[h1]Do the Math![/h1]
Neptunia Game Maker is a really fun game. It‘s an Action RPG, unlike most Neptunia games, and it‘s not the first to do it, but out of the ones I‘ve played, it has the best action combat system. It‘s not completely refined either but within the first few minutes of the game, I was immediately in love with how the combat works and getting Link Chain‘s going.
[h2]Story[/h2]
Big Neptune is travelling through dimensions to find rare bugs. She ends up in a new dimension, where each nation, led by a goddess, produces video games. Neptune meets Jagaa, Reedio and Pippih, three „failed goddesses“ who used to create games in the past, but stopped for a mysterious reason. When the four girls decide to create games with a new game studio, they are opposed by nearly everyone: Apparently, the failed goddesses made a major mistake in the past that no one wants to see repeated again – one that nearly ended the entire world.
If this sounds interesting to you, then try this game. The story is not much to write home about, in fact, while it does contain some surprises and twists, it remains a relatively simple good VS evil story. The new goddesses were very tropey and their antics got old quick, but I honestly enjoyed them as characters and they were also really funny at times. To me, the story‘s simplicity is a strength. It‘s not so complex that you are lost after taking a break from the game.
On the flipside, don‘t expect any dark or deeper themes or anything. There is character development and each character gets to shine in their own way for a bit, and it‘s enough for what this game is trying to do. The three new goddesses are tropey but enjoyable. Reedio was my favorite, while Pippih's confidence and hidden anxieties made her surprisingly relatable. Jagaa grew on me over time.
The CPUs and Candidates are in this game and they‘re playable too. They‘re even involved in the plot, which is great. It‘s always a treat to see the candidates again since they were neglected in the past until Sisters VS Sisters came along. In this game, they become mainstay party members alongside the CPUs and the game gives them lots of funny scenes again, which I really enjoyed.
The Gold Third return, but they're largely unchanged from previous games. Their storylines were easily the least interesting part of the plot. The new addition, F-Sha, was interesting though and directly tied to the main plot in ways I liked.
The characters banter between fights and comment on your actions. Over time, this can get annoying (Yes, Jagaa, I always „make sure to look around“). Other times, it‘s more than welcome. The party‘s post battle quotes are particularly entertaining (I love it when Blanc says „you‘re not even worth writing about“. So savage)
The core of the story is seeing the four main character girls struggle, succeed and grow from their experiences as Game Makers. A lot of funny antics, but also some emotional growth. It‘s not the most moving story in the world, but effective.
[h2]Gameplay[/h2]
The combat is the strongest part of this game and the main reason to play it. In fact, if you don‘t vibe with the combat right away, there is a big chance that you will not enjoy this game. It‘s also not like SNRPG where it starts boring and gets better, no, it starts off really strong, exciting and explosive with tons of stuff happening on screen, combo counters going up into the two-digits (and later even higher) and switching from character to character to keep a damage multiplier up. When I first started this game, all I wanted to do was more combat.
The game discs you develop in the story are used as equipment for your party. You can create custom combos for battle and apply different effects to your combos. For example, you can create a disc that lets you cancel a combo into a step dash, allowing you to reset a combo or dodge an attack if your combo didn‘t put your opponent in a stunned state. There‘s depth to this and lots of room to play around with your abilities, which I really enjoyed.
The game discs are also this game‘s most contentious subject. There are some combinations that are undoubtedly too good. The game‘s combat completely breaks apart once you create All Cancel discs – which results in massive damage. The game is still fun and its a singleplayer game, so I don‘t mind this too much – some of my most favorite combat systems in gaming can be easily cheesed. But you could also argue that this reduces some of the combat system‘s depth, since you strip it of its mechanics and just spam one thing to win. Personally, I still think this is a strength of the game and you can choose to go as far as you like, and creating these combinations still takes effort and requires knowledge of the game. The All Cancel disc allows for freeform combos in ways that fans of long combos would really love, so I'd actually recommend getting it.
The dungeons in this game are a step up from previous games, but not by much. You finally don‘t see Virtua Forest for the 9th ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ time. Navigation is more fun too: You got buttons and switches to press, levers to pull, laser grids to deactivate and even some simple puzzles to keep you engaged. The dungeons are simple, but become more labyrinthian as the game goes on. It even gets ridiculous at times: Some later dungeons become surprisingly maze-like and require more navigation than previous Neptunia titles.. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed them, more than I do usually. Neptunia dungeons tend to be the same copy-pasted boring environments you‘ve already seen a million times. This one was different, not the best it could be, but decent.
The playable characters all have their unique playstyles and movesets. Big Neptune loves close range combos and juggling the opponent, where as Jagaa likes quick combos with a high hit count. Reedio can fight from a distance, which often results in her being the best since you can just play turtle style and heal up when necessary. Pippih is slow to use but I found her to be a great substitute for Reedio when she was out of order, and you can still make her work. The CPUs and Candidates also have their own strengths and weaknesses. Some are plagued with slow and cumbersome animations but you can pretty much make any character work and play with the team you like. After much experimentation, I cycled between the CPUs and the Failed Goddesses a lot.
A major problem (the BIGGEST issue in my eyes!) with the gameplay is the lack of a quest overview. Dungeons have NPCs with quests, and you have a little dropdown menu where you can see an active quest. That‘s it. You can‘t read about them at all. They don‘t even tell you where the quest was. This means that if you accepted a quest and left the dungeon, it would still be an active quest, but you might have no idea where you‘ve accepted it, and how to solve it. It could say something like „find the long lost brother“ and you‘d have no idea what dungeon it was in or who requested it. It was an absolute nightmare to keep track of. Even the bad games in this series at least had a menu where you could read who gave you the quest and where.
This game has a colosseum where you can test yourself in battles, and even a post-game infinite dungeon where you can see how far you can get. Considering how fun and explosive the combat is, this is a great addition and one I really appreciate.
[h2]Would I recommend this game?[/h2]
The game was a chill game to play. I streamed it to my friends, just like with Super Neptunia RPG, and it made for a good time.
I‘ve played most of the Neptunia games and it‘s been years since I‘ve taken a break from the series, but coming back to this game was really great. I personally hope they expand on this combat system and iron it out more than they already have with this game after SvS. I understand that Neptunia fans also want turn-based battles to return, and I also do, but this game‘s combat is good enough to warrant a try and I really liked it.
