For those who haven’t played the original, Hyperdimension Neptunia MK2 is a virtual world within a virtual world. I had problems wrapping my head around this concept at first, but it’s truly remarkable in itself. It is unlike anything you have ever experienced before.
Hyperdimension Neptunia MK2 resembles a computerized world. Everything electronic lives and breathes; each entity has its own faction and beliefs. The second game basically picks up right where the first one ends. The original game focused on the console wars and Nepgear’s older sister. Hyperdimensional Neptunia MK2 continues with the fall of Gamindustri.
The story keeps you moving at a steady pace, but does not push you by any means. You are free to explore and re-explore locations such as dungeons and towns whenever you wish. This freedom allows you to grind levels and collect weapons when you don’t feel like participating in the main story.
There are a multitude of quests; these can be acquired from guilds located inside cities and towns. These quests have their own objectives and unique item rewards. Guild quests offer two benefits: they can be revisited as many times as you like, making them a great source of income. They also provide something called shares.
Shares play a very important role. They are like faction points; the more you have, the stronger in faith that nation’s citizens become. It also increases the nation’s CPU ability.
Earning shares is a great way of leveling up. It helps you find items and use them for item synthesis. The synthesis process is a crafting system that allows you to make common, rare, and/or unique items for your characters. This is a great way to reuse items that you do not wish to sell. It’s also a good way to craft an even better item from something you already treasure.
Once you have crafted a new item via item synthesis, the item can be bought from any city or town in the world. Granted, you could always synthesis the item again if you don’t mind searching for the materials. However, since stores will have the item for sale, it’s not necessary to create another. It’s entirely up to the player.
Revisiting old dungeons to harvest material isn’t necessarily a bad thing though. It helps you level up and it gives you a chance to find rare items in the process.
As you explore the dungeons and the vast lands in Hyperdimension Neptunia MK2, you will discover recipes for items that can’t be found in shops. However, some items require other party members to be partnered up during the synthesis process. This means that certain items cannot be crafted until the proper CPU candidate/partner is acquired.
Hyperdimension Neptunia MK2 will remind gamers of the Disgaea and Atelier series. The combat is completely turned-based with the freedom of creating and unlocking combos.
The partner system not only applies to the crafting system, but combat as well. The partnering system gives you the choice of having four characters in the front row (which are the attackers) and a back row, which will supply a support buff. Each character has a set number of bonuses that only apply when they are partnered up with another character. When a character is placed in the back row of the group, they will grant their partner a support bonus in battle.
Once in combat, you can swap out your partners with the penalty of ending your turn. You will have to wait until you can attack again to use your new partner. The best part about the partnering system is that all party members will receive experience points despite being in the back row and out of play. So leveling is a breeze; you don’t have to worry about swapping out characters in order to level them.
It would have been nice if the characters in the back row could cast spells or use items without having to switch them to the front. Other than that, the combat system is very easy to use and simple to understand.
Even the world map (which is your main form of transportation) is very easy to navigate; it resembles something from the 8-bit era. Everything you do will happen on this world map; this is how you travel and visit available locations.
Every area you visit (with the exception of cities/towns) are done in a dungeon-style format. There is very little traveling done; there is no worriment of being attacked along the way. The creatures inside the dungeons are not only visible, but also avoidable.
Combat can be engaged by either striking or walking into an enemy. By striking an enemy, you are given a symbol attack that grants you more AP and SP. This allows you to perform combos and special skill attacks during the start of combat.
Important segments of the story are narrated while other parts require you to read. The graphics in Hyperdimension Neptunia MK2 are alluring, charming, and downright seductive. The combination of 2D and 3D art makes for one attractive game.
As far as graphics are concerned, you are given the freedom to customize your Core Processor’s Retexturing. This allows you to customize the design of your CPU’s form. You can store the actual pictures on your Playstation 3. From there, you can use the XMB to load the pictures into a customize editor and apply them to your CPU. You can use textures from just about anything or from just about anywhere. Official graphics will be accessible from the official Hyperdimension Neptunia MK2 website. This opens the doors to endless customization. It is possible to use graphic files as large as 1024×1024 in dimension. I can see this going viral once people get their hands on this feature.
Hyperdimension Neptunia MK2 is a living, breathing virtual world. The concept of living inside a virtual world (that somehow exists inside a completely different virtual world) may seem bizarre at first, but once you begin to understand the game world and its characters, everything begins to fall into place and make sense. Hyperdimension Neptunia MK2 is a masterpiece; it’s one of the best Japanese role-playing games in recent memory.
James ‘ Daripp3r’ Pittaro
Platform: Playstation 3
Developer: Idea Factory
Publisher: NIS America
ESRB: M (Mature)
Price: $49.99 (Releases 2/28/2012)
Hyperdimension Neptunia MK2’s Website
| Review Score | |
|---|---|
| Graphics |  |
| Extraordinary art work; the 2D and 3D graphics are amazing. | |
| Sound | |
| The music is catchy and upbeat; the voice acting is phenomenal. | |
| Gameplay | |
| An intense role-playing game with plenty of twists and turns. The story is full of hilarious moments. | |
| Overall | |
|---|---|
| Hyperdimension Neptunia MK2 can be enjoyed by hardcore gamers and even beginners. With a deep, gripping story about family and friendship, you will find yourself hooked on the character’s and their development. This is an excellent role-playing game and a terrific addition to the Hyperdimension Neptunia series. | |
