The Neptunia franchise has gone a long way ever since its inception. The multitude of adventures Neptune and the gang has been through speaks a decade worth of content with its main titles and spin-offs. The Great Console War between the nations of Planeptune, Lastation, Leanbox and Lowee was easily one of the more interesting ones the franchise has ever done and it has expanded upon that ever since by bringing in more of the real world into its universe. The quirky nature of Neptune, its main protagonist, also lifts up the narrative with its in-jokes, memes and video game references which has captured my attention ever since I first picked up the game. But now in the helm of her little sister once again, how far can this one go?
A narrative that delivers a more current real-life counterpart
Developed by Compile Heart and published by Idea Factory, Neptunia: Sisters VS Sisters much like most titles in the franchise brings the real world into a bite-sized video game title. This time around, the four goddesses of each nation responded to a distress call in the faraway PC Continent. However, trouble arises and a monster outbreak was reported in an abandoned research facility to which their sisters came to investigate. And within that said facility is where they found a sleeping goddess inside a capsule. Once awoken though, they were instead pushed into the same capsule and had been put to sleep.
Two years later, they emerged from their deep sleep and learned that Neptune has been missing ever since her mission in the PC Continent and Gamindustri has been ravaged by strange outbreaks referred to as the Trendi Phenomenon. With that said, Planeptune is without their goddess and candidate to fend off the threat and has been struggling ever since while other nations face the same predicament. This forced their citizens into a global scale lockdown and thus creating a smartphone-reliant mentality that takes a jab at what the real world turned into recently where most jobs closed down for a while and almost everything has to be done online nowadays. However, the lack of having Neptune as the main protagonist in the first few chapters of the game pretty much meant the quirkiness of its narrative along with the fourth-wall breaking antic is lost with it. This puts a more serious tone to the overall narrative which isn’t exactly what I would expect a Neptunia game would be.
A fluid action-focused combat while staying true to its key features
Unlike the more traditional turn-based gameplay Neptunia is known for, combat in here is more action-focused while still bearing the features of what previous games had. Battles are composed of three-member squads each with their own customizable four-string combos you can map on the Square and X button respectively. These can be used at the cost of AP which regenerates over time. You can also swap between characters to chain moves which also has the added benefit of letting other characters regenerate AP without breaking the flow of combat. Meanwhile, you also have a tactical gauge that fills up during battles which allows you to use one of the three abilities you can equip that ranges from attacking moves to buffs or even a heal. On the other hand, you’re able to fill up a gauge to enter your Goddess form which fills up slowly after every battle as well as an EXE move that acts like a fancy finisher.
The core mechanics of its gameplay doesn’t deviate much from the older titles of the series though while still being able to improvise with a unique and different way to play which is pretty good to see from a series that withstood the test of time. I can’t say going from turn-based to a more action-oriented battle system is an upgrade but it just goes to show that the franchise isn’t afraid to experiment much like how Final Fantasy VII was compared to what we have now. However, while the flow of combat can be chained continuously, other things can be said to the way it looks and feels. Since the game allows you to string together any move in whatever order you desire, it also poses the problem that it doesn’t feel as fluid to look at and instead just feels forced and detached… a minor nitpick on my part but one that does feel awkward to look at.
Red is sus… but so are these palette swaps
But probably the main thing that has made me hate the game time and time again is the fact that it overuses so much of its resources. Most games in the franchise including this one drop palette swaps like there’s no tomorrow. For reference, I’ve gone through the first dungeon/area and was actually pleased with how they tried to make it less of just one huge and slightly more open area where you can just run through it in a few seconds. Now, there’s a bit more twist and turns to make it look and feel like a legitimate dungeon for an RPG. The forest to which I was thrown into as I started the game also actually looks very good, however as I continue the story and not too long into the narrative, it becomes more apparent that I’m getting fed with similarly looking dungeons with slightly different layouts and a different splash of paint where this forest I went to earlier is now at night time on a different dungeon or this cave system had a different shade on its rocky walls. This makes running around dungeons and exploring its ins and outs slightly less appealing when there’s nothing much to capture your attention as you venture off in a new dungeon that looks almost exactly the same as the one you’ve previously entered while fighting similarly looking monsters that just got a palette swap because why the hell not.
Conclusion
Neptunia: Sisters VS Sisters isn’t the most robust nor groundbreaking game the franchise has produced. It doesn’t come out as any better than its older mainline titles but it also doesn’t have to be. There’s some good story to be had here if you don’t mind crawling through its slow paces as most titles in the series has done with its massive walls of text that’s pretty much common to any JRPG. Its gameplay that slightly modernizes itself away from the old school turn-based combat is both fun as it is rewarding once you put enough effort into it. But the cherry on the top here is that you can easily pick up the game without any prior knowledge to the franchise and still be able to relate to it.
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