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Hyperdimension Neptunia Community |OT| Pudding Pls (*´`) () (^o^)

Zelias

Banned
100%'d Rebirth 1 last night and I've grabbed 2 and 3 on the Steam sale. Are 2 and 3 big improvements on the 1st game or are they largely more of the same?
 

HGH

Banned
How is the quality of the Chinese translation of Megadimension Neptunia VII? Play-Asia is already selling it.
Since it's the first of its kind that's gonna be hard to answer. Doubt there are many Chinese users here. If it helps, I've never heard Compile Heart Asia get a bad rap at least? Their Thai translations seemed ok.
As far as memes go, well in English some minor references like 2ch lingo and so on get turned into their English equivalents. I'm not sure what China's eqivalent of Reddit and the like are (Weibo and Baidu maybe?), but they might use that. More mainstream references might just stay as is.
The biggest problem is wordplays and puns though, that's a big part of the scripts.

100%'d Rebirth 1 last night and I've grabbed 2 and 3 on the Steam sale. Are 2 and 3 big improvements on the 1st game or are they largely more of the same?
Just more of the same more or less, with some improvements here and there. Party gets expanded to 4 members, the SP system is reworked in RB3, there's some extra dungeon features and quality of life improvements (like indicating from what monster and what dungeon something drops by highlighting said items, etc...).
Stories are all different of course, RB2 is too serious for its own good and the main cast is shoved aside for most of the story in favor of the candidates, RB3 is almost all comedic all the times with everyone having overly exaggerated characteristics.
There's some new dungeons in RB2 if you've just played RB1, but since RB1 was based off NepVictory, which RB3 is a updated rerelease of, you'll find those two incredibly similar gameplay asset wise.
Really, I'd suggest taking a break and playing something else for a while. Trying to play these three games back to back lead to severe burnout.

If you want major changes that are more than a new plot, Neptunia VII ought to be out by early February on PS4.
 

Gunstar Ikari

Unconfirmed Member
thinking into jumping into the series with the third one since its on sale atm (psv). Is it a good idea or should I play part 1 and 2 first?

You're fine with just RB3. It's the best of the three, the tiny bit of continuity between RB2 and RB3 isn't worth stressing out over and the games are similar enough that you'll burn yourself out if you try to play all of them back to back.
 

Zabi

Banned
Since it's the first of its kind that's gonna be hard to answer. Doubt there are many Chinese users here. If it helps, I've never heard Compile Heart Asia get a bad rap at least? Their Thai translations seemed ok.
As far as memes go, well in English some minor references like 2ch lingo and so on get turned into their English equivalents. I'm not sure what China's eqivalent of Reddit and the like are (Weibo and Baidu maybe?), but they might use that. More mainstream references might just stay as is.
The biggest problem is wordplays and puns though, that's a big part of the scripts.

There is something else. Since it appears this is the first time the series is getting released in the Chinese language, it's possible the script got changed a little to be more beginner friendly. It would make sense.
 

SerTapTap

Member
Ordered that negpear thingy

100%'d Rebirth 1 last night and I've grabbed 2 and 3 on the Steam sale. Are 2 and 3 big improvements on the 1st game or are they largely more of the same?

The biggest changes are the story (I guess it's similar stuff but new jokes and references of course) and the balance. Rebirth 1 has garbage tier balance and I'm amazed/stupified that no one has bothered to fix it. It's a serious problem, I constantly find people disinterested in the series because of 1's spikes that have nothing to do with how the series actually plays.

RB3 outright pokes fun at how bland Nepgear is as a protagonist in RB2.

Nothing is sacred.

They apparently got complaints (which is funny because after 4 games Neptune is wearing super duper thin). I hope Victory 2 cuts that out but not speaking english I couldn't really tell. They seem to take their characters more seriously than Victory which was a shitshow for all non-Neptune returning characters though. Uni/Rom/Ram are no longer true ending only rejects and there's a chapter for each nation in one of the 3 main game segments.

You're fine with just RB3. It's the best of the three, the tiny bit of continuity between RB2 and RB3 isn't worth stressing out over and the games are similar enough that you'll burn yourself out if you try to play all of them back to back.

Can't entirely agree, but as long as you play all three games you should be alright. Just remember that all the Ultradimension CPUs are a fever dream of a severely brain damaged Neptune and have no bearing on the rest of the series.

Okay that's not *actually* true but it might as well be

Can't say I'm excited about that LE, only really want the OST out of it to be honest, US store says $85 so can see it being £75 or something close to that. Not worth it to me personally, although if somehow it's low enough I may be tempted to bite just to get that OST. Plushie of Nep or another character I would have been fine with though mind.

The OST is fantastic. The LE is actually better than the Japanese one. Everyone hates Umio though lol. I'd have rather had a dogoo plush myself, they made one but I couldn't find anywhere selling it and now I can't even find it on ebay.

I think Umio's an alright joke (reference to Seaman, plus his personality/appearance mismatch) but it's definitely a poor idea to suddenly start shoving him out there like a mascot. Pretty sure that's how Senran Kagura got about half of the fanbase to hate Yumi.
 

Vanguard

Member
The OST is fantastic. The LE is actually better than the Japanese one. Everyone hates Umio though lol. I'd have rather had a dogoo plush myself, they made one but I couldn't find anywhere selling it and now I can't even find it on ebay.

I think Umio's an alright joke (reference to Seaman, plus his personality/appearance mismatch) but it's definitely a poor idea to suddenly start shoving him out there like a mascot. Pretty sure that's how Senran Kagura got about half of the fanbase to hate Yumi.

Ooo, dogoo plush would have been nice too.
Speaking of hate, I'm slowly getting through rebirth 3 (for some reason I got through 1 and 2 (plus the original and mk2) really easy, yet 3 and victory I'm struggling), and Plutia didn't originally bother me. Quite liked her character, but remember people hating on her. After reaching chapter 6 or so, can see why now... definitly overused her "thing", where it's pretty much the answer or drive for the majority of things. Lost it's funny appeal now to me.
 

Falk

that puzzling face
Uaghahgejfdf was planning to top off ReBirth 3 cheevos. Thought I'd have to do only 50M and then buy/sell nonstop with the 2:1 credit ratio to bring it up to 100.

The buy/sell credit ratio in ReBirth 3 is around 10:1 so I actually have to grind close to the full 100M.

Not nearly as bad as Fairy Fencer, but still. Piles of work (yes, on New Year's week), had a couple of hours to spare, those hours are toast and no 100% cheevo yet.
 

SerTapTap

Member
Is everyone else just REALLY BAD at Neptunia games, really cheap/lazy or has everyone been ruined by Rebirth 1? I see a LOT of people complaining that Neptunia is all about grinding to beat the next boss and aside from Rebirth 1 you really shouldn't need to do that unless you skip every enemy between bosses. The games aren't hard so it's really weird to see people whining about grinding. If anything I wish the games were harder, reb 1 excepted.

I wonder if people are just not understanding the combat system. Using Compa, using high delay attacks then wondering why the boss gets 3 turns in a row, clustering characters and wondering why the whole party gets KO'd at once. I almost never have trouble anymore. Maybe V2 will break people of shitty habits because the grind EXE before the boss trick has been trashed (good riddance to bad rubbish)

Ooo, dogoo plush would have been nice too.
Speaking of hate, I'm slowly getting through rebirth 3 (for some reason I got through 1 and 2 (plus the original and mk2) really easy, yet 3 and victory I'm struggling), and Plutia didn't originally bother me. Quite liked her character, but remember people hating on her. After reaching chapter 6 or so, can see why now... definitly overused her "thing", where it's pretty much the answer or drive for the majority of things. Lost it's funny appeal now to me.

Plutia's gimmick is the sort of thing that would have been great in small doses. I think it's easier to see in retrospect, but IMO it's overused by like chapter 2 or 3, it just REALLY grinds down after that. It didn't bother me a ton the first time through but after several more runs through more properly written games her character is really striking and bad. Also, her character's overbearingness is only less noticable because Neptune/Nepgear already excessively hog the spotlight.

Though I have to give Neptunia credit: They don't do the bullshit JRPG thing where the main character is either permanently stuck in the main party or has a unique mechanic that makes them required using. Neptune isn't even a particularly good character to have in battle IMO so she's very easy to leave out if you wish.

Rebirth 3 is a lot harder to get into than Victory ever was for me. The far improved gameplay helped me push through Plutia's nonsense so much easier, and jesus christ the "run around and fight the other CPUs!" narrative is insufferable if you've played both prior games first. So glad Victory 2 doesn't do that.

Villain writing in Victory/3 is the best in the series though. Aside from Arfoire's one monolog in That One Ending in Mk2--I could deal without the *extreme* grimdark but I wish they'd go a bit harder on the real world implications and some stuff like Undertale's knowledge of it being a game. Characters occasionally show understanding that the world is a game but it's never really used in a non-humor context. I think they could do some really interesting stuff with that and the Tomes and stuff, like (victory/reb3 spoilers)
Croire just pissing off to another dimension/game in the good ending

Uaghahgejfdf was planning to top off ReBirth 3 cheevos. Thought I'd have to do only 50M and then buy/sell nonstop with the 2:1 credit ratio to bring it up to 100.

The buy/sell credit ratio in ReBirth 3 is around 10:1 so I actually have to grind close to the full 100M.

Not nearly as bad as Fairy Fencer, but still. Piles of work (yes, on New Year's week), had a couple of hours to spare, those hours are toast and no 100% cheevo yet.

I don't recall money being the biggest problem in Victory but I forget. I might have used that crafting exploit my first time through and I haven't finished Reb3. Rebirth 1's money grind was ridiculous

Speaking of horrible grinds, Action Unleashed. The Neptral Tower is just STUPID (at least seamlessly load the next level FFS) and lily ranks are a senseless grind (and no easy way in Nep U). There's ALWAYS one bullshit trophy in Neptunia games, I don't get why they do it. No one enjoys these, they're not going to get you a higher review score, there's just no point.

Nep Vs Sega has some annoying ones too, if you get all medals in a level without getting the baseball it's HELL trying to find the one god damn baseball out of 42 levels you missed. I've wandered for hours and have no idea what I'm missing, only thing keeping me from my first Japanese language platinum.

At least it's not one of those "100 floors, start from floor 1 every time" things. Looking at you, Lufia 2 and Paper Mario Thousand Year Door. Only attempted those once. I guess I'll take a mindless grind over a "fuck you start over" kind of thing.
 

Falk

that puzzling face
I don't recall money being the biggest problem in Victory but I forget. I might have used that crafting exploit my first time through and I haven't finished Reb3. Rebirth 1's money grind was ridiculous

Crafting is different in the rebirth games. You don't get a copy of the crafted item. You craft once and it adds the item to the shop for sale.

Worst money grind in an IFI/CH game has to be Fairy Fencery F.
 

SerTapTap

Member
Ugh. I missed ONE baseball in Neptunia vs Sega Hard Girls. It's the only thing keeping me from platinum. I have NO idea where it could be. Best I can tell there actually is no way to tell unless you only got 100% medals AFTER picking up the baseball as a sort of marker? Or any suggestions for particularly well hidden ones I may have missed? Making my way through the whole game a third time looking for it...if you play it definitely never pick up the last medal on a map without getting all the medals.

I love the medal collecting. It's fun, it makes maps more active, and it's tracked in the UI so 100% completion. The baseballs, which are the exact same concept but rarer, are not tracked. The fuck.

Crafting is different in the rebirth games. You don't get a copy of the crafted item. You craft once and it adds the item to the shop for sale.

Worst money grind in an IFI/CH game has to be Fairy Fencery F.
I know, that's why I said I probably don't remember a grind because of that exploit.

I dunno about FFF, but Rebirth 1's grind is like a literal hour or more of fighting the exact same enemy. It may not be the longest grind but it's super mindless.
 

Miff

Member
Hyperdimension U PC beta applications are open if anyone interested. You'll need to be quick as it's already been ~8hrs since it was posted to Twitter.
 

Vanguard

Member
Just got the true ending with rebirth3 without trying or aiming for it, which is quite nice as the whole not being required to get certain shares for any of the endings feels sooooo good. One reason I've not gone back to plat rebirth2 yet. Now going to get the normal and good ending in rebirth 3 as it shouldn't take long.


Speaking of horrible grinds, Action Unleashed. The Neptral Tower is just STUPID (at least seamlessly load the next level FFS) and lily ranks are a senseless grind (and no easy way in Nep U). There's ALWAYS one bullshit trophy in Neptunia games, I don't get why they do it. No one enjoys these, they're not going to get you a higher review score, there's just no point.

The grind was unreal in U, I don't know why I stuck with it and platt'd that game...
 

Gradon

Member
Is Blanc's game better than U? I couldn't bare U any longer after it was repetitive samey missions with barebones visual novel scenes and story. I didn't even complete it... I preordered that Megadimension LE I'm really looking forward to it. Did all the DLC come out in Japan?
 

SerTapTap

Member
Nobody else have Nep Vs. Sega? I really want that stupid last baseball. Ugh, I guess I'll just hunt for it manually...eventually.

Also, is there a "standard" hastag for Neptunia stuff on Twitter? I usually try and toss #Neptunia on there and I tag specific games so people can mute spoilers.

I'm hoping Victory 2 review codes come out this week, if they do and I'm allowed I might stream a bit of the start of it and talk my import impressions for an hour or two. Doubt I'd stream the whole thing but I'll do a review (and guide) once I'm done

Often has to do with selling booster DLC. :U

I'm a sucker, but hey, $1

Only Stella has really had booster DLC though. Lily Rank grinds are often the culprit of Trophy Grind and I don't think DLC has ever helped. I had Nep 1's DLC and it doesn't really help with the money grind even. You eventually kill Cliones in two hits instead of three, but that's about it.

Speaking of grind, why the FUCK did they remove the Cursed Twig or whatever that respawns all enemies? A truly fantastic item especially combined with the escape button. It's so weird, Neptunia goes about halfway to 75% of completely simplifying grind (symbol gain, animation skip, CDs to buff lily rank gain through the roof), but then they add That One Trophy and it's all for naught. But it's always SO CLOSE if they would just actually go for it they could do it.

Just got the true ending with rebirth3 without trying or aiming for it, which is quite nice as the whole not being required to get certain shares for any of the endings feels sooooo good. One reason I've not gone back to plat rebirth2 yet. Now going to get the normal and good ending in rebirth 3 as it shouldn't take long.

The grind was unreal in U, I don't know why I stuck with it and platt'd that game...

Shares are so dumb. I'm glad Victory 2 does shares differently and it's no longer a zero sum game. I still don't like that shares are "consumable" but since they upped the quest share earning rate it's not really a problem at all.

I have no idea why they thought the Neptral tower was a good idea.

Is Blanc's game better than U? I couldn't bare U any longer after it was repetitive samey missions with barebones visual novel scenes and story. I didn't even complete it... I preordered that Megadimension LE I'm really looking forward to it. Did all the DLC come out in Japan?

Blanc's game is friggin' weird. So the Story Mode is basically Neptunia U but 100% linear, levels are way too short, delivers all the story, single player with tag team, only one boss. It's not very good but I can't comment on the quality of the story/humor. Also certain events only happen if you chose the "right" characters for missions, I'm not sure if there are hints or not but I got zero CGs due to not knowing the right characters (knowing Japanese might have made it obvious though).

THEN, the multiplayer is almost completely different and is very much Monster Hunter style, no transformations no tag team but up to 4 people simultaneous local or online. The bosses aren't super great but they're Monster Hunter enough, big bosses, lots of health, telegraph their more dangerous attacks, break off pieces during fights etc.

It's so weird. The multiplayer is clearly where it's at but you won't get the story or dialog at all while playing it. And the story mode missions are so lame, they're like 2-5 minutes each, dialog is longer sometimes. It should have been a literal story mode, VN only for how they did it IMO, or at least compress the missions into 1/5th as many missions that are 5x longer (with checkpoints or something for midbosses)

There's also a "crafting" system but armor you just get by beating bosses enough (after you get the parts you just get the armor, not exactly crafting) and you can craft some Idea Chip style things but I haven't bothered because Japanese and it doesn't seem strictly necessary.

And I think all of Victory's DLC is out if Nitroplus is? (why didn't they just license Sonico instead). Annoyed that once again I'll be getting the DLC far, far after completing the game (because there's never much use for the characters that way).
 

Falk

that puzzling face
Only Stella has really had booster DLC though. Lily Rank grinds are often the culprit of Trophy Grind and I don't think DLC has ever helped. I had Nep 1's DLC and it doesn't really help with the money grind even. You eventually kill Cliones in two hits instead of three, but that's about it.

Fairy Fencer F and to a lesser extent, Omega Quintet.

Having access to the lv999 areas made FFF's 100,000,000 grind a lot more tolerable, and it was still rather ass.
 

SerTapTap

Member
Ah, haven't bothered to 100% either (actually I didn't even get halfway through FFF).

Speaking of Omega Quintet when I played it I really figured it was a way to try out ideas for the new Neptunia game. Turns out not really. I hope the series continues because the battle system is really interesting. Needs a totally new cast and better writing though. The best comedic moments in *w* are more or less the worst comedic moments in Neptunia (omg tsundere, haha big boobs next to small boobs etc).

The "There's a lot of shitty people in the world" bit in the bad/normal/whatever ending is pretty solid though.
 

HGH

Banned
So apparently VII is gonna have a pretty limited dub.
Disappointment meter is off the charts. Hope you others enjoy your Japanese DLC at least.
EDIT: You know I should probably enjoy the good new game instead of complaining. It's fun!
 

SerTapTap

Member
I'll be streaming Victory 2 tonight probably (~6 CST?) on Twitch and Youtube (there's no embargo), already streamed about 4 hours last night.

Edit: Oh hey, the Tsunako art book (perorder) ships to the US/west from Japanese Amazon. Making an account there is easy, almost always cheaper than crap like CD japan. Close and often a bit better than Amiami, the only other site I consistently recommend to import from.

So apparently VII is gonna have a pretty limited dub.
Disappointment meter is off the charts. Hope you others enjoy your Japanese DLC at least.
EDIT: You know I should probably enjoy the good new game instead of complaining. It's fun!

Unfortunately yeah. You can see in my video that like, half of the story scenes aren't voiced. It's sort of like Rebirth 1 where it starts off seeming like it'll be fully voiced then there's less and less. They don't even voiced the first time you bump into the gold third (they're on screen for like a minute tops each) so I don't know what they sound like yet.

I know IFI's small, and personally it doesn't affect my buying decision, but this is their front liner and they should really try to pull out all the stops. A lot of people annoyingly dismiss the series and crap like this just makes it easier for them.

On the plus side Uzume (less so orange heart) and Umio's voices are better than I expected. I wasn't sure they'd be able to do Umio at all. It's hardly perfect but it gets the idea across.
 

HGH

Banned
Can't believe they replaced Tara Platt's Vert. Now she's voiced by Rom. So, behold, "fanart":
44paI91.jpg

Thank you Phantom Pain.

Anyway, there's also this neat interview on the localization process.
DN: Idea Factory International is a localization company and publisher, so
what is the typical process involved when localizing a title? Just for
example, let’s use your new title, Megadimension Neptunia VII ( V 2, as in Victory 2) coming
February 2nd for PS4. How far in advance do you get the title to begin
localizing? Do you get the title while it is still being worked on in
Japan? What are the most time consuming steps to the localization process?

IF: In Megadimension Neptunia VII’s case, we started working a little after its
release in Japan. First, we receive game’s text, translate and edit it, and
then record English voiceover. That first half is the most time-consuming
part, there’s a lot of preparation the localization team has to do before
the development team can even build a playable English ROM. After that, the
localized text and voices are implemented into the game, and then debug
begins. After that, the ROM goes through the first-party approval process.
Once the game is good to go, we can publish it! Overall, the entire process
takes about 7 to 9 months depending on the size of the game.

But while this is happening, the design, production, and marketing team are
working hard to create the English logo, cover, manual, trailers, and
website, as well as organize game distribution to retailers, and
communicate with media and fans to spread the word about the title. I just
wanted to stress, there’s more to localization than just the game itself!

It's interesting that the dubbing and translation happens so early, but now that I think of it, I saw a tweet mentioning that Blanc Vs Zombies' dub was already done back halfway in December.
 

SerTapTap

Member
It might just be a scheduling conflict, same happened to one of the characters in the anime, right?

Arg, I might night finish this in time for release unless I pick up the pace. I enjoyed having a full month for *w* Quintet. I don't really power through RPGs anymore. I'll have a review and update my guide when I can.

But based on my Japanese impressions if you're even slightly interested you should get it. Best mechanics in the series, great NG+, relatively long (~60 hrs?), no obvious major flaws. The VA thing is a disappointment but TBH basically every game in the series has had SOME English voice acting fuckup or another, it's no reason to dodge this one.

edit: Oh hey, anyone doing an OT?
 

JPS Kai

Member
Man, the amount of grinding V-II requires at certain story beats is pretty rough. I skated through the end of the second arc solely with Ram and Rom but now I'm hitting another barrier given the team I have to work with.
 

SerTapTap

Member
Man, the amount of grinding V-II requires at certain story beats is pretty rough. I skated through the end of the second arc solely with Ram and Rom but now I'm hitting another barrier given the team I have to work with.

If you're talking the
Gold Third
battles they're probably less hard than you're thinking. The
Gold Third
hit very hard but go down relatively fast too. I don't recall having to grind...basically ever for story reasons when playing the JP release, but I was a bit more cautious in making sure I fought lots of monsters in that one too.

Also if a boss is taking actually 0 damage you're probably supposed to be hitting it with elemental damage, Vert Rom and Ram will do (Blanc, Noire and some others learn elements but somewhat late.). They're pretty good to always have on hand actually, mainline or switch in, Vert builds EXE like mad and has great offense in general, Rom has good magic and most things have worse magic def (that's also why Vert is so good). Ram is more of an emergency second elemental spammer since she's literally Rom but worse. They should probably have made Rom/Ram a single character or something gameplay-wise.

You're not using Compa are you? Never use Compa. A surprising amount of people I find complaining about grinding in Nep games are doing silly things that make the game harder (not managing turn delays, using Compa instead of items, using too few CPUs since Humans are always underpowered.) Don't forget buffs/debuffs too. And if a boss is hard, always leave one character defending at >70% health before the boss's turn so they can revive everyone in case of emergency. If all 4 characters use an EXE skill you're basically begging for multiple KOs once the boss gets a turn.

That is rather disappointing. I'm just going to wait till its half price unfortunately.

Please tell me this is a joke. In Megadimension? At this rate I'm just going to play in Japanese because the dub just keeps sounding sour the more I hear.

Unless you only plan to play single player that doesn't really seem like a solid plan. The game's going to be significantly more fun with friends IMO, especially if you can all voice chat. Multiplayer will be hard to find like it is in...almost everything that isn't a AAA shooter, if you wait too long.

And eh, unless you actually dislike the voices I'd say stick with english due to the combat dialog being understandable. They don't subtitle it ever, right? There's some good lines in there that I think top "aurally pleasing jibberish". I really like Histoire's "This is your Revelation!" line. Sucks we don't get playable Histoire/
Croire/Rei
in Victory 1 or 2.

They do need to make an official statement about Vert's VA though. A lot of people are flipping out and assuming she's gone forever. Which would be a big deal if true, but this wouldn't be the first time a voice was different for only one thing. IFI does need to take voicing more seriously though, the half-or-less dub just looks embarrassing for what should be a slam dunk recommendation even as a first game in the series.
 

Gradon

Member
Unless you only plan to play single player that doesn't really seem like a solid plan.

I have a boyfriend for multiplayer gaming. haha. He likes the look of Blanc's game and shes his favourite CPU so I'll do multiplayer stuff with him if need be. If two players is enough to enjoy the multiplayer experience I mean.

And eh, unless you actually dislike the voices I'd say stick with english due to the combat dialog being understandable.

That is my problem, I'm mostly a dub over sub guy (I don't mind either) but I adore the Neptunia cast, and it's a massive shame that the dubs are so hindered in these games, I mean, I get it with the budget but I really wish IFI would give a game a whole dub thats not Nep U. It's a little disappointing knowing consciously that "this scene would be dubbed in Japanese..." whilst playing.

They do need to make an official statement about Vert's VA though. A lot of people are flipping out and assuming she's gone forever. Which would be a big deal if true

And this is where I draw the line on the dub. Replacing voice actors really annoys me. It only really makes sense if the games having a replaced actor have a gap in between releases or if they've been replaced for a one off spin-off (like Blanc's game for example) but we literally had Re;birth 3 about six months ago and Tara Platt isn't voicing in the next big main line Neptunia game?

I wish IFI would clarify on this but otherwise I'm looking at the Japanese dub.

EDIT:

Okay well I took matters into my own hands and asked her myself
See here.
unavailable.png
 

kotodama

Member
I got Rebirth 1 to 3 from the Winter Humble Bundle sale, and just binge gamed through the lot. I don't understand the hate for the series. It's all so lighted hearted and fun. I love how they clown on everything, even the second game. Poor Nepgear. So much sadness that it's all over. The PC releases of VII, U, etc can't come soon enough. I just wish Plooters had some kind of role going forward. Count me in for any vote brigade to get Plutie a side game perhaps in a Deception style vein lol.

Disappointed that they couldn't get Tara for VII. I seriously adore the dub over the original and I can understand Japanese fine, but I think the English voice actors make it. I'd be down for a Kickstarter to get a re-recording of the series with full English dub or something.
 

SerTapTap

Member
Uh, anyone want to help make a V2 OT? I really don't want to but I guess I will if no one else does.

Really enjoying the G Dimension chapter btw. I. I don't want Neptune back lol. The other CPUs are so much better when given room to breathe.

I got Rebirth 1 to 3 from the Winter Humble Bundle sale, and just binge gamed through the lot. I don't understand the hate for the series. It's all so lighted hearted and fun. I love how they clown on everything, even the second game. Poor Nepgear. So much sadness that it's all over. The PC releases of VII, U, etc can't come soon enough. I just wish Plooters had some kind of role going forward. Count me in for any vote brigade to get Plutie a side game perhaps in a Deception style vein lol.

Disappointed that they couldn't get Tara for VII. I seriously adore the dub over the original and I can understand Japanese fine, but I think the English voice actors make it. I'd be down for a Kickstarter to get a re-recording of the series with full English dub or something.

By far the most common complaint regarding Neptunia is from people who have no idea what it is, they just see "moe" designs and assume everything they want to from there. In general I'd say the only complaints I've really seen are:
  • As above, they have no concept of parody, don't look into the series, they just hate cutesy anime characters and won't believe any good in this world will ever come from them. Usually either an anime-hater or an "80s kids remember" type.
  • They played the games but have no interest in humor or don't get the jokes (but there's soooo many?). I've seen a few people complain purely because it's not AAA gameplay focused blah blah. I guess it's understandable but it's the wrong way to approach the series, also the gameplay has improved dramatically each time.
  • People who got stuck in Rebirth 1. I really, really wish they would fix the difficulty spikes. It's unfair to the series but kinda understandable to quit, since Reb1 gets way too hard way too fast (then reverts to easy so it's clearly not intentional). IFI could like. Just half the HP of a couple bosses and the done with it IMO. "Old" game or no it's the intro to the series.
  • People who played PS3 HDN1 and refuse to believe anything will ever improve (have you played FF1 NES lately? Things improve lol)
  • Very rare, but I've seen a few people go over the deep end and love one character but hate the series because they dont' like how the series treats the character(s) (and to be fair, the series can be unfair, see Nepgear's treatment in Victory. Which is no longer the case in V2, btw).

Personally I'm really glad Plutia and Peashy are gone from main series. If Plutia's back it'd have to be human form only, a greatly, greatly reduced role (like, you know, every non-Planeptune CPU suffers) or DLC only. I think it takes time to appreciate, but the writing in Victory/Reb3 is really weird and Plutia is like even worse than Neptune in terms of taking over every conversation/being a Mary Sue.

Okay well I took matters into my own hands and asked her myself
See here.
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Pretty much what I expected. I don't hate Vert's new VA after finishing the story BTW. Only particular complaint is she's a bit colder, and her "hmhmhm" is too high pitched. (and obviously, that it's not Tara Platt but, yeah)
 

SerTapTap

Member
For some reason I thought someone was doing an OT, so I didn't volunteer, but not sure I have much time to throw something together (._. )

I assumed someone else would be doing it too, probably why no one did, heh.

Banners are the part I hate making, I could probably do the rest. Is it in bad taste if I link my own guide? It's like, one of two that are in english and, obviously, IMO it's pretty important info.
 

Volcynika

Member
I assumed someone else would be doing it too, probably why no one did, heh.

Banners are the part I hate making, I could probably do the rest. Is it in bad taste if I link my own guide? It's like, one of two that are in english and, obviously, IMO it's pretty important info.

As long as you point it out, I don't see any harm in it.
 

Vanguard

Member
Being out next Friday in EU, I hope they put the dlc up earlier in the week. Wouldn't be the first time dlc has trailed behind the games retail release. Also really surprised that EU LE is still at 5%, would have thought it'd be sold out by now.
 

OMG Aero

Member
Since VII isn't out here until next week, I thought I'd play Re;Birth3 since I never got around to finishing it.
I just got to the part where they introduce the babies and after that I had a ton of events to view so I went through them all and I guess they didn't want to try and introduce the DLC characters at appropriate times since I just got some new party members:
8zl17pR.jpg


This must have been so confusing for someone who hasn't played Victory before and just got this game and downloaded all the free DLC.
 

kotodama

Member
..By far the most common complaint regarding Neptunia is from people who have no idea what it is, they just see "moe" designs and assume everything they want to from there...

I have to admit I've passed up on the series a couple of times because of that. Seeing the reactions about that Black Rose Valkyrie game, I'd say add people that just don't like Compile Heart or Idea Factory for whatever past wrong real or imaginary to that list.

Personally I'm really glad Plutia and Peashy are gone from main series. If Plutia's back it'd have to be human form only, a greatly, greatly reduced role (like, you know, every non-Planeptune CPU suffers) or DLC only. I think it takes time to appreciate, but the writing in Victory/Reb3 is really weird and Plutia is like even worse than Neptune in terms of taking over every conversation/being a Mary Sue.

Yeah I can see that. She definitely got top billing in Victory/RB3 and was very Deus ex machina. Still the writers could play around with Dimensions more like how the Anime is kind of same but reverse of Victory. Isn't V-II like 3 Dimensions afterall? However, I feel that console generation story-wise the Mega Drive and PC Engine are done, even with how fast and loose they play with Game History. Still it could be fun, if it isn't too hamfisted, to write them in somehow. I can see retro NEXT forms like 32x+CDx and PC-FX lol.

Since VII isn't out here until next week, I thought I'd play Re;Birth3 since I never got around to finishing it.
I just got to the part where they introduce the babies and after that I had a ton of events to view so I went through them all and I guess they didn't want to try and introduce the DLC characters at appropriate times since I just got some new party members:
8zl17pR.jpg


This must have been so confusing for someone who hasn't played Victory before and just got this game and downloaded all the free DLC.

Seriously confusing. That happened when I played Rebirth 1 with all the DLC on, but I was too far in that I wanted to change the settings. At that point, I just tried not to use the DLC characters, etc. I was more leery and kept some off on Rebirth 2 or again tried not to use the DLC stuff and then went completely off with Rebirth 3 until I got pass the True Ending. Still left some things off till NG+. That picture is trippy.
 

HGH

Banned
The main editor behind all the games (minus RB1 and Megadimension VII) talked a bunch about his old work here. There's a lot of info about how work at NISA was, the relation between a localizer and the original developer, and more.
It's a bit of an overzealous place so be warned all parties are being kinda defensive.
 

SerTapTap

Member
I have to admit I've passed up on the series a couple of times because of that. Seeing the reactions about that Black Rose Valkyrie game, I'd say add people that just don't like Compile Heart or Idea Factory for whatever past wrong real or imaginary to that list.

Yeah I can see that. She definitely got top billing in Victory/RB3 and was very Deus ex machina. Still the writers could play around with Dimensions more like how the Anime is kind of same but reverse of Victory. Isn't V-II like 3 Dimensions afterall? However, I feel that console generation story-wise the Mega Drive and PC Engine are done, even with how fast and loose they play with Game History. Still it could be fun, if it isn't too hamfisted, to write them in somehow. I can see retro NEXT forms like 32x+CDx and PC-FX lol.

I can see how people get the idea, but...Tsunako's art is legit good and not generic lame moe, and the series gets enough attention I think people should at least take a peek beyond that. But whatever. And yeah, a lot of people just hate the brand (creators of such universally reviled games as...Puyo puyo! by the way.)

Yeah, peashy and Megadrive are basically done, and definitely Dreamcast now too. The main four CPUs, fortunately, seem to have transcended being gen 7 references and are now just stand ins for the brands themselves which is how it should be. I saw someone say they should have done a whole new cast for Victory 2 for Next Gen but I think that'd be a catastrophic mistake.

I wouldn't mind them bringing back Peashy/Plutia as DLC only characters though, they don't really need a proper story reason to exist that way IMO. Trying to "make sense" kinda fucked up Victory's original release IMO because there's suddenly so few characters until the DLC released (then there was too many...).

Speaking of, in terms of console references, Neptune, the main character, literally shouldn't exist. So I don't really accept "Xbox is less popular in Japan" or "xbox wasn't around in (time period)" for leaving Vert out of stuff. It's just bad writing/anti-Vert bias IMO. If they can hamfist Neptune's entire existence they can find a reason to give Vert a few lines. Granted Victory 2 does a much better job with Vert than Victory. Man the more I think about Victory the more I have problems with it, I LOVED it the first time.

Seriously confusing. That happened when I played Rebirth 1 with all the DLC on, but I was too far in that I wanted to change the settings. At that point, I just tried not to use the DLC characters, etc. I was more leery and kept some off on Rebirth 2 or again tried not to use the DLC stuff and then went completely off with Rebirth 3 until I got pass the True Ending. Still left some things off till NG+. That picture is trippy.

The way Rebirths handled DLC characters is pretty annoying. So 1 is okay, the characters are a little OP but it's okay because the game is slightly hard, they're not free, they're obviously DLC.

But Rebirth 3 has so many problems. There's SO MANY DLC characters. Their balance is completely insane. It's never well explained who's DLC and who isn't. There's a long stretch of early game where you're only really supposed to have Neptune and Plutia but instead you have like 10 people. Rebirth 1 and 2 are a bit too excessive in how you unlock the extra characters, but IMO Rebirth 3 would have benefitted from requiring an NG+ or something, or at least asking "do you want to activate the DLC characters and ruin the balance of the game".

If you're going into the rebirths as your first intro to the series TOTALLY ignore the DLC characters IMO, or only use the Makers and not oracles (or Cave or Falcom) since they're actually underpowered not overpowered.

Also, thank GOD they finally implimented a proper NG+ that lets you keep characters. Replaying the first 3 games is awful since you start with just neptune/gear again, have to re-gear every new character, blah blah blah. Victory 2 is the first game I've actually enjoyed replaying and not just done it for trophy's sakes.


The main editor behind all the games (minus RB1 and Megadimension VII) talked a bunch about his old work here. There's a lot of info about how work at NISA was, the relation between a localizer and the original developer, and more.
It's a bit of an overzealous place so be warned all parties are being kinda defensive.

The "why memes" thing is always kinda funny when directed at Neptunia, it's like complaining about Nintendo characters in Smash bros IMO. As long as they're gaming related references I'm fine with 'em. ...in fact, Neptunia probably has less arbitrary memes (like say Doge) shoved in than a common Nintendo Treehouse localization...

Wow that's a lot of text. I'll have to read it later, interested though.
 

SerTapTap

Member
Ended up reading that anyway, and ugh, the complaints people have about Neptunia's localizations are stupid! Also, lots of great responses from Nick. Had no idea they couldn't add extra text boxes actually...seems like that should be pretty standard since like, the PS1 era when it was clear many games would come overseas?

the localization process where I worked was focused on “giving US gamers the same experience as JP gamers,” which is very different from a straight translation, or “giving US gamers the JP game in English.” That was the company process

This is exactly how it should be done. "X the Hard" is...super boring anyway, even when you know what it means. CPU, HDD and CFW are way cooler (also, CFW vs CPU gives a cool good/evil distinction that's less clear in the Japanese). The more I look into these things the more impressed I am by a lot of these things--Arfoire fits extremely well into the french names aspect of the main CPUs when Majikon is just a generic word. The Japanese script in general seems to be a lot dryer actually.

I swear a lot of people complaining about Pure Translations™ of Neptunia literally have no interest in the series beyond "it is Japanese" and liking the Japanese voice actresses because they seem to have no concept of what the game is actually about. They seem to want a literal translation for no purpose other than hearing their Japanese bae read it to them.

IMO it's a shame but Victory 2 seems to have taken to heart some of the complaints. I had to laugh because at a certain point in the story (vague spoilers, but spoilers)
A person's name is spelled backwards, and it's not REMOTELY close to how any english person would ever say it backwards
, and they even keep the "neptune sure is hard to pronounce" joke.

Also, had no idea they had to re-localize the Rebirths because they were published by NISA before...figured the rights to that would transfer over or something but I guess not, licensing is nuts so I'm not super surprised.

Also, it's very telling how quiet that thread gets after Nick drops the knowledge bomb.
 

Falk

that puzzling face
I swear a lot of people complaining about Pure Translations™ of Neptunia literally have no interest in the series beyond "it is Japanese" and liking the Japanese voice actresses because they seem to have no concept of what the game is actually about. They seem to want a literal translation for no purpose other than hearing their Japanese bae read it to them.

It's kinda silly when a lot of jokes or references simply don't work in English to begin with.

We're not talking about Ace Attorney levels of culture swapping here.

That being said, for a good while I'd play games with Japanese VA and English text, or the rare occassion with English VA and Japanese text, while I was learning the language, and the discrepancy between what was being said and what was being said was a little confusing at times.
 

SerTapTap

Member
It's kinda silly when a lot of jokes or references simply don't work in English to begin with.

We're not talking about Ace Attorney levels of culture swapping here.

That being said, for a good while I'd play games with Japanese VA and English text, or the rare occassion with English VA and Japanese text, while I was learning the language, and the discrepancy between what was being said and what was being said was a little confusing at times.

Sometimes I'll actually watch dubs + english subtitles for anime just to see the differences, the sub track is usually a stricter translation.

I personally haven't really found "learning by osmosis" very effective while playing imported Japanese only games (but I don't really extend much effort to learn myself, mostly because kanji holy shit). I've learned less than 10 symbols and only a few words start to stand out (mostly pleasantries like hi, bye, thanks, yes no, some super common battle cries). Wish I took Japanese in high school in German because I don't really have the free time to learn a language now (and I never use German)
 

kotodama

Member
The main editor behind all the games (minus RB1 and Megadimension VII) talked a bunch about his old work here. There's a lot of info about how work at NISA was, the relation between a localizer and the original developer, and more...

Woah. That was a good read. It's like SirTapTap has said above, the addition of things like CPU, CFW, etc. just makes a better final product. Watching the Japanese dub of the Anime and hearing 'Megami' doesn't have the same coolness nor impact as CPU. That the English version can switch between the words 'CPU' and 'goddess' as needed makes the translation even richer than the original.

At the same time, I think some things can be ambiguous in a translation as it won't have any real effect if it is. Like all the '-Sha's in V2. It won't hurt to know it's a pun on 'company' and 'person' having different kanji, but same pronunciation, but not knowing ain't bad either. Still that 'keikaku' though lol.


Granted Victory 2 does a much better job with Vert than Victory. Man the more I think about Victory the more I have problems with it, I LOVED it the first time.

It's great that she got her own adventure in V2, but at the same time it felt like the most bizarre out of the four. It felt jarring especially after coming off of the Noire and Blanc paths. In retrospect with V1, they really didn't treat Ultradimension Vert well, but those Vert x Vert end scenes were fun.
 

SerTapTap

Member
Woah. That was a good read. It's like SirTapTap has said above, the addition of things like CPU, CFW, etc. just makes a better final product. Watching the Japanese dub of the Anime and hearing 'Megami' doesn't have the same coolness nor impact as CPU. That the English version can switch between the words 'CPU' and 'goddess' as needed makes the translation even richer than the original.

At the same time, I think some things can be ambiguous in a translation as it won't have any real effect if it is. Like all the '-Sha's in V2. It won't hurt to know it's a pun on 'company' and 'person' having different kanji, but same pronunciation, but not knowing ain't bad either. Still that 'keikaku' though lol.

Yeah, I'll never get people whining that them "removing" goddess. It's so flat, and the English stuff still refers to them as goddesses, they just have a cooler, in-universe word for it too, it's not like they censored references to religion or anything like an SNES localization would have.

I figured they'd just go with "B-co" (like, you know, P-co) with localization for the gold third but I guess it doesn't really matter. I'm just glad they didn't bring over the literal Japanese mispronunciations of French/Greek names and have english voice actresses cringily reproduce them. "Neppatuna-san, have some pudding with ONEECHAN DESU!" *shudder*

The Keikaku thing is a deliberate localization joke.

It's great that she got her own adventure in V2, but at the same time it felt like the most bizarre out of the four. It felt jarring especially after coming off of the Noire and Blanc paths. In retrospect with V1, they really didn't treat Ultradimension Vert well, but those Vert x Vert end scenes were fun.

Yeah, they definitely still do some annoying shit with Vert. Though her story is a 2chan reference or something? Maybe it just doesn't come across as well. But it's rude that her story is the least serious even once at the climax and
a million people's lives are at stake and no one like, steps in and does anything
. And her post-ending scene with Rom/Ram is bullshit (and I wish they'd stop doing those scenes with Rom and Ram entirely, but I guess it's the only reason some people like the two...)

Also bringing up Vert figures and games is just fucking rude when it's been a year since the orginal release and neither of those have even been announced yet. I really do feel some on the writing scene either hate Vert or consider her their least favorite. But even if they do they should still write her well.

It's really weird that Mk2, the game that features Vert the least, has the best expression of Xbox in Japan; Cave and 5pb are perfect Japanese 360 traits. I have no idea why that hasn't translated to Leanbox in the other games. 360 is VNs, it's shmups, it's otaku stuff.
 

SerTapTap

Member
Did anyone get the platinum in Neptunia vs Sega Hard Girls, or have any ideas on how to get the baseballs? I'm missing one of 42 and I've searched every map like 3 times now, it's driving me insane. The medals are tracked, but not the baseballs.

Easy to avoid this fate by collecting baseballs on a map before the last medals, but I'm screwed, myself. Don't want to start a new game just for this but I'm starting to think it might actually be faster or at least less infuriating...

I've also been working on a guide for it and Blanc Game. If anyone has Blanc Game and wants to play a round let me know.
 

Cornbread78

Member
So I picked up ReBirth 1 for Vita on a whim recently and it has been pretty damn fun to play so far. Anyone have aNY tricks to level up quicker and survive the difficulty spikes that occur over each boss?
 
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