For a long time, I’ve been a pretty big fan of the Neptunia franchise. As far as mechanics go, the series isn’t the best, of course, but in terms of humor, story, and overall experience, I count it among my favorite RPG series; if I’m just looking to have a good time. I’m always intrigued when Idea Factory releases a spinoff, as historically the spinoffs are where they take risks, and try out new mechanics and ideas. Super Neptunia RPG is no exception, taking the franchise and giving it a 2D RPG spin.

In Super Neptunia RPG, Neptune finds herself with amnesia (again) in a side-scrolling 2D world where things are not as they seem. A mysterious woman named Chrome tells her that an organization known as Bombyx Mori are doing nefarious things, and as the hero of the story, Neptune begins a journey to stop them. Along the way, she reunites with Blanc, Vert, and Noire, who also have lost their memories.

Super Neptunia RPG plays like a hybrid of an RPG and a Metroidvania. You traverse platforming areas, fighting monsters in turn-based battles, and leveling up. In towns, you can acquire quests, buy items, and outfit your party with new equipment. As you progress through the game, you get new mobility options for Neptune, so you can reach places you couldn’t get to before.

The progression system is very similar to the one in Final Fantasy IX. Each character can equip different types of gear, and each unique piece of gear has different skills and abilities attached. By keeping an item equipped and learning the skill attached, you unlock new abilities for your party. If you unequip an item before learning the skill though, you lose access to it.

Combat is where things get a little lackluster. From the screenshots, I expected a fighting style similar to Valkyrie Profile because each character is attached to a specific button. However, the combat style is much less fluid. Only one character can attack at a time (instead of chaining multiples) and you don’t have a menu to choose what each character does each turn.

Instead, they have implemented the “Formation” system. By putting your party into one of four formations, you can change mid-battle (similar to the Paradigm system in FFXII) and adapt to different circumstances. The problem with this is that each character only gets to equip one ability per formation, so you can’t adjust your strategy mid-battle to focus on a certain elemental weakness.

Neptune and her allies also get to use their Goddess Forms like in previous games. Goddess form enhances the character’s stats, making them more powerful temporarily. Break attacks also return, as super moves that can do immense amounts of damage.

Elemental weaknesses are important too, since the combat difficulty spikes in some areas, which is a common Neptunia problem. Sadly though the problems don’t end there. During exploration zones, sometimes you will need to move between the foreground and the background. The problem is there’s no real way to do it on command, so you just have to hope that if you go a certain way, Neptunia will pick the right path.

By reading this, you’re probably thinking, “He must not like this game,” and in some respects, you’d be correct. I am a little disappointed by the combat, it wasn’t what I expected. However, I really enjoy the humor in the story, and the environments are absolutely gorgeous. The voice acting is well done as always, and there are TONS of quests to take on, so you’ll be at this a while.

If you are a Neptunia fan, some of these things will be familiar, and you might be able to ignore some of the issues. Personally, I hope they attempt a Super Neptunia RPG 2 and polish out some of these combat mechanics a bit. If you’re looking for a challenging 2D RPG, then this will hit your buttons nicely. The fanservice is minimal, and even though the combat is a mess, there is a lot to enjoy.

A Nintendo Switch review copy of Super Neptunia RPG was provided by Idea Factory for this review.

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Super Neptunia RPG

$49.99 USD

7

Score

7.0/10

Pros

• Beautiful Visuals
• Great Humor and Story
• Interesting Progression System
• Lots of Side Quests

Cons

• Combat is Very Limited
• Difficulty Spikes Oddly
• Going into the Background is Finicky

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