Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;birth 2 (PC)

BUY.

Man, I just finished this game, and what a game it was. 

While definitely weaker than the original game, Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;birth 2 (HDN 2) is still a very strong game, and definitely worth your time and money; I'll go over why it's weaker first, in order to get that out of the way.

To start, Nepgear is a fantastic character, but she's definitely a much weaker character than Neptune. Going directly from Neptune to Nepgear (as I've been playing these games back to back) really made me miss Neptune's strong, chaotic personality. As a whole, the cast of this game seems quite a bit weaker. In Re;birth 1, you had Cyberconnect 2, MAGES., MarvelousAQL, and a variety of other characters that really played well into the special kind of chaos that Neptune & co. create. Iffy & Compa even felt a bit weaker in this game, because they didn't have Neptune's antics to play off of, and while I appreciate Uni, her over the top "tsundere" attitude just wasn't as fun as Noire. 

There are also (seemingly) less dungeons, but that's simply because they start giving you dungeons with two floors very early in the game, and the second floor has new enemies, essentially creating what would be a "new dungeon" in the original. It's a clever idea -- especially to save space and make use of an existing mechanic -- but overall it makes the game feel smaller as a whole, as if there's less content than the somewhat beefy original.

There also seem to be a distinct lack of costumes for the side characters aside from recolors of their base outfits, but as I understand a few characters were changed when NISA lost publishing rights to the game, so I'm just going to assume it was a "we can add these characters, or keep these costumes in the game" deal, and so I'm alright with it. 

The combat in this game is the exact same as the predecessor, except you're now allowed to have one additional party member for 4 characters total, (or 8 if you intend on using the Switch mechanic) which was a welcome change, especially because despite the "sister" characters being weaker, you do still grow attached to them, and you want to keep all four of them in your party at one time.

They seemed to make a lot of "convenience" changes in this game, like giving you the Super EXP UP! DLC content that you can turn on to boost your EXP drastically, and ridiculous overpowered weapons and cosmetics (cosmetics sometimes have stats in this series) which would be good for someone who was put off by the initial difficulty of the original game, and only wanted to experience the story content and endings of this game.

They've also added a new plan, called "Symbol Attack Gain", which also incredibly speeds things up, and removes a lot of the tedium and grinding from the game. Allow me to clarify -- In this game, in the dungeon map, you're given the option to pre-emptively  attack an enemy before combat starts, which gives you the initiative, and is called a "Symbol attack". There's a plan you gain later in the game called "Destroy Symbol", that simply erases the enemy when you perform a Symbol attack, as if you had defeated them, except you gain no experience, items, or credits (the currency in-game). Symbol Attack Gain however lets you gain the experience, items, and credits, thus making the tedium of killing incredibly weak enemies go by much faster.

It works on all enemies as well, to my knowledge, so if you can "Symbol attack" them, you can instantly kill them for their loot.. which makes farming some of the more tedious bosses who have ridiculous amounts of HP far, far easier.

The writing in this game is funny as you'd expect of a Neptunia game, and there are far more endings in this game than there were in the original (8 total, I believe) which is something for a completionist to strive for. There are also quite a few dungeons and things added in New Game+, which strongly hints that the developers wanted you clear the game, then get started on the "end game" content, that you'd normally start on in the first cycle in Re;birth 1, if you were so inclined. Overall not a bad change, just a design choice.

I would like to note that the story in this game is also separate from the first HDN, as this is a separate "universe", or "dimension", or whatever they'd like to call it. As I understand, HDN 1 is in it's own universe, while HDN 2 and HDN 3 are in the same. If you're starting this game immediately after HDN 1, and you're confused why the backstory of specific characters is so vastly different, or why the geography of the lands suddenly drastically changed, that's why. Not a bad thing, again, just an odd choice, but I can see why they'd do that, if they wanted to start fresh with the story for HDN.

Also, while I've touched on this before, there is definitely more "fan service" content in this game than HDN 1, and it isn't as tongue-in-cheek as HDN 1. In HDN 1, the fan service was very light, and something Neptune or the others would joke about. In HDN 2, the fanservice is far mor risque, and while they do call attention to it here and there, it's more so serious and pandering to the player, than a fourth-wall breaking nod from the characters. 

It isn't an issue for myself, personally, as this type of content is is targeted towards my demographic, but if that's the kind of thing that you'd find off-putting, then I feel it's worthy of mention. 

So, overall, HDN 2 is still a wonderful game, and you should still buy it. If you enjoyed the first HDN, this game is very similar mechanically, just with a new (albeit weaker) cast, new enemies, new bosses, and new environments for you to explore. I definitely think it's worth buying and playing, especially if you were a fan of the first.