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PLATFORM
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Vita
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BATTLE
SYSTEM
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INTERACTION
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ORIGINALITY
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STORY
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MUSIC
& SOUND
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VISUALS
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CHALLENGE
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Adjustable
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COMPLETION TIME
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20-40 Hours
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OVERALL
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+
Quality battle system
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Large cast of playable
characters
+
Fun references in battle and
story
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Disappointing story
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Unnecessary and out of place
fanservice
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Occasionally annoying battle
requirements
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Click
here for scoring
definitions
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Hyperdevotion
Noire: Goddess Black Heart is a spin-off of
Idea Factory's now long running Neptunia
series. Developed with Sting, Noire brings
strategy combat to the series along with a new
take on Neptunia's parody of the video
game industry. Instead of featuring a cast of
anime girls based on various video game companies,
Noire features a cast based on various
video game series. This fits the solid SRPG combat
perfectly, providing a diverse cast for players to
use in battles. The story can't quite do as much
with the concept however. Still, Sting's quality
development work ultimately provides an
entertaining experience.
There's nothing
particularly new about how Hyperdevotion Noire
goes about strategic combat. It feels similar to
Sting's last SRPG, Tears to Tiara II where
players select a number of characters to deploy at
the start of battle, with each side taking the
actions of all of their characters before the
other's turn. Characters automatically learn new
skills as they level so there isn't a whole lot of
customization outside of equipment. When
characters use a skill next to their teammates,
points get added to a pool that any character can
pull from to use super powerful attacks. These are
often vital to victory in tougher battles, so
turns that a player may normally spend just moving
now become more strategic. Players will need to
move characters together and use buffs on these
turns to fill up that pool so a super attack will
be ready to go when in range of enemies. As an
additional nice touch, when targeting enemies with
skills and super attacks, it gives the player an
idea of how much damage will be dealt, preventing
wasted turns and using ineffective attacks.
In addition to
the basic movement and usage of skills, players
will have to strategize around the environments
battles take place in as well. Often featuring
varying height, traps, teleporters or other
obstacles, Hyperdevotion Noire
often finds new wrinkles to throw at the player.
This also includes objectives like finishing
within a certain number of turns, protecting
certain characters, or even not killing certain
enemies. Most of these are fun, but a few can
provide unneeded frustration. One particular
chapter takes away the vast majority of the
player's party except for a few characters, who
may be underleveled depending on how they were
used previously. There's also some battles that
require building staircases out of boxes scattered
around the battlefield, which gets quite tedious.
Other hazards include various status ailments,
such as skill lock and poison, to wacky ones like
changing characters into tofu. Player characters
can inflict these as well, so they become an
additional strategic element in combat, and make
having a healer or stock of ailment relieving
items a necessity.
Noire
apparently is so good her team
doesn't even need a goalie.
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Enemies seem to
be pulled mostly from other games in the Neptunia
series, but this works out alright as they are all
generally video game themed and fit in with the
setting. Bosses are often future party members,
meaning they can also use powerful super attacks
and can prove to be quite challenging foes.
Thankfully, the game provides a difficulty
adjustment feature to help players from bashing
their head against a wall. In addition to the base
difficulty selection at the start of the game,
when hitting the game over screen in any battle an
"easier please" option becomes available to reduce
the power of enemies in that battle. The effect
stacks as well, so it can be used multiple times
if players continue to struggle. A "retreat"
option is also available to go straight to the
game over screen if the player is in an unwinnable
state or simply wants to reduce the difficulty
quicker.
The look and
feel of the game does a good job fitting into the
whole theme of characters being parodies of game
series. Characters in battle have chibi style
models that are quite detailed and animate well.
Most characters have pretty overt references to
various series such as Resident Evil and Monster
Hunter, with entertaining special attacks to
match them. Some are subtle, but this is more
likely because they represent game series not well
known outside of Japan. Cut scenes use the typical
2D, slightly animated portraits that have been
used in many recent RPGs. These work fine for the
most part, but they don't feel like a perfect
match for the style of the battles.
Not
subtle at all but still funny.
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The biggest
problem with the story scenes, however, is the
tale being told feels like a missed opportunity.
The game focuses on recruiting the generals of the
four goddesses, who represent the consoles of
Nintendo, Sega, Microsoft, and Sony. Each general
represents a game series, which allows for some
goofy jokes and occasional fun such as the Legend
of Heroes character's constant references to
legendary things. Outside of these occasional
jokes and references however, the story never does
much with the concept. It mostly feels like a
series of generic anime shenanigans, especially
considering the antagonist rarely shows, and
doesn't even drive the story when she does. To top
it all, the game throws fan service at the player
for each general that feels completely out of
place and unnecessary. Even the jokes start to
wear as the game goes on, such as when the writers
could find nothing better to do with the Ms. Pac
Man character than make jokes about her age. The
story is just an awful disappointment.
A strategy RPG
seems like a perfect fit for the Neptunia
series, and this largely ends up being true. A fun
battle system combined with a large and diverse
set of characters to choose from makes for a good
deal of fun. The story, frankly, nearly sucks the
life out of the entire endeavour. Thankfully, the
majority of time with the game is spent in battle,
and story scenes can be skipped. Sting has
produced many quality RPGs in the past, and its
experience really shines through in Hyperdevotion
Noire. It may not bring anything new to
SRPGs, but it still proves to be a solid and
entertaining strategy experience.
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