Neptunia Series Retrospective- The Decline of a Gaming Goddess?

[@DrCasey]

Neptunia V-II is a masterpiece, and that's really what made me sad that the mainline games died after that. I am actually pretty fond of most of the spin-offs, but I love the mainline games far more for their traditional RPG gameplay.

[@Chelaxim]

I think the height of Neptunia was right place right time. The series was biggest during the dark age of JRPGs and during the start of the JRPG reenaissance. The series and Idea Factory games as a whole being on the Vita was a blessing in disguise. While all these games got upstaged by Persona 4 Golden, Imagine if Idea Factory had to directly compete with Atlus' output on the 3DS. We're seeing the exact same thing with the Trails series as well.

[@timothyvanhoeck233]

Not gonna lie. I was absolutely pissed when after that tease of a new game incoming it was then revealed that said new game was nothing more than the latest remake, of the remake, of the remake, of the original game.

[@getbluespheres3k]

i think reverse would actually be good if it also included rebirth 2 and 3 just a overhaul with RTX

[@HectorCotto97]

Personally I'd be interested if they decided to expand on the gameplay style they introduced to Superdimension Neptunia Vs Sega Hard girls. While somewhat similar to the main line games in terms of gameplay, the changes it DID introduce were a breath of fresh air in my opinion. Dungeons weren't a total chore to travel across with the addition of sprinting, not to mention the addition of climbing and traveling through rope ways allowed for more varied environments unlike the usual open fields and hallways from before. Combat wise they introduced new mechanics that I for one definitely enjoyed a lot, of course I can't speak for others since I'm sure there are people out there who feel differently. Story and character wise I think it would be best is they followed the characterizations from either ReBirth 1 or Victory (or ReBirth3). Personally I like the main characters the most in ReBirth 1(Purple Heart's voice in this game is great and easy to listen to, unlike that obviously forced deep voice they stuck with later. In ReBirth 1 she could still emote with her voice, that deep voice they went with later on definitely sounds like it limits her range of emotions which leads to a poor performance during serious or emotional scenes.). I think Victory (or ReBirth 3) is the best game story wise imo (apparently the creators thought so too considering how many plot points from Victory were reused for the animation)

[@IllusionistsBane]

Apparently there's a new Mainline game coming out next year, and the only reason I know this is because it's one of the games they say they're making after the management change. The others include Madou Monogatari 4 and... Touhou Spell Carnival. The only game in that list that I actually care about.

[@sabertheglaceon256]

I like the Series , game and the anime

[@Artemisthemp]

I normally play Neptunia in English Dub, do play Victory in Japanese, so should be able to switch to Japanese only Neptunia. I after all watch the entire Dragon BALL super in Japanese

[@yuishishido8780]

Honestly, the fact that this series is PlayStation exclusive is pretty bullshit. The entire theme is about game industry as a whole. Which each character representing a different gaming platform, if anything should be exclusive multi platform it’s this series.

[@theluminousone5883]

Its multiplatform though. Vii/ViiR, Super, SistersVsSisters, and GameMaker R:Evolution are on (or coming to in case of the last 2) switch. And the PC has all but the first 4 games (1-victory and producing perfection)

[@yuishishido8780]

@@theluminousone5883 not entirely, they recently made a remaster of the first game…again. But it’s only available for PlayStation, Neptunia ReVerse. It was released in 2021 and has yet to see a multi platform release. Noire is keeping all that Nepnep for herself.

[@yuishishido8780]

There is also no indication that a multi platform release is even planned.

[@theluminousone5883]

@@yuishishido8780 its still not a. Exclusive though. Sure, a lot of the games are on PS and PC but the newer ones at least (obviously excluding reverse which was likely only made to bank on the ps5 launch) are coming to switch.

[@ausername8770]

they announced sisters vs sisters for Xbox so now it’s on all platforms (it’s on PS4/5, PC, Xbox and Switch) But I still agree with your points and wish that the other past nep games were multiplatform like Sisters VS Sisters

[@Marinetr]

honestly I have to say that this franchise have too many spin-offs and too little main story progression

[@ReylordFX]

Seeing the neptunia series getting a little worst time to time, and seeing kinda makes me sad... I thought that the money was the reason for them making spin-offs only.. but still. It makes me sad. Cause the writing was the inspiration that make me get creative, besides level it down a bit.

[@doombloomers9609]

My primary complaint about the games is the lack of character development. The characters are too one-dimensional and one-note and don't ever evolve or change, which simply gets tiresome eventually.

[@MidoseitoAkage]

Finally, someone understand. The casts are just bland and boring if you took to analyse each other.

[@Greideren]

Oh man Neptunia is a series is love so much but one thing that I never liked is that as soon as a game finishes they totally forget about the new characters they introduced in it. It even kind of happened with the candidates who are such great characters and so important to the world. They were the focus of the second game but in the third one they barely appeared (with one exception) and in most spin offs they aren't playable or don't even exist at all, and it makes me kind of mad. At least the new spinoff seems like it'll be good since even though it is a spinoff it seems like it will follow the main story line, which honestly seems like the natural progression of things and I'm surprised they didn't try it before since it allows for experimentation of the gameplay while allowing a more compelling story. And the best part is that the candidates will be the focus of the game once again! I'm so excited for its release later this month, tho it'll probably take longer for the western release.

[@jaivonpyatt6905]

To say that soul is buzz word is a bit of an understatement

[@nowanepcfw]

Hyperdimension Neptunia is my childhood 💜 so those who say that the series is bad you just have no taste 🙃

[@Base_Bass_Forte]

I want a Neptune... just finished watching the anime. Loved it. I'm glad Neptune reunited with Pi-ko. Liked & Subscribed. 😄

[@fennekinflameboy1020]

How didn't I notice this video for all my answers?

[@DengekiVR]

I was a big neptunia fan from 2013-2018 but after 4go things began to just get stale. There is so much lore potential, but they refuse to dive into it. So I don't buy the spin-offs except for sisters vs sisters and I wasn't impressed. So I'm not buying any until they release another mainline game.

[@jessiescholten9119]

Neptunia is really the pokemon of Jrpgs huh

[@nowanepcfw]

You know Neptunia is full of references huh

[@lacqs9129]

During the ps3 era, I used to always buy their games, I love the character's banter and relationships, then they start doing spinoffs that have no connection with the main story, If only they stick on the story and stopped with the half assed spinoffs/gameplay, sadly they wasted their big break..

[@thenightstar8312]

There literally is no "fall"

[@Jason75913]

This

[@dayvonlouis5187]

I just want the story to progress and not another spin-off we got like what 6 to 7 since VII

[@reiryghts639]

good to know i wasn't the only one to notice the series was getting worse. i personally think that Megadimension was the last great game they made

[@greek1237]

The series is still strong, the vs game and now the sisters?

[@sonicthehedgehog1606]

The series isn't at its prime anymore

[@greek1237]

@@sonicthehedgehog1606 Perhaps, but I though Sisters vs Sisters was pretty good.

[@timothyvanhoeck233]

Lol, as a longtime fan, I can tell you, with confidence, that the series is most definitely not strong right now. Don't forget that there hasn't had a new official mainline title since 2015.

[@greek1237]

@@timothyvanhoeck233 I enjoy Sisters vs Sisters.

[@timothyvanhoeck233]

@@greek1237 Not the point. I never said Sisters Vs Sisters was a "bad game" (I have the game myself and quite enjoy it despite a myriad of problems I have with it (namely the fact it's not a mainline title, as well as the Planeptune map being far too empty, the sections of the city not truly interconnected (as in you can't walk directly from the main downtown area to the residential district, nor can you walk directly to Planeptower despite being only a few short blocks from the southernmost limits of the downtown area) and also not to scale in regards to height when compared to Planeptower itself (Planeptower may be the tallest building not just in Planeptune, but all of Gamindustri, but it is not so tall that the second tallest building should look like a damn toothpick far below you from the 3rd freaking floor). One halfway decent game doesn't automatically make a game franchise successful, especially when we're still waiting for a new mainline title nearly a decade after the previous one, especially when Idea Factory/Compile Heart feels the need to trick their audience with false promises of a new title only to reveal it to be yet another rehash of a previous title (i.e. Re;Verse).

[@boyishdude1234]

The timelines for the canon games are actually: Hyperdimension Neptunia > Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2 > Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory > Megadimension Neptunia VII (PS3 Trilogy + PS4 sequel) and Re;Birth 1 > Re;Birth 2 Sisters Generation > Re;Birth 3 V Generation > Megadimension Neptunia VII (RB Trilogy + PS4 sequel). mk2 is a soft reboot of sorts. It mostly retcons the original game, but some elements and parts of the first game DID happen. The basic idea is that if if something in the first game in either trilogy doesn't contradict the later games, it happened in continuity. I believe the reason this is an issue is because the first game (the original 2010-2011 game) was never meant to have a sequel, but it got so popular that mk2 was made, and in doing so they had to find some way to retcon the true ending in the original game. If you actually play the original game (I have the Platinum trophies in all three of the original PS3 games) you can basically feel how much of a low budget one-shot experiment the game was. Very weird gameplay, nothing like what you see in the series in mk2 onwards. Edit: Due to censorship of Vert in certain cutscenes in Neptunia ReVerse (she doesn't jiggle her breasts anymore during certain scenes like in RB1), I recommend buying the game second-hand rather than first hand, but to make sure and let Compile Heart know that a REAL Neptunia game like ReVerse, barring the censorship, is what you want going forward, not piles of garbage like Virtual Stars and Ninja Wars, the latter of which pisses all over Senran Kagura's corpse in addition to being a bad Neptunia game.

[@sdbzfan1]

Ninja wars looks fun, baring the censorship, but i agree with vvvirtuastars That being said Megadimension is still my favourite of the games and while cyberdimension looks like a natual progression its still too unfinished to flow properly like a tales game or ff7r for me to want more games like it

[@idanchen4934]

1:20 - represents game consoles at the time as Nintendo Wii, SEGA Neptune, Xbox360 and Sony Playstation3. ------------------------------------- 2:37 - What happened was the first game had a proper ending so it didn't really needed any more "continues", so they "invented" the other dimensions LOL, it is like when game freak made "GOD" the final catch in pokemon diamond back for the Nintendo Dual Screen Game Systems. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4:08 - question: have anyone noticed how "the bad bean" has eyes inside the eyes? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4:27 - adlist explain why since you mentioned it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5:09 - a sense of humor that is being removed after the last update of sisters VS sisters that is. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6:41 - some cover arts are censored for western standards so you know. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7:14 - ENG VA didn't recorded for the entier game unlike the JPN VA because of budgets runs by Nis America. ----------------------------- 9:10 - we call it "samurai warriors gameplay" -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10:46 - the Vita was not dying it was murdered by sony california under the claims "it is not popular enough" or as we Veterans say "it is not making CoD money" --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12:20 - WOW game didn't sold well because V-tubers were yet to be world wide well known money making machine? you don't say. XD this only means that the Neptunia series knew what is popular and successful at the time. ----------------------------------------------- 15:09 - Half correct, but understandable for a fan boy. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16:51 - That only means that the Neptunia series has true fans unlike other game franchises. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17:50 - you can thanks Sony Entertainment California for that m8. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 19:42 - Since this video is 1 year old by now, there is gonna be an Adult Nep game released during 2024, and the Neptunia sisters VS sisters will get a XBOX version as well. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 20:45 - Tourist alert, you don't have to like it but your hatred is shown, better turn down a nudge m8 Dayo~♫ ----------------------- 21:00 - You're a tourist, your opinion is irrelevant. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 22:14 - spoke like a true Social Warrior. --------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TLDR: title is miss leading since you talk about stuff you "like", "dislike" and "would like to see" rather then "The series is dying and here is why" I rate your vide...sry your take as a 6/10 and I also the number 46th of your dislikes because of HOW you "represents" your opinions in this video.

[@sonicthehedgehog1606]

Nah he spit mostly facts. You used the word tourist. Comment invalid

[@Jason75913]

"samurai warriors gameplay" "musou" or "Dynasty Warriors" is more recognizable, no?

[@boyishdude1234]

(1/2) Okay, so this video isn't going to be getting into the actual reason the series has declined post-Super Neptunia RPG: Sony's BS censorship policies. The censorship of anime games on Sony consoles is so draconian that it outright killed the Senran Kagura series, with the creator of that series straight up leaving the company because the censorship policies made the next game impossible to make. The Neptunia franchise is in a very similar state, as making Neptunia games that "feel" like Cyberdimension, or the mainline games, or just any of the pre-2021 Neptunia games is literlaly impossible. There's almost no fanservice, almost no quirkiness, just NOTHING that resembles a Neptunia game even within just the first couple hours of Ninja Wars, and the censorship is why. This isn't simply players like me wanting the fanservice and quirky, sometimes raunchy humor to be there. It's that the developers clearly want it to be there too, but are forced to not include it because if they do include it with the frequency and passion that it has in the prior games, then they can't release the game on a Sony console, which means less money. It should tell you a lot that the CLOSEST the first few hours of Ninja Wars gets to any sort of moment or fanservice that belongs in a Neptunia game is the amnesiac ninja girl's introductory cutscene having some jiggle physics on her boobs, and even then the jiggle physics are noticeably far less pronounced compared to the other games. Everything about Ninja Wars, from the the character designs, to the writing, to the animations, is actively designed to skirt around Sony's censorship policies as much as possible so they can include what little fanservice and quirky, raunchy humor that they are able to, and it results in a game that lacks the heart and soul of the franchise an just feels like a shallow, corporate product.

[@boyishdude1234]

(2/2) All of this is to say that the reason Virtual Stars and Ninja Wars don't feel like they have any actual passion or personality to them is not because the developers wanted them to be empty, soulless corporate cash grabs, but because they weren't allowed to be Neptunia games. These games were only ever allowed to be soulless, corporate cash grabs because of censorship. Ninja Wars and Virtual Stars are not Neptunia games. They're hollow, re-animated corpses pretending to be Neptunia games. If Neptunia fans truly want the series to arrive at a much better state going forward, with actual passion being put into the games again, and with an actual soul that makes each successive game feel like it belongs in the series... Then they need to do the hardest thing and give Compile Heart and IFI some tough love. They need to boycott any and ALL Playstation releases of the games, aside from perhaps uncensored/mostly uncensored remakes of past games like Neptunia ReVerse, and actively and continuously demand or request that Compile Heart and Idea Factory permanently stop making Neptunia games on Playstation and make the franchise a PC and Switch exclusive. A not insignificant number of fans would follow the series onto PC and Switch, since most of the games are already on PC/Switch and on PC/Switch the franchise would be allowed to thrive and be all that the developers clearly want it to be, rather than a hollow, re-animated corpse that barely resembles its former self. Why any real fan of the series would want to subject the desired 5th mainline game to Sony's censorship policies is beyond me. If it does get made, and it's NOT a PC/Switch exclusive, the 5th mainline game is guaranteed to be garbage just like Virtual Stars and Ninja Wars were, no matter how much these so-called Neptunia "fans" might end up enjoying it.

[@sonicthehedgehog1606]

​@boyishdude1234 lol imagine boycotting a game because "my bOoBs aNd nAkEd WomEn". Blane everything on censorship. You weebs crying like liberals. Neptunia doesn't need fanservice. It's need good writing and gameplay. Sinve the series has been mis

[@cordariusyates9139]

​@boyishdude1234 I agree with you, buddy, on those consoles, including Xbox, they don't have to censor as much they do on the Playstation platform

[@cadenfrankovich2694]

Hard agree. Fuck Sony.

[@boyishdude1234]

15:30 This is objectively incorrect. Senran Kagura has two anime seasons, both of which were dubbed by Funimation and I actually prefer the English voices to the Japanese voices. There is really no reason other than cost cutting for Compile Heart and Marvelous to decide not to provide an English dub for Ninja Wars when there's already a precedent of who to cast as the English voices for Asuka, Homura, Yumi and Miyabi.

[@boyishdude1234]

As for the English voices, as far as I'm concerned the new actresses for Vert and Noire will never be able to live up to Tara Platt or Erin Fitzgerald. I have no idea why Tara stopped playing Vert, but it's just a shame that Erin Fitzgerald willingly dropped her role as Noire to be some white knight in a protest to get much higher pay for voice actors in her stupid union. The new actress for Noire that replaced her is the English actress for Megumin in Konosuba, and she's nowhere near as good.

[@sdbzfan1]

I dont know how to explain Tara but Erin like you said was part of a union, its not white knighting her union wasnt hired therefore she cant book a role on her own, its a shame but it is what it is, and erica mendez has done rolls for compile heart in the past like Moru and Blossom in Hyperdevotion Noire and Eryn in Fairy Fencer so the issue isnt her being a bad Noire its her coming after Noire had a voice for 5+ games same issue with Vert though with her its far more noticable thanks to her already voicing Rom so all i hear is older Rom

[@boyishdude1234]

@@sdbzfan1 Ummmm.... The new actress for Vert isn't the voice of Rom. It's the voice of RED. RED is the character that sounds like an older Rom. Supposedly Tara wasn't available for Megadimension because she was on maternity leave, and they just never re-hired her. As far as I'm aware, it was white knighting with Erin because she literally joined the protests her union was doing; she forsook her role as Noire intentionally for "increased pay".

[@sdbzfan1]

@@boyishdude1234 look it up, Red, Rom and Vert all share the same new voice actress Carrie Keranen

[@boyishdude1234]

@@sdbzfan1 Since when were Red and Rom replaced?

[@sdbzfan1]

@@boyishdude1234 they weren't Rom and Red always had the same voice, but Vert's new voice is their actress now

[@boyishdude1234]

Ugh, no. Just no on what the majority says about ReVerse. It's a really REALLY good remake/port that refines the gameplay and balancing of Re;Birth 1 to near perfection, whilst also providing massive improvements to the graphics and lighting for each dungeon, and providing fans who've never played the original game a chance to actually experience the original story, albeit through reading text of the original game's scenes. It's not just "Re;Birth 1 with better graphics, UI and a fishing minigame", that's extremely reductive and unfair. It's a remake that improves the graphics and overall look of the game, makes massive improvements to the game's design and balance in Arrange Mode, provides players with an opportunity to partly experience the original game's story and sub-events without having to buy a disc only PS3 exclusive that has mediocre gameplay and low quality presentation (due to a very low budget), adds a fishing minigame to further increase the game's depth of progression, and has natural integration of most of the DLCs from Re;Birth 1. In short, Neptunia ReVerse is really good. People are only complaining because it's not the fabled 5th mainline game that shouldn't at all be made in the franchise current state (because Compile Heart and Idea Factory have cucked to Sony's censorship policies; I don't want Neptunia to have a 5th mainline game until the franchise becomes a PC and Nintendo Switch exclusive and stops releasing games on/for Playstation consoles altogether). And no, Re;Birth 1 was not an enhanced port of the original game. It's a full on remake of the original game, with a completely different story and a more refined version of Victory's gameplay. If it was an enhanced port of the original, you could have expected players to not have nice things to say about the battle system, dungeons and Terraportation system (though I thought the Terraportation system was perfectly fine). I say all of this as someone who's 100%'d all of the mainline Neptunia games, including the original PS3 trilogy and Neptunia ReVerse. The people who say that Neptunia ReVerse is not a good game are full of shit.

[@TopMashu]

Yeah on a personal level I agree sorta it was fun going through the game again and with the expanded roster of characters while fixing a lot of the gameplay shortcomings from the original RB1 but at the same time I cant help but understand where the consensus is coming from after having waited so long for something that isnt a weird action game spinoff. It's not that its not a good game but balancing expectations is tough and unfortunately I feel like with the timing of the release it was kind of a tipping point for a lot of fans, causing an arguably disproportionate backlash.

[@boyishdude1234]

@@TopMashu These fans should be directing their backlash and anger at Compile Heart's terrible decision to keep releasing these games on Playstation instead of complaining about how ReVerse isn't what they wanted. This franchise will NOT resurge and become good again post-Super Neptunia RPG until it becomes a PC/Switch exclusive and is allowed to be what the developers clearly want it to be. It's upsetting to think about the fact that I'm evidently one of the only fans who cares enough about the series to not want the 5th mainline game to be subjected to Sony's censorship policies. I want a GOOD sequel to Megadimension with better gameplay, not a hollow, re-animated corpse that's pretending to be what the fans want.

[@defordefor9865]

@@boyishdude1234 Does it all mean that Neptunia series is good because of bouncing boobs and jokes about them? Could authors come up with new jokes (and themes) which do not contain them?

[@boyishdude1234]

@@defordefor9865 No...?? Compile Heart WANTS the sexual content to be in these games. If they didn't, they wouldn't be sneaking whatever sexual content they can past the pedophiles at Sony HQ in spite of the censorship.

[@OneManCast]

@@boyishdude1234 You apparently think you know better than Compile Heart. Your opinion is now invalid as a result.