Title: Megadimension Neptunia VII
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Developer: Compile Heart/Ghostlight Games (Switch version)
Publisher: Idea Factory International (NA)
Release Date: July 28th, 2020 (NA)
File Size: 6.9GB
Review copy provided by Idea Factory International
This is my third review of an Idea Factory game, the first being Fairy Fencer F: Advent Dark Force (also ported by Ghostlight), and the second being Super Neptunia RPG. Despite the name, it’s actually the 4th entry in the series, because “Neptunia 3” was called Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory, and this game is literally pronounced as “V 2”, not “7”. So how does this game fare? Will it make you as sad as Neptune gets when she’s out of pudding, or will it make you feel happy like Neptune is with unlimited pudding? Let’s find out!
Introducing Nepgear and Neptune!
This game stars the two Nep sisters. The main character is the shorter one with the shorter hair named Neptune, and her little sister is the taller one with long hair named Nepgear. They and a few other girls have alter egos that are quite literally modeled after game companies/consoles, and as these forms they are called CPUs that protect the world of Gameindustri. Yes. This series is full of game puns. Neptune for instance becomes Purple Heart. But I’m not sure what company/console she’s based on, outside of maybe the cancelled Sega Neptune console (which was a Sega Genesis/Mega Drive and 32X hybrid).
Anyway, one day, Neptune and Nepgear find a game console that looks like a certain final Sega console. Upon turning it on, both are transported to the Zero Dimension, a post-apocalyptic wasteland. There they meet a girl named Uzume. She is the CPU of her world and its sole protector. You quickly befriend her and vow to help her out, while trying to figure out how to get back to your world.
Here’s an in-game cutscene. Neptune’s just not having it is she?
After the aforementioned intro (it’s a bit long, as the series is partially a visual novel if I recall correctly), you get your first taste of the gameplay. You actually begin right when you’re first transported to the Zero Dimension (I skipped ahead a bit to explain the story). You move around traditionally with the left stick and bump into enemies to begin battles. In fact, a LOT of the gameplay here is lifted from Fairy Fencer F. So if you’ve played that, you’ll be right at home here.
Before beginning a fight, you’re encouraged to whack the enemy by hitting the Y button. If you hit the enemy, you’ll get to attack first, but if the enemy bumps into you from behind, they attack first, and likely will be more difficult (more enemies for instance). So be careful about how you approach enemies. Also important to note is that you can only save in certain spots in the level, but you can use Nepgear’s Heal ability to heal each character (at the cost of SP). I got a game over the first time and had to start all over… heh heh.
Here’s a battle. Wait is that a…?
In battle, you’re able to move over a short distance to be able to hit the opponent. Each playable character has their own sort of “distance marker”, and any enemy touching it can be hit by said character. Some abilities can also hit more than one opponent, so you have to line-up the marker just right. You’ll know they can be hit by seeing their name above their heads, so make sure to keep that in mind. Regular attacks can be made into a combo beginning with the A button and swapping to X or Y, depending on what combo move you want to use. Just mashing A is usually enough.
When you need to, you can select an ability instead to use a very powerful attack that again can sometimes hit more than one opponent. Items are also available (in fact you unlock a lot if you download some free item packs from the eShop first). So as long as you use the Heal skill and healing items, you’ll be just fine. Sadly unlike in Fairy Fencer F, there’s no ultra-powerful equipment for you to abuse, so you’re doing this like you’re supposed to! lol
A look at the forest area; Jingu Sakura Park!
Graphically… it’s rough. Not so much the visuals themselves, they’re very serviceable and even very clean looking with pretty nice art direction. The portraits in the cutscenes are VERY nicely expressive and add so much personality alone! But the performance is… well… The weird thing is, when I first played the game, the opening area ran at like, 20fps. When I got the game over, I put the game down and kept hoping for a patch. None came, so I decided to try again, and after skipping the intro cutscenes (thankfully possible), the same area ran at around 30fps.
Same thing with the battles. Originally they were like 20fps but the second go they were 30fps. Though the victory scenes when battles end still tended to be around 20fps but they alternated often. My theory is that maybe there’s a memory leak issue? Where maybe watching all of those intro cutscenes caused an overload or something. But sadly, the performance got worse again in the pretty forest area, to the point where looking down towards the ground made it run smoother. Ghostlight badly need new programmers, this is really terrible.
Here’s the overworld map.
Audio-wise it’s eons better. Most of the cutscenes are fully-voiced in English (or Japanese if you wish). The voice direction and casting choice was actually VERY good in my opinion. Neptune is an utter ball of fun with her performance. She alone explains why this series is as popular as it is. Utterly charming characters. The music’s pretty good but nothing that memorable. The voices of the enemies are actually amazing as well. One enemy in the forest area is this little red and blue dude on a paper airplane and he sounds exactly like Barney Gumble from The Simpsons, that’s hilarious!
Overall it’s so hard to gauge. The gameplay is fun if a bit clunky in the overworld (there’s zero impact when hitting an enemy, much worse than in Fairy Fencer F in my opinion). The characters are an utter joy. but the performance is such a downer. Ghostlight need to just hire new programmers or something. Get Engine Software to help out, they’ve mastered Switch ports (especially JRPGs). Codeglue is another good one that can help as they did a great job seemingly with Corpse Party: Blood Drive‘s Switch port. ANYTHING!
You’ll Love:
+ Great cast of characters with great voices and writing to boot. Arguably you’ll have the most fun watching the cutscenes considering the performance elsewhere…
+ The gameplay is also fun. It’s your classic turn-based gameplay and to me that’s always a fun time. As is exploring the overworld (when it runs well).
+ Raw visuals are fine. The game seemingly runs in 1080p docked I think? It’s very clean.
+ Has screenshot and video capture support.
You’ll Hate:
– The performance. When it’s a smooth 30fps, it’s fine, but most often it’s around 20fps if not worse. The absolute deal breaker.
– Sometimes cutscenes can be a bit long, but you can just have it sit in one part and take a break if you want, it doesn’t autoplay.
Score: 6.5/10 (it’d easily be an 8 at least if the performance was a smooth 30fps)
