RE-REVIEW: Superdimension Neptune VS Sega Hard Girls


Title	Superdimension Neptune VS Sega Hard Girls
Developer	Compile Heart, Felistella
Publisher	Idea Factory International
Release Date	June 12, 2017
Genre	RPG
Platform	PS Vita, Steam
Age Rating	T for Teen
Official Website

The Neptune franchise has been one that I’ve been looking to get into for years, but I’ve never really had the opportunity to do so. So when I got a chance to review Superdimension Neptune VS Sega Hard Girls I was stoked. I already had a pretty good idea as to what the Neptune franchise was about, and the Sega Hard Girls inclusion really piqued my interest. For a more in-depth review be sure to check out Steve’s review here, as I will mostly be going over the PC port and how it functions. So without any further ado, let’s dive right into it.

You play as IF in this spinoff, and your job is to save history with the help of the Sega Hard Girls. As per usual in the Neptune games, the interesting story is woven in with very meta and on-the-nose humor. The story was an absolute blast from beginning to end, and I’m glad that I got to play it. I absolutely enjoyed IF as a protagonist, and the other girls were all interesting and fun to watch in their own ways. If other games in this series are as funny and charming as this, then I can’t wait to play them all!

All of the set pieces and character models look fantastic, especially in 1080p. The character designs look simple, but are actually fairly complex, incorporating elements from the systems that they portray on them. The set pieces are also really cool, albeit lacking that complexity. They do their job well and look really good. For lack of better terminology, this game was an absolute pleasure to look at.

Like in most RPGs, you take quests and have to complete them. You have a set number of “turns” to complete each quest, and after that, they disappear. You can only claim one at a time, which is a shame, and they all require you to go to different time periods in order to complete them. The timed mechanic and only being able to claim one mission at a time really held the game back a little for me. I felt like it was unnecessary padding for a game that’s already at a good length. It didn’t completely ruin the game, but it sure holds it back from being as great as it could have been.

The battle mechanics are fun and work really well, being a mix of both turn-based, and action-oriented combat. Battles are fun to play, and the enemies vary greatly from place to place. There’s nothing really difficult to figure out here, but that’s not a bad thing. The battle system is very accessible to new people and slowly eases you into the combat. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll never want to stop fighting. It’s really addictive, and would definitely be the highlight of the game if it didn’t already have amazing writing.

Finally, we get to the part all of you have probably been waiting for, how this game runs. The PC port actually runs exceedingly well. There are a few occasional frame dips, but it’s nothing dramatic and it happens so sporadically that you probably won’t even be able to tell. The game runs at a beautiful 60 FPS at full 1080p, and it looks stunning. My machine isn’t the most powerful, but the game ran just fine at its default settings for me.

This game is well worth the $29.99 that it costs on Steam, I had loads of fun with it and have logged in almost 30 hours and have only gotten one of the three endings. Definitely, pick this game up if you’re a fan of the series. The game runs really smooth and never crashed on me once. There are a few framerate issues, but they in no way affect the gameplay. I had an unbelievable amount of fun with this game even though the timed quests weren’t explained as well as they probably should have been. I can’t wait to play the other games in the series to find out what I’ve been missing out on for so long.