Megadimension Neptunia VIIR is the latest in the Neptunia series from Idea Factory and Compile Heart. Even though VR is right in there in the name (remove the II!), the PSVR headset is not mandatory. Learn more about this game in our Megadimension Neptunia VIIR review!
Megadimension Neptunia VIIR – Launch Trailer
As I mentioned, a PS VR headset is recommended but not mandatory for playing, which, in my case, is great, because I don’t have a PS VR headset! Also, there are only small segments of the game that CAN be played with PS VR if you have one, so for most of the game, you’ll get to experience things in full if you don’t have VR hardware at your disposal.
This time, the goddesses went on a rampage, and Neptune and her sister are drawn into a parallel world (or is this the far future?) in which humanity has been dramatically eradicated by giant enemies. As Neptune is confused, she bumps into a new character that will later reveal to be another CPU. Is all hope lost? Of course not!
For the main gameplay, you’ll be wandering dungeons, and you’ll attack enemies in a turn-based battle system that is not atypical to a proper Neptunia game. I also really need to mention that pretty much every conversation in the game involving Neptune breaks the fourth wall, and it was sometimes hilarious to watch said interactions and laugh at the characters having a go at each other.
In battle, each attack has a range (and its own attack oatten) that is clearly displayed when selected. Any monster within the hitbox will suffer damage, so we can take advantage of positioning the box to hit more than an enemy at once if needed. This sounds like a great idea at first, but in fact, even if you move your aim slightly with the analog button, the box will most likely GREATLY change direction, so it was quite hard to manoeuver, and often required some extra effort than the time it actually saved in battle. After a while, I noticed that it was possible to move the aim slowly with the shoulders buttons (L1 and R1), but it was still more effort than the time it saved in battle. You have a set number of action points that can be spent per turn, and you can do combos as long as you stay in range. For instance, you can decide to attack the enemies more than once, or heal a member, or the entire party, and then defend after your last action – again, as long as you have enough action points.
Outside the regular Neptunia experience, there is a second game embedded into the mix, and it’s the one featuring the PS VR sequences. By going to your “player room,” which is like of a game hub where you can continue the story, take quests, and spend some quality time relaxing, you can also launch a VR sequence (the game tells you to put on your headset if you have one), and you’ll find yourself in your room, in a fixed position (the left and right stick controls your point of view, or your head if you’re wearing a VR headset).
In those events, a portal appears in your small room, and then the characters from the game come into your virtual player room to talk to you which, I must admit, probably looks very cool with a proper PS VR headset. Why? Because without it the scenes are definitely impressive. You should know that, as expected of a Neptunia release, the scenes while in this fancy VR more are… of a more suggestive nature – wink-wink, nudge-nudge.
The VR events, for me, were the least interesting part of this game for various reasons. First, the dialogue wasn’t as funny. Second, those sequences were long and aren’t skippable, and the text can’t be scrolled through, thus making events last around 3 to 5 minutes each. Also, since some of those sequences appear during normal gameplay, I can’t think of someone hooking up his/her PS VR headset for a 5-minute sequence. While I DO applaud the developer for supporting the PSVR, those scenes felt awkward and I eventually mostly avoided them.
I liked the fact that there is the option to choose either the Japanese or English voiceovers. I thought that the music wasn’t as catchy as it was in previous Neptunia installments. The cut-scenes use the typical Neptunia style of having a static background with talking characters on top, which runs flawlessly at 60 FPS. However, in the actual dungeons (rendered in 3D), things go below fluid (less than 24 FPS) and is choppy even though there aren’t that many things lying around – the battle system did run very smoothly.
Final Thoughts
If you want to play a good KRPG, then I think that this game is worth your time. It does a few great things like the dungeon exploration, the battle system, and the conversations, but I thought that the VR segments weren’t necessary, and bloated the game with unnecessary extra events.
If you have a Vita and want to try the series, I definitively recommend you also play Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth3: V Generation, what is, in my opinion, the best Neptunia game!
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PSN Game Size: 13.5GB
Disclaimer
This Megadimension Neptunia VIIR review is based on a PlayStation 4 code provided by Idea Factory International.
