izigame.me

Hello! Passionate gamer here and a fan of the Neptunia series as a whole. Unfortunately, the series hasn't been going well and I'm here to provide feedback after playing Sisters vs Sisters for about over 65 hours. I'm aware that the latest Neptunia game to came out was "Neptunia : ReVerse" and I'm planning to play it soon. Let's go over the aspects of the game :
> GAMEPLAY :
- Good combat mechanics that allows the player to customize how to fight and how to engage. Each character has an specific an unique type of skill/spell that does an specific type of damage. Depending on the skill that you use before, the next skills does more damage, providing the players a way to maximize their damage. I didn't notice any significant increase but it does empower the next skill.
- The Disc Development system provides a lot of power bonus during combat for each character and it's a great system. It could be difficult to figure out how it works at first but the bonuses make a significant difference during combat.
- The level design could use more work as well. Most of them are bland, Planeptune being the best one.
- It would be better if the game had a more fluid combat since the animation lock adds a certain clunkiness. It wasn't that big of a problem because most enemies are easily staggered and most of them can be stunlocked to death. The recovery speed disc helps, but it doesn't make too much of a difference during combat.
- Teleportation should be always be available, regardless of your current location. This allows players to navigate the maps faster and complete the side quests more efficiently.
- Using an item should have a cooldown timer instead of using a full skill bar. This allows players to use any items without getting punished of using a certain skill.
- A multiplayer feature where players have the ability to control any character and do quests together (including the arena in Planeptune and the Neptral Tower) will certainly bring more people to play the game and encourage friends to play it. I'm aware that "4 Goddesses Online" and "MegaTagmension Blanc + Neptune VS Zombies" have online features but Sisters vs Sisters would be a better title to apply online features to.
- The game is not difficult at all. As mentioned above, most enemies can be easily stunlocked aside from some bosses and larger enemies. Neptral Tower and the Arena can be challenging depending on the player's level. Usually, people just fight their way until their objective and that's enough for them to feel "over leveled" for the rest of the game. The difficulty curve could use some work as in giving the players more challenging battle while progressing.
- Great Player Agency as they can change the outcome of the game depending on the amount of shares. This makes the player more excited to see alternate endings to the story and how things change.
- Good replayability. The game motivates players to replay the game by giving special rewards such as characters and other stuff.
> STORY / NARRATIVE
- An interesting approach to the story. Many people were NOT expecting the story to be dark and to reach all the way back to the ancient times. It definitely caught me and many people who played the game by surprise and Airfoire, the Deity of Sin is ACTUALLY being a threat this time. Most of the time, Airfoire is a boring character with dull villain lines but in this game she's actually an interesting character.
- Nepgear's determination is the highlight of the story. It's really nice to see this character development and how much she cares about her sister Neptune. The relationship between Maho and Anri is interesting as well, really solid character development in this game overall.
> ART / GRAPHICS
- Really solid visuals. Tested it out in 4k on my TV and it looks great. When people are playing a Neptunia game, they don't care about the graphics but I have to say that the visuals are great, especially in Planeptune.
- The spell density is great, each ability is easily distinguishable making it easier for the player to know when the skill / spell goes off.
- Nothing special about the character design but I really like the walking / standing animations. Really solid animations for the skills as well, adding the immersion factor to the game.
- Nothing special about the cutscenes visuals as it uses the same one that has always been used since ReBirth. It would be really to see cutscenes using 3D Models of the characters just like we see in games like Senran Kagura.
> SOUND DESIGN / MUSIC
- Unique sound designs for each spells, making it easier to identify which spell / skill is being used / cast.
- Immersive music that really captures the environment the player is navigating. The lack of variety of combat soundtrack is one of the weakness of the game (Normal Combat and Boss Combat OST) and there should be a place in Planeptower where you could just chill and select any soundtrack of the game that you want to listen to.
- Each character has cute voices (both in English and in Japanese) and sometimes players feel the lack of combat dialogue. The characters SHOULD have dialogues to whenever you visit a certain place in the world (example : character gets near a river, character comments on it - Neptune gets near an arcade, she says "Game on, noobs!").
>>> SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE GAMES
- I suggest you guys to work on a mainline game. According to the community's feedback, that's enough of spinoffs at least for now. I would improve the future action RPG by doing the following adjustments :
1 - Make the combat more responsive by implementing animation cancellation.
2 - Create a progression system that allows the player to improve their characters and resources over time (example : weapon enchantments, gear bonuses, etc).
3 - Improvement to cutscenes by adding 3d models.
4 - Make more interesting level designs and more expansive worlds. Add mounts / vehicles for players to be able to navigate the map faster.
5 - Add more immersion to the game by adding additional dialogues, more interactions between characters and with the environment and more interactions between the player and the characters (Give head pats to Nepgear, she smiles at you and encourages you to keep going. Challenge Neptune to a game, if she wins she mocks you and if you win, you earn a reward). These little details are not difficult to add and will make the player experience, especially for Neptunia fans more enjoyable.
6 - Work on a project longer to make a more solid game. A solid game is usually improved by developing expansions and adding more content.
7 - Multiplayer feature is definitely a must have. Many people out there want to play a Neptunia game with their friends and the lack of this feature can lead to less players buying the game.
> I recommend this game for those who are fan of the characters and the Neptunia series as a whole. It's a good game but it lacks the level design and combat fluidity players are looking for, still an enjoyable game with an interesting story and solid visuals.
> This is a review done by a passionate gamer and game developer. Thank you Idea Factory and Compile Heart for being awesome developers as well and let's keep the Neptunia series alive. I hope this helps people on Steam to decide if they want to buy the game too. Much love!!!