The Hyperdimension Neptunia franchise has quickly gained popularity in such short amount of time since the first game appeared on the PS3. Since then there has been two sequels, a rhythm game spin off and an anime. With even more games on the way, its best to go back to the beginning to see how things got started. WIth this in mind Idea Factor has decided to remaster the first game with new improvements, new mechanics, cleaner graphics and much more. Thus Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 1 was born.
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Revamped combat system- Many aspects of the original game have been improved on and implemented in Re;Birth 1. One such change was the battle system. Instead of rehashing the original battle system, IF took the battle system Victory and modified to fit the new game. This gives players more options for positing characters during battle, attacking and casting EX moves.It doesn’t feel as clunky and boged down as the first system in the original game.
Self aware reworked story- For the most part the story of Re;Birth 1is the same as the original: the four goddesses of Gamindustri are locked in an eternal conflict called the Console Wars. Neptunia/Purple Heart is attack by the other three goddesses at once and is knocked out and back down to Planeptune. As she crashes back to the ground and upon impact she loses her memory. She, along with Compa IF, and other friends, set out to find out how to restore Nep’s memories and find out what’s going on in Gamindustri.
However the plot has been tweaked a bit in include several new characters that have been added in (more on that in a bit). Translations have been improved and the characters (especially Nep) are more self aware and will even break the fourth wall from time to time.
Reworked dungeons & camera controls- The dungeons and camera controls also get an upgrade from the original game. First the dungeons. The layouts for the dungeons have been redone and expanded, making them a bit bigger that the originals. The search ability from Mk.II and the jump ability from Victory have been added which increases the chance for more exploration of the dungeon. As for camera controls, they have been greatly improved thanks due to Re;Birth 1 using the Victory camera system. It moves smoothly, doesn’t reposition itself when in awkward positions when walking around and now can be controlled by right analog stick instead of the shoulder buttons.
New party members- Since IF is in charge of publishing Re;Birth 1, the NISA and Gust characters were taken out. At first I was kind of disappointed because out of all the guest characters NISA was my favorite. However IF announced that they were going to add in more guest characters that were in MK.II and Victory such as Tekken, Marvelous AQL, CyberConnect2, and even the CPUs in training (Nepgear, Uni, Rom, Ram) join in as party during the adventure.
Remake & Disc Dev. systems- Since Re;Birth 1 is basically a remastered version of the original PS3 gamer, IF needed to find a way to make Re;Birth 1 seem more than just a port. For this they developed the Remake and Disc Dev. systems. The Remake system lets players affect the game in several ways; from having items and ingredients spawn more often to making new dungeons and increasing the difficulty in enemies and dungeons. As for the Disc Dev. system, this allows players to equip customized items that affect various stats and grant different abilities. But be warned, mix the wrong ingredients together and your stats and abilities will take a negative hit. I really enjoyed having these mechanics in the game, as they allowed me to customize my experience on the fly and is a good way to increase replayablity.
Travel system- One of the major things that annoyed me about the original Hyperdimension Neptunia was the travel system. In order to travel to one of the other three lands of Gamindustri, players would have to wait for a train/tram to carry them over. The only thing is that it comes at certain times. If you don’t get one when it arrives on time, you would have to wait This system is taken out and replace by the travel system seem in Mk.II, allowing players to freely travel to different areas as they open up.
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Minor issues- While a majority of the problems that the original game possessed are fixed in Re;Birth 1, there are a few minor issues that I had with the game, One of course was NISA’s guest character getting taken out. Other thing that I had an issue is that Nep is still as annoying as ever. Again these issues are really minor and had no major effect on the gameplay or my enjoyment of the game.
Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 1 is a great improvement over the original Hyperdimension Neptunia on the PS3. It fixes all that was wrong with the game while adding new mechanics from sequels to enhance it further. Other than a few minor grips, Neptunia Re;Birth 1 is a welcome addition to the Neptunia Universe. Here’s hoping that the game does well enough that IF brings over Re;Birth 2.
8/10
