Hyperdimension Neptunia U: Action Unleashed Retro Review – Bring the Action

We’re stepping back in time a bit today to cover a missing entry in the Neptunia saga. Certainly an experimental title, Hyperdimension Neptunia U: Action Unleashed would be the first game in the series to switch the gameplay over to a fully action-based design, becoming something of a prototype for many Neptunia spin-off games to follow.

Introduction

Hyperdimension Neptunia U: Action Unleashed is a hack-and-slash action game developed by Compile Heart and Tamsoft, published by Idea Factory International. As an action-focused spin-off title in the Neptunia game series, it was announced by Compile Heart at the 2014 Dengeki Stage Event as a collaboration with Tamsoft, who are well known for their work with the Senran Kagura and Onechanbara games.

The game was released in May 2015 for the PlayStation Vita. It was also the final ‘new release’ game advertised on the struggling PS TV’s storefront. The game would introduce a new partnership between Compile Heart and Tamsoft which would spawn a series of unconnected Neptunia spin-off games featuring similar gameplay.

Story

The game is set during peacetime shortly after the events of the recurring ‘Console War’ of the previous games in the saga. The ‘CPU’ Goddesses of the world of Gamindustri seek to raise awareness from non-CPU supporters and new nations by improving their public profile. They are approached by a popular journalist named Dengekiko who offers to report on the CPUs adventures during guild missions.

Meanwhile, rival journalist Famitsu is assigned to report on the CPUs’ sisters, the CPU candidates, though the two factions soon merge into a single group, and Dengekiko and Famitsu (based on the popular Japanese gaming magazines Dengeki PlayStation and Famitsu) agree to cooperate and fight alongside the CPU team after being issued powerful transforming combat armour by their employers.

The party throw themselves into battle, slaying countless monsters, completing guild missions and successfully begin boosting their popularity, only to suddenly encounter a powerful new enemy known as ‘Next Gen Mech’, a seemingly unstoppable force who represents the imminent threat of next-generation consoles to older platforms.

Gameplay

As the name suggests, Action Unleashed really unleashes the action. Your party will be tasked with defeating enemies by switching between two characters while in combat. After selecting a quest, characters can be chosen; Up to two characters can participate, but it’s possible to play with only one, though character pairs will also share unique dialogues with one another. By changing the character’s costume or transforming, their on-screen appearance will change.

The player selects a quest and enters a dungeon where clear conditions will be shown, and progressing further in the dungeon will make enemies appear. Defeating enemies will sometimes grant items, including recovery items that will help characters survive the mission, as well as medals that when collected will bring advantages. Once the clear conditions have been fulfilled, the quest is cleared. The amount of experience received is based on actual activity during the quest.

Clothing has a durability level which is reduced by being hit with enemy attacks. The destruction of clothing will result in the reduction of defensive strength but also grants an increase in critical hit rate and EXE Drive Gauge. By having characters transform, several stats become stronger than before. Once transformed, the EXE Drive gauge slowly drains, and when depleted, the transformation state ends. Commands are tied to button inputs, but will change before and after transformation.

Graphics/Sound

Being a title developed initially exclusively for the Vita, the game’s visual style focuses more on action fluidity than graphical detail. Many elements, such as the 2D anime sprites used in cutscenes and the few enemy types, environments, and even music tracks available are borrowed straight from other titles in the series, while the new character models feature more detailed animations at the cost of high definition image quality. You’ll find some motion blur effects in regular use to mask pixelisation reminiscent of a PSP title at times, alongside a frame-rate that isn’t really where it should be for an action title.

The fan-service-heavy clothing damage system is a not-so-subtle nod to Tamsoft’s iconic Senran Kagura series, and allows the girls to flaunt some extra skin regardless of whether they’re wearing their normal outfits or are transformed into their sexy ‘HDD’ plugsuits. The camera will unapologetically zoom in during moments of clothing damage for a cheeky split-second cutscene where the player gets an eyeful of barely covered chest, crotch, and butt shots.

While we’ve seen much larger rosters of playable, voiced characters elsewhere in the series, the ten playable characters available are expertly voiced again here. The eight primary CPUs and CPU Candidates all return, bringing their regular voice actors with them. Newcomers Dengekiko and Famitsu are expertly voiced by Colleen O’ Shaughnessey and Janice Kawaye respectively, each bringing superb performances as is usual for the series.

Replayability/Trophies

You’ll soon notice the game is lacking in actual content, with the main campaign taking around four hours to complete. That said, trophy hunting will significantly boost your play time as you battle your way through the bonus Neptral Tower at least five times, and grinding heavily to get every single Lily Rank maxed out. As with most games in the Neptunia series, trophies rely on maxing out Lily Ranks, this becomes incredibly repetitive and tedious. Lily Ranks measure the mutual likability between the characters.

As characters continue to complete quests together, their Lily Ranks will gradually increase, causing them to bond and gain better support effects. There is also the chance of enjoying special voice lines. Full platinum completion is likely going to take you upwards of 15 hours, with half of that being solid grinding. You’ll probably be playing the same few Neptral Tower floors over and over again on your way to getting all of the medals and all 45 Lily Ranks to Level 10.

Conclusion

Hyperdimension Neptunia U: Action Unleashed is a game of big ideas but small delivery. It works surprisingly well as a sort of hybrid between conventional Neptunia games and the Senran Kagura series, bringing a whole new level to the sexy fan service we’ve seen so far in the Neptunia series along with more flashy action which is always pleasing to see.

Regrettably, Neptunia U forgets a few basic essentials along the way. We’re missing that grand, epic, globetrotting adventure which we’ve grown accustomed to in the series, with the game being rather a linear selection of low-key Guild missions with the occasional boss thrown in. There’s still a fair bit of party banter going on in between all the action, but not a whole lot that feels really relevant to the heavily overstretched story.

As such, Action Unleashed is enjoyable while it lasts, but it simply doesn’t last long enough to get fully absorbed into, or really recommend. Whether intentional or not, the game feels like a trial run for bigger and better action-focused Neptunia games to follow, which thankfully did arrive soon after. A respectable if uneventful preview of grander things to come.