Its been several years since the Deity of Sin was defeated. In spite of a little trouble here and there, the wold is at peace and the CPUs have been leading a life of leisure.
Until one day, the CPU of Planeptune, Neptune, was sent to another dimension. There, everything felt old, yet strangely familiar – it was like the Gamindustri of the 1980’s.
However, in this more retro Gamindustri, there exists a mysterious organization called the Seven Sages that seeks to spread its anti-CPU message at any cost.
In order to return to her world and protect this other Gamindustri, Neptune sets off on her new adventure.
At least that is what the manual says. What I really got from HDNV is fan service and cameos, and lots of it.
I’m not saying that it is a bad thing. Actually quite the contrary! I went into this game thinking it was just another cutesy JRPG, and that part is true, but as I played, it slowly dawned on me that the entire game is a fun spin on the competition of today’s Game Industry.
In fact the world this game takes place in is called Gamindustri, and in this world exists four cities battling for control: Planeptune, Lowee (Wii), Lastation (Playstation), and Leanbox (Xbox). If that wasn’t enough most of the residence of the cities are caricatures of characters from those respective consoles.
The character design is fun and inventively futuristic. Neptune– the main character– is really bubbly and never serious about 
anything. She is always breaking the fourth wall and she uses words like “for realizes.” All of these things make her a really fun and lovable character, but they also bring this game it’s biggest faults. As the synopsis said, Neptune is whisked away to an alternate dimension, but because Neptune doesn’t take anything seriously she doesn’t really get stressed out about her situation, therefore I don’t get stressed out about her situation. She keeps saying she needs to find a way to get back to her world but does it in such an upbeat and peppy way that it just doesn’t make me care about what happens.
However, Neptune was who kept me playing. Where the storyline failed to grip me in any significant way, Neptune succeeded in making me laugh so many times with her ditzy humor that I would happily keep playing just to get to the next cutscene.
The attention to detail in this game makes it stand out. The little things count, like when changing outfits and weapons those changes actually visibly show on your character and it’s wonderful. During conversations between characters, 2D character drawings are shown to represent them, those characters will blink, their mouths move and if you take the time to look there is even a constant animation for breathing. These may seem like minor things that don’t really matter, but I’ve played games with bigger budgets that leave these things out. Hyperdimension really shows that taking the extra time to include the little things can really breathe life into your game.
One area that Hyperdimension really shines is combat. The free range/turn based battles were so engaging that I would clear maps just for fun. CPUs can fight just fine as a normal little girls wielding a gigantic sword, but when things get tough they can go into HDD mode and transform into a more powerful, scantily clad, and well endowed version of their former selves. The HDD mode is effectively a different person all together. The alternate forms are for the most part the same character if not a little more serious. But a few characters are so drastically different that it actually gets disturbing and awkward. And along with this attitude change they all get a lot more…voluptuous…if you catch my drift.
The soundtrack is done by Nobuo Uematsu from the Final Fantasy series along with his band The Earthbound Papas so in my opinion the music could not have been better.
Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory has earned its spot in my JRPG favorites list and you should definitely pick it up if you have played the past Hyperdeminsion games, like quirky humor or if you want to sit back and enjoy your gaming experience.
