Since 2010, theHyperdimension Neptuniagames have been some of my go-tos when it comes to having wacky anime-inspired fun in gaming form. The franchise has gone from arena fighters to tactical RPGs to action RPGs and even full-fledged turn-based JRPG over the years and has a few different sub-series set throughout its many universes. It’s got the mainline Hyperdimension world and then the separate Neptunia universe to work with andGame Maker R:Evolutiontakes place in the latter with a future-set timeline to work with. Here, Older Nep is out to lead her crew to run a game studio that you can name and have top the charts and gain market share with each dungeon you conquer.
Nep and the crew are in charge of taking out foes with a four-person party and run through dungeons to tackle foes and gather goodies. Being thorough with your dungeon exploration allows players to not only boost their XP by battling more enemies, but also find hidden areas to get more healing items and equipment to boost stats at a faster rate. Generally, there are a few ways to get through each dungeon and you can also backtrack if you want to and get even more XP. It’s also possible to fight every for or pick and choose what enemies to fight since they’re all on the battlefield with you and you can avoid them if you can outrun them.
Fast-Paced Action
Generally, you want to fight all of the enemies during the first excursion through a floor because you want to get an idea of how each enemy type attacks. Some are small and safe to just plow through, but as time goes on, you’ll get into tougher dungeons with gigantic enemies that can deal out a healthy amount of damage in one hit. These enemies can also hit you from a blind side as you are limited to your own behind the back character view unless you switch characters with the d-pad. Fortunately, when a character gets damaged a lot, they’ll request a healing item and with just a press of L3, you may heal them up right away.
All of the characters have light and heavy attacks with X and Square respectively alongside special attacks with limited usage with triangle and even stronger attacks using R2 and Triangle to deal out more damage. Team-up attacks can be done with rapid-fire attacks from each character alongside a d-pad press perfectly-timed to dish out a ton of offense quickly. The combat mechanics are a lot of fun and have a nice flow to things because you can choose to go between light and heavy attacks or just switch between characters if you want and try out different styles.
Lush Environments
Some excel at close-range attacks while others have longer-range blaster and sword attacks and each style has its own pros and cons. When tackling giant foes, I tend to enjoy going for longer-range attacks to chip away from a safe distance, while smaller foes are a blast to take out with short-range attacks because you’re able to take them out quickly and avoid taking damage at the same time. The faster you think the enemy herd, the better your odds are throughout the entire dungeon. Save points are somewhat infrequent and generally show up every few floors, so if you get stuck between points in real-time, you have to choose between taking the party back to the start of the dungeon and saving right before it or hoping the next floor has a save point too.
Review: Neptunia ReVerse
Neptunia ReVerse is a must-buy for anyone who has wanted to get into the long-running series, but didn’t know where to start.
While the combat ofR:Evolutionis largely fun, due to the nature of this being a 3D dungeon-crawler, it can also grow old and literally tiresome physically. It would be nice to have an auto-battle feature a la the Xenoblade Chronicles series and many other action-centric RPGs just to ease things up on the player. The great thing with that feature is that you can always manually control things when you want, but when you’re at the end of a long dungeon and facing a boss, the last thing you want is to be dealing with tired fingers and make mistakes in battle you otherwise wouldn’t.
Flashy Footwork
Visually,R:Evolutionlooks better than the PS Vita days, but one can still see muddy textures that are right in line with what the franchise has always had and looks more akin to something you would see on the PS4 than the PS5. Thankfully, while it’s not the most-detailed game in the world, it does run well and doesn’t slow down even when the screen has a lot going on. Larger enemies take up a ton of space but don’t cause slowdown – which is good because there’s no reason a game with this kind of detail level in its environments should have issues. It’s disappointing to see how little improvement has been made given the power of the PS5, but at least there are never any frame rate drops even when things get busy.
As per the series norm,R:Evolutionhas fantastic voice acting that gets across not only the comedy of the script, but also the more serious moments – insofar as a tongue-in-cheek narrative about game design can have. The blend of action and visual novel lends itself well to having higher-end voice acting and thankfully, the cast does an admirable job even with this being a blend of new and existing characters. The cast meshes well and fits the lighter tone of the soundtrack as well. When it comes to sound design, each style of attack sounds different – with melee-centric attacks being more visceral in their impact and longer-range ones not sounding as violent.
Closing Comments:
Neptunia Game Maker R:Evolution is a solid new entry in the long-running franchise that excels in some ways and falls short in others. The combat is fast-paced, but does get draining due to the repetitious dungeon structure and lack of auto-battle as a feature. Fortunately, the strong voice acting serves as a motivator to keep going as does seeing where the amusing story will go. Visually, it retains the core look of the PS Vita-rooted series, just with a cleaner look across the board when compared to the older portable hardware. Thankfully, the framerate doesn’t falter on the PS5 and the game as a whole is a solid recommendation to those who enjoy the franchise already – and is a solid starting point for those looking to get into it since the gameplay is in-line with other entries, just more fine-tuned.
Neptunia Game Maker R:Evolution
Version Reviewed: PlayStation 5
