Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth2: Sisters Generation Review (PSV)

The Hyperdimension series has been storming the PS Vita recently after making its debut on the Playstation 3. Starting with Re;Birth1 released last year Re;Birth2 is the second game in the Neptunia series to be remade for the PS Vita and they’re pretty much a match made in heaven. Developers Compile Heart’s main aim is to improve on the original releases of the games, Re;Birth 1 was certainly an improvement, lets see how Re;Birth2 does in our review below.

Re;Birth2 is a remake of the PS3 title Neptunia mk2 with which Compile Heart went all out with experimentation. Certain characters from the original game were taken out and new little sister characters were included, this change didn’t really make sense from a story standpoint. The developers also changed how the game was presented, so returning players felt a bit alienated. Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth2: Sisters Generation does well to improve over mk2 and bring forth changes needed to make the game better.

Just like the original game, Re;Birth2 is set in the world of Gameindustri which is divided into four main areas namely Planeptune, Lowee, Lastation, and Leanbox. Each area is ruled over and protected by a Goddess namely Neptune, Blanc, Noire, and Vert. As you can tell by their names, they parody popular gaming consoles.

The game’s story is set around the increasing threat of ASIC, an organisation bent on reviving Arfoire, a very evil power that could endanger the existence of the whole of Gamesindustri. As the game starts, your party tries to fight the enemy head-on but ends up being imprisoned for three years. Compa and IF from the first game arrive and successfully save Nepgear, but only her. After escaping Nepgear sets out to save her allies with the help of her friends that she meets along the way.

Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth2: Sisters Generation plays very similar to Re;Birth 1. The game’s battle system is greatly improved upon the original and features additions from Neptunia Victory. Just like any RPG, your party members gain experience by participating in battles. The experience leads to level ups with improve your character’s stats and grant them powerful abilities and moves. The EXE gauge which has become a series staple, allows players to power up and deal massive amounts of damage once the meter is full. Compile Heart has added more EXE attacks so returning fans will have something new to look out for. A major change to the gameplay is a tweak to the HDD form transformation. Instead of the transformation consuming SP over time, now it’s only a once consumption system.

The best improvement over Re;Birth1 for me has been the enhancement to the game’s pacing and tweaks to the difficulty curve. There’s minimal grinding required throughout the game if you’re decent at working the battle system. This makes Re;Birth2 a much more enjoyable game as I remember spending a few good hours grinding in the prequel. Unfortunately as good as the pacing is, the writing is lackluster and sometimes even cringeworthy.

Another change that Re;Birth2 brings is going back to 2D art from 3D models in mk2 for the game’s cutscenes. The 3D models simply didn’t match the look and feel of the game and felt out of place. Graphically the game’s pretty decent as far as PS Vita games go. The game design is very colourful which really shines on the PS Vita’s OLED (the LCD PS Vita’s look good too). The developers have also put in effort to work out any technical problems resulting in Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 2: Sisters Generation to run at a much smoother frame rate than the original.