Review: Neptunia Game Maker R:Evolution Is Charming, But Repetitive

The Neptunia franchise is an endlessly fascinating one. It’s a sequence constructed on the idea of sport consoles present as goddesses in a land that echoes the real-world video games trade. It seems like a one-off joke, not one thing that’s been trucking alongside fortunately for fourteen years at this level. And now we’ve got reached the sixteenth sport within the sequence, Neptunia Sport Maker R:Evolution, which mixes the franchise’s conventional JRPG components with a administration sim.

You play as older model of sequence protagonist, Neptune, who has discovered herself in an alternate dimension. Right here, she groups up with three goddesses – Reedio, Jagaa and Pippeh – who’ve been banished to obscurity after their failures prior to now. Collectively they kind a brand new sport studio that may permit the Failure Goddesses to succeed in the heights they deserve once more.

This ends in an journey cut up between dungeon crawler RPG points and a administration sim. Within the dungeon crawler sections, Neptune and pals open new Gross sales Areas by preventing monsters. Within the administration sections, you rent builders and place them onto tasks based mostly on the style and magnificence. You additionally must spend money on the studio to enhance growth time and unlock new genres.

It’s a barely complicated idea to newcomers. Neptunia Sport Make R:Evolution makes no effort to catch new gamers up on what the sequence is about. As a newcomer, I’m lucky sufficient to have heard in regards to the central idea forward of time. If I hadn’t, I’d be very confused. It’s a world the place all the present consoles (and Sega) are represented by goddesses, with every part round them representing the broader video games trade. Even the Failure Goddesses are based mostly on fifth-generation runners-up: the 3DO, Atari Jaguar and Apple Pippin.

Regardless of the shortage of correct introduction, the writing is pleasant. Your complete story is absolute nonsense, however Neptunia Sport Maker gleefully leans into it at each flip. It’s used as a platform for jokes in regards to the state of the fashionable video games trade. It throws out winking references to every part from piracy to the work of FromSoftware. Each sport designer you possibly can rent at your studio is a reference, together with a Ghostly Robber who asks you to contact him by way of his calling card and a designer named Rapapa whose previous work was thought-about “flat”.

Even the “failure” consoles are given a good quantity of illustration. Reedio is predicated on a professor from Japanese advertisements for the 3DO, with a hair clip pulled straight from its brand. Jagaa yells “do the maths” at each alternative, a slogan from a particularly 90s advert for the Atari Jaguar. For consoles that almost all have forgotten about, it’s shocking how nicely represented they’re. I assume the Pippin is just too, however that’s too obscure even for me.

The voice appearing can be surprisingly good too. I performed with the English dub and each efficiency is punchy and enthusiastic. Specific highlights go to the pirate crew, who chew the surroundings at each alternative. The voice actor for Copy the Exhausting is having the time of his life particularly. Even the dodgy accent of Copy the Artwork is endearing in a so-bad-it’s-good means. It’s additionally an enormous half in why the primary solid are so charming, as every efficiency completely balances the quantity of honest and absurd the sport requires.

The place this falls aside a bit of is how these traces function in gameplay. As you wander a dungeon, your get together members will fill each little bit of silence they’ll. By the top of the primary dungeon, nonetheless, you’ll have heard every part they may ever say. Pippeh repeats a variation of “are we there but?” as usually as doable. Jagaa tended to get caught saying “be certain to go searching” in an infinite loop. Additionally, as somebody who checks maps lots, it didn’t take lengthy for every woman’s single “let me verify the map” line to wear down its welcome. There’s nothing improper with the traces in isolation. Nevertheless, there’s so few traces repeated so ceaselessly they grew to become obnoxious.

Sadly, this isn’t the one concern with the dungeon crawling in Neptunia Sport Maker R:Evolution. It’s brutally repetitive for a lot of the sport’s run time. Dungeons are a sequence of rooms so nondescript I assumed they have been randomly generated (they don’t seem to be, I checked). They’re additionally cluttered with enemies, which means you’re tripping over an enemy nearly as quickly as you permit a struggle with one other. Typically there are puzzles to resolve, however they add little greater than making already tedious treks a bit of extra tedious.

Fight isn’t a lot better. On paper, it’s much like Last Fantasy VII Remake and Rebirth, as you assault utilizing combos, construct up a meter for extra highly effective assaults or utilizing objects, and might swap between all of your get together members on the fly. There’s even a cool chain assault function, the place more and more extra highly effective burst assaults will set off with character modifications on the proper time. Nevertheless, in observe you’re largely urgent one button and sometimes a directional button each time a immediate seems on display. There was little technique within the fight, with most battles enjoying out the identical means. Even boss fights didn’t shake issues up an excessive amount of, aside from upping enemy well being. Dodging and guarding additionally felt wildly inconsistent. It actually received to the purpose the place it felt simpler to only button mash as an alternative of attempting to keep away from getting hit.

The administration points of Neptunia Sport Maker are a bit of extra compelling. You assign builders to sport tasks, with their stats figuring out how nicely that sport will end up. Initially, you’re going to be releasing a string of 1-star duds. Nevertheless, as you earn extra factors and entice higher builders, you’ll quickly see the celebrities improve. You’ll additionally accrue territory, taking market share away from different sport makers. I didn’t discover it notably deep, however it was fascinating. It jogged my memory of a stripped-down model of the true property minigame from Yakuza 0, which isn’t a nasty factor.

My primary critique of the administration gameplay is that it feels disconnected from the remainder of the sport. It’s one thing you don’t at all times want to concentrate to. The one actual reference to the remainder of the sport is administration progress arbitrarily locked behind story progress. It’s a disgrace as a result of I may see so some ways the 2 sides may complement one another and elevate them into one thing extra.

Neptunia Sport Maker R:Evolution is a blended bag. If you need an enthralling story with loads of nerdy goofs about consoles from the 90s, you’ll discover one thing to take pleasure in right here. If you need fascinating and in-depth mechanics, then you definitely’d be higher off trying elsewhere. One for the established fanbase that’s unlikely to win over many newcomers.

Neptunia Sport Maker R:Evolution releases for the PS5, PS4 and Change on Could 14, 2024.