RE-REVIEW Megadimension Neptunia VII (Switch)


Title	Megadimension Neptunia VII
Developer	Compile Heart / Idea Factory
Publisher	Idea Factory International
Release Date	July 28th, 2020
Genre	RPG
Platform	Switch
Age Rating	T for Teen
Official Website

Being a huge Neptunia fan I never pass up a chance to look at a new release. Idea Factory International recently released a port of Megadimension Neptunia VII for the Nintendo Switch. While this version uses an older engine than the more recent version of the game, Megadimension Neputunia VIIR, in this you can get the DLC characters that were cut from that version. The biggest question on everyone’s mind is how well does this title run on the Nintendo Switch? Let’s dig in and find out.

This review is going to focus on the performance of the game on the Nintendo Switch console rather than around gameplay discussion. This is my third run through the game, so I feel like it’s more important to discuss this aspect. Folks can refer to my previous review of the PlayStation 4 version if you would like more details on the game’s systems or combat details.

The game actually looks pretty good here. The resolution has been scaled down for this version but everything looks crisp and clear. You will notice more jaggies when playing docked than you do playing handheld, but it’s not bad enough to be distracting. The framerate is where things get a bit dicey. If you turn on the Shadow Render the FPS will tank badly. I guess it was fine to have the option but it’s pretty rough sailing if you turn it on. The Effects Render doesn’t impact the FPS that badly, but I turned this off because it removes the bloom effects. This was always one of my issues with the game’s engine. The bloom effects makes everything look like it’s covered in a fog, so turning this one off makes the game look a lot better!

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I spent about 20 hours with this version and played up to Noire’s story in G Dimension. The only stage that really gave me major performance issues was the Sakura Forest. This stage chugged on the PlayStation 4 back in the day, so I didn’t expect better here to be honest. It’s perfectly playable, but where other stages hover around the 30 FPS mark with shadows off, this one is probably closer to 20. The only other hitch I noticed was when the CPUs transform you will see a slight stutter when the transformation starts. This doesn’t really hurt anything and the girls still look amazing, but it’s something folks will notice. There were no frame dips during combat I can remember, and special move animations were on point.

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Megadimension Neptunia VII still has what I consider the best writing in the franchise. The girls wit and charm shine through in every scene, and this reminded me why I love this franchise so much. Newcomers to the series could start here, but I would probably recommend they check out the Re;Birth games before digging into this one. This port is playable, but I think Idea Factory should look to another port company in the future since both this and Fairy Fencer sorely needed more optimization. That being said, if you want Megadimension Neptunia VII on the go it’s well worth the $29.99 asking price.