I'll have to disagree on the "nonexistent story" and characters part (even the first game had a prominent story that you would only miss if you weren't payign attention). First, the game makes the story very clear throughout the game; the CP Us are being held hostage, their younger sisters have to free them. Once they do, they need enough shares to beat Arfoire. It's not quite as abridged as I described it, but still, Sonic Generations had less of a story. Second, the characters are hardly just punchlines, especially in this game since it pulls a No More Heroes 2 and suddenly becomes way more serious. The best example of this is Uni; she's shown to have an inferiority complex because she wants to be as good (or better, whichever) than her sister. When she loses to Nepgear, she becomes depressed because she thinks she'll never reach that level, and it's up to Nepgear to talk her out of that depression.
I won't talk about the gameplay or voice acting, because 1) the former is subjective, and 2) I haven't actually played the game, just watched a playthrough. My point here is the series isn't simply Lucky Star: The Game; things actually happen.
It's one thing to make a spectacle. It's another to make a difference.Leave a Comment:
A step in the right direction, but not enough of one.
In an industry where stagnation in a series is a common complaint, it’s rare to see improvement between installments in any immediately apparent way. However, Hyperdimension Neptunia Mk2 is exactly that kind of rarity. Given how terrible its predecessor was, however, this is not enough to guarantee any sort of quality standard.
Indeed, many of the same complaints that applied to the first game apply here, as well. Most prominent among them is the nonexistent story, tossed upon you by cardboard cutouts of characters with only the least amount of thought possible. Said cutouts can be amusing at times, but that’s a huge part of the problem: they’re not characters, they’re punchlines. Only a very small handful of scenes try to make players care about them, and they feel forced specifically because they’re so few and far between. Instead, such scenes are largely forgone in favor of humor that’s little more than references to other, better works. A certain, infamous ending falls flat specifically because it requires you to care about the characters, when the game has exerted very little effort beforehand to make the players care about them.
The first game’s largely forgettable aesthetics and sounds also return here. Granted, the color palette is easier on the eyes, and the dungeon environs see a larger variety, but neither improves the game significantly. Voice acting is competent, if nothing else; I would argue that it’s worse than the first game, largely due to Melissa Fahn as Neptune bringing her voice up a few octaves in contrast to the previous game. Neptune’s voice was one of few bearable things about the first game, and the squeakier voice just makes her more annoying.
The most significant improvement that Mk2 has made is its battle system, for it’s gotten rid of the old battle system entirely for one that’s much more dynamic and intuitive. The core of stringing combos together, guard breaking the enemy, and amassing SP for the most powerful skills remains, but the new system adds some desperately-needed features (specifically, the ability to heal), and streamlined the combo system significantly. Battles now feel much less tedious and more, dare I say it, fun. This single aspect, however, does not make it a worthy purchase. A game only for those engrossed by the premise or that love series about cute girls doing cute things.