as dead to me, a shame though. Will probably look forward to that Death End ReQuest game but will pirate it if it's any good instead of buying as usual. Funny thing with ReBirth 1, it was pretty much what's gotten me into JRPGs, since most Japanese devs at the time didn't port to PC and that was the only platform i owned at the time. That said the port was so disastrous on launch the amount of crashes instilled into me habit of saving excessively at every opportunity since then.
Neptunia x Senran Kagura puts me in a weird place. im a huge Senran fan but the game feels too dull to be truly a Senran Kagura game, but i do like the gameplay since it's mindless and i like Musou games. i do like Neptunia x Senran Kagura more than Vs Zombies but they aren't the best spin off's in my opinion :(
4 Goddesses is by far my favourite Neptunia game. I love the game play and having nepgear as a mage is pretty awesome. It's got framerate issues and some bugs but what Neptunia game doesn't.
I agree with 4 God's, it was such a fun game and I didn't minded that I wasn't able to play co-op at the time, in fact I caught myself wanting to replay again, even though I platined the game. But I thought that Sisters x Sisters was a cannon game, there's even a huge topic on Steam about it. As someone that never had the chance to play the Vita games, I like of the Re:Birth1, I was just super confused when I started playing Re:Birth 2 because they didn't made clear that it's technically another game, but I like to think of Re:1 like a good nostalgia trip that unfortunately didn't aged very well, but it served its purpose at the release.
Great video! I personally really like 4GO. Not too serious but still fun and memorable story, fun gameplay and great looking graphics. Love the design of the clothes. I have played and finished the original PS3 Neptunia and MK2 but still not finished Victory. I struggle to enjoy the gameplay but want to get the story.
Thats true Action Unleashed really didnt have much of a story, but it was jus okay. For me personally i actually really hated Blanc + Neptune Vs Zombies story. That story is just completely nonsensical. There is an actual trajedy going on and they just end up filming a movie with a dumb plot. I frankly dont even remember if the story had a proper conclusion. And thats not even mentioning how Blanc + Neptune Vs Zombies is just a worse Action Unleashed in every way except for the fact that it features more playable goddesses. Did i mntion how much i dislike Blanc + Neptune Vs Zombies?
Neptunia U action unleashed is some of my favourite gameplay with the genuinely fun hack and slash but as you said the story is lacking because the game is basically just a list of quests to go on.
Aside from the bugs and loading time, 4GO was peak Neptunia. SVS and GMR try to do things that 4GO has done yet feel clunky and the Unity Engine visuals are step back.
off the top of my head pp is the obvious answer, it's so agressively bland and light on content, but really, it's hard to get past how horrendous the ps3 game is. It has a much better story, but my god is the combat bad, to say nothing of the bugged share system making it possible to miss party members or soft lock the game if anybody dies more than a handful of times.
I didn't have a PS3 and only played one of the games on the PS4 with VII. I feel if I got a PS3, played the first games to what we have now I would get into it.
Definitely the outlier here but I think Producing Perfection is one of the best games in the series. Definitely not as in depth as games like Idolmaster but there’s something about idol management games that really get me.
I wouldn't say that the rebirth games didn't have transformation sequences it's more like they got more complex or were given more of a flare to them in later games. It's like how with Senran Kagura where in Burst Renewal when you do a transformation the characters show more of their personality in the beginning of the animation.
I personally disliked the Noire spinoff (also because i didn't really like the gameplay style) and Super Neptunia RPG the most. Best for me was Megadimension and the 4 Godess Online spinoff. Sister Vs Sister was also really good.
I was gifted HD Noire on Steam by a facebook friend way back and I like the characters, but the game play takes everything less good about turn-based RPGs, like how slow they are, and made it... slower? I never got that decision, Noire was a great pick for a lead, and totally could've done numbers, but they gave us what we got and it fell flat on it's cute, tsundere face.
I think 4GO is the best that an action rpg/real time game has been for neptunia. Sisters VS sisters is great, but the combat doesn’t flow that much unlike in a game like FF7 Remake or Kingdom Hearts 2.
@@Sonic171K It's not about puzzles like you know from your Zelda games, but about variety. Sometimes you should look at the details and not make something big out of them. It's just an occasional change from continuous exploration. Neptunia are not puzzle games and you know that. There is no reason to call this a stupid puzzle, but rather a variety within the exploration.
i can't play 4 Goddesses Online. on start up there this loading screen i think its a totally fake loading screen its still is a very long loading screen. NOTHING MATTERS IN THIS GAME, IF I HATE SIMPLEY STARTING UP THE GAME!!
neputnia "games" are a long running gag. the "devs" chuckle every time one of us is thirsty enough for cuteness to buy one (again). heck i bought V2 on the switch. could quite possibly be the dumbest thing i ever did and yet, somehow i have no regrets. i am pretty sure i've developed a deep seated stockholm syndrom with idea factory / compile heart. do i expect the next one to be anything other than super trashy shovelware? of course i don't. will i still buy it? of course i will!
Nah nah nah, I already heavily disagree with your position on this. Out of the mainline games, Victory is the worst, BY FAR. The OG's problem is deep mechanics, but with a very steep learning curve. And its only probability if you don't know how the game works. Lone Nep is someone I'd recommend for learning how to actually play the game. Pikangs_Futaba also would be a good choice. And let's stop peddling nonsense on the Trinity Universe stuff. Not to mention its ludicrous that you would consider Producing Perfection the worst mechanically while also consider 4GO the best. I would actually consider 4GO the worst and Gamemaker the best. 4GO is a broken mess of a game and its sole value is finding every way imaginable to break it. My friends and I beat the hardest boss battle in like, 3-5 minutes because we had a busted build. Not to mention, even on single player, if you know how to probably guard, you can cheese enemies 10+ levels greater than you. That doesn't make 4GO good. It makes it horrendous and mindless if you don't know how to play the game, horrendous and a different kind of mindless when you do. Okay, let's not claim Re;Birth 1 is the worst in the mainline when you've literally got Victory/Re;Birth 3 right f-ing there man. FINALLY! A TAKE I CAN AGREE WITH! Because YES SUPER NEP RPG'S STORY IS THE BEST OF THE SPINOFFS! Honestly, I get what you're coming from with Action U, but I still heavily disagree. I would select either Megatag or Ninja Wars. God I hate Ninja Wars especially. I would also say the worst graphics for mainline is either Mk2 or Victory. As for spinoffs, I would heavily disagree on 4GO. Its not bad, but its far from the best. I hate myself for saying this, but to be objective, Ninja Wars is the best visually. I'd say the worst spinoff visually, I'd pick Action U. Also, I heavily don't appreciate the continuous Vita shade. 4GO isn't innovative in the slightest. I'd say the most innovative spinoff is either Super Nep RPG or Hyperdevotion. Though Gamemaker is also valid. The worst game in the innovation category is Sisters vs Sisters, hands down. I disagree on Mk2 Re;Birth 2 best the best "Non Neptune main character" spinoff, but I can get where you come from. Especially the Conquest Ending. But I'd argue that it would be either Sega Hard Girls or Sisters vs Sisters. But you kinda picked a weird category here, since there's maybe 3-4 games where Nep isn't forced into being the main character. Worst being Blanc from Megatag.Imagine a game where your main character's biggest value and contribution is just "Well I'm here I guess."
Lol, they're all bad. Terrible series, only thing it has going for it are the cute girls, but that can easily be found somewhere else with more quality waifus that have more depth.
@@lizbandicoot3959 I have and it's the same copy and pasted crap. They've been using the same horrible models and assets for years now. If you can't see how obviously cheap the Neptunia series is then quite frankly you're delusional.
@@deredere-sama5995 The fact that you believe that a franchise sucks just because it's been using the same assets it's just sad.. It doesn't change the fact that the gameplay is still fun and the story is interesting enough that keeps you going. And in the end you clearly haven't played every game if you think it's the same thing all over again. I can definitely agree on the re birth trilogy since they have the same gameplay but the same goes for franchises like mario, crash, dragon quest (2d games) and many more with that logic they suck as well
@@lizbandicoot3959 I find it humourous that you find the story to these games " interesting enough". Even you can't deny the subpar writing quality, but yet again expecting you to have some form of writing literacy is asking too much. It would be one thing if the fan service was any good, but alas its far from it. With each entry to this malign series it gradually toned down the fan service. I mean, it's not saying much considering the fact that the fan service in the Neptunia series was never good to begin with. Keep enjoying mediocrity whilst I enjoy something worth more of my time.
I love all Neptunia games. Nep-Nep for life. 😊
I’m with you buddy 😇
Yeah me too and I'm going to play always every Neptunia game.
Same here. I'm actually playing 'Neptunia Reverse' while typing this message out! I'm grinding those levels.
@@NepstationTH-camChannel Hehe I play as you I can't help it.
Yeah that's wild to hear.
I just turned 25 yesterday and discovered neptunia when I was 15. Unfortunately I am no longer a big fan like I used to be a few years ago.
I started losing interest in the franchise after Megadimension Neptunia VII . The lack of main games and too many spin-offs made me lose interest slowly over time.
My dream as a neptunia fan back then was to get an open world neptunia game that would have graphics similar to Genshin Impact with Zelda breath of the wild gameplay. A game where you would create your own character and interact with the neptunia characters and explore Gamindustri.
Hovever all we are getting now is recycled content, remakes of remakes . To this day they still have large sections of the games without voice which is ridiculous.
Anyways, I still listen to the opening and ending songs and the characters still have a special place in my heart, I just which it wasn’t in the state it currently is in.
Man, I wish I also found the series earlier...
Tho idk if my laptop from back then could even theoretically handle them. My new one can only handle VII in 30 fps on default resolution and low graphics settings
This series really did hold a special place in my heart, after the peak that was megadimension VII it’s a shame we never got a new mainline game, while I enjoyed 4GO most other side games just never got my attention and this franchise as a whole seems to have lost a lot of the momentum it had going on it’s a shame cause imo it’s such an iconic yet underrated series hold back by the pump of spin off/remasters focused on quantity rather then quality
I was able to play Neptunia on the PS3 and I can agree the story and vibe of that game is unmatched
Neptunia 1 is no joke basically my gaming savior haha. I kept seeing it in-store and being interested, but me thinking I was an informed, mature, game buyer now would check reviews on my phone. I'd always see the bad reviews (Gamespot gave it a 3/10, IGN a 6/10), and convince myself I shouldn't buy it. Instead, I was buying better reviewed games and playing them. Generally not having a great time. Stuff like Oblivion (9.3 on IGN), it was an absolute slog for me and I didn't have fun playing it. I eventually did cave in and pick up the first Neptunia game. I couldn't stop playing it, I was staying up all night over the weekend and having a great time. I could see the ways it was "bad", sure (You can do more DPS if you skip animations because of the break timer?!), but that's when I finally learned to just follow what you like and not treat reviews as gold. Listen to what the reviews say, and find reviewers you agree or disagree with to figure out if you might enjoy a game. I'll always love Neptunia for that!.
let's not kid ourselves, neptunia one is one of the worst games ever made...I like it a lot despite that, but that combat system is horrendous in ways that defy description.
@@bryanmoberg8408 Not even close my guy. There are worse gameplay issues in other Nep games. Just because you couldn't master the mechanics, does not mean its RNG.
Hyperdimension Neptunia on PS3 was something special. I didn't know what the "SOUL" meme was about until I replayed that game to compare it to Rebirth 1; the game is like the definition of soul.
I really hope the next mainline is a VII again in terms of quality. You really nailed that it felt like they were going forward, only to regress badly. I think the next mainline will determine the fate of the series.
It deserves much more fans
@@angelicplay3419, I'd rather see more quality than more fans. Some people who join might not be the nicest or accepting of things like fanservice or the like.
@@PKSuperStar256 I'm an old fan, but to this day Rom and Ram fanservice feels like I should hand myself in for even buying the game...
I adore Neptunia VII, and the series as a whole for the humour and characters, but I'll be damned if I said I understood some of their decisions around it.
@@BlueEyedVibeChecker, it's for lolicons. You shouldn't be in trouble when things involve fictional characters.
@@PKSuperStar256 I get that, it just "feels" wrong to me. Like I don't judge anyone into that kinda stuff (out loud) but it's because they both look; and sound like youngins to me that I kinda just hit skip over scenes and animations that have them and fanservice in them together.
I don't lump fiction in with reality like the internet extremists in the west, twitter and the western twitter base by any means, but I don't much enjoy it, either. (Though that applies to fan service as a whole for me so I'm sure that plays a part in it.)
I absolutely loved the Ninja outfits the goddesses had in NeptuniaXSenran Kagura. I also appreciated the fact that Purple Heart had a lot more personality in that game compared to the others where she's mostly stoic imo and doesn't have a lot of screen time compared to the other goddesses.
Producing Perfection's story is very simple. I enjoy it simply because we saw a different side to the goddesses. Basically it features YOU getting isekai'd to Gamindustri and you have to be a producer for the goddesses. What really stinks about the game is that you have to make a bunch of correct decisions in order to get the true ending and there is nothing that tells you that you're making the right decisions. I honestly have no idea how the people who wrote the guides figured everything out.
With Hyperdevotion Noire. I feel like the whole YOU thing is completely underplayed. I completely forgot that you're some kind of general for the girls until you brought it up in this video.
I love Super Neptunia RPG and I wish it would get a sequel. The only thing that bugs me about the game is that you can level up to 999, but there's no reason to. So I'm not sure why you can even do it.
As for the other games. I love em' all! Sorry, I just don't feel like there was any stagnation, but I'm a super fan so that's the problem.
No because i'm a super fan. I admit when disliking a game or if it's bad.
i'm always torn with hyperdevotion, the combat is fun, but very slow, the new characters are great and the writing is generally quite fun, but I found it borderline unplayable early on because the self insert stuff was so painfully cringey.
PP just felt unfinished, the show mechanic needed more depth, either more active direction from the player beyond playing with lights and camera angles, or something more rythym gaming like rock band, likewise a bit more depth to the management stuff would have been nice, instead I just felt like I was playing a particularly bland visual novel with characters I really liked.
Super neptunia was great, but i struggled a lot with the combat, once I figured it out i had a great time, but every time i come back to it I feel like I have no idea what i'm doing and can barely survive fights with trash mobs...kinda like the ff7 remakes really.
@@bryanmoberg8408 With Hyperdevotion, it actually took me two play-throughs to really get the hang of things. I didn't even know you could complete challenges in that game to get characters stronger. I thought the final boss was overpowered too, but once i realized that leveling everyone up made things easier, well the game became pretty simple.
Great to see you doing fun videos like this again.
My favorite main game is actually VIIR. I don't know why but I like that version more than the original. My favorite spin-off would be Virtual Stars. In fact that's actually my favorite Nep game period and I don't even like V-Tubers like that.
Interesting video. I agree with most things, even though it is opinion based. The worst PC port without question is Hyperdevotion Noire since the game has issues starting up on at least 5 of our Windows 10 and Windows 11 PCs at home. I even tried many fixes but it didn't run for me. The funny thing is that I got it to work after getting a Steam Deck.
Neptunia is the best franchise of all time. Its an underrated masterpiece. 😊 I love all games and I'm going to play all games. I also played the very first game last year. :)
Neptunia deserves many more fans. Its better than Mario, Zelda, Naruto, One Piece, Dragon Ball and other games.
Unfortunately I wish I could agree with you, but not only is it a niche franchise, they’ve been slacking a lot when it comes to main games.
How can you say you love all games if you haven't played them all?
Nowhere close to masterpiece.
@@OneManCastYeah that person is ridiculous actually.
@@Sonic171K I don't know what you have. The game has very funny or very deep stories, which is second to none. The characters are designed very lovingly and with a lot of effort. Look how it all began, from the beginning, even before Neptunia existed. It is absolutely playable and plays well. The characters do what you type on the controller or keyboard. There are many “big blockbuster” games where there are massive problems, e.g. Super Smash Bros Ultimate. Especially in online mode. Voices are always great. The writing of the story is unique. Music is just great, especially new music that comes along regularly. The range of games is great for their price range, especially when they are on sale. The games cost much less than the "big blockbuster" games. The end, i.e. credits, is unique. The basic ideas and concept of the game with personalized consoles etc. is not only incredibly creative, it is unique. Of course, there is no single masterpiece that is 100% perfect. Zelda Ocarina of Time, Super Mario Nintendo 64, etc. aren't perfect either. It's best not to look for games that are 100% perfect, you won't find any.
I loved this video. This is my favorite video in 4+ years. Your content is always well edited and thought-provoking. I really appreciate your opinions and coverage.
finally a video about Nep-Nep
I’ve always enjoyed Neptunia since the comedy and even the times it goes serious always seem impactful and enjoyable. Gameplay tend to not be bad either.
I completely forgot about the custom skins in neptunia.. I respect the designs.
Action Unleashed is my favorite Spin-off gameplay wise. Hyperdevotion Noire story wise. Megatagmension added more moves but is more stilted and slugish and the Missions are too short to really feel like your doing anything.
I NEED the vinyl record! As someone who collects games and also records, that is the coolest thing ever to me.
I couldn't get into Superdimenion. I remember feeling like the actual gameplay didn't feel good and the fever system wasn't implemented well. Like it was kind of hard to take advantage of the new mechanics. Meanwhile I played Rebirth 3 to an absurd degree basically treating it like a collect-a-thon rpg. Collecting every Plan and upgrade, buying all the equipment and clothes only stopping because a needed item required multiple playthroughs to obtain enough of.
Nepu forever. But i still can't help but feel like everything between V2 and vs. Sisters was a drop in quality. U, Zombies, and Virtual Stars felt repetitive, Super RPG feels unfinished, and Cyberdimension felt empty
Indeed. All of them were very bad, unfinished and empty. All because of that rotten Erica Mendez and Carrie Keranen making them sound horrible.
Re;Birth PC ports don't have a proper resolution setting. They only allow you to change the output resolution so the game always renders internally at the same resolution. This combined with game's FXAA make these games extremely blurry. It's so bad that it was giving me a headache while playing which caused me to initially give up on the series when I first tried playing Re;Birth1 years ago. Later I discovered the Neptastic mod and it makes a night and day difference. With it I was able to play through all Re;Birth games. Also while Re;Birth3 is by far the best game of the 3 in terms of gameplay and quality of life features (I can't believe it took them 3 games to provide an in-game way to quickly check where you can find a specific material for the Remake System plans) it almost gets ruined by the random crashes during battles which I never ran into while playing the previous two games (the 4GB patch made the crashes less common but they still happen).
VII and VIIR have the same issues with their resolution settings and while you can fix it in VII with the Megaresolution Neptunia mod, there's currently no proper fix for VIIR (you can change the internal resolution by modifying the executable however you have to disable post-processing which has a big impact on the visuals).
Neptunia U also has this issue however in case of that game the resolution is based on your desktop resolution so you can use VSR/DSR on Windows or Gamescope on Linux to increase the render resolution.
Regarding the story of the PS3 original while I do see your point, for me (I don't have a PS3 but I did watch a full TH-cam playthrough) the story was ruined by the awkward voice acting (which makes sense since it's the first game in the series but given how much better it got in later games it really stands out) combined with the long pauses during dialogue (probably due to the game having to load data from the Blu-ray disk).
i always feel they run too fast too, like...it says 60fps, but they almost feel like they are in 30 fps with the game just speeding everything up. Kinda like playing an old windows 95 game on modern hardware without a frame limiter.
@@bryanmoberg8408 It's possible. The Neptastic mod has an option to remove the ingame fps limit (except for Re;Birth3 where this setting is always enabled and if you want to use the mod with an fps cap you have to set it externally, by using RTSS for example) and when the game runs above 60 fps all animations (including the ones moving the camera) play faster the higher the framerate is. It's possible that this applies to lower framerates as well and all animations have been timed for a 30 fps cap on the Vita and even at 60 fps they are running faster than originally intended. As a sidenote the fps limit also impacts loading speed as the main menu loads faster when there's no fps cap.
I do find that there is something to love in each Neptunia game. Huge fan obviously.
Me too Neptunia is my number one! Forever and ever and ever and ever...... 😍
VII was my first and still is my favorite. The only real drawback this game has is that you can only save manually, other than that, it’s a pretty well rounded game.
My least favorite PC port was U because something caused it to never load cutscenes and or freeze up due to having a Wacom installed. I wonder if they ever fixed that. Had it on Vita anyway but you know how steam sales go
Hey man, I don't know if you're reading these comments, but I just wanted your opinion:
As a long-time follower of the franchise, do you think IF will make another mainline game featuring turn-based combat? If so, when do you anticipate it happening? I really don't think anything with the exception of 4 Dimensions has done real-time combat justice, especially given that Sisters v Sisters felt extremely clunky, formulaic, and not fluid to play for me.
From what I read, Ore no Imōto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai is the first game to use live2d.
VIIR has a pretty good PC port compared to VII. Less stuttering and smoother frame pacing all-around. Only issue is that it can crash randomly but the game has autosave anyways. MK2 looks pretty good if you upscale it with the PS3 emulator called RPCS3.
The VIIR was not good at all!
I see Nep I click
Me too!
To think neptunia series is pretty old now. Its crazy
I agree about Neptunia x Senran Kagura: Ninja Wars being a dissapointment, but I hope there's sequel or another crossover..
I seriously cannot fathom how this company refuses to make a good game for the past 5 years. They want to make clunky games that barely function. Its like it costs them 10000 dollars to make, so they can get 12000 dollars ROI. Cmon.
Sisters vs Sisters only being a sidenote on the worst-side certainly does not fill me with confidence for the rest of the series. I tried it and it was so bad, I am still unsure if I even want to try another game of the series.
Though something that will always be great for me personally is that the Nintendo Wii is one of the 4 major characters in the series and has two identical DS-sisters that are just too much for her(Those were my first two consoles, being a kid in the 2000s and early 2010s). Appearently one of the storylines in the series is that she temporarily went broke too and reading that gave mild WiiU-flashbacks.
If you included soundtracks, which would you consider the best and worst? Really curious on that.
I think best soundtrack would go to VII for main series, as it has a bunch of new tracks, excellent battle and dungeon music and a lot of variety. And SuperNepRPG for Spin-offs for being by far the most atmospheric and genuinely breathtaking environmental music. I don't think there's any other ost that felt so unique.
Worst for main series easily goes to the first game, just really unsettling weird compositions in there.. (the one rare jazzy track was great tho)
For Spin-offs.. hard to say, I guess the game that has the least amount of original tracks. So most likely Sisters VS Sisters.. which only had like.. 5 new tracks?
Anyways curious what you think on that one.
Looks like we’ve got similar opinions. VII gets my vote for best main series soundtrack. A lot of great new music in that game. And Super Nep RPG is my favourite in terms of spinoff soundtracks. There’s a nice contrast with some more pretty and delicate music all the way to more grand sounding tracks.
@@YSN Imo, I'd rank OSTs by best singles vs best overall track. As for the best singles, VII has several. However, VII also has themes I despise (Neplunker offhand) and Super Nep RPG is just perfect.
All Neptunia games are good. I'll be amazed after
all Spin-Off Neptunia Games, and Do a new game call Hyperdimension Neptunia VIII Guardian Of The Knights 4 Goddess meets 4 Knights in Earth Dimension. Gamindustri new universe level is Earth Dimension's
Great video! Better than most of these games. Original PS3 Neptunia is a rite of passage.
Victory is the best one and the remakes are a tragedy except the first remake.
Neptunia mk2 is the best nep nep game for me than the reb2 except the Conquest it's so terrible, also i like the storyline of reb1 mostly the true ending and gameplay 💜🍮🍮🎮
Conquest and True Endings were the only decent endings.
played a few, i can't pick the best or the worst. they're average. nepgear is adorable but I wish uni or rom or ram get to be the protagonist in next title
Happy 14th anniversary
For me the worst spin-off port is Hyperdimension Neptunia U, mostly because I moved to Linux and this game just loves to crash no matter what you do. Though to be honest I haven't yet tried other Nep games on Linux, but a glance at their protondb scores doesn't give me much hope as those are all over the place. (Like re;birth 1&2 have platinum while 3 has only gold. VII is even worse having silver alongside U, MegaTangmension and Hyperdevotion. ;d)
*(**2:10**)* Personally, I would say that the game with the worst gameplay isn't _HDN1,_ but _mk2._
_HDN1's_ gameplay is, at worst, turn-off-your-brain repetitive and grindy. But _mk2_ legit feels like the developers wanted to make a game that was as un-fun to play as possible.
Oh boy, can't wait to grind enemies for what feels like an hour *_each and every single time_* I enter a dungeon just so the CPUs can transform... for all of five seconds, and then I have to do it _all over again._ 😀
Nepgear is bae
Nep nep !
SvS was the worst if you exclude original PS3 games honestly. Should've kept mainline games turn-based, especially if the replacement is this janky combat system, even 4G was better in terms of gameplay. And with translation taking further nosedive with the latest Fairy Fencer game(which was lazy even for compile standarts) IF and CH are as good as dead to me, a shame though. Will probably look forward to that Death End ReQuest game but will pirate it if it's any good instead of buying as usual.
Funny thing with ReBirth 1, it was pretty much what's gotten me into JRPGs, since most Japanese devs at the time didn't port to PC and that was the only platform i owned at the time. That said the port was so disastrous on launch the amount of crashes instilled into me habit of saving excessively at every opportunity since then.
as long as i can play as if im interested
Neptunia x Senran Kagura puts me in a weird place. im a huge Senran fan but the game feels too dull to be truly a Senran Kagura game, but i do like the gameplay since it's mindless and i like Musou games. i do like Neptunia x Senran Kagura more than Vs Zombies but they aren't the best spin off's in my opinion :(
I wouldn’t mind seeing a new more refined action unleashed game
4 Goddesses is by far my favourite Neptunia game. I love the game play and having nepgear as a mage is pretty awesome. It's got framerate issues and some bugs but what Neptunia game doesn't.
I agree with 4 God's, it was such a fun game and I didn't minded that I wasn't able to play co-op at the time, in fact I caught myself wanting to replay again, even though I platined the game.
But I thought that Sisters x Sisters was a cannon game, there's even a huge topic on Steam about it.
As someone that never had the chance to play the Vita games, I like of the Re:Birth1, I was just super confused when I started playing Re:Birth 2 because they didn't made clear that it's technically another game, but I like to think of Re:1 like a good nostalgia trip that unfortunately didn't aged very well, but it served its purpose at the release.
my understanding is sisters vs sisters is considered the 5th mainline game, and the 4th in the current canon. But who knows really
Great video!
I personally really like 4GO. Not too serious but still fun and memorable story, fun gameplay and great looking graphics. Love the design of the clothes.
I have played and finished the original PS3 Neptunia and MK2 but still not finished Victory. I struggle to enjoy the gameplay but want to get the story.
Thats true Action Unleashed really didnt have much of a story, but it was jus okay. For me personally i actually really hated Blanc + Neptune Vs Zombies story. That story is just completely nonsensical. There is an actual trajedy going on and they just end up filming a movie with a dumb plot. I frankly dont even remember if the story had a proper conclusion.
And thats not even mentioning how Blanc + Neptune Vs Zombies is just a worse Action Unleashed in every way except for the fact that it features more playable goddesses.
Did i mntion how much i dislike Blanc + Neptune Vs Zombies?
Neptunia U action unleashed is some of my favourite gameplay with the genuinely fun hack and slash but as you said the story is lacking because the game is basically just a list of quests to go on.
Aside from the bugs and loading time, 4GO was peak Neptunia. SVS and GMR try to do things that 4GO has done yet feel clunky and the Unity Engine visuals are step back.
off the top of my head pp is the obvious answer, it's so agressively bland and light on content, but really, it's hard to get past how horrendous the ps3 game is. It has a much better story, but my god is the combat bad, to say nothing of the bugged share system making it possible to miss party members or soft lock the game if anybody dies more than a handful of times.
They're really pulling a kingdom hearts on us 😭
Were they? Because what I am seeing, they ripping off the far more superior games instead of referencing them!
I didn't have a PS3 and only played one of the games on the PS4 with VII. I feel if I got a PS3, played the first games to what we have now I would get into it.
Definitely the outlier here but I think Producing Perfection is one of the best games in the series. Definitely not as in depth as games like Idolmaster but there’s something about idol management games that really get me.
and game maker?the new one
Four goddesses online sucks!🤬👎
Fun listing. I love Neptunia and am proud I own a physical copy of every title. Love seeing the series covered. I also liked superneptunia rpg.
I wouldn't say that the rebirth games didn't have transformation sequences it's more like they got more complex or were given more of a flare to them in later games. It's like how with Senran Kagura where in Burst Renewal when you do a transformation the characters show more of their personality in the beginning of the animation.
Disregard for Iffy...
Shame!!!
360p video
I personally disliked the Noire spinoff (also because i didn't really like the gameplay style) and Super Neptunia RPG the most. Best for me was Megadimension and the 4 Godess Online spinoff. Sister Vs Sister was also really good.
I also hated Noire spinoff game. Very disappointing to me as a Noire fan.
I was gifted HD Noire on Steam by a facebook friend way back and I like the characters, but the game play takes everything less good about turn-based RPGs, like how slow they are, and made it... slower? I never got that decision, Noire was a great pick for a lead, and totally could've done numbers, but they gave us what we got and it fell flat on it's cute, tsundere face.
I think 4GO is the best that an action rpg/real time game has been for neptunia. Sisters VS sisters is great, but the combat doesn’t flow that much unlike in a game like FF7 Remake or Kingdom Hearts 2.
R-evolution was quite nice.
Pippih and Nepgear are my most favourite characters. I'm going to miss Pippih extremly.
Thinking about quitting it for the stupid puzzles dungeon alone.
@@Sonic171K It's not about puzzles like you know from your Zelda games, but about variety. Sometimes you should look at the details and not make something big out of them. It's just an occasional change from continuous exploration. Neptunia are not puzzle games and you know that. There is no reason to call this a stupid puzzle, but rather a variety within the exploration.
@@angelicplay3419 It’s about puzzles if there’s a stupid puzzle dungeon and there’s no defending how shitty it is.
At least the donjons come with a bit of variétés. But yes sometime it's tidius.
i can't play 4 Goddesses Online. on start up there this loading screen i think its a totally fake loading screen its still is a very long loading screen. NOTHING MATTERS IN THIS GAME, IF I HATE SIMPLEY STARTING UP THE GAME!!
neputnia "games" are a long running gag.
the "devs" chuckle every time one of us is thirsty enough for cuteness to buy one (again).
heck i bought V2 on the switch. could quite possibly be the dumbest thing i ever did and yet, somehow i have no regrets.
i am pretty sure i've developed a deep seated stockholm syndrom with idea factory / compile heart.
do i expect the next one to be anything other than super trashy shovelware? of course i don't.
will i still buy it? of course i will!
Ironic shitposting is still shitposting
I think your critisism is a bit to hard.
Nah nah nah, I already heavily disagree with your position on this. Out of the mainline games, Victory is the worst, BY FAR. The OG's problem is deep mechanics, but with a very steep learning curve.
And its only probability if you don't know how the game works. Lone Nep is someone I'd recommend for learning how to actually play the game. Pikangs_Futaba also would be a good choice.
And let's stop peddling nonsense on the Trinity Universe stuff.
Not to mention its ludicrous that you would consider Producing Perfection the worst mechanically while also consider 4GO the best. I would actually consider 4GO the worst and Gamemaker the best.
4GO is a broken mess of a game and its sole value is finding every way imaginable to break it. My friends and I beat the hardest boss battle in like, 3-5 minutes because we had a busted build. Not to mention, even on single player, if you know how to probably guard, you can cheese enemies 10+ levels greater than you.
That doesn't make 4GO good. It makes it horrendous and mindless if you don't know how to play the game, horrendous and a different kind of mindless when you do.
Okay, let's not claim Re;Birth 1 is the worst in the mainline when you've literally got Victory/Re;Birth 3 right f-ing there man.
FINALLY! A TAKE I CAN AGREE WITH! Because YES SUPER NEP RPG'S STORY IS THE BEST OF THE SPINOFFS!
Honestly, I get what you're coming from with Action U, but I still heavily disagree. I would select either Megatag or Ninja Wars. God I hate Ninja Wars especially.
I would also say the worst graphics for mainline is either Mk2 or Victory. As for spinoffs, I would heavily disagree on 4GO. Its not bad, but its far from the best. I hate myself for saying this, but to be objective, Ninja Wars is the best visually. I'd say the worst spinoff visually, I'd pick Action U.
Also, I heavily don't appreciate the continuous Vita shade.
4GO isn't innovative in the slightest. I'd say the most innovative spinoff is either Super Nep RPG or Hyperdevotion. Though Gamemaker is also valid. The worst game in the innovation category is Sisters vs Sisters, hands down.
I disagree on Mk2 Re;Birth 2 best the best "Non Neptune main character" spinoff, but I can get where you come from. Especially the Conquest Ending. But I'd argue that it would be either Sega Hard Girls or Sisters vs Sisters. But you kinda picked a weird category here, since there's maybe 3-4 games where Nep isn't forced into being the main character. Worst being Blanc from Megatag.Imagine a game where your main character's biggest value and contribution is just "Well I'm here I guess."
best: none
worst: all of them
Smartest Neptunia hater
@@pavlospavlakhs6107 Not a hater, just stating the obvious, all idea factory games are absolute garbage.
@@HenriqueRJchiki I can't say for every idea factory game but for some Neptunia games and fairy fencer i can say they are Far from garbage
@@HenriqueRJchiki also don't say something as a fact when it's only your opinion
Megadimension Neptunia VII? MK2? Still again a hater who criticizes without knowing anything...
Can we all just agree the best game in the whole series is 4 Goddesses Online?
NOOOO!!!!
Lol, they're all bad. Terrible series, only thing it has going for it are the cute girls, but that can easily be found somewhere else with more quality waifus that have more depth.
So you haven't played all the games
@@lizbandicoot3959 I have and it's the same copy and pasted crap. They've been using the same horrible models and assets for years now. If you can't see how obviously cheap the Neptunia series is then quite frankly you're delusional.
@@deredere-sama5995 The fact that you believe that a franchise sucks just because it's been using the same assets it's just sad.. It doesn't change the fact that the gameplay is still fun and the story is interesting enough that keeps you going. And in the end you clearly haven't played every game if you think it's the same thing all over again. I can definitely agree on the re birth trilogy since they have the same gameplay but the same goes for franchises like mario, crash, dragon quest (2d games) and many more with that logic they suck as well
Bro is on a Neptunia TH-cam channel but criticizes the series? Pathetic.
@@lizbandicoot3959 I find it humourous that you find the story to these games " interesting enough". Even you can't deny the subpar writing quality, but yet again expecting you to have some form of writing literacy is asking too much. It would be one thing if the fan service was any good, but alas its far from it. With each entry to this malign series it gradually toned down the fan service. I mean, it's not saying much considering the fact that the fan service in the Neptunia series was never good to begin with. Keep enjoying mediocrity whilst I enjoy something worth more of my time.