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| Title | MegaTagmension Blanc + Neptune Vs Zombies |
| Developer | Idea Factory, Compile Heart, Tamsoft |
| Publisher | Idea Factory International |
| Release Date | October 3, 2016 |
| Genre | Action RPG |
| Platform | PC Steam |
| Age Rating | ESRB T for Teen |
| Official Website | |
I reviewed this game with its hella long title back when it was first released on PS Vita. Even if it seems like so long ago to me, it’s actually been less than 6 months. That means the rate of porting to PC has picked up quite a bit. This is pretty good news all around. Even for those of us who are avid PS Vita evangelists (I definitely include myself in that list), there is no real downside to having just a short window of exclusivity. And this definitely allows the Goddesses of Gameindustri to find new fans. The real questions come in when you determine which is the better version, and whether it is worth the double dip (buying it for both systems).
I’ll just say a brief word about the game for those who don’t want to read my previous review. I really enjoyed this one a lot; it was almost really great. The story was fun, and having these girls in a new school setting was really nice. I liked that the girls were never really competitive or against each other; that allowed for a lot more time with all of them together as friends than you typically get in a standard Neptunia game. That being said, the story was not nearly as long or as interesting as a mainline entry in the series. The combat was pretty fun but could have used some extra depth. What surprised me the most was how different the Story Mode was from the Multiplayer experience. Story Mode is a pretty standard action RPG, but the Multiplayer bears a lot more resemblance to Monster Hunter.
The only major changes to the game are in the resolution available and using different controllers. As I said in the above screenshot, that is the most important screen to discuss, for better and for worse. The better is that Resolution; playing the game in 1080p is definitely a reason to get it on the PC. The beautiful character art of the CG scenes definitely pop a lot more on a large screen, but even more importantly the battles look and feel a lot more dynamic. I never felt that the battles were too cramped or anything on the PS Vita , but seeing the monsters on a larger screen makes it seem more epic. Unfortunately there is a downside, and that is the Fullscreen Display Mode. One of the two major bugs I encountered had to do with the game really struggling to get into and out of Fullscreen mode. This applied to changing it from the menu and also any time you started the game. Worse, this was not system specific; it was a fairly common complaint on Steam.
The option of a real controller was entirely a great thing. Much as I love my PS Vita, playing it for long periods can be a bit rough on the hands. And particularly for a man with as large of hands as I have. It can also be a little rough to always get fine tuned button presses on those tiny buttons, or controller movements on the small analog sticks. So this was actually one of the better additions to the game, and made it even easier than it already would have been (due to my previous experience of doing 100% of everything in the game). The one thing that I would have requested with the controller is that they should have allowed you to map commands onto the L2 and R2 (or trigger) buttons. I would have loved to map my favorite special moves or EXE Drive commands onto those two buttons, or maybe the assists so you don’t have to hit two buttons at once.
There are two more issues that bring the port down in quality. The first issue is the loading. It is absurd that a $2000 gaming PC should load this slower than my little PS Vita. That speaks of some bad coding. The loading is rather inconsistent; some transitions or stages load much more slowly than others, but it’s pretty much uniformly slower than the original version was. And you cannot just write that off as being a consequence of the 1080p resolution because my PC puts that out easier on much more graphically intense games. The last issue with the game is that Multiplayer can be very hit or miss. Almost 50% of the time it crashes out of the Multiplayer servers (this seems to have something to do with regional differences, according to other comments), and this makes the loading times even worse than they already are.
So even with the resolution and controller upgrades, I still have to score this port a little lower than the original game. I would like to see this version become the definitive one, and they have already released a couple patches, but it’s just not there yet. Still, if I didn’t already own this one on the PS Vita, I would definitely recommend it for a purchase. The bugs are not enough to dampen the fun of the story or the combat in this little gem. The price on Steam is $29.99, which is a little expensive to double dip on, considering the issues, but if you did not own it on the handheld device, that is very reasonable for as much game as you are getting. The story only lasts about a good 8-10 hours, but you can play the Multiplayer for months, if you so choose.
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Review Copy Provided By Publisher
