The second game in the series, remade! Playing this made me realize I actually finished the original game back in the 2010’s, and I kind of like that version more. Really I just don’t care for Red, the new girl to the remake they force on you to fill the fourth character slot for like 1/4 of the game. I get waifu obsessed characters, but that’s Red’s only trait, and she just kind of forces the position on everyone. It’s not really cute to me…

Anyway, Nep 2 replaces the core team of Goddess with their little sisters, making Nepgear(based on the GameGear) the protagonist. As a game, it’s better then 1 in most ways. It’s also considered one of, if not the, strongest story in the series.

Gameplay-4

So the core gameplay is the same as Re;Birth 1, so I’m not going over the circles and ex stuff again. Same with crafting and the cd system, same core systems in place. So instead I’ll just mention the few differences, aka how much more grindy it feels.

The biggest difference is how important lily ranks are compared to 1. It takes only about an hour to find recipes that call for higher lily ranks then you start with and you find a couple of these in a row. There’s the fact that every ending other then the normal ending requires some lily rank grinding to get.

There’s also a new dungeon plan mechanic that changes dungeons. Unlike the item and monster changers, these dungeon change plans… change both. It just overrides the others with even stronger enemies and items. Which considering how samey or reused some of the dungeons already are, is kind of bleh. It’s basically artificially almost doubling the dungeon count in a weird way.

Half the party is locked behind grinding guild quests for shares, which you can only do around the end of the run. You want Vert or Noire? Go grind their countries shares to 50 and wait till the game lets you recruit them. Then grind their lily ranks so you can get their endings because Neptunia 2 has 8 different endings.

This is really why this game makes me rage a bit as a completionist. It lacks a global save so you need to get every cg in one playthrough and each ending has a cg. Each endings also requires grinding to get in each playthrough so just powering through the story isn’t enough. You also need to go grind to get the characters for that ending, grind their lily ranks, and then beat the game. It’s by far one of the most artificial grindy games I’ve ever played, up there with Agarest Mariage’s stuff.

Another thing I want to note becasue I wish I was aware of this when I played, the NG+ dungeons. You only can get the materials for them in true end, but the plans to change enemies and item only appear in Chapter 2. So after doing true end, which you would usually leave for last, you need to replay the game again to get the other plans. If you play smart you can get everything in that next run and this isn’t an issue, but it’s a stupid design decision. It can potentially add 4 or so reruns of the game to get materials to unlock that next dungeon and then get to chapter 2 again to get the plans. Just why?

There’s also this side mode called Stella’s Dungeon I should mention. It’s basically a mobile game inside Neptunia 2 Re;Birth where you send this chibi girl into the dungeons on a real timer. In there she finds gear she can wield and once she clears enough of the dungeon gives you some monster drops and eventually a special item for that dungeon. Often a plan or memory. This mode also has dlc insurance because Stella can fail and loses anything. Here I thought MGSurvive was the first game to have dlc insurance… Anyway you send her out to dungeons on a timer and she comes back in x amount of time, you get stuff and send her out again. It’s 100% an extra, though I do wish she wouldn’t show back up during cutscenes. Some of the actual serious plot moments can get ruined if you suddenly hear her victory music play as she returns triumphant.

There are some tricks to this tomodachi style minigame. One is you can set your console/computer’s clock ahead to instantly finish the missions. The other is a save trick. Sending out Stella is linked to the actual save file, so before you send her out you save in 2 slots, send her out, and save overwrite only 1 slot. If she fails when you come back to the game, just reload the save that didn’t send her out and you get to keep her gear and can try again with your best stuff. When games expect you to pay for problems they create, cheating is fine and should be encouraged. The final reward for this mode is stupid anyway, it’s the insurance as something to craft and a weapon for Neptune that you won’t need.

Story-7

Neptunia 2 is about piracy. It is considered the best story in the entire series and has the darkest ending in the series that also reflects on actual things about the game market. The things people do when given basically free games is in many of the random chats around the world and shown in numerous cutscenes with NPC’s. The four big bads are different takes on extremes of people supporting piracy, and one is even grey instead of just evil. Which might be the best thing about the plot, it shows that piracy is harmful but does not blame the actual act itself as evil. Which for a Japanese game is an amazingly mature take on the subject, even if it doesn’t really say anything definitive, except in that one famous ending I’ll get into.

Also, does every Neptunia game need to start with Neptune getting her ass kicked? It’s not until the action game that she didn’t get beat up in the intro. So yeah, the game starts with all four CPU’s getting beaten down while fighting ASIC, the piracy cult trying to revive Arfoire. In this one Arfoire is a God of Destruction, bringing her back will destroy Gamindustri.

So the CPU’s lose and are sealed in this grave year. Three years pass and then Compa and IF find them and attempt to unseal them. The only one who awakens is Nepgear, Neptune’s new little sister(ignoring the fact she’s already in 2 of the games I’ve played.) who went with for reasons. A CPU candidate, Nepgear is not as strong as Neptune, so I guess less power was needed to wake her up. So after the only real lewd cgs in the game of tied up CPU’s in very slightly damaged armor, a big lug shows up and basically no sells the three who can move. They escape and go to Planetpune’s base, where they get the main goal for the first 3/4 of the game, revive the CPU’s by getting shares back and getting help of the other nation’s Candidates, Oracles(original characters I think), and Mascots. Mascots are just floating magic discs, they are apparently an emergency divine protection when shit like this happens.

So then you basically get Neptunia 1 again but with younger girls and an even more joke of a set of villains in Underling and Warechu. The game has 8 endings, with 5 of them being light shoujo ai stuff. The true ending doesn’t really add much to the plot other then some refights, which other then some light character moments felt kind of pointless. It’s the final set of endings that make this game stand out.

Conquest specifically. Holy Sword, the good end of Conquest, is actually just bland. It takes the refight conversations and plays them back to back as you fight all four big enemies and the final boss in a row. It’s a really weird moment that just doesn’t have the emotional strength it should. Conquest though, now that’s a trip. Overall Neptunia is a comedy series with some light drama. Conquest is very dark of this franchise, as in it 7 of the 8 CPU’s are killed. By your main character. It’s shocking to say the least.

It’s not just done for shock appeal though. It actually ends on a message. You could maybe stop piracy by making gaming on just one controlled platform. But is that worth the cost? Without competition the industry will die. All that console war fanaticism you see online is actually a good thing when not taken to far. It leads to competition, so that those making consoles need to actually standout and try. This is the strongest story thing in basically the whole series.

Lewd-5

There’s a decent attempt at more fanservice then Re;Birth 1. Like Re;Birth 1 it opens on some of it’s strongest shots, all the CPU’s in HDD mode damaged and tied up by vines. Not the fetish you would expect, but still stands out.

After that it’s not much. There’s way more cosplay and cgs for the sake of cuteness, along with cgs that I think are suppose to be pervy but don’t really go far enough, like the slimes covering the girls or the tongue cg. The focus on the CPU Candidates does lend itself to a bigger focus on cute though, I think the physical oldest of them is Nepgear at like 14.

There’s a few more light fanservice ones throughout, like Noire in a (inside out) swimsuit or Vert getting a massage while nude. This probably has my favorite hot spring cg I’ve seen, doing a moving cg without copious steam helps a lot. The ending cg’s are all full of shoujo ai power(or soft yuri vibes if you don’t understand what I mean.)

As for the models, it’s mostly the same cast as 1. Not much has really changed other then a few new girls like Red(closest thing to an oppai loli the game has). I think all the costumes from 1 are back, and for some reason IF and Compa still get nothing. I really don’t get why the two most important non-CPU girls get 0 outfits or recolors.

Verdict

The hell is with this game’s design? Way to much nonsense unlocks behind shares and lily ranks and it’s just a pain. It’s not actively bad, but if you place 100% behind 8 replays, maybe design your game around 8 replays? Or just have a global save.

The story has interesting beats, though it’s a bit too power of friendship at points for me. Nepgear is definitely more of a shoujo heroine then Neptune and works better as a lead. It also means the game feels more standard in terms of manga tropes, as it kind of just feels like an all girls shounen thing.

Ignoring the replays, I think the game’s better balanced then Nep Re;Birth 1. There’s a lot of small details I wish it did better, but it’s not bad.

…Is this game a harem game? Nepgear has different endings based on affection stats with four different countries rulers+ an ending with a harem of human girls. While calling them romantic is a bit of a stretch, there are elements of shoujo ai relationships in this. Is the endings and shipping content enough to qualify it as a harem game/story?

PC Save for Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 2~Sister Generation~

1st save has all weapons, outfits, accessories, and cgs right at the final boss of true end. Save 2 is set for NG+.

Gameplay: 4/10 Eroticness: 5/10 Story: 7/10

Completion:

It’s a massive pain. The cg’s are grindy getting through the game 8 times, but some of the outfit unlocks and the way the NG+ dungeons work just make it a confusing slog. Everything else is simple enough, though a lot of guide usage is basically required due to hidden items and finding enemies for drops.