Tomha here to talk about a game that came out just recently called Hyperdimension Neptunia V (Victory). The third installment of the Neptunia series. The game continues it's wacky RPG storyline that doesn't take itself seriously but maintains a laid back kind of charm that keeps the game from trying to act like it's better then it really is. Neptunia always had a more humble but charming feeling compared to other games I played and I think that's what draws me to these RPG/Visual Novel games.

The Plot: The game continues about 8 years after MK2 with Neptune and the gang playing video games. Neptune takes the main character role and gets yelled at by Histoire: A oracle who serves as a secretary of sorts that she's been too lazy and makes her get to work. Neptune is pissed because her level fell down to 1 because she's so out of shape. Neptune discovers a human rebellion who want a nation without a CPU ruling and is blasted into another dimension where CPU's aren't born but made and the world itself is set more into the 80's. Neptune meets Noire of this new dimension and the Planeptunes CPU Plutia. Neptune must find a way to get back to her dimension and time while also helping her new friends fight off the evil of their world called The Seven Sages: who desire to remove the CPU's from ruling the nations.

Characters: This is where the game tends to hit and miss in my opinion. When it hits, it's just fantastic, and when it misses, it misses BADLY! First off, Iffy and Compa are no longer in your Team Roster, WHAT WERE THEY THINKING!? These 2 girls were your first allies in the first 2 and were always fun to have around in the game. With the setting Compa and Iffy are demoted to DLC. But we got new characters and some new villains while keeping the old ones.

The main cast has Neptune from MK2 and a new incarnation of the CPU's who while are different, are slightly different. But we have a new CPU, Iris Heart. Oh dear god Iris Heart...let me tell you about this psycho girl. Plutia is the CPU of Planeptune who's a legitimately kind person who's HDD form is a psychotic sadist that NOBODY is safe from. Rape as Comedy is pretty much what Iris Heart is in a nutshell so if you can enjoy those kind of jokes and love yuri fanservice, this is your new goddess. Plutia is just amazingly hilarious and I can't help but welcome her into my party wholeheartedly, I love that girl!

The villains are a mixed sort. Arfoire (of course) and Pirachu make their return as well as introduce the first human male villain in the entire series. All males were either nobodies or robots, here we finally have a actual human antagonist. The majority of the villains you'll have mixed feelings for ranging from "They're cool." to "I hate this guy, he sucks." to "Eh...".

Features: To be honest there isn't much more I can't say here I haven't in the previous games because they tend to keep to their default goodness.

*You actually do NOT have to play MK2 to enjoy this one it seems. In the beginning Nepgear: the main character of MK2 serves as Exposition about the events of MK2 and introduces us to Neptune being the star while the game also covers what a CPU is again. You will find stuff here and there that makes more sense if you did play the prequels.

*The combat system has been updated even further including special treats like the CPU's can immediately transform at the cost of SP instead of building it up in the prequel. A new EXE bar is added where filled up lets you perform a super attack or even let the characters in your team perform a tag team attack to unleash new levels of pain in the battlefield. The combat system is very simple to understand and keeps the feature of letting you build combo attacks while introducing new enemies that restricts certain actions to make fights more challenging.

*The Shares system changes again here too. This time it takes a combination of the previous games by having only 1 Share chart for the entire world BUT keeping the vital details quests have saying what shares are effected. This is a more realistic idea and isn't a bad thing.

Now for the downsides: One of the first things you'll notice wrong is that Spoilers are easy to accidentally come across. You can find weapons and recipe's that basically tell you who's gonna join your group later on and be part of the game, I'll just leave it like that so I wont ruin anything for anyone.

*This is probably the biggest problem though: Iris Heart. Earlier I was mentioning how awesome she is but her charm is also a major issue for many players. When Iris Heart appears rape/molestation jokes are thrown left and right and can easily get you in trouble with others nearby hearing a sadist talking about how "All these women are my pets." and "I will not stop until I am satisfied!". While I do love the character she's something of a guilty pleasure that makes me only play the game when nobody is around. More importantly, if Rape jokes are NOT okay with you and are offended by it. This right here is why you shouldn't play V.

*Rated T for Teens my a**, this is a M for Mature without a doubt! The prequel received the M rating due to one of the antagonists being a ***** who's appearances are very few while this keeps the T rating while one of the main characters is a sadistic rapist throughout the majority of the game. This kind of rating makes me beg the question "What were they thinking!?"

*Iffy and Compa demoted to DLC. NO! Bad Neptunia! This would be like if the new Injustice game made Batman a DLC character. Don't demote your stars. Bad Neptunia...shame on you!

*The game tends to be fairly difficult as you have no real way of knowing how strong a enemy is before just fighting. Level grinding is a obvious must if you want to make progress. The more powerful monsters like mini-boss level are the only heads up you get with their markers being orange instead of red.

The game's Team Roster feels weaker. In the first game you mainly only had 3 members and in MK 2 you had about 12, in this one your mostly having 3 till say about mid game where you can have 4 people out at a time and switch out for a total of 8. I list it as a bad thing because you probably wont be able to assemble your dream team until late game.

Basic Summary...
Good: Fun RPG, plenty of fanservice, great plot and lovable characters again. Iris Heart is just awesome! The 4th wall jokes are good. good music.
Bad: Not a good idea to play around parents or kids. Not much has been added really. The regular Rape/Molestation jokes will probably discourage players.
Rank: 8 out of 10

Final Thoughts: I think the biggest question we'd ask would be "Is this better then MK2?". This is a very tough question to answer but I would say yes and no. Personally, I love both of them, they are fantastic games and are re-playable. In a personal taste, I say V is better because the focus is back on Neptune who was the original main character instead of her sister who's too much of a pushover in my opinion to really be the hero of a game and Iris Heart is just too great. But in a overall sense, MK2 is better as it has more of everything, especially endings. There's much more to do in MK2. Again, their both great games and worth checking out if a more laid back RPG sounds fun to you.