Update [Sun 28th Apr, 2024 23:55 BST]:
A local release of the Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth trilogy has now been confirmed, with the game set to launch digitally in both North America and Europe next month on 21st May 2024 (thanks, Gematsu).
Original article [Sun 3rd Mar, 2024 00:30 GMT]:
To kick off 2024, Idea Factory has announced it will be releasing the Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth trilogy series on the Switch eShop in 2024.
The team has shared the first details about this trilogy in a PR. The same collection will also be getting a physical release on the Switch in Japan this May, but there's no mention of this being made available locally right now.
Here's the rundown of the three titles, courtesy of Idea Factory:
Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 1 Overview
In the world of Gamindustri, four CPUs (also known as Goddesses) battled for supremacy in the War of the Guardians. One of the CPUs – Neptune – was defeated by the others and banished from the heavens. In her fall from grace, Neptune’s memories were lost, but a mysterious book revealed itself to her with knowledge of all of Gaminudstri’s history. Joined by Compa, IF, and the sentient book known as Histoire, Neptune embarks on an extraordinary journey across four different nations on a quest to save the entire world! Immerse yourself in the zany JRPG madness of the Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth series for the first time on Nintendo Switch™!
- Now on-the-go!
- Revisit Classic Neptunia RPG Style Battles
- Switch it up with Plans (customise enemy difficulty, dungeon treasures and more)
- Gear galore - craft unique equipment imbued with abilities
Hyperdimension Neptunia: Re;Birth 2 Sisters Generation Overview
International Crime - morality has all but vanished. As much as 80 percent of all students are rumored to worship a being known as Arfoire, and the authorities have chosen to turn a blind eye to the threat. Basically, Gamindustri is pretty messed up, you guys. Ahem. Thus did Gamindustri fall into complete and utter disarray.
- 4 characters on the battlefield, 4 more on the sidelines
- Realtime dungeon minigame
- Customise the gameplay with Plans
- Build-a-Sword - create custom equipment
Hyperdimension Neptunia: Re;Birth 3 V Generation Overview
It’s time to Nep-Nep like it’s 1989. Neptune’s been sucked into an alternate dimension of Gamindustri! In order for her to escape from this late ‘80s world, Neptune will have to collect enough shares to open up the path to her own dimension. Sounds easy enough – except a nefarious alliance called the Seven Sages wants to rid Gamindustri of all CPUs (also known as Goddesses), including Neptune!
- Customise attack combinations with up to five moves
- Dungeon minigame returns with friends
- Create Plans that alter gameplay
- Get crafty - customise powerful equipment
There's no release date, screenshots, or trailer just yet, but when we get an update, we'll let you know. Would you be interested in this trilogy collection for Switch? Tell us in the comments.
Comments 46
Finally, i've been waiting forever for these to come over to Switch!
True fans only
Honestly...I couldn't get into the Neptunia series even when many of them were coming to Vita, which I still own, & still didn't bother buying ANY of them.
Although I did plan on getting Neptunia vs SEGA Hard Girls. But even I passed on that one. A lotta folks hardly ever talk or mention about that one.
Yes! I loved VII and currently enjoying Sisters vs Sisters. So glad to have all the games in one place now!
The Amazon JPN for preorder but don't say if it has EN text or not?
Oh sweet! I might have to check these out.
The only good nep games
Tried the first one on the Vita and wasn’t my cup of tea.
3 mediocre at best games i'll pass..
Yeah, these three had to come to Switch eventually, and I'm down for it.
I can't speak for the original game since I haven't played it, but I did play through Re;Birth 1 and thought it was "meh".
Neptunia mk2 is still my favorite in the series to this day for having my favorite gameplay (especially with the AP system feature), and while I still had some enjoyment with Re;Birth 2, the remake just wasn't as good to me.
I haven't played Re;Birth 3, but I did play Victory and I thought it was a huge disappointment after mk2. The gameplay felt so watered-down to me and the difficulty was all over the place.
These are 3 of my faviote video games ever. Not just that, but video games have been a big part of my life for as long as I can remember, and playing these 3 games after picking them up on a Steam sale stand as some of the most fun and raw enjoyment I've ever gotten from the media.
I would highly, highly recommend that most people ... skip them. I mean, objectively they are pretty bad! Bare-bones gameplay, repetitive, and humor you are either going to love or hate, with much higher likelihood of the latter.
But if you don't take games too seriously and can laugh at very simple, campy shots taken at the game industry, there is so much fun to be had here. The English voice cast is ... like, almost offensively good. It's better then most high budget English language anime adaptations, working with a script that makes Madam Web look like gold most of the time.
I have been wanting to try these, might be a really silly qustion but are they good? I know people like them but would anyone say that the series is worth playing?
@Snatcher
Read my comment right about yours ...
@DanijoEX-the-Pierrot it's typical generic jrpg stuff.
So so many generic games where they just re-use boring old game engines (with floaty physics and where characters don't even really interact with the environment and everything is bland) and then rely entirely on cute character art so the otakus will buy.
Nothing about these games make sense to me. They have a surprisingly big, dedicated fan base, and a pretty consistent release schedule. Yet I have heard some terrible things about these games. Someone explain!
I loved these on the Vita. Bright and breezy (mostly), and I found them to be strangely compelling and addictive at the time. Finding chips which enable you to "break" the game is fun, and it's one of those games where the damage numbers go sky high in the end. Also, the real time dungeon mini games are lovely, where you send a party out, and then come back later on to see how they did. It appears that time has not been kind in relation to how these games are perceived now, but I for one will look forward to revisiting them.
@HeadPirate ah so don’t come for the gameplay stay for the fun and jokes? I think my humor is pretty busted honestly so I’m willing to give it a shot and see if I enjoy them, never know when a series like this will be a favorite. thank you!
@Snatcher
I wouldn't even say the gameplay is BAD ... it's just basic and repetitive. But the flip side of that is that it's simple and low key. Numbers go up! Lights flash! Everyone gets increasingly ridiculous powers with increasingly ridiculous animations!
It's just not a series to be taken seriously. It's comfort food or a cheesy B movie.
As for the humor, It takes some pretty basic and predictable shots at anime culture and some surprisingly deep and insightful shots at the video game industry.
If you do give them a shot, I hope you enjoy them.
I'd have loved to see the original games on the Switch, these are remakes if I recall correctly but I probably don't because there are like 9234097 remakes of remakes in this series and I don't even know what I don't know in terms of which ones to play first
@Princess_Lilly
You're right. Re:birth1 is the Vita and later PC remake of the original "Super Dimension Game Neptune", or "Hyperdimension Neptunia" for PS3.
Neptunia ReVerse is the PS5 remake.
So this is a release of the remake that happened before the last remake was released. Simple.
Nice to see these games coming to Switch in general and even personally since I wanted to eventually give this series a try!
@HeadPirate Wouldn't be surprised if I were one of those who would enjoy them to at least some extent because of what you mentioned despite the overall basic and repetitive gameplay (and excluding the English voices, but that's just because I'd go for the Japanese ones if available).
It's like Precious Moments figurines if they sold them on Adam and Eve.
@HeadPirate I think you're kinda underselling the series. The only thing I can truly say is awful about Neptunia is that all of the main line games, from 1 to VII, have terrible dungeons that repeat on an on. Like the exact same environmental asset lay out for the 15th time recycled under a shiny new name, and it still feels like a tutorial level 50 hours in.
As for everything else, They're no final fantasy or Secret of Mana, but combat feels fine and snappy, and writing and character designs are cute and funny enough to make you forget the dungeons are a form of reputation torture. Like, moe' diabetes level cute.
And what are you doing listening to the dub? The subs are the real meat in the visual novel segments as that's where the personality of the characters really shine and they don't skip any lines like they do in the dub.
It’s fan servicey. I’m glad someone gets to enjoy them, but I recall playing the first on Vita and draaaaagging through 8 hours, and then finally I was like “nope!” I remember thinking the concept was amazing when it first came out and had to go years without playing it after it was first released. The writing was cheesy; and unfortunately I have to disagree with the writing being enough to forget how torturous the dungeons are. If it was fun repetition I’d give it a pass, but it wasn’t (for me).
I think at the end of the day, the games you like from the series will depend on the repetition you enjoy. I preferred MT Blanc VS Zombies, Neptunia U Action Unleashed, and 4 Goddesses Online. I’d still have to same critiques, except it’s fun repetition for me.
I’ve never played these three. Hopefully they are good. The Neptunia series has been very hit-and-miss for me.
@imadeanaccount Neptune is an incredibly fun character, I could listen to her babble all day. A lot of the humor relies on references to video games. Also the music is incredible. That's about it. They should probably just be visual novels. I really like them, but objectively they're a solid 6/10. If you don't like anime weebiness, they should probably be skipped in favor of RPGs with more to offer.
@JohnnyMind The Japanese dub is.... oof. Not recommended. It takes you from fun Neptune, to cringe Neptune, instantly. I like Japanese audio on 90% of things, but not this series, nope.
Hopefully the JPN version has EN text otherwise buying it cost a few $$$$ and if no EN then that just bites. And hope a NA comes out but it just that a but.
@geo-shifter Similar story here: thought the concept was great, and that it had tons of potential for a fun story and interesting environments... instead, it's just incredibly generic and repetitive, with each "planet" having the exact same levels (Generic Warehouse #1). Couldn't they have made the Wii planet colourful and kiddy, and the Xbox planet look like Gears of War or something? This should have been ripe for parody!
The difficulty is also broken, at least in the Re;Birth version. (Requires lots of grinding, unless you use the DLC characters, one of which is invincible because her stats are so much higher than the enemies'.)
I probably got about as far as you did before shelving it.
@imadeanaccount I can only think of one reason for its popularity: waifus.
Okay, more seriously, there's a lot of silly dialogue, as well as a lot of parodies and references. The protagonist is a total goofball, and her ramblings can be considered hilarious and charming, or perhaps annoying. That's really the thing: the game lives or dies based on the humour of its writing.
Gameplay is a pretty basic turn-based JRPG, except you can move around freely during your turn, and try to line up your attacks to hit multiple enemies at once- it's kind of reminiscent of Quest 64 in that regard. But unfortunately, there are only 4 dungeons, and they keep showing up on each new planet you visit. And I don't mean 4 dungeon themes, where you keep seeing unique dungeon layouts reusing the same canyon graphics or whatever. I mean it's literally the same layout.
I hoped it would get better, but ultimately quit maybe ~10 hours in, when I saw it wasn't going to change or improve.
i might have to import the physical version of this collection from playasia which i prefer over digital any day.
@ArcticEcho I can agree with the writing and music there. When I said cheesy, I didn’t mean it in a bad way. I think that was intentional anyway. I also enjoyed the music.
@smoreon Definitely grindey on ReBirth 1. And that’s another reason why I dropped it. Waifus, fan service; I put them in the same realm. One thing I noticed - and then a video I watched about it noted - that there are very very few male characters. And all the female dialogue avatars have “jiggle,” if you know what I mean.
Digital-only, and those games aren't small.
Oof.
@MirrorFate2 it tells us some devs are just being lazy not putting some games on a cartridge.
@JohnnyMind
The Japanese cast is also great, but you would miss out on the opportunity to hear a very self aware and meta character make overtly sexualized comments in the same voice as English Hello Kitty! I mean the games might be worth it for that alone!
Although in all seriousness, this is an example of where a localization team just NAILS it. The jokes are almost all based around either gaming culture or work culture, and as someone who has lived in and worked in the gaming industry both in Japan and NA, I would say the jokes land a lot better if you've experienced the culture first hand. The English team did a great job of retooling a lot of the work culture stuff that would seem a bit off in the West while also turning the gaming culture stuff meta by making it a lampooning of "weebs" rather then gamers in general. It's a brilliant acknowledgment of how this game is pretty mainstream in it's presentation for Japan, but is extremely niche in the West ... so they can make assumptions about the type of people who likely playing it. Rather then have that hold it back, the English team uses that to make the characters even more endearing.
That's likely why I loved the games so much. As someone whos' spends most of their life not quite fitting into either culture, it really spoke to me. I didn't enjoy the game nearly as much in native Japanese, but it's still funny and better yet ... uniquely funny. They even change some of the basic characterization of the "Leanbox" nation because this came out at a time when Xbox was absolutely demolishing PlayStation in the West but still had no presence in Japan. So a lot of the time where jokes were dependent on making fun of how no one has an Xbox, they were modified to reflect that. The same with how most Westerns don't see SEGA as a gaming powerhouse because they never had their arcades.
This is obviously very subjective though. My core argument is basically how it speaks to my personal experience.
I think you really would enjoy them, based on the comments you've made about how you approach gaming.
@HeadPirate so is it kinda like a mosu? Because they are fun but tend to get repetitive quickly.
Everything you said about the characters and whatnot seems right up my ally though, so I see no harm in trying one of them. Another question I have though, do I have to play the series in order? Because ps plus has one of them and I would try that unless they are connected like that. (The one they have is medadimension 7)
About time, none of this PS5 Remake garbage to rebirth it again. Switch sure it's a new audience but PS5 come on people that didn't play PS3/Vita versions sure I get that but even still. Just offer a few enhancements and a bunch of them not enhance the first one again. Was it worth it for their engine sure but the changes not really.
I've never played any of them but always heard about the series. Technically I only own the idol management one that stayed on Vita and I've seen the anime so I have an idea what the series is besides video reviews/other details to get an idea of the other games gameplay/story aspects.
As far as part tactics I guess (like Tales series the arenas but it's turn based and whatever sort of attack range each character can attack in like a tactics game sort of way, so like how many on a grid (so say 1 square or however wide the attack is of reach horizontal) I guess but you move over to enemies to attack melee or ranged), visual novel cutscenes, fair worlds with I guess mostly above ground/underground/dungeons that are linear, part yes game industry animeified for otakus it gets the job done.
@Snatcher
Yeah, that's not a bad way of looking at it.
Each game series happens in it's own alternate dimension, which is where the names come from. This is Hyperdimension, which is different from Megadimension. The characters are basically the same, the relationships are basically the same and the plot elements and background events ... also basically the same! But no "strong" continuity. The 3 games in this series should be played in order though.
It's like the "dual" continuity you get with a lot of Japanese series. Nuptunia can almost been see as a "real" person with her own continuity and personality between series, who is "acting" in different games we encounter her in. I mean she calls herself the protagonist and refers to you directly as the player, so suspension of disbelief is not really something these game ask for!
And her two best friends are literally the publisher and the developer (IF, for Idea factory and Compa, for Compile Heart). Man I love these games!
@HeadPirate so it’s like final fantasy with how the games work is just this series is way more aware of that fact? lol.
so what you’re saying is I could play 7 but I should play these games in the article in order. The series honestly sounds very funny, plus I love meta stuff like that! Whenever I finish up with final fantasy I’m gonna try it out next, and if I enjoy it I’m picking these three up for sure.
This is the big Rebirth release, right?
@ArcticEcho @HeadPirate I'll probably go for the Japanese voices as usual if I get these but still, thanks for your suggestions!
Thank you, Re:Birth1 on Vita, it was fun while it lasted.😅 It'll be great to have more of the flagships on Switch. Then again, Vita still has Neptunia U (talk about a misleading platform association😄), Producing Perfection and whatnot, so it likely won't be retiring as a Neptunia machine anytime soon.
I’m new to the series….would they be complicated to get into for a newbie like myself?
No physical Release outside of Japan? Gonna stick with the PS Vita Versions then.
Tried & found myself losing interest.
Stuck with Action Unleashed a bit more though 'cause hack n' slash.
Try playing on PS3 , PSVITA , PS4 , unable beat any single of this game ...
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