A flawed game, with flawed combat, somewhat mid EN voice acting, and occasionally annoying fourth wall breaks that become excessive very quickly. The story is nothing to write home about, and the characters didn't leave me feeling any kind of way. And yet, for some reason, my hour count won't stop going up. It's got charm. I want to see where the rest of the series takes this; if it gets any better. The potential is undoubtedly there. This is a series that I WANT to call good, and that I WANT to like. So let's see what the future installations hold for me. (That is, after I beat NG+... I really want to go unlock the other characters.)

First non-VN anime game to play. I think the game was not high-quality though because there's a lot of asses that was being re-used especially monsters but then maybe bigger or a different color to identify that it's a stronger monster. Also some extra levels were just the same with maybe a different layout.

Story was not remember able i think, i can remember the places but what the story was... Well.. I don't really know anymore!

While it's more like a standard old JRPG (roaming through land, random encounters, turn-based combat etc.) i do like that the levels doesn't have random encounters. Instead just a monster roaming the level and when you collide you go to combat. I prefer that to random encounters.

I had to grind somewhere in chapter 2 for the final boss. It was too hard if you didn't grind and only defeat monsters that are along the way to the objective. After grinding for an hour or two. I could defeat the boss but then since i was actually over leveled the other chapters weren't as hard anymore since i also level during these chapters even my goal wasn't to grind anymore.

I don't think it was a bad game, I think it wasn't a good one either. i had motivation to beat the game with the normal and true ending. There were still a lot of extra's to do but I'd rather go to the next game than do the extra's tbh.

the nep series is definitely something you play more for the "plot" rather than the actual gameplay, especially when they reuse shit constantly throughout the series. Really REALLY standard ass JRPG in terms of gameplay, and this installment really doesn't have much going for it in terms of its plot. Pretty standard "beat the bad guy" story with a bunch of video game theming, and an incredibly quirky localization. If you like moe girls and video game history then like you will probably find one aspect of the game that you enjoy, but if those two things dont do anything for you ur gonna be turbo bored and probably uncomfortable. I eat this shit up though, so this was actually the start of me going through the whole goddamn franchise. If you wanna start here this games been remade twice already so probably play one of those instead but I wouldn't know.

My introduction to the series not the greatest game ever but I enjoy it for what it is. I like moe, otaku pandering and humor, the premise of the video game console wars but with cute anime girls is pretty amusing. To my understanding Re;birth 1 is actually a fan favorite. But I don't really agree with that I like the later sequels a bit more. I still think it's a decent game that's worth trying if you find the cuteness of it appealing. Fan service wise I never quite understood why people take such offense to it in Neptunia. The games are rated T and the fan service is overall pretty mild and not as over the top as Senran Kagura. Personally I like most of the characters, Although ironically Neptune herself probably least favorite of the main 4. Noire, Vert and Blanc are likable though and I enjoy Compa and IF as well. The battle system is pretty mindless and overly grindy sometimes, but I find it pretty cathartic and relaxing and I like that it's like a hybrid of turn based and action rpg. Overall it's not the greatest game ever or anything but sometimes it's nice to enjoy an average low budget game such as this.

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.

(repost of my Steam review with slight modifications. you can read the original review here: https://steamcommunity.com/id/huuishuu/recommended/282900/)

Re;Birth1 is a very bittersweet game to me. On one hand - this was my gateway introduction to the entire Neptunia franchise. On the other hand - the way Compile Heart/Idea Factory have been treating this title as of the last few years is nothing short of baffling and downright confusing.

Before I get into the nitty-gritty, let me get some things out of the way first. Re;Birth1 is a remake of the 2010 Hyperdimension Neptunia for the PS3, built from the ground-up with a story rewrite using Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory's engine and gameplay. Re;Birth1 was then later remastered in mid 2018 for the PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 4 under the title of "Re;Birth1 Plus" and that version has never been released outside of Japan and outside of the PS4 & Vita. However - features from it have been back-ported to Re;Birth1 and added as paid DLC. Had that been the end - I'd chalk this up to just a mention and a warning. Except...during the 10th anniversary livestream - Compile Heart had teased a big new project for the Neptunia series, and the following month - it was revealed to be a remake of...Re;Birth1 Plus for the PS5. There is a remake of a remaster of a remake. It's called Neptunia reVerse.

Now that reVerse has been released in the west, it left Re;Birth1 totally obsolete. This exact same situation happened to Fairy Fencer F and Fairy Fencer F: Advent Dark Force.

So just a bit of a cautionary tale for everyone, I suppose.

But...I still love Re;Birth1. Granted, over the years my rose-tinted goggles for the entire Neptunia series have started to fade and my disdain for the state & future of this series is huge, but revisiting the glory days of new mainline entries and remakes alongside is great. Re;Birth1, as mentioned previously, features the same familiar gameplay of Neptunia Victory, which has since been standardized across all of the mainline Neptunia games. And while it's relatively primitive here compared to, say, Megadimension Neptunia VII, most people coming from that game to this one will still find themselves to be relatively at home.

My complaints about Re;Birth1's gameplay comes in the form of balancing and practicality. This game sucks at balancing characters in my honest opinion. There are some who seem like braindead choices and inclusions on your team as they are stupidly powerful (the maker characters or the DLC characters (especially Histoire)) and then there are the absolutely useless characters (most of the CPUs like Neptune until she gets Victory Slash and some of the DLC characters (especially Uzume)) regardless of how much you invest in them.

And in terms of practicality - this is something I criticize the other games for too, but that'd be the "break" attacks, which are genuinely near useless. I hardly ever find a use for them as every attack can damage the enemy's guard. Some "power" attacks can even deal more damage to an enemy's guard meter than "break" attacks, which kind of nullifies their point entirely. At this point, my strategy for every Neptunia game has devolved to removing the "break" attacks from every character I get and go all-in on "power" and "rush", as that seems to be the most optimal way to reduce grinding.

You could argue that this game looks and runs dated, with a forced 60FPS cap and upscaled PS Vita graphics, but that's honestly small potatoes. I'd argue that the bigger crime with this game is how forgettable its soundtrack is, barring in mind a few exceptions like Vert's theme or the game's opening theme.

But...would I recommend Re;Birth1? Sure. This game goes pretty cheap when sales are on so if you're looking for that "first step" into the Neptunia series - you can start here. Personally I'd recommend starting with Re;Birth2, as that game signifies the beginning of the "canonical Neptunia story" but if you wanna just get a basic introduction to the characters and the main villain - Re;Birth1 is a good stepping stone, if confusing at times (you know what I mean if you've already played it).