The song that plays during one of the trailers and during the credits, Koi Wo Game Ni Shinaide!, is quite catchy.
Critical Dissonance: This game caters heavily towards otaku who love other Nippon Ichi games. Almost everyone outside of that group (including reviewers) hated it. There's a 25 point difference between its professional and user reviews on Metacritic. Only 2 out of 31 reviewers gave it a positive review, while only 36 out of 151 users gave it a negative review.
First Installment Wins: Despite its initial rocky reception, the game is nowadays consider by many fans to be the best game in the franchise in terms of storytelling, right next to the universally beloved VII. Most praise the game for expanding on the world of Gamindustri by showing how the world isn't as sweet on the inside as it is on the outside what with politics between the 4 nations being the main focus of the story, having a more serious and bleak tone with scenes that fit said tone without abruptly becoming dark out of nowhere, all while keeping the series' comedic moments and self-aware humor note which itself was only limited to specific scenes where the characters, namely Neptune herself, point out a that they are characters in a video game or the tropes commonly used in games and anime as opposed to what would become of the norm, and most importantly the CPUs themselves going through Character Development rather than remaining the same in each game note Most noticeably Vert, who goes from a lazy and perverted Gamer Chick to a responsible and mature leader who knew how to lead her nation, to the point of almost overworking herself to death. , all of these elements that are rarely, if ever, seen in the future games, barring the aforementioned VII and, by extension, Sisters.
Game-Breaker: 5pb on Stage, 5pb.'s strongest technique, which heals the entire party completely. Offset by the fact that it costs so much AP that she most likely won't be able to do anything else on her turn, but having her use this repeatedly basically makes you immortal.
Hollywood Pudgy: Neptune is stated several times to be "chubby" but looks no bigger than the rest of the girls.
With an all-female main cast, it was inevitable. One of the best examples is when Neptune snuggles Compa from behind with the intent to use her like a body pillow. IF provides the requisite lampshading.
IF: What the hell is this perverted crap?
Iffy is something of a femaleChick Magnet. Vert's actions towards her could easily be construed as this, she fangirls over 5pb, and RED takes her as the first wifey of her lesbian harem.
So Okay, It's Average: While the game features a ton of video game references, fanservice, and has a pretty cool opening theme, the gameplay isn't so lucky. Compared to other recent JRPGs, the dungeon design is extremely linear and uninspired. The combat system isn't too original, like that of the first four Xeno games, and the rest of the music is pretty okay. There's not too much unique gameplay-wise, and if one reads the manga they could get virtually the same effect.
You can't heal outside of battles; you have to set some percentages to your healing items so they can heal you and your party. Even then, the potions used for healing are very expensive.
You can't get Noire, Blanc and Vert until right before the last dungeon. You also can't get them at all if Neptune dies too many times or leave optional dungeons too many times. Not helping is that Gust and Nisa are DLC, meaning you have to spend money in order to get them.
When an enemy's guard gauge is depleted, there is a limited duration in which they'll stay in "Guard Break" status, governed by a timer that does not stop during attack animations as well as HDD transformation actions. The reboot mk2 remedies this by having to guard broken enemies remain in this status indefinitely until they get hit by an attack.
That One Boss: The Killachine and CPU Breaker spells trouble even for HDD Neptune, and the fact that you have to fight one after the other makes it worse.
, theme of...well, Leanbox.