I've attempted to like this game many times over the years. I've picked it up and put it down a fair few times after receiving it as a gift with all of the DLC included in April 2020 from a now-former friend. I've genuinely attempted to like it, especially after hearing positive reviews of it but I...can't. I'm sorry but I can't. Perhaps it was just me expecting too much out of this game in the first place, especially considering how much I've fallen out of love with the Neptunia series over the last few years but I cannot, in good faith, recommend this game.

This is unfortunate to say as I think the game does a lot of things right. Let's talk about those. Though do be warned - because I haven't put a lot of time into the game (you can tell by my Steam hours), there are things that I just may be straight up wrong about or lack experience in. However, at this point I am more than confident that I am no longer willing to put in any more hours into this game than necessary.

From the little amount of content that I've played, this is one area of the game I'm fairly mixed on. On one hand, because this is a spinoff and being treated as separate universe from the mainline games, I think the character establishment and characterization of both existing & new characters is fantastic. As far as Neptunia spinoffs go - this one is one of the better ones regarding characterization and writing. Certainly no Hyperdevotion Noire, that's for sure.

On another - I'm disappointed that they are yet again reusing the whole "Neptune has amensia" trope that's been done to death in so many Neptunia games at this point. At this point I feel like the writers of these games should come up with something more original because it's becoming tiresome. Sure, it helps contextualize the world around you since neither you or Neptune know anything about anything, but there are better ways of doing stuff like this. Heck, look at Victory/Re;Birth3 and you'll immediately get what I mean.

The gameplay of this game is the main reason why I've consistently put it down over and over throughout the years. I genuinely just cannot get used to the game in any capacity.

Super Neptunia RPG suffers from the same issues that every other Neptunia game does, which is odd considering that it's made by a developer that's not Compile Heart. That issue being poor tutorials & poor clarification on game mechanics. It does an awful job of properly explaining the needlessly convoluted battle system that feels like it's taking inspiration from archaic game design that was thrown out the window after Neptunia mk2 on the PS3, requiring to "generate" action points & maintain formations. It plays & feels like a cheap mobile game, with not much more gameplay substance than something like Touhou LostWord, to give a comparison to an actual mobile game.

Outside of that, there is a lack of proper direction in the game with the locations mostly just blending in with each other, causing me to get needlessly lost in the game world. The level design in this game is lazy. Neptunia itself is sort of infamous for having lazy design, having reused plenty of levels across plenty of games with little variation, but Super Neptunia RPG makes this problem much more apparent and worse when you can't tell which area is which at times.

Not to mention the control...holy crud, the control is some of the most imprecise I've felt in a 2D game in the last 5 years. Yes, you can adjust yourself to the game's lackluster controls but fact of the matter is that they're still slippery and incredibly imprecise. And when the game expects you to perform platforming challenges for extra goodies - that's when you'll find yourself wanting to snap the controller in half at times. Think Sonic 06 levels of sensitivity but on a 2D plane.

The graphics of the game I will actually give praise to. I love how this game's artstyle looks. I think the game is genuinely gorgeous - the character portraits are stylized in a way that makes this game stand out from the rest of the series & give the game its own identity. The backgrounds & CGs of the game also look on-par with the rest of the series - I love it.

I can sing the same amount of praise for the game's soundtrack - a lot of love & care was put into the game's soundtrack. While none of it sticks in my head, as is common with a lot of game OSTs for me actually, there's nothing I grew tired of in my short time playing. Again - signaling to me that there was a lot of time & care put into this part of the game as well.

As for optimization...I haven't experienced any woes myself, aside from one save file corruption that didn't really bother me as I only really lost about 30 minutes of gameplay (and that was due to a Steam Cloud error on my part), I have, however, heard horror stories of random game crashes that have gone unfixed for several years at this point. So do proceed with caution on that front.

I'm sorry to say that I cannot recommend Super Neptunia RPG. At least not at full price. The game plays & feels like a poorly made mobile game. It has great writing - certainly an improvement over the vast amounts of garbage we've gotten over the years, it has an amazing artstyle & a great soundtrack, but none of that is enough to carry the game with its awful combat system, poor level design & slippery, imprecise, overly-sensitive controls.

If you're a Neptunia fan looking for a game to play - perhaps give it a shot, maybe you'll see something in this that I don't & grow to like it. And if you do - more power to you.

If you're not a Neptunia fan though, I recommend steering clear of this game. There are better games in & out of this genre and especially in the Neptunia series itself.

What a shame. I really wanted to like this game too.

I've attempted to like this game many times over the years. I've picked it up and put it down a fair few times after receiving it as a gift with all of the DLC included in April 2020 from a now-former friend. I've genuinely attempted to like it, especially after hearing positive reviews of it but I...can't. I'm sorry but I can't. Perhaps it was just me expecting too much out of this game in the first place, especially considering how much I've fallen out of love with the Neptunia series over the last few years but I cannot, in good faith, recommend this game. This is unfortunate to say as I think the game does a lot of things right. Let's talk about those. Though do be warned - because I haven't put a lot of time into the game (you can tell by my Steam hours), there are things that I just may be straight up wrong about or lack experience in. However, at this point I am more than confident that I am no longer willing to put in any more hours into this game than necessary. [h1]Story[/h1] From the little amount of content that I've played, this is one area of the game I'm fairly mixed on. On one hand, because this is a spinoff and being treated as separate universe from the mainline games, I think the character establishment and characterization of both existing & new characters is fantastic. As far as Neptunia spinoffs go - this one is one of the better ones regarding characterization and writing. Certainly no Hyperdevotion Noire, that's for sure. On another - I'm disappointed that they are yet again reusing the whole "Neptune has amensia" trope that's been done to death in so many Neptunia games at this point. At this point I feel like the writers of these games should come up with something more original because it's becoming tiresome. Sure, it helps contextualize the world around you since neither you or Neptune know anything about anything, but there are better ways of doing stuff like this. Heck, look at Victory/Re;Birth3 and you'll immediately get what I mean. [h1]Gameplay[/h1] The gameplay of this game is the main reason why I've consistently put it down over and over throughout the years. I genuinely just cannot get used to the game in any capacity. Super Neptunia RPG suffers from the same issues that every other Neptunia game does, which is odd considering that it's made by a developer that's not Compile Heart. That issue being poor tutorials & poor clarification on game mechanics. It does an awful job of properly explaining the needlessly convoluted battle system that feels like it's taking inspiration from archaic game design that was thrown out the window after Neptunia mk2 on the PS3, requiring to "generate" action points & maintain formations. It plays & feels like a cheap mobile game, with not much more gameplay substance than something like Touhou LostWord, to give a comparison to an actual mobile game. Outside of that, there is a lack of proper direction in the game with the locations mostly just blending in with each other, causing me to get needlessly lost in the game world. The level design in this game is lazy. Neptunia itself is sort of infamous for having lazy design, having reused plenty of levels across plenty of games with little variation, but Super Neptunia RPG makes this problem much more apparent and worse when you can't tell which area is which at times. Not to mention the control...holy crud, the control is some of the most imprecise I've felt in a 2D game in the last 5 years. Yes, you can adjust yourself to the game's lackluster controls but fact of the matter is that they're still slippery and incredibly imprecise. And when the game expects you to perform platforming challenges for extra goodies - that's when you'll find yourself wanting to snap the controller in half at times. Think Sonic 06 levels of sensitivity but on a 2D plane. [h1]Graphics, Sound & Optimization[/h1] The graphics of the game I will actually give praise to. I love how this game's artstyle looks. I think the game is genuinely gorgeous - the character portraits are stylized in a way that makes this game stand out from the rest of the series & give the game its own identity. The backgrounds & CGs of the game also look on-par with the rest of the series - I love it. I can sing the same amount of praise for the game's soundtrack - a lot of love & care was put into the game's soundtrack. While none of it sticks in my head, as is common with a lot of game OSTs for me actually, there's nothing I grew tired of in my short time playing. Again - signaling to me that there was a lot of time & care put into this part of the game as well. As for optimization...I haven't experienced any woes myself, aside from one save file corruption that didn't really bother me as I only really lost about 30 minutes of gameplay (and that was due to a Steam Cloud error on my part), I have, however, heard horror stories of random game crashes that have gone unfixed for several years at this point. So do proceed with caution on that front. [h1]Conclusion[/h1] I'm sorry to say that I cannot recommend Super Neptunia RPG. At least not at full price. The game plays & feels like a poorly made mobile game. It has great writing - certainly an improvement over the vast amounts of garbage we've gotten over the years, it has an amazing artstyle & a great soundtrack, but none of that is enough to carry the game with its awful combat system, poor level design & slippery, imprecise, overly-sensitive controls. If you're a Neptunia fan looking for a game to play - perhaps give it a shot, maybe you'll see something in this that I don't & grow to like it. And if you do - more power to you. If you're not a Neptunia fan though, I recommend steering clear of this game. There are better games in & out of this genre and [i]especially[/i] in the Neptunia series itself. What a shame. I really wanted to like this game too.