Gamindustri is on the brink of collapse. The four goddesses that serve as this land’s protectors have been defeated by the ASIC, an evil organization that has grown in power by securing their shares using pirated gaming software. The last CPU standing to face this threat is powerless to stop them, forcing her to flee as her sister and friends remain captured for the next three years. Pretty dark, huh? It’s probably the last thing you would expect from the sequel to one of the surprise highlights of 2014, primarily because of its cheery, often silly take on the video game industry. Yet, in many ways, Hyperdimension Neptunia: Re;Birth 2 creates a completely different tone, sacrificing some of this over the top humor for a more serious take on these characters that took me by surprise last year. With so much of the original’s charm relying on its unique premise and script though, can the world of Neptunia thrive without it?
IF and Nepgear going nowhere.
Re;Birth 2 places gamers in the very capable knee socks of Nepgear, the little sister of the original’s hyperactive protagonist. In comparison, Ge-Ge is much more mature, (despite being the “little” sister,) taking her duties as a CPU Candidate, (or the next Goddess in line to rule her home of Planeptune,) very seriously. Even still, her insecurities shine through most of the story, often worrying about escaping her sister’s shadow, while regaining the confidence it will take to save the goddesses that were so soundly defeated. With familiar faces such as IF and Compa from the original lending a hand, a huge cast of party members both new and old, and the addition of the other three CPU Candidates in the form of Lastation’s Uni and Lowee’s Rom and Ram fighting to save their siblings however, and the fight for Gamindustri’s future seems a lot less hopeless.
Rom takes the spotlight in her HDD Form.
Or at least, that’s until you start playing, because the opening hours of Re;Birth 2 can be absolutely brutal. Making a complete 180 compared to its predecessor, which eased us into its fights before spiking about half way through, the sequel doesn’t play around. I came this close to losing the first tutorial boss fight, having to actually use strategy, items and stat boosts to eek out a win. Who would have thought!? Oddly enough, experience points start rising through the roof while fights get easier as the game progresses, making the experience more of a breeze as you push through the hazing of the early moments. You have to prove you really want it!
Either way, it becomes less of an issue when battles are not only a blast to play, but when the game can be customized to fit your play style! In our review of the original, we went into detail about the real time battle system and the Remake System, which allowed players to customize their game play experience if they had the items needed to unlock them, (give it a read, here!) In short, each character, weapon and attack has a certain attack range and a radius in which they can be moved. Every enemy that falls into that range can be hit with one of four types of attacks, which include special attacks, power attacks, break attacks, (that lower enemy shields,) and rush attacks, (multi hit attacks that build up the EX Meter, which adds bonus and signature abilities.)What makes battle even more fun this time around, (aside from the increase from three party members on the field to four,) is that more of the team wields a wider variety of attack types, namely Uni, Rom and Ram being able to attack at long range. To top it off, when late game abilities become available, these jaw dropping sequences range from badass action sequences, to some exciting attacks that reference some of our favorite niche games. It’s just too bad that the game can’t often keep up with this much awesome, causing the framerate to drop to a crawl when things get especially hectic.
Cave’s EX Attack drops jaws as fast as the framerate.
If using these abilities makes the game too easy, or if that newest boss is just too hard to beat. Remaking the game can adjust the difficulty, unlock new items, dungeons and weapons, or even change mechanics like reducing the amount of time it takes to build up the EX Meter. As a far cry from the PS3 version that this title is based on, both mechanics are what holds the core of the game together, helping game stay addicting throughout its 25 hour plus story on a first run.
Still, even though all of these features are great, they’re way too familiar. Oddly enough, it seems like Nepgear’s primary flaw is trying to be too much like her sister! Re;Birth 2‘s biggest sin is the absurdly large amount of reused content it took from the first game. Enemies, some music, whole environments and many of the voice clips are completely ripped from the first title, (with some dungeons even being duplicates from THIS game,) oftentimes making the latest in the series feel more like an expansion than a sequel. The point and click map is mostly unchanged, complete with NPCs who you choose to talk to on a menu. While often serving as humorous takes on popular game characters, (Snake Hayter, Maryo and Monobear come to mind,) talking to them on a map screen isn’t the same as meeting them in a full fledged environment. While I appreciated the streamlined nature of these interactions originally, I’ve fallen in love with Gamindustri so much, that I wish I could delve into it outside of the various dungeons.
Guess what game this girl is based on? (Hint: pick your eyes up.)
In the end though, what I thought would be this game’s biggest weakness became my absolute favorite part of it. Yes, Neptune is a fantastic protagonist, so much so that I named her the number 2 waifu of 2014 thanks to her off the wall, self aware, airhead personality. When I saw Nepgear as such a serious straight shooter, I expected the game to be less enjoyable because of it. As the game went on however, I became really attached to the little sisters, making their journey from scared, lonely sidekicks, to powerful, confident and heroic goddesses. Be warned, the slapstick and fan service is kept to a bare minimum, (the latter of which was more overbearing and unnecessary than anything else if you ask me,) but what what we got in its place was an exhilarating story to experience, introducing a level of character development that was nearly non-existent when Neptune took the lead. Now, I have trouble imagining another game without Nepgear in the lead. Sadly, I’m fully aware that this will likely be the case going forward. Still, for every serious moment, you have characters like Broccoli healing her team by vomiting a smiling pile from her eyes, so there’s that.
Stay out of the splash zone.
I can talk all day about everything that I love about Hyperdimension Neptunia: Re;Birth 2, but we only have so much bandwidth. What I will say, is that this sequel expands on the hilarious, yet mostly shallow narrative of the first game, creating a much deeper story that tackles themes such as coming of age, finding one’s own identity, and even video game piracy in a fun, lighthearted way. Features like the Stella Dungeon, where you send the titular character out to explore areas in real time in order to uncover special items, over a half a dozen endings, a new game plus feature and a variety of secret characters put the title over the top, and by all accounts, is a superior game to the original. Sadly, the technical issues and the overabundance of recycled content hurt the final impression, but not enough to keep Re;Birth 2 from being the best game of 2015 so far. Sure, it’s the first game I’ve played in 2015, but forget semantics, because Nepgear and the girls are starting the year off strong.
tl;dr
+ The CPU Candidates take center stage in a bigger way, with more party members, teammates on the field, and a huge amount of post game content.
+ Combat is as addicting as ever, with jaw dropping abilities that will keep you coming back.
+ A game that can be catered to your needs, thanks to the flexible Remake System.
+ A much more in depth story that sacrifices some humor for character development while still staying lighthearted, most of which is voiced in dual audio.
– Way too much of the content is ripped straight from its prequel, some of which is repeated multiple times within THIS game.
– Technical issues range in severity, from lips not moving during dialogue sections to massive slowdown during huge sequences.
– While more streamlined, it’s about time we replace the point and click map with a fully explorable Gamindustri.
Final Score: 4.25/5