➤ Hyperdimension Neptunia Re Review; Birth3: V Generation 🎮

Welcome to the legendary 80s!

PlayStation Vita tested version.

The triumphal ride of CPUs continues with the landing of Hyperdimension Neptunia Re; Birth3: V Generation on PS Vita, now monopolized by Idea Factory and Compile Heart. So, waiting for Nep-Nep to go on vacation for a while on PlayStation 4, when Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory II will also arrive in Europe, here we are again at Gamindustri to retrace the events of Victory, the third installment of the series launched on PlayStation 3 in the "distant" 2012.

After the musou parenthesis (here) and the s-rpg (here), the series returns to the same dimension in which we left the CPUs in the course of Re; Birth2 (yes, we have also reviewed this: click here). And, invariably, it confronts us with situations that are crazier than ever.

NB Here we will avoid explaining again the concept behind Hyperdimension Neptunia, a series with a strong self-ironic matrix, which personifies the protagonists of the videogame industry in countless female characters. To learn more about the topic, in addition to the articles linked above, you can read the review of Hyperdimension Neptunia Re; Birth1 (HERE).

A slightly vintage console war

Peace reigns supreme in Gamindustri. After doing their dirty work, CPU and CPU Candidates are now close friends and spend a lot of time in front of video games, happy and carefree despite the constant lectures of Histoire. Unfortunately for them, however, the oracle of Planeptune is not the only annoyance in sight because, apparently, someone else seems dissatisfied with the work of the goddesses. So dissatisfied as to found a protest movement. Well, movement is a big word since that individual doesn't have a lot of following. Indeed, to tell the truth it has none at all.

In any case, the seed of dissatisfaction still manages to bring trouble to Neptune, who is catapulted by a mysterious power into an Ultradimension where the 80s have never ended. The self-proclaimed heroine of heroines then has to deal with the relentless war between Sega and Nint… pardon, Planeptune and Lowee, thus ending up in a new nonsense story full of twists. Get ready now for absurd, self-referential and double entender dialogues, because this is perhaps one of the craziest story adventures that the CPUs have ever faced. And we have said it all.

A blast from the past, in all senses ...

Apart from a few lines in the dialogues, the story as usual does not differ much from that of the original title but, unlike what happened with Re; Birth1, where we had enthusiastically welcomed the changes to the bad gameplay of the first chapter, this time also the game system does not make significant changes. In fact we are faced with the same problems faced in Re; Birth2, that is a gameplay practically identical to that of the other remakes seen so far. And if you think that this gameplay is largely borrowed from Victory, then it becomes difficult to justify the use of the term "remake".

A controversial note aside, it must be said that the more intricate and slightly less repetitive scenarios than in the past finally justify the presence of the jump, which galvanizes our erorina to the point of making them hit blocks to collect coins ... oh well, that I tell you to do. The turn-based combat system, with free movements on the pitch, continues to work fairly well, partly justifying the reluctance of the developers to make substantial changes. In fact we have only one, absolutely spot on: the SP for special attacks they no longer recharge when exiting any map, as they did in other Kings; Birth. In this way, preparing for boss fights requires a little more forethought, as long as you don't want to consume dozens of recovery tools every time.

The combo system remains unchanged, the collection of elements to unlock weapons, accessories and tricks through the plan, the creation of the upgrade discs and the loved / hated Lily Rank, that is the system of "friendship" between the CPUs. Shops and customizations are now reachable through a whole new menu, which will take some time to assimilate but which, overall, seemed better than its predecessor.

Stella's Dungeon is back, with lots of new features!

Adventures of Stella and cel shading

Stella's Dungeon mode is probably the most welcome addition to Victory. The minigame introduced in Re; Birth2 undergoes a complete restyling here, which leads Stella to face the dungeons in a more strategic way than in the past thanks to the use of scouts, NPCs who can accompany our heroine on her adventures. Furthermore, completing Stella's quests is crucial to unlocking the game's True Ending.

To talk about the technical side, however, we could easily copy-paste what was written in the previous reviews, since the graphics and the sound (except for some rearrangements) are the same as the other Re; Birth. In a nutshell, the pleasant cel shading effect and the well-designed artwork have to deal with scenarios and enemies that are often too similar to each other, as well as with annoying drops in framerate during the most demanding moves in terms of graphic effects. The soundtrack is nice and the possibility of having Japanese voices is, as always, something more that we really like.

Final comment

Hyperdimension Neptunia Re; Birth3: V Generation it is in all respects the remake that we expected. After the first two remastered chapters we had little doubt that there would be no big news. However, we liked the improvements to the Stella's Dungeon minigame, as well as the small changes to the tried and tested game system. Overall we are therefore faced with a good RPG, carefree in the narrative, long-lived and difficult just like the original for PlayStation 3.