Hello, and welcome back to another Waifu Reviews! Today we'll be looking at the Visual Novel/Dating Sim/Stat Manager known as Hyperdimension Neptunia: Producing Perfection! This game is a spinoff of the JRPG series Hyperdimension Neptunia. I just finished it, and here's what I thought!
Characters:
The characters of the Neptunia universe are great. The story follows the four "CPUs" of a futuristic dimension, Neptune, Blanc, Vert, and Noire. They act as goddesses of their respective colonies, participating in quests for the peace and faith of their kingdoms. They also all have younger siblings, the "CPU Candidates", who manage their older sisters' activities. At the beginning of the game, you are forced to choose one of the CPUs to produce (in J-Pop Idol fashion). You manage their idol stats, increase popularity, vocals, rhythm, so on so forth. Although this is great, you don't get the opportunity to follow any of the CPU Candidates. This was a big let down, since they all had great side stories to tell.
Although the Candidates aren't featured, you can still build up a relationship with them in passing. This is obviously the same for the actual CPUs. Whenever their text-boxes appear, a small heart icon appears in the corner. This shows the relationship you have with the character. You up the relationship via outings and excursions with the idol of your choice, or encountering a Candidate. This is fun, but doesn't change anything story wise. I followed Neptune on my first play-through, and I maxed out our relationship stat before the game was halfway done. This was fine, since it was one less thing to worry about, but it was still disappointing that it didn't change anything. :(
I liked the way the characters interacted with each other, and would communicate with the player. It made it a more hearty experience, so everything felt more personal. I will visit this more in relationships, but that's about it for the characters.
Plot:
The plot takes place as a standalone story in the Hyperdimension Neptunia universe. The monsters from the main series games have formed a band that takes the world by storm. As the focus shifts from the CPUs, they hatch a plan to become idols themselves. They use their intedimensional powers to summon a producer (you) from another dimension (Earth). You must choose which idol to produce for the duration of the game. You raise their "Shares", which represent their number of fans. You get a great graph and character sheet which make stat management a breeze.
You have the option to team up with another CPU, which merges your Shares and popularity. This can be very useful if you're struggling as I was. I teamed Neptune up with Noire, which is the default for Neptune's play-through. When I teamed up, the plot went double-time and the story started to go somewhere. The game ends when you either hit 180 days, or your chosen idol/group stays in the #1 ranking for 2 or 3 weeks. Although there isn't a designated bad ending, I found myself saving more than I should have been. My ending was about as anti-climactic as Mass Effect 3's ending, and they made DLC to patch that one up. Mine consisted of Neptune refusing to send me back to Earth, and the other CPUs almost killing me in an attempt to send me home. I stay in Planeptune with Neptune, and I presumably live there till the day I die. Lame, right?
The plot is nothing to look twice at, as most of it is procedurally generated anyway. I didn't know when it was gonna end, so a lot of it was a slow crawl towards a sudden climax. There's a low grade hentai joke to be made here, but there are probably kids reading this. Just use your imagination.
Relationships:
As previously mentioned, the relationships grow with encounters and experiences. Although it wasn't advertised as a dating sim, in my professional opinion, this is nothing short of moe. I loved every second of the character driven segments, as back and forth between player and CPU is witty and cute. There are references to other games and anime, in complete Hyperdimension Neptunia fashion. Even if it doesn't fully appear canonically, it's smartly self aware, unlike many American games. It is easy to appreciate the time and work that went into dubbing every line of text. It was fun hearing Neptune call me a perv and a loser, instead of generic keywords (*Cough* *Cough* Danganronpa *Cough*).
One of the options at the start of every day is to relax, which will initiate a random date-like event where you take your chosen CPU on a short excursion. This is a great way to up the relationship stat between you and the CPU. Although a lot of the dates are short, they are almost essential to the experience. After you've played a handful of dates, it stops showing you the actual experience and just a loading screen. This takes the fun out, but the dates you actually do play are so worth the experience. For instance, how could I forget the time Neptune told me to reach up her skirt and take a bee off her leg. Then knocked me out.
Verdict:
This is overall one of the most fun Japanese games I've ever played. It has a great formula, perfect tempo, and flawless execution. I could play this game over and over and never get bored. The characters are so sweet and relatable. The world is fun to explore. The plot, well the plot wasn't amazing. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS GAME.
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