Superdimension Neptune VS Sega Hard Girls PC Reiview
By: David (@friendshipguy_)
• Superdimension Neptune VS Sega Hard Girls
• Developer - IDEA FACTORY, COMPILE HEAR, FELISTELLA
• Publisher - Idea Factory International
• PC/Steam
Superdimension Neptune VS Sega Hard Girls is, of course, the next series in featuring the plucky cast of the games that centered around them before. If you’ve played a Neptunia game, you more than likely know what to expect - a good or bad thing, depending on who you ask. Most of the cast is back for this entry with new additions to their crew: the aforementioned Sega Hard Girls, which are developed via collaborative efforts between Sega and ASCII Media Works’ Dengeki Bunko imprint. A little esoteric if you don’t know where they’ve come from - I sure didn’t - but it makes sense for Sega’s officially sanctioned characters to eventually meet up with Idea Factory’s creations sooner or later. Doubly so considering the fact that Sega is the distributor of the entirety of the Neptunia franchise. Idea Factory always goes above and beyond with their translations and selection for English voice actors, though theirold habits and mechanics crop up like red flags in this installment. This review is for the Steam version that released this month, this a one for one port of the Vita version.
Thestory of Superdimension Neptune VS Sega Hard Girls is a fanatical retelling of the history of Sega and it’s consoles as personified versions of their most memorable consoles. Much of it’s humor is derivative of this, and the anime tropes that are piled on top of it are a delight. It’s cyclical nature is what brings it’s fans back; it’s a JRPG rife with innuendo, puns, and mild fan service but after experiencing the same thing for so long, you’d imagine that they’d go in a different direction. This expectation escalates when the Sega Hard Girls are mixed into the formula - they have to stay extra “on-brand” for Sega in this instance, so what could they possibly due to rope them into the story? They’re simply the counterparts. The Neptunia cast are goddesses existing in different dimensions and the Sega Hard Girls are their counterparts, Neptune squares off against Sega Saturn, and so on and so forth, eventually setting aside differences to aid two new main characters - IF, and Segami - to keep history from being erased by the Time Eater. The story seems oddly familiar to Trillion: God of Destruction, though it’s easy to write off as one of those trope-y coincidences that’s easy to pass.
Beyond that, the cross over works, though in regards to game play, statistically the girls from the Neptunia series actually more utilitarian than the Sega Hard Girls. Obviously this’d be different for different runs through the game, and which ones you prefer, but the multiclass system baked into the game means most people fill a niche in a traditional party group. Mostly an aside, but the designs between the characters is clashing, though it serves the purpose of clearly defining who’s who. Of course, people are here for the Neptunia cast, others might be here for the opposing team but because the Sega Hard Girls, but because they’re sanctioned by Sega their designs are a bit less creative than the Neptunia cast; the elements from each console that they represent is much more evident. Plutia - representative of the Mega Drive - has more subtle cues than Mega Drive herself. Idea Factory’s personifications are obviously an homage to the actual versions that are their counter, but their designs are far more aesthetically pleasing than how chunky the Sega Hard Girls are. This also harps on something the franchises are known for: accessories, and costumes. Because Sega more than likely has specific restrictions about their characters and altering their appearances, this guts the game of one of it’s appeals. There’s only a handful of costumes with some characters not even having any at all.
There’s four eras based on the most prominent consoles produced by Sega: Mega Drive, Sega Saturn, Game Gear, and Dreamcast. Players have an over world for each era that’s representative of the times the consoles were about, in chronological order. In each over world there’s a handful of dungeons to traverse with each having at least one floor to explore, but they’re all pre=made and not randomly generated. Arguably, creating an engine that would scramble these might not have been cost effective, but it only emphasizes the chore like nature when monsters spawn in specific locations. Despite the trove of content Idea Factory was given to work with, most of it falls short. The eras aren’t all that different with most featuring the same dungeons to run through with the slightest, most minuscule variations to their lay out. On the plus side, Toy-Polis - based off the real life Joy-Polis in real life Tokyo - debuts in the Sega Saturn era. Both the Sega Saturn and Joy-Polis launched in 1994, so they got some marks for being somewhat reflective of traditional history. Though for a series renowned for it’s humor, most of it is situational in Superdimension Neptune VS Sega Hard Girls, doing little besides making a joke on the pronunciation of Sega Saturn’s name, and rendering only one of the dungeons in the Dreamcast era into a barren wasteland, reminiscent of how Sega must have felt when they stopped producing consoles after the aforementioned system.
Combat is vapid and serves as the only means of progression for your characters. The mission list presented in the library works on a counter; each mission you complete knocks a day off the other ones, leaving you less and less time to complete them. However, completing these missions rewards you with nothing, failing to complete them results in them being eaten by the Time Eater, and gaining a stat boost or an ability that it’ll wield in combat. That might be a reward in and of itself, but the Time Eater is so outlandishly difficult to beat that it’ll take a few runs to actually see a visible impact on it’s health. No experience, no currency; these are all received by grinding through monsters, Even braking class level caps, securing more skill slots, and even cut scenes are relegated to the mission counter and take time away from your other duties. Only a handful of these missions are story sensitive as well, others being literal fetch quests, or hunt and kill quests which would be the norm in a traditional MMO, yet are absolutely necessary to complete if you want to make the boss easier on yourself. It’s impossible, though. Unless you’ve played the game once, you’re going to lose a few missions here or there, or not be able to complete a few, resulting in a forced fight against the Time Eater. That doesn’t result in game over, though. Time is reset and you receive the missions that you weren’t able to complete, as well as a few new ones, and the cycle repeats once again. Action is turn based as well with the ability to control movement and placement; though, this is mostly unnecessary save for getting to further enemies and prioritizing them. There are few area of effect attacks that enemies will use, though any action uses up the action gauge. Taking all precautions into account, the most somebody can eke out of their gauge is moving in for a handful of attacks, and moving, that’s not including potential spells that cost more with the trade off of them being powerful, or having a range which would keep your party out of danger.
This is all criticism from fresh eyes, though. It’s as JRPG as JRPG’s come, a campy grind-fest with characters that either totally grate on your particular tastes, or mesh so well that you’ll end up enjoying the entire ride. My major gripe with the game is that characters genuinely have good interactions with most of the lines being voiced, yet for every interaction there’s about five or six menial tasks that you’ll have to do before you get anymore, before eventually cutting off. Most of the visual novel-esque cuteness end after you’ve acquired all members of both casts, and the explanation of the Time Eater is done and over with. The game essentially becomes a husk, forcing you to grind and finish quests that stave off the inevitable before eventually completing the cycle over, and over again.