Quote Originally Posted by Satoshi_Matrix View Post
I only agree so far as to the very first Hyperdimenion Neptunia is concerned. That game was terribly executed and as you say, "trash". The others in the series aren't. MKII was a massive step forward and Victory was about as good of a game as the genre can possibly allow for. All three Re;Birth games on Vita reexamine the PS3 works and add slight tweaks to make them better for portable play, and the spinoff games target more niche genres than the mainline RPGs. Producing Perfection was a game that I don't think the vast majority of western review outlets were at all qualified to review. If you read them, it's clear those people have no experience with idol management games, and when you add the moe and the Hyperdimenion Neptunia specific jokes, it was just something reviewers didn't get. PP is the weakest of the modern games, but it's still not "trash". Neither are the SRPG and the Dynasty Warriors-esque action game.
I've only played Mk2. I know the combat system is different than the first game and that the Rebirth games all use the combat system pulled from Mk2. The combat isn't horrible, but the game acts like you're doing some advanced sort of gameplay when they just shoehorn you into repeating the same stuff over and over. Basically, use a break combo, then use an attack combo, maybe use some skills in between, repeat, over and over. During any normal battle, it was wait the first turn so and so far away so the enemies move towards you, then move towards them so all three of your characters can strike first. It's a TRPG type combat system that uses the Breath of Fire Dragon Quarter/Arc the Lad Twilight of Spirits style of combat. The combat was the best part of the gameplay but when everything else was so much worse, an okay combat system can't salvage everything else.

One good aspect of RPGs is exploration. All of the dungeons in the Neptunia games are small dungeons where exploration is practically non existant. It takes two seconds to move from one end of any dungeon to the other end. The dungeons aren't exactly identical, but they may as well be the same exact thing with a different background because that's exactly what they feel like. The quest system isn't much of a quest system as instead of being unique, they're all kill these types of enemies or gather these types of items, and then they'll just start repeating themselves.

Compare the dungeons to something like Wild ARMs or Lufia 2 which the exploration in dungeons is puzzle like, similar to Zelda, giving some thought to the dungeons as well exploration, so there's a bit more depth than your average JRPG, and the dungeons to the Neptunia games are just a complete joke. Compare them to any other RPG that still uses the premise of exploration as one of its concepts, and the Neptunia games dungeons are... well... still a joke and don't add a thing to the game.

Sorry, but unless your gameplay is going to blow my mind, then you're going to have to give me something than a mildly entertaining story at points, because despite the idea that RPGs are played for their story, they're played for a combination of things. If it was story only then I wouldn't play an RPG because I can go to any other story telling medium and get far better storylines with stuff that is considered sub par in that medium.

Quote Originally Posted by Tanooki View Post
I just looked this up on the wikipedia. I take it the 3 rebirth games which also got PC ports all handle this better combat engine. I had a vague interest in this way back on PS3 but saw the battle engine looked more like a somewhat active Tactical RPG type style and very clunky so I just ignored it. This rebirth style seems almost more in a way like the live open area combat like the tales of... games are known for seeing a clip of it.
It's nothing like Tales of. The combat is like Breath of Fire Dragon Quarter or Arc the Lad Twilight of Spirits.