Super Neptunia RPG Review – The Canadian Nep

It’s always nice to see respected Japanese game series gain international attention. There must be something immensely flattering about a western developer wanting to try their hand at producing a game in a Japanese series. This is the case with Super Neptunia RPG. Rather than the game be handled by one of Idea Factory’s affiliates such as Compile Heart, Tamsoft, or Galapagos, this time French-Canadian studio Artisan brings a touch of western flavour to the franchise.

Introduction

Super Neptunia RPG is a side-scrolling role-playing game in the Hyperdimension Neptunia series developed by Canadian team Artisan Studios, with assistance from Idea Factory and Compile Heart. It was published by Idea Factory International for PlayStation 4 in June 2019. It is the first game in the series that has been developed by a non-Japanese company, and features entirely new graphics and gameplay.

Story

The game takes place in a scenic version of Gamindustri which exists within the 2nd dimension. As such, 2D games fuel the world’s economy, and even taxes are paid in new 2D games. An organisation known as Bombyx Mori forces its citizens to churn out 2D games as offerings to their leader. Those who dare to use new technologies or those whose games don’t meet their standards risk banishment to the deadly ‘Trial Grounds’.

Repeating her previous history featured in other realities, Neptune awakens with no recollection of anything beyond her name, but soon realises she possesses superhuman abilities. Inhibited by her mental state and therefore unable to pay her taxes to Bombyx Mori, Neptune is forced to join them in order to escape her surprising new responsibilities, while also helping herself to free food and which Neptune finds far more captivating.

Meeting the downtrodden and disenfranchised people of the town of Lastation, Neptune soon realises she has joined the wrong side, and soon quits Bombyx Mori to join the growing rebellion. With her newfound sense of heroism and possessing a strange book known as ‘Histoire’, she sets off on a journey to see if there is more to life than servitude, while pondering if there can really be more than simply two dimensions.

Gameplay

In Super Neptunia RPG, the fully 2D world is navigated as Neptune travels a horizontal land of dungeons, cities, and other connected environments. In cities, players can buy and sell items and weapons, take and report on quests, and enter a selection of different buildings. Dungeons hide treasure chests containing a variety of items, and are usually hidden in harder-to-reach locations.

Monsters also roam each dungeon. Touching a monster begins a battle, which can be conducted with up to four party members. Over time, Action Points (AP) will accumulate, and each character can use AP to activate their combat Skills. Skills have an Elemental type, and it affects the damage that enemies will take. Damaging enemies with an element to which they are weak will recover AP faster. Battles flow as timing-sensitive, turn-based encounters.

The party’s attack style will change based on the battle leader, who can be switched out on the fly. Only five characters are playable this time, including Gamindustri’s four iconic ‘CPU; Goddesses, Neptune, Noire, Blanc, and Vert, all of whom can transform into their more powerful ‘HDD’ forms. A brand new character named Chrome also joins the roster exclusively for this title. Additional characters, including IF, Compa, and newcomer Artisan are also available as paid downloadable content.

Graphics/Sound

This humbler, more primitive, and even backwater version of Gamindustri is brought to life through gorgeously painted, hand-drawn environments featuring old-school layouts with detailed textures. Though notably more upscaled, the game takes inspiration from the interactive dungeons featured in popular classic ’90s gaming.

The 2D characters come to life with impressive animations by Artisan Studios, while some familiar cinematic series artwork also returns from the main games, featuring the iconic hand-drawn character art of Neptunia series artist Tsunako in a welcome comeback. Though limited by the number of returning characters, the English character voice actors reprise their respective roles again here, and do so admirably, as usual.

The soundtrack finally steps away from the series’ tradition of reusing old tracks while muddling in catchy new J-pop songs, and instead opts for an atmospheric orchestral soundtrack which works incredibly well in this more historic setting. This is definitely something to take onboard for future releases.

Conclusion

Admittedly, it took me a while to really get my head around what Artisan were going for with their new combat engine. It features a lot of waiting around for turn orders to kick in, yet surprisingly high-speed attacks. It took a couple of hours to really digest that what we really have is a slight visual twist on classic ’90s Active Time Battles (ATB), which is why it looks new yet also feels incredibly familiar.

Standing around waiting for Neptune’s turn to kick in, plus confusing navigation which really relies on the use of your area map can be very alienating in those first few hours, whether you’re new to Neptunia or not. Fortunately, this confusion will pass as we familiarise ourselves with dungeon layouts and more characters join our battle party to keep the flow of attacks coming. A little patience will pay off.

Even so, it’s been a very long time since Valkyrie Profile, a game which Neptunia RPG clearly takes a lot of inspiration from. This means we’re playing a game that feels very unique, being totally different from previous Neptunia games in the look, feel, and gameplay. Hardcore Neptunia fans will likely have some difficulty adapting to such a significant change, yet with the games marketed mostly at returning fans, it can be tricky to recommend to those on the fence about it.

As beautiful and atmospheric as the game is, we also aren’t getting much for our money, with playthroughs entirely possible in under 15 hours if you skip some side content. With many of these hours spent learning and experimenting with the game’s unusual combat mechanics, it’s also trickier to get as absorbed into the narrative as much as we could. Fans of both Neptunia and 2D platformers will likely find a lot to love here, but everyone else would be better trying before buying.

Super Neptunia RPG is a difficult one to actually score due to its many ups and downs. When it’s good, it’s very good, highlighting a gorgeously detailed and atmospheric world with impressively animated 2D characters, yet at its lowest points we have a game that can be fiddly to play, largely due to the developer seemingly forgetting that the D-pad is better suited for 2D platforming, and samey combat that gets repetitive far too quickly. A very mixed experience.