Neptunia Virtual Stars | PS4 Review

The master storytellers at Idea Factory do it again. Through their four staple Gameindustri Goddesses, and a couple of new characters they weave an intriguing, and thought provoking tale about the social goings on of the real world gaming community. This time around the focus is on the Vtuber sensation, and the clashing toxicity of online audiences. How hate, and malice can ruin experiences for both the hosts of content, the platform they broadcast content on, and those who enjoy the provided content. Starting off as most Neptunia games do the tale in question begins abruptly with a crisis in the making.

Virtual Stars, the standalone game that it is, introduces said crisis through two at odds Goddesses know as Faeria, and Kado. Faeria happens to be the goddess of Planet Emote within the Virtualand universe. Kado, on the other hand, is the evil antagonist from Obsolentia who is the cause of Emote's plight. Invading Emote, and erasing the content there is Kado's end goal, and through the help of her tag along partner HERO she initiates the invasion using her army of Antis. Summoned against their will Neptune, Blanc, Noire, and Vert along with the Vtubers MEWTRAL (Me & You) are tasked with saving Emote, and Virtualand from it's undoing by impressing the citizenry with their V-Idol talent, and weapon based skills. In a performance that is both musically inclined, and broadcasted for emotional energy. The very life source of planet Emote.

From the very beginning IFI's developers lay it on thick with the introduction dialogue, and hands on tutorials. You'll read through several panels of dialogue as the onboard voice over talent speaks to life the main characters involved. You'll find still images, and 3D animated models of those characters as they converse with one another, and forward the plot while fleshing out the WHO, HOW, and WHY of the situation. The initial introduction is a slow burn event, but done well enough as to keep the player invested, and at attention. In the midst of the back, and forth banter you'll also be thrust into the Virtual world of NeoTube, a district of Emote, as you face off against foul mouthed Antis, and learn the ropes of gameplay. There's a lot to learn, and a lot thrown in the players face as new mechanics, menus, and in-game features are explained away.

Through the hands on tutorial you'll learn quickly that the game operates both like an arena shooter, and a hack 'n slash action game. You'll be able to swap not only between the Goddesses and Vtubers in the areas of interest, but will also in that swapping be able to change between individual characters. The benefit comes with each characters', and party's weapon functionality. The Goddesses this time around are the gunners of the group whereas Vtuber Me and You are the slasher, and archer. With each character, and associated weapon you'll find some pros, and cons. Mostly to do with range, shot type, and damage output. Each character also has special skills that can be used when they are recharged. These skills are much like the skills in previous Neptunia JRPGS. Additionally characters in a party can swap to perform combos, and in a pinch they can even heal lost life points with a special party activated move.

Enemies you'll face off against in the flat labyrinthine dungeons come in mobs, and usually charge at your controlled character. To dodge, both the Goddesses and Vtubers, have a maneuver that allows them to get out of harms way. Goddesses perform a dash, and the Vtubers a side-step. In regards to damaging the enemies they each have a health bar, and a ring displayed in front of them. Doing damage to them depletes the green life bar, and simultaneously fills up the ring which acts as a flash stun than will put the enemy into a stunned state in which you are free to do damage unhindered. 

Bosses in the game are a whole different story in comparison to their lesser counterparts, and have multiple phases in which you'll deal base damage, and collect color coded diamonds for added buffs and healing. You'll even go into a special state by pressing the touch pad when a side performance meter fills up. These MV Battles play out to a specific song that has it's own stat effects. As the battle plays out a side, and lower screen bar will fill up with color according to how well you are doing. Moving up to, and away from the boss as you attack fills up the meter, and causes it to reach a powered up state in which you can transition via the touchpad into a visually different mode of play where your character deals bonus damage. Additionally as you fill up the pink ring in the center of the boss it will go into a flash stun state, and drop blue, red, and green diamonds that can be shot. The blue gives bonus defense, the red damage boost, and the green healing. In tandem with the lower bar that houses the same colors you can shoot said diamonds for added buffs. Essentially boosting the main side gauge, and adding buffs to the character you control.

As with most games of this particular series you'll find a base of operations, and the dungeon areas in which you do the battling. The main hub, which can be accessed via a portal in the dungeon areas is known as the Cloud. In it you can talk to Faeria, and the other characters for behind the scenes conversations, and can save the game. You'll even be able to set combos at the save spot, and equip unlocked costumes. Faeria herself acts as the currency banker, and allows you to convert, and store currency for use in-game. 

In regards to dungeons they are walled off areas of lanes, open spaces, obstacles you can jump over, and gates that require the triggering or shooting of switches to open up. Enemies will appear when you get near them, and will try to swarm you as you fight them off. As you traverse the lanes, and open spaces you'll also come to some story events that further the plot as well as some boss encounters.

When it comes to items you'll be collecting Vtuber related items, enemy cards, and health restoration items. The Vtuber items, in particular can only be stored in certain amounts, but can be converted via the item menu for currency. Also in the menu exists a party management, bestiary, and equipment menu. There is even a soundtrack menu which shows the level of the songs, and their added stat benefits. It's as you'd come to expect from playing other Neptunia titles.

The Verdict ...

Visually, Neptunia Virtual Stars, is an upgrade compared to previous entries. The character models are more new-gen in presentation. That being said the dungeon models are more of the same structurally, and the enemies not as impressive as I believe they could be. There's those things, and the overly complicated battle mechanics. For what you are doing in-game with your party of characters it seems a bit overblown for the basic idea of battle. As if the mechanics themselves made the battles more complex, and not the enemies. Enemies are basically a health & stun meter that has to be dealt with, and through applied mechanics there are a variety of different ways to do that though somewhat unnecessary if you think about it. Bosses are the same, but boss battles do feature a new gimmick not available in lesser battles. 

Additionally the world in which you guide the given cast of characters feels oddly vacant with the occasional mob, switches, and dialogue driven story events thrown into the mix. To add insult to injury the camera work feels sloppy at times with barriers getting into your view of what's going on. Even the gameplay feels loose, and less than precise. The dodge mechanic for the Goddess crew, in particular, has you sliding all over the place for a good minute before you stop out of the animation. It seems like a fix to the artificial problem tied to the mobs' constant magnetism towards the controlled character. 

Sadly, I found the story to be the only solid part of this game, and it's definitely more so than in previous releases. I think IFI tried to do something new with the mechanics, but went a little too wild with them. There's some issues that definitely need addressing, and some polish that needs added before this game can at least become decent, in my opinion. For me it's going to be a skip for now. I do love the story, but the gameplay portion of it doesn't compliment that plot all that well.