Hyperdimension Neptunia Rebirth 3 V Generation Review
Hyperdimension Neptunia Rebirth 3 V Generation (HNR3) is a Japanese style turn based Role Playing Game in which you take control of Neptune, a CPU that is one of the main superpowers in the world. From her home base of Planeptune you must take on quests and missions as you level yourself up and become once again the guardian that you were destined to be.
The story is simple enough to get involved in even if, like me, you haven’t played any of the previous titles. There is plenty of information available to provide you with enough backstory for you to push forward and enjoy the game. I found the dialogue in the game trying in many places and found myself having to fight the urge to skip quickly. It was acted out well, but the writing was poor and I felt it didn’t flow and was quite forced in places. Overall, it was easy to engage in, though and was actually pretty funny at certain points.
The battle mechanics at first are a little strange and can be off-putting, however after not very long, you get used to them and begin to sweep away enemies with ease. Whilst in a battle you can freely move your character around a pre highlighted area. You want to try and position yourself so none of the enemies will hit you from behind whilst still trying to do damage to your opponents. The styles of attacks are simple enough, in essence you have a SP Skill which is your special attack, only useable when you charge up a bar below your health bar. You also have normal attacks which you can combo together to maximise damage. The three types of attack you should use, combo attacks, power attacks and defence breaking attacks, depend on your situation so you have to think tactically what is best for your current situation. The choice in attacks, even with your different styles of basic attacks allows for some combat and tactical decision making which I thoroughly enjoyed.
The character design of the main protagonists are what you would expect from a Japanese style RPG. The bulk of the females have a cute feminine charm however the fact that nearly all of them are top heavy quickly becomes annoying. I felt as though the art designers could have showed a little more creativity than just throwing big breasts into the equation. The armour and enemy design though is the complete opposite, each of which held their own appeal and I enjoyed seeing what wacky creatures I would come across next.
The control system was quite a handful on the PC version which I reviewed and felt quite clunky. I was forced regularly to check the button configuration to find out what button I needed to use to accomplish what I wanted to do. For me, this was the biggest obstacle to try and overcome as I couldn’t ever really relax into the game and just play it. I do feel that it would be much more natural on a controller and the button symbols that are in game suggest the developer feels that way also.
The music in the game is very good, providing the right mood and ambience when necessary. It’s never too strong that it overpowers what is happening in game however it has enough of an effect that it helps set the setting nicely.
Overall, I enjoyed the game with the combat system being the real game selling aspect for me. The dialogue was unfortunately a big turn off and even after a lot of gameplay I still struggled a little with the controls but even this wasn't enough to make me stop playing. I would certainly recommend taking a look at this game but I personally will opt for the console version in the future.
3/5
Thank you to Idea Factory for providing us with a copy of this game to review.