The xplay jrpg. Introducing this game to specific sections of the younger queer community was like the CIA introducing crack to black neighborhoods. I mourn for those impacted, you know who you are.

This isn't the worst JRPG I've ever played, or close to IdeaFactory's worst, but it is the most embarrassing, including all of their games that had to be "censored" (removed child pornography) so they could be sold in the west. If this game came out in 2007, when VGCats was the height of popular culture, this would have caused white 9/11. It's humor is an artifact from a different time, but this series persisted long after we progressed as a society past it.

The game itself goes out of its way to be boring. Having fun with the game? No you aren't, and please refrain from lying to me in the future. If you get joy from this game, then rejoice! You will enjoy almost every other JRPG out there, because this accomplishes the bare minimum to not be incompetent, and jack shit otherwise. Again, another example of how this game feels out of time, this seems to have the same design ethos that drove the famicom Dragon Quest clone deluge, down to "progress is relegated behind your raw stats, grinding is intended game design".

I don't have any numerical rating for this game. If I had a coworker of mine say that they played Neptunia, I would suggest they refrain from sharing that fact in public.

I came into this game straight off the back of Crymachina, I expected it to be pretty chill and something I could turn my brain off to, I didn't really get any of that, I spent most of my time looking up where to find materials and walking through the same dungeon layouts repeatedly, it was really boring, even more tragic is that the characters, the games best selling point completely failed to grab me and so I was left uninterested in them which I think hindered my enjoyment of the game a lot, ultimately I got the experience that I did and nothing can really change that, so. Sorry to disappoint.

The only Neptunia game I've tried playing. I wanted to like it... The concept is interesting, the character designs are cute, but it's just so bland and uninteresting everywhere else. Long, boring dialogue, dull environments, combat that simply isn't fun. Even the music is so generic-sounding. I can handle even the slowest, most monotonous, most tedious games if there's something else there to hook me in (see here), but there was nothing here I was able to latch onto or care about. Maybe I ought to revisit it or try the original version with a fresh perspective.

It's sad when you make a trilogy of games and they are so dogshit you have to remake them all over again...

Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth1 is a remake of the odd and forgotten Hyperdimension Neptunia which was totally overshadowed by its own remake, I actually had no idea how different the original game was from its remake, I thought Re;Birth was just a texture enhancement job but it's actually a complete conversion of the game that pretty much act as a reboot of the franchise, giving the franchise a new life, and seeing bad games becoming good is what I love to see.

The gameplay is quite similar to something like Final Fantasy 13 or Xenoblade Chronicle where you can move your character in a circle with the enemies inside and the goal is obviously to kill them in a good old turn-based fashion. One main complaint I heard about this game was how grindy it was and honestly, I understand why people see this as an issue but personally, I love grinding if the gameplay is fun and if the game pretty much lets you fuck around with its system like how Disgaea does with its cheat shop that is oddly similar to some of the feature in the game called "Remake Plans", they let you mess with some of the game systems in exchange of enemy drops or other items to unlock them. It also reminds me of how Final Fantasy 10 gave us the ability to break the damage limit and the freedom of the character sphere system, you really feel the freedom in this game and that's my favorite thing in a turn-based RPG.
For the grinding issue, I do agree that it's an issue early game during chapter 2 when the game is still limiting your option and just doesn't give you much to work with other than grinding basic enemies till you can beat story bosses. Once chapter 2 is complete it's when the game becomes a ton of fun and pretty much drops everything at your disposition, it never takes too long to level up if you know what you are doing.
I could go on and on about how the battle system works but I'll just let you try it out for yourself and find out if you find it satisfying or not.

Story wise this game is miserable, but I don't mind it. It's a damn Neptunia game so I really wasn't expecting anything story-wise and I think that's ok! I mean when you watch a slice-of-life anime I don't see anyone complaining about them not having an epic story, not all turn-based RPGs must be the next Final Fantasy 7, this game is the slice-of-life of JRPGs.

Now for the rest, I think the soundtrack is really, really good I actually never see anyone mentioning it when talking about this game, It's nothing as good as Final Fantasy 10 but it's good in a Nintendo type of soundtrack way where it's just bubbly and fun to have as background music, it fits the tone of the game. The art style is great! I'm a big fan of Tsunako's artwork in this game and I'm glad they never changed the art direction for the future games.

Now for a few complaints, the stages. The world stages or whatever you want to call them are visually lame, they kinda missed out on making them more "video gamey" by adding consoles, games references in the background, and whatnot. Another issue with them is that they are repeated over and over and over! Same with the enemy models! It's not a big issue as I don't care much but the amount of copy-paste in this game is crazy, but it's still decent for a budget JRPG.
One of my least favorite parts in the game was to equalize the shares for the true ending, it was really tedious, and also getting 30% and 50% for the CPU candidates, I wish shares were easier to manipulate.

Overall this was a really decent JRPG that I could not finish for the life of me when I was younger, I would always play chapter 1 and then drop at chapter 2 because I was young and didn't like turn-based RPGs all too much back then, though now I'm smart and I love fun games so it was right up my alley!
To anyone who likes turn-based RPGs with breakable systems like Disgaea should definitely try out this game.

Neptunia 1 es un remake del primero de ps3, pero con "mejores" mecánicas. La historia es simple/mala, pero tiene mucha referencia al mundo de los videojuegos, yuribait por aquí y por allá y un carismático grupo de protagonistas luchando por salvar la gamindustry, una mecánica de juego rota (en el mal sentido). Se hace repetitivo con el paso de las horas, mala optimización, algunos combates normales son más duros que los de jefe, etc...

Lo único malo es que es un juego largo, cosa que para mí no es un problema, pero mucha gente que no esté acostumbrada a este tipo de juegos probablemente lo deje o se aburra.

A pesar de las cosas malas que he dicho, sigue siendo un juego que disfruté y por eso me propuse a conseguir todos los logros de todos los juegos de Neptunia (actualmente he completado 5 juegos de la saga al 100%). Este fue el juego que me hizo hacerme fan de esta saga en 2020 y es el único fandom en el que estoy.