Product Info

Platform

Switch, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X

Publisher

Idea Factory International

Developer

Idea Factory, Compile Heart

Series

Neptunia

Genre

Action, RPG

Players

1

File Size (Minimum)

6.8 GB

Release Date (NA)

May 14, 2024

Purchase From

Idea Factory International Inc.

eShop

PSN Store

Neptunia Game Maker R:Evolution is the next installment of the Neptunia series. While it has entertainment value it does take some steps back from visuals to gameplay mechanics.

A New World

You’ll play as the older goddess, dimension hopping, bug-hunting Neptune. She stumbles on an abandoned building of a game maker studio who lost in competition. The three goddesses who once ran the studio find Neptune and ask for her to become president of their company to help revive their game making company. Neptune happily agrees and now has another chance to compete with other game makers to get their games released.

However, Croire, a fairy-like girl, who was imprisoned by Neptune’s notebook due to criminal records of ruining other dimensions for enjoyment, breaks free and is looking to cause chaos in the new world Neptune is in.

If you haven’t played any or much of the previous Neptunia games, you’ll miss out on some of the backstory of a few characters. Fortunately in Game Maker, the majority of the characters in this world are reintroduced as new but familiar looking characters. This makes newcomers easier to walk into the Neptunia world.

The three new goddesses introduced, Pippih, Jagaa and Reedio are amusing, designed well and their transformations in-battle are enjoyable to use.

Duke it Out

Battles in Neptunia Game Maker R:Evolution are initiated by running into enemies during exploration. The game offers preemptive attacks, which are real easy to initiate, except for boss battles. You’ll have a set team where you control one character at a time, the others initiate moves and skills by the game’s computer. You can switch to other characters easily by the game controller’s direction pad and setup commands such as focus on offensive or healing can be used during and outside battle in the game’s menu.

When battling, expect battles to be all melee attacks where you’ll constantly push the controller buttons or swap between characters. Players will notice a party member’s avatar along with their associated direction arrow appear on screen. When this occurs, use the direction pad associated with the character to create a link chain attack. These attacks can create more damage and prevent enemies from attacking too. You can keep link chain attacks for the entire battle if there’s no disruption from enemies.

If that wasn’t enough, players can activate various power-up attacks. For example, your goddess player can transform to a powerful form to initiate these more powerful attacks. Additionally, players can initiate the “EXE Drive” which the player you command can unleash a cutscene of a flashy high-power attack. These attacks and transformations appear on-screen when ready. To gain access, you’ll need to fight in a few battles beforehand. With these various ways to attack, it makes battles feel too easy and one-sided many times.

While fighting, the frame rate does drop or freeze momentarily between power attacks and when defeating the last enemy. For a game running on a PlayStation 5, that shouldn’t be much of an issue. Between creating combo links, sound effects during player attacks jump up a few notches and settle back down. These could be patched if the development team wants to iron out the bugs.

Spicing Up Dungeons

Exploring dungeons does feel like a copy and paste with its designs. For example, caves have the same dark, dreary, puddles of water and giant crystals as its decor.

While exploring, you’ll encounter closed-off areas where you’ll need to find switches to open these enclosed areas. It does become a chore to do these but these dungeons aren’t too large to cause much of a stir of frustration. Players do have the option to ride Neptune’s motorcycle, which makes driving through dungeon maps quicker. However, you can’t create preemptive attacks on enemies. Motorcycle driving feels a bit difficult to maneuver at first as it takes some time to get used to it. That’s not all you can use the motorcycle for. The game offers players a chance to race against a monster. It’s not required but winning gains the player rewards. If you lose, you can try again without losing anything.

The game records how much exploration and treasures are found in each dungeon. Clearing it at 100% for both exploration and treasure doesn’t give any rewards except a trophy/achievement for your first 100%. It would be a nice gesture if the game did give you a reward for completing a dungeon.

Making Games, Equip Games

As president, your job is to improve the company. You’ll start with a genre (e.g. puzzle, role-playing game) and work your way up to where you can create more genres. Before you can grow, you need Company Points (CP). These are earned during exploration such as battles and side quests, story development and Disc Development. Once you earn enough, you can build your studio by unlocking nodes, which resembles a skill tree you see in other RPGs such as Final Fantasy XII. These nodes can help sales, lower development time, earn items for battle and more. 

You’ll encounter emails from fans and freelancers to help build your studio. These freelancers can help improve your game quality and can be ported to other video game studios to level-up their skills. Additionally, you can pay commercials, create trends and develop DLC to help boost your game’s sales but does cost a good amount of CP. Fans can give suggestions, giving you ammo on your next game creation.

When doing Disc Development, you’ll need to choose a genre, style of game, workers and add bonus features such as increasing critical hits on enemies. These bonus features are moreso used for equipment features than the game itself. During development, there will be moments where issues arise from employees such as bugs or outdated software. You’re given an option to pay more CP or ignore and hope for the best. This can affect sales and the quality of your game. 

There’s a lot to sink in and building your studio is like running a side job while adventuring.

The Final Disc

Neptunia Game Maker R:Evolution is entertaining with a large handful of things to do but at the same time feels too easy with visual hiccups. Who knew making a game can be so demanding.

A PlayStation 5 review code provided for this review and gameplay footage.