Superdimension Neptune VS Sega Hard Girls Review

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Superdimension Neptune VS Sega Hard Girls is a short but sweet JRPG for the vita. The game revolves around IF, Segami , and Neptune as they travel through time to restore the lost history.

Starting with the story it’s as I said earlier , the three girls travel through time to try and restore history. While on this adventure you will also have to try and stop the Sega Hard Girls and the Goddesses from fighting. Doing this you will eventually find out what is causing history to be lost. The story never takes itself seriously. There are often in-game puns or gags that break the fourth wall, some of which mentions the player. All of the story cut scenes play out in still art with the text telling the story at the bottom of the screen. For what it is the plot isn’t bad but it also isn’t ground breaking.

The gameplay is in my opinion where the game shines. Each area of the game has an over world map that lets you interact with a variety of npcs and dungeons. The NPC’s you interact with can sometimes give you extra missions, items, ect. All missions you receive can be taken on from the character Histoire. Every mission you take will cause other missions from the list to lose time. When a mission’s time is zero it will be gone forever (not counting special situations). When you want to take on a mission you can only except one at a time. Once you are ready to start the mission the over world map will show the location of where the mission is with an event Icon.

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When you head to a dungeon where the even is located the screen will change. The new perspective will change to a third person view, in this change you will be able to maneuver a 3D environment and fight the monsters you encounter. When in a dungeon your mission objective will vary, sometimes you will be required to fight a specific monster on to continue the plot through event crystals.

When you encounter an enemy the screen will shift to a battle arena. The battles are slightly different from traditional turn based battles. When it is your turn you will be able to move the currently controlled character in a small blue ring. once you are near the enemy you want to attack you will be able to use skills, items, and regular attacks. As you attack your turn meter will slowly fill, once it turns red you will no longer be able move/attack thus ending your turn. While attacking another gauge will slowly fill up as well. The fever gauge will become available for use once it fills to 100%. This gauge will stop enemies from attacking , plus allows you to use you most powerful skill attacks. The energy for the fever meter will stay active until it either drains completely or the battle is over. As with all RPG’s you will need to level grind at times but it isn’t all that bad. Where in most RPG’s it can take a long time to get the experience to level up just once, this game shortens the time drastically. It only takes a few minutes to get the required experience to level up.

The graphics of this game while not the best is still decent for a vita game. The character models are toon shaded while some of the environments feel a little flat. The special attacks however look really nice. Overall they look like something you would see on a PS3.

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The music for this game is good and captures the atmosphere really well. The best tunes are the battle music, they help keep the battles engaging and fun. None of the music I found to be overly repetitive in my 14 hours of game time.

As for replay value I would say it is quite high. There are three different endings you can get in this game and there is a boss you can only fight if you are on new game plus. To truly experience every thing this game has to offer requires you to go through it multiple times. This of course isn’t a bad thing. If you like to go after trophies some of them will also require you to play the game at least twice to get.

Superdimension Neptune VS Sega Hard Girls has every thing that someone looking for a good RPG would want however, this is a niche title, it won’t be for everyone. The plot never takes itself seriously, it is short (only about 14 hours long), and it does have a long intro. That being said it is a really fun game, That is why I still recommend this title to anyone looking for a great vita title.

rating-8

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary Sony Playstation Vita code was provided to Brash Games for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to editor@brashgames.co.uk.

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