Hyperdimension Neptunia U: Action Unleashed Review (PS Vita)
Story
The story is another spin-off from Hyperdimension Neptunia universe. Two journalists, Dengekiko and Famitsu want to interview the four CPUs and CPU Candidates as they complete Quests. As they keep completing Quests, they will encounter more unusual Quests as well as an unknown threat.
The story is medicore, with no interesting plot or subplots to watch. Character interactions in this game are rather minimal compared to previous Hyperdimension Neptunia games, which can be disappointing to players who like character interactions and humour from previous Hyperdimension Neptunia games.
Gameplay
This game plays similar like Dynasty Warriors games with emphasis on action hack and slash gameplay. RPG elements are still present in this game, albeit in more reduced scale. You can jump, execute a combo attack, a strong attack, and dash to avoid enemy attacks.
The game's progression is simple. You complete Quests in every Chapter to progress the story. Some of the Quests are not mandatory to do, but some of them does. Some of the Quests may have specific conditions to complete, such as defeating a certain number of enemies or collecting certain amount of items. Bosses are also present in some Quests, although they only appear once you have defeat certain number of enemies or present from the start of a Quest. Each Quest also has their own difficulty levels and recommended levels to tackle it. Attempting a Quest with low levels may cause difficulties for you to complete, such as higher enemy damage towards each girl.
You can choose up to two characters to play in a Quest, and you can switch them during combat. You may choose to play a single character in a Quest if you want to. Each character has her own attack moves and special Skills while playing as them. For example, Neptune specialises in close-range combat, whereas Uni specialises in long-range combat. Each girl also can use the devastating attack called EXE Drive move, which can devastate many enemies at the same time as well as deal high damage. Each girl may also transform to HDD forms as she attack the enemies, and HDD forms allow them to deal higher damage in a time limit.
Leveling is rather simple in this game, as you gain experience points while defeating enemies as well as completing Quests. Both characters will receive experience points and gain levels, but only if both are active in combat. The standby character will still receive experience points, but not much. You may also customise each girl's equipment such as their weapons and accessories to gain better stats.
As you play the Quests, you will encounter Medals for certain types of enemies, If you accumulate enough medals of a certain enemy category, you can redeem them to obtain prizes, such as stats increase, new weapons or new accessories. This is vital if you are having difficulties when playing higher leveled Quests. Lily Ranks also present in the game, where Lily Ranks between two characters increase as you continue to use them in Quests.
The game is fun, but the overall gameplay is just slightly above average. Although the combat is fun, it gets repetitive easily as you play on and the game doesn't present much challenge to players. Many enemies are also recycled in this game, with only few brand new enemies. The playable characters in the game are quite fun to play as, however there is not much variety between some characters to differentiate them from being completely unique. This game also has short completion time, and not many extra gameplay modes other than Neptral Tower and Gamindustri Gauntlet.
Graphics
This game has pretty graphics, like previous Hyperdimension Neptunia games. This game also has solid performance and framerate, but don't expect too many new graphical advancements when playing this game. Enemy designs are still recycled, with only few enemy unique designs in this game.
Sound
The English voice acting is good, with all voice actors did commendable job as their characters like previous Hyperdimension Neptunia games. The soundtrack has a lot of new themes, and most of them are pretty pleasant to listen. This game still reuses lots of musical themes from previous games, however.
Replay Value
This game has moderate replay value. You can opt to play Gamindustri Gauntlet against other characters in the game in a tournament with three different difficulties, or climb the Neptral Tower and complete it with all ten characters.
Conclusion
This game is mediocre, with nothing much groundbreaking features that could change any existing action hack and slash fans minds about the genre itself. Although the combat is fun, the repetitive issue of this game can really spoil a gamer's fun factor. It is worth trying, but not essentially a good game itself. The uninteresting storyline, few character interactions and short completion time are also what dampens this game's playing value.
Score
Story: 5/10
Gameplay: 6/10
Graphics: 8/10
Sound: 8/10
Final Score: 6.75/10.0 or 27/40
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Fun characters to play as.
- Fun combat.
- Good soundtrack.
- Good English voice acting.
- Pretty graphics.
- Solid performance.
Cons
- Uninteresting storyline.
- Fewer character interaction scenes.
- Short completion time.
- Playable characters are not diverse enough, both attack combos and skills.
- Too easy even for new players.
- Extremely repetitive progression.
- Boring Quests conditions.
- Many recycled enemy designs.
- Generic map layouts.
Take on Quests with ten different characters.
The story is another spin-off from Hyperdimension Neptunia universe. Two journalists, Dengekiko and Famitsu want to interview the four CPUs and CPU Candidates as they complete Quests. As they keep completing Quests, they will encounter more unusual Quests as well as an unknown threat.
The story is medicore, with no interesting plot or subplots to watch. Character interactions in this game are rather minimal compared to previous Hyperdimension Neptunia games, which can be disappointing to players who like character interactions and humour from previous Hyperdimension Neptunia games.
Gameplay
Plays like a Dynasty Warriors game with some RPG elements.
This game plays similar like Dynasty Warriors games with emphasis on action hack and slash gameplay. RPG elements are still present in this game, albeit in more reduced scale. You can jump, execute a combo attack, a strong attack, and dash to avoid enemy attacks.
The game's progression is simple. You complete Quests in every Chapter to progress the story. Some of the Quests are not mandatory to do, but some of them does. Some of the Quests may have specific conditions to complete, such as defeating a certain number of enemies or collecting certain amount of items. Bosses are also present in some Quests, although they only appear once you have defeat certain number of enemies or present from the start of a Quest. Each Quest also has their own difficulty levels and recommended levels to tackle it. Attempting a Quest with low levels may cause difficulties for you to complete, such as higher enemy damage towards each girl.
You can choose up to two characters to play in a Quest, and you can switch them during combat. You may choose to play a single character in a Quest if you want to. Each character has her own attack moves and special Skills while playing as them. For example, Neptune specialises in close-range combat, whereas Uni specialises in long-range combat. Each girl also can use the devastating attack called EXE Drive move, which can devastate many enemies at the same time as well as deal high damage. Each girl may also transform to HDD forms as she attack the enemies, and HDD forms allow them to deal higher damage in a time limit.
Leveling is rather simple in this game, as you gain experience points while defeating enemies as well as completing Quests. Both characters will receive experience points and gain levels, but only if both are active in combat. The standby character will still receive experience points, but not much. You may also customise each girl's equipment such as their weapons and accessories to gain better stats.
As you play the Quests, you will encounter Medals for certain types of enemies, If you accumulate enough medals of a certain enemy category, you can redeem them to obtain prizes, such as stats increase, new weapons or new accessories. This is vital if you are having difficulties when playing higher leveled Quests. Lily Ranks also present in the game, where Lily Ranks between two characters increase as you continue to use them in Quests.
The game is fun, but the overall gameplay is just slightly above average. Although the combat is fun, it gets repetitive easily as you play on and the game doesn't present much challenge to players. Many enemies are also recycled in this game, with only few brand new enemies. The playable characters in the game are quite fun to play as, however there is not much variety between some characters to differentiate them from being completely unique. This game also has short completion time, and not many extra gameplay modes other than Neptral Tower and Gamindustri Gauntlet.
Graphics
Pretty graphics.
This game has pretty graphics, like previous Hyperdimension Neptunia games. This game also has solid performance and framerate, but don't expect too many new graphical advancements when playing this game. Enemy designs are still recycled, with only few enemy unique designs in this game.
Sound
Good voice acting and soundtrack.
The English voice acting is good, with all voice actors did commendable job as their characters like previous Hyperdimension Neptunia games. The soundtrack has a lot of new themes, and most of them are pretty pleasant to listen. This game still reuses lots of musical themes from previous games, however.
Replay Value
Moderate replay value.
This game has moderate replay value. You can opt to play Gamindustri Gauntlet against other characters in the game in a tournament with three different difficulties, or climb the Neptral Tower and complete it with all ten characters.
Conclusion
A decent yet mediocre action hack and slash game.
This game is mediocre, with nothing much groundbreaking features that could change any existing action hack and slash fans minds about the genre itself. Although the combat is fun, the repetitive issue of this game can really spoil a gamer's fun factor. It is worth trying, but not essentially a good game itself. The uninteresting storyline, few character interactions and short completion time are also what dampens this game's playing value.
Score
Story: 5/10
Gameplay: 6/10
Graphics: 8/10
Sound: 8/10
Final Score: 6.75/10.0 or 27/40
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Fun characters to play as.
- Fun combat.
- Good soundtrack.
- Good English voice acting.
- Pretty graphics.
- Solid performance.
Cons
- Uninteresting storyline.
- Fewer character interaction scenes.
- Short completion time.
- Playable characters are not diverse enough, both attack combos and skills.
- Too easy even for new players.
- Extremely repetitive progression.
- Boring Quests conditions.
- Many recycled enemy designs.
- Generic map layouts.
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