Oh boy, here it is. I am finally reviewing PC version of Megadimension Neptunia VII for which i was waiting for since it was first announced on PS4. I just finished my first playthrough which took me 43 hours according to steam and I plan on investing a lot more of them simply because the game is that great. Megadimension Neptunia VII is hands down the best Neptunia game yet. It might even be the best IF's and CH's game so far. As usual the story has a serious but presented in a really light-hearted way topic and that is what makes these games so unique, isn't it? The gameplay is seperated into 3 different arcs connected by the storyline. What took my attention in the first place was the price tag. This game is more expensive than previous Re;Birth games. Is the game worth the price rise? Yes. Why? I will mention it in a later part of the review, let's focus on the things I did not enjoy first.

-Random encounter system
Okay, I get it. Random encounters on the world map, sounds fun, does it? Not really. The system is completely random. That means you can run whole map without any encounters or you can get 3 encounters on the way to the dungeon that is literally next to you. It was annoying to the point that I prayed not to get encounters while playing the game. However after you get NG+, you can decide if you want the encounters to happen.

-FPS in dungeons
This is merely a personal problem since my graphics card is the minimum requirement in the game specifications, however as long as I did not have any problems with it, it is worth mentioning that I was able to get over 60fps in dungeons from previous games used in this game but whenever I had to enter completely new dungeon I was able to get 40 at most. This is clearly an optimization problem with the new areas.

That's about it, the rest is really great and well thought. Why is the game worth the money? Well, I thought Re;birth 3 was a great improvement in neptunia series simply because it fixed all the things that I found annoying or broken in neptunia franchise but Megadimension Neptunia VII proves that the game can be even better. Add the new art, really good sounding soundtrack that I actually listen to even after finishing the game, the graphic improvements and you have served yourself a game that is the best Nep experience yet. I really want to share what I enjoyed the most, so let's get to it.

+New win poses, new level up animations, for some characters even completely new walking and combat animations.

+If a character has AoE heal/mp skill and you use it in the menu it affects all of your characters.
This is something really obvious and for some reason I never thought about it before in any of the previous games.

+You get a lot of improvements to your gameplay after you start NG+ without the need to craft it.

+The amount of completely new dungeons is huge and all of them are really well looking.

+Improved combo system with no shields on enemies and no break attacks.
This is a huge change to the way you play the game and it is a good change. You don't have to pay attention to the shield break bar anymore and you can chain your attacks into combos to deal more damage.

+Soundtrack and art.
The soundtrack is as usual, great. However, there are some really neat additions to the game's soundtrack in this one. The characters art is way more gorgeous than in previous games and I have made a lot of screenshots for no real reason just to enjoy the way the art looks.

+The world.
You get to actually move on the world map rather than just point your cursor over a dungeon or a city! You even get to see your character switching to HDD to fly over a gap. This was a nice addition to the game and I really would have liked it more if it wasn't for the random encounter system mentioned above. Hopefully I will get to like it as much as I would after I start playing NG+.

If you enjoyed previous Neptunias, you will enjoy this one a lot. There is no way you would not. Don't be afraid if you are not familiar with the franchise. Just remember that this game is so good that playing older ones might seem almost like a chore. If the price tag is scaring you away, wait for a sale, but take note that, as I have already mentioned before, this is by far the best game in Neptunia franchise. I highly recommend and this is a must have if you are a fan of Neptunia games.

Nepgear is best girl






I made a review


Some people do have problems running this game and experience a lot of lag. That being said, I can still play it, but I lag a lot. It is playable with the specs that I currently have, but you will get a constant 5-20 fps. In my opinin, it doesn't really matter as this game is mostly turnbased and is partly a visual novel. The lag doesn't really hinder you gameplay wise (Negatives section has those examples).

Specifications

Graphics Card: AMD Radeon HD 7640G (481.9 MB Video RAM)
CPU: AMD A8-4500M APU with Radeon(tm) HD Graphics 1.90Ghz
RAM: 6GB
OS: Windows 10

General
• Lots of content, takes at least 30+ hours to finish if you read everything
  
• Great improvement on graphics
  
• New characters are great and interesting K-Sha being crazy for Noire :)
  
• Story is pretty interesting, but the writing falls short at some parts
  
• Humor is on par and maybe even funnier than the previous games
  
• Uzume is a great character and really feels unique since she has a cool side and a cute side :)
  
  Music
  
  
• Relativity Vision is the best OP out of all the games in my opinion
  
• The new soundtracks added sound really great and is a step-up from the previous game
  
• Since it is split into 3 arcs, each arc has their own respective OP and ED!
  
• The battle music for story bosses is great and I enjoy listening to each one of them like Encounter of Destiny or Will Be Venus.
  
  Content/Gameplay
  
  
• There are new dungeons included in this game, not everything is re-used unlike the Re;birth series
  
• EXE and other skill animations seem to have improved and don't look as awkward
  
• The scouts system makes grinding in dungeons easier than the plans system
  
  
• Added 7/18/2016 - The monster battles do get annoying when you are going around in the world but in new game+ You can get a flag that lets you avoid it and lets you choose to battle in your own will.

Plot
• Some parts of the story that felt weak Conclusion of Gold Third Routes didn't really feel solid: You beat B-Sha and all is fine, helping her solve her fears didn't really make for a great conclusion, but I'll take it. Not going into depth with K-Sha's background (Played a role in her actions).
  
• DLC that added some side-stories rather than over powered weapons would be great to increase playability.
  
• The Gold Third should have been more flesh out story wise. Tell more about their backgrounds since they are interesting characters
  
• I kinda expected re-used maps, but I did not want to see the same maps from Re;birth again >:C
  
  Translation -Bear with me since I only know basic Wapanese
  
  
• The text is still kind of wonky and it seems like they were a bit liberal in their tanslations.
  
• Why did they not translate fake Noires laugh into ohohohohoho, but instead used har har har har >:C
  
• Neptune talks funny in english translations, but it is expected with since she talks like this in the Re;birth series also.
  
  Gameplay/Content
  
  
• Parts break is an interesting function, but it doesn't really do anything unique other than give armor to the enemies and make it harder for them to die. Most parts breaks can be ignored and you can still defeat the enemy. ( Though the Dark CPU fights and Affimojas will make be easier with parts break )
  
  
• Added 7/18/2016 - The end game is a bit more grindy than the re;birth series due to the fact that there is not exp boost dlc.
  
• Not much to do when you finish the true ending, so far I have yet to find a quest similar to the quest you can try after the true ending of Re;birth 3
  
  
  
  Issues for lower end users
  
  
• You need a really good computer to run this game at full settings, but to be honest, fps doesn't screw you over because it is turn based
  
• You will lag A LOT during The dark cpu battles and probably during Affimojas fight with all Next forms.
  
  
• Added 7/19/2016 - The Neplunker dungeon is hard to beat if you do not have the recommended specs to run the game as there is a lot of things going on in the map that lag you.
  
• Those that lack the minimum requirements for the game will get delay before the text appears in the visual novel format. (This is an issue I have not seen in the previous games)
  
  
  Conclusion
  
  I highly recommend those who are a fan of the series to get this game since the plot is pretty interesting regardless of the short comings. The new characters are memorable and interesting. Uzume is a great character and her gap moe makes her even more adorable. S-Sha is one of the coolest characters in the series and her exe basically summarizes it. Steamax and Affimojas are entertaining with their perverted desires and I wanted to see more of them. I expected the Hyper Dimension routes to be mirrors of each other, but I was surprised when each story was unique. The Zero dimension and Heart Dimension parts were the strongest since we get to know Uzume more. When Plutia was introduced, we didn't really get to know a lot about her other than the fact that she has masochistic tendencies. There are a lot more things I enjoyed about this game, and I plan to update this review to add other things I found positive and negative.
  
  *Revised 7/19/2016

The port is not a joke
The price is not a joke
The specs are not a joke
The gameplay is not a joke
The story full of joke
Nep-nep is not a joke

This review is not a joke.

10/10

I noticed I have not done a review for this game. I shall now do one like I usually do with previous Nep games! :3

Normally, I would write a chunk in my review but this time, I'll "try" to summarise it overall. Personally, Megadimension Neptunia VII is probably the best installment so far for the series along with RB1 and RB3 as my favourites. I'm actually surprised that despite the minimum requirements, I am able to run this on a Surface Pro 3. However, the newer dungeons, Dark CPU, NEXT Forms and animations for skills/EXEs were rather laggy. Everything else ran suitably enough to play. There are still a bunch of re-used dungeons from previous games but that does not matter. Monsters seem to be different, more variety and some are re-colours. In regards to gameplay, I liked how they tried to make it more challenging in a way such as the one dungeon with no map and only those in battle get EXP which may cause underlevels for some late game. I quite liked the hidden treasures, figurine/card collector achievements. It gives the game a new touch for not being as repetitive. Uniquely, I think they were also added to balance out the grindy achievements such as the good ol' classic lily rank achievements we've been getting the past installments which are much easier to max in VII. I liked the new soundtrack, the CG that is avaiable and reading the events to know more about the characters. One memorable one I'm quite fond of is the matching hats event between Histy and Uzume ^^ Other miscellaneous things I liked were the costumes and accessories, in particular IF and Compa as they finally have another outfit!

Would I nepping recommend this? If you're a nep fan, played a previous nep game then yes. If you're new I'd say, give it a go! Though I'm not sure if you should start with this one. Personally I would say to try RB1 to know what this game is about and it's concept. If not, then start with RB3 ^^

This is my first review on the Neptunia series as the past games I felt were covered enough by the reviews, however this game I was just blown away with and I wanted to voice my input on it.


The game continues from where Re;Birth 3 left off and is followed by 3 stories in one game, all 3 stories are within their own dimensions. Zero Dimension, Hyperdimension and Heart Dimension. Each story/dimension had it's own feel which made it feel like 3 different games, however keeping true to the Neptunia series. Zero Dimension was in my opinion one of the better stories solely off of how it was told. It was a lot more serious, has a more darker story behind it and you actually worry about the survival of the characters during this story, that is how well it was written. Hyperdimension wasn't as serious as Zero Dimension, Hyperdimension kept more of the aspect of keeping the randomness, the jokes, the 4th wall breaking that is a staple of the Neptunia series. Heart Dimension was a pretty good closer as well. The story felt mixed with Zero Dimension and Hyperdimension but there was a lot more twists in Heart Dimension. I always thought Re;Birth 2 had the more serious story but Megadimension took that over easily. I would go as far to say that this has so far been the best story out of the series and I truthfully enjoyed Re;Birth's 3 story more than any of the previous games as I felt it covered a lot more, but once against Megadimension toppled that.


Upon starting the game, you will notice quite an upgrade in graphics. Movies look a lot more smoother and stable, the menu and UI look a lot more sleeker, the artwork and text box in the visual novel parts of the game look a lot more crisper and higher quality and the actual gameplay looks and feels a lot better. Animation looping is also a lot more smoother than previous games. The CG in this game also got quite an increase in quality and detail, some of which look stunning.


This soundtrack was phenomenal. OST in games is always something that is a huge importance to me and the Neptunia series has always had a good amount OST that I enjoyed listening to while playing the game. Megadimension has a new OST while keeping previous music from other games. The new OST I feel they went above and really did a fantastic job on it. Every dimension has their own version of music, be that the over-world, in the dungeon(s) or enemy battles and they did a great job of getting those soundtracks to match the feel of that dimension.


Some new things have been added to gameplay.

- The Guard Break from previous games is now changed to Part Break in which certain areas of an enemy are guarded that need to be broken to deal more damage, such as their head, behind them, their sides. There is no longer a Break attack, it is just a Standard attack. Attacking an enemy with Parts on it will be be broken overtime regardless of the moves used against them.

- The over-world has changed completely. You no longer freely pick where you want to go, instead it's mapped out and you travel to the places (best compared to like Super Mario 3 over-world.) Upon traveling to a place in the over-world you have a chance to encounter a battle. This is completely random as you can encounter enemies every 2 steps or you can run the whole map and not fight a single enemy. This can become repetitive as the enemies become weak as you level up, their EXP and credit drop stops being worth it and you may just want to get to somewhere quicker. After you beat the game and start NG+, you get an item that lets you disable or enable random encounters in the over-world.

- Scouts make a return again but this time a little different, however a lot better in my opinion. The new scouting system works similar to the Fury system in Fairy Fencer F. You select a scout or scouts and send them to a dungeon or split them up into multiple dungeons. Each scout has a dungeon effect be that a positive or negative effect. Such as +10% credits and -5% EXP. The scouts run on a timer to complete a dungeon and when they return they will bring you items from the enemies there, credits, a chance at a new dungeon for you the explore, a chance for a new scout or scouts to join, a hidden treasure hint and will find 2 new enemies for you to battle, which are bosses. The hidden treasure hint is how to get a hidden treasure for that dungeon only. There are certain steps you have to do in order to complete that one hit such as win 5 battles without healing, win against 5 dogoos in a row, ect. One thing you will find from a good portion of hidden treasures is an item called Energy Mate, which is used to level up your scouts. The higher level your scouts are, the more items and credits they will find, as well as the chances for scouts to join.

- Combo Trait is a new feature added to your attacks. Before each attack, you may notice that one or more attacks may be glowing, that is how you start the combo train. When using this, all attacks for that combo will always hit and will always be critical hits.

- The EX Finish is no longer here in the form of a combo like in previous games. Instead there is now Coupling Skills, which when you get the required EXE, in your skill menu you can use the Coupling Skill. There is also now Formation Skills which work by having certain party members in the battle in a certain formation to use a skill. They all have to be in normal or HDD forms for them to work.

Example: Neptune and Nepgear in a battle, both must be in HDD or in their normal forms. One cannot be HDD and normal at the same time for it to work. You can have a 4 person formation attack, however the same applies they must all be in HDD or normal form and you must make the correct form (on the skill page you may have to be in a triangle formation for a 3 person attack, a square for 4 person attack or "sandwich" an enemy for a 2 person attack

- When in the skill menu during a battle, I have noticed that when cycling through the skills quickly, I get some slight frame drops (my hardware is not the issue.)

- Random encounters. As I mentioned above with the over-world, random encounters can become repetitive. I have the item that stops that, however until then, the endgame was getting a little tedious with all the random encounters.




Story: Very well written, serious moments while keeping true to the Neptune series of having funny and random moments.
Graphics: Graphics look a lot cleaner and smoother than the previous games. Looping animation is also a lot smoother than previous games.
Soundtrack: Honestly, one of the better OSTs I've heard in a while, they really stepped it up big.
Gameplay: A lot of new stuff added which adds to the experience of the game.
Neptune: She's the protagonist and will break the 4th wall to tell you multiple times


If you have been a fan of the Neptunia series or you like JRPG's in general, definitely give this game a go. The price might push some away, but it's honestly worth with the amount they included into this game. The story is honestly worth getting into and like I stated above, there's a lot of humour, seriousness and plot twists. They really outdid themselves with this story and I really enjoyed this story and game in general. If you haven't played Re;Birth2 or Re;Birth 3, there will be multiple references you won't get, however that will not make it so you can't play the game at all, you can jump into this game as your first Neptunia game and still play the game no problem, learn slightly about previous games and that always gives you the headroom for going back to play the previous ones. If you get the DLC and don't want to make the game too easy, I would use it after you beat the game once. A lot of the weapons and armour make the game way too easy.

I would highly recommend as a purchase!

Where I jumped into the Neptunia series "for the lulz", Megadimension Neptunia VII comes out of left field as legitimately one of the best JRPGs I've played. Excellent new characters, new arcs instead of the classic Nep "haven't we done this before?", and a story with surprising depth and range make for a Neptunia game that's grown up from being all about jokes and references (there's still plenty, though) and has really come into its own. Nep VII is the best yet, and presents a promising future for the series.

Livin' the dream. :)

Megadimension Neptunia V II is, by far, the best installment in the Neptunia series until now.

The combat has been improved and somewhat diversified, with the addition of the "parts break" mechanic, the link formation combos and the Sharing Field battles, which require more strategic placement against certain foes. The grind was also lessened considerably, as merely exploring dungeons for items is enough to level in times of need.

Regarding the dungeons, they are now much more interesting to explore, since they're much larger and more varied, some with areas only accessible later in the game, which can give you great rewards for exploring.

The soundtrack was improved DRASTICALLY with entirely new tracks, adding an intensity to the battles/scenes the past games sometimes couldn't provide.

The story was quite a nice surprise, with way more character development than the previous titles, a much larger cast of important characters, the absolute best antagonist in the entire series, three different endings and even some routed scenarios! (By the way, one of those endings *might* make you cry, just letting you know)

Repetitive jokes such as Vert mentioning Blanc's bust size are a rare sighting now, that might be a positive or a negative point depending on the person. (I was getting tired of those, though)

Twice as much Nep with four times more intensity. I can't see that as a negative point for anyone.

Also, Uzume. That's a big positive.

NEXT Forms and NEXT Drives for increased flashiness and damage in battle

Memes, a lot of them. You decide whether that's good or not.

The Scout and Crafting Systems are completely optional and won't interfere in your playthrough unless you want them to

Now, for the actual negatives.

I would say some dungeons are bothersome to explore due to their uncomfortably large proportions and amount of rooms, making it easy to get lost.

The combat systems, although a lot more diversified, might still be a bore for some, but it's definitely better than its predecessors, and assuming everyone reading is familiar with JRPGs and/or the Neptunia series, this point might seem unnecessary.

A relevant amount of players are experiencing gamebreaking glitches related to their graphic cards, so there's this risk. I expect a patch to be released soon, since there've been quite a few complaints.

Overall it's a very solid title for newcomers to the series and even more so to veterans. However, I'd recommend playing the other games first (at least Re;Birth 3) since it's a direct sequel to them.

-If you already know what nep is, buy the game and in the case of having potato computer, experience several cringy moments while playing.

-If you do not know what nep is, buy the game so you will know what nep is.

pros:
-nep X2
-it's the longest game so far
-new waifu: Uzume
-new fish: Umio

cons:
-no ploot/pea

For those of you completely new to the series and the world of Neptunia, it is a hybrid turn-based JRPG and Visual Novel-esque game. The story elements are told with a mixture of fully voice acted and dialogue on screen style text boxes. The majority of the time the characters in a scene appear as static images on the screen with facial expressions changing to suit the mood of the character. There are a few full-motion videos mixed in, but they are not common.

In Megadimension Neptunia VII if you just quest run on the fairly linear track, you will actually miss quite a bit of the game. The scout system is back again, which unlocks new optional dungeons for you to explore as well as give you random items and credits. To give you encouragement and reasons to explore, the Guild system will issue you mostly optional quests. These quests help you in attaining credits, items and also increase your shares (power) for a faction. You can also invest in your home cities as well. Spending your hard earned credits to upgrade the city will cause new items to be sold in stores, give you more patterns to develop better gear, or raise your shares. You can also custom design your own power-ups too by fabricating discs with up to three different elements. Hidden treasures are available as well which act like challenges. There are even collectables available for you to try your luck with. I can tell you, Super Rare collectables really are super rare!

The gameplay involves a team of up to four (optionally supported with an additional team of up to four waiting on the sidelines) doing quests as they explore the area they are in. When in a dungeon, you can see the monsters/enemies roaming around which gives you the option to either fight them or try to sneak past them. In combat, the turns are displayed of the screen to give you an idea of who will be coming up next and if the next move is yours or the enemies. On your turn you can wander around within your movement range and then attack anything that falls inside your rotatable hitbox. You string together combos until the enemy is dead. Combos are set outside of battle and what combos will be available are determined by your character’s level and what weapon they have equipped at the time. Careful crafting of combos outside of battle allows you to make most of your attacks critical hits rather than regular hits. As an alternative to just attacking the enemy you can also spend Skill Points to cast magic/abilities. These high powered abilities can buff you, debuff/status effect the enemy, heal you, or do higher damage to the enemy. Additionally, the EXE gauge will fill as you take damage or you attack (especially if you use Rush combos). EXE lets you do a few things. You can cast an even more powerful attack as the most basic option. You can have your characters team up in a formation attack where they all interact and take turns attacking the enemy (all while counting as only one move). You can also have your character team up with the character supporting them in the reserves to do a coupling attack. Using EXE also lets you super charge some of your characters allowing them to take on a much more powerful form. For the Gold Third characters, you can enter their Gold Power mode, for the CPUs, you can go to their Next Gen form, which is a transformation for their transformation! The main CPUs and CPU Candidates also have abilities which are affected by the number of shares you currently have as well, so having high shares means the attack is more effective.

Besides the Next Gen Form and Golden Powers, there are a few new features added to this game that were not present in the previous entries. There is now a timer element and instant death mechanic in play while visiting a Neplunker dungeon. Instead of being safe when standing on a precipice, one wrong move will get you killed. Also coming in contact with most things will also kill you.. Making it to the end will get you a powerful reward making the effort worth it. Another new feature is the pocket dimension that is sometimes used. Uzume can use her special power to create a Sharing Field. Inside the Sharing Field you can battle giant enemies. You don’t have access to your melee ranged attacks or abilities, but you do have a trickle of SP regeneration while in the field. Hoping from platform to platform allows you to spread your team out in order to more easily trigger formation attacks as well as make it harder to be wiped out. It also makes it harder to revive your fallen companions so you really need to figure out what strategy will work best for you.

Character customization has always been a strong point in the Neptunia series. New weapons actually look different, often extremely different than the weapon the character was previously equipped with. While armor isn’t really noticeable outside of CPU form, clothing can be changed to suit your tastes. Most of the clothing involves cosmetic changes only, but some of them actually will increase your stats a little as well.

I never like spoiling a story for a game, but I do have to talk about the story a little here. The reason why this game is called Megadimension and not just Hyperdimension like its predecessors is the fact the game spans three separate dimensions. The first act serves as an excellent introduction to the gameplay and shows off all the basic mechanics for the game. The second act gives you a “Choose your Own Adventure” style choice system. You can basically pick which of the four stories you want to play first, second, third and last. All the stories take place at roughly the same time so there is some information bleed over that occurs between them which some might consider spoiling events of that other yet to be played option. It makes it a nice touch because it keeps the worlds from seeming completely isolated from each other while at the same time allows the game to play out four whole story arcs simultaneously. The final act of the trilogy ties together the first two acts and carries you on to one of the three endings.

There are a few common elements shared between all the Hyperdimension games. Other than the characters, the enemies carry over as well. It makes perfect sense that the same enemies will be battled in each of the games as they are all set in the same location, the Hyper dimension. New enemies naturally pop up in each new installment of the game, but the familiar ones are very welcome as well including the series long running villain Arfoire. The enemies are all voiced in Megadimension Neptunia VII as well, and their dialogue changes based on how well they are doing in battle. Another element that is shared between the games are the dungeon layouts. While this makes sense, again same dimension, it is a little unfortunate that the exact same layouts of dungeons are reused so often between games and within the game itself.

So should you get it? If you are fan of the Hyperdimension main series, you would be doing yourself a disservice by not picking it up. It is the fourth game in the main series after all. The gameplay is basically similar to its predecessors, at least the Re;Birth incarnations, but it has a whole new story with new and returning familiar characters. If you are new to the series, you might want to start with Re;Birth2 (story arc start) or at least Re;Birth3 so you will be able to get the references back to the previous games. Regardless of your choice, Neptune does a good job filling the player in with the details of who each of the returning characters are and what they are all about. Any references to the previous games can be chocked up to lore in other games, where they talk about happenings that “took place” before the game started. Megadimension Neptunia VII will still make a great entry point into the series as it is probably one of the best Neptunia games to date.