Quick Review: Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth1

Last week I got around to finally finishing Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth1 and I’ve been putting off writing my review ever since. I could blame work but frankly there are two main reasons why I’ve been procrastinating this:

1. I don’t think anyone cares about Neptunia, at least not the older games.
2. I don’t have much say about the game.

Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth1 is good. It’s not going to blow anyone’s mind or top any “Greatest JRPGs of All Time” lists. Its story is predictable, the meta premise gets old fast, and it’s combat is ultimately watered down to mashing a single button so much that it almost counts as a clicker. But it’s fun, flashy and has interesting enough characters to pull you through the game from start to finish without feeling like a colossal waste of time.

If I had to give the game a score out of 10 it’d be a solid 7. It’s usually heavily discounted during Steam sales and for JRPG fans it’s well worth the $5 or $10 price tag. Don’t go in expecting it to rival franchises like Suikoden or Final Fantasy and you’ll have a good time for 20 – 40 hours.

If you’re not a fan of JRPGs then this game is 100% not for you.

A Game Design Lesson from Neptunia: Difficulty

For the majority of gamers, difficulty settings are little more than a stepping stone – one more screen to smash X through before getting into the new game they just bought. They put the game on the pre-selected ‘medium’ or ‘normal’, blink through the “You can change this at any time in the options” message, and soon forget there even was a difficulty setting to begin with. Outside of the occasional novelty names some developers give their settings, like MGS IV’s confusing ‘Naked Normal’ and ‘Solid Normal’ difficulties, game devs rarely ever break the mold when it comes to creating separate difficulties in their games.

Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth1, a game I’ve been playing ever since I wrote “Guilty Pleasure Games”, approaches difficulty a bit differently. There are no modes or options in the settings like you’re used to seeing in most modern titles. Instead the game uses its own mechanics to allow gamers to tweak the difficulty at will within the game’s narrative scope.

FCC, HDN, and the ACHB

(Free SEO Advice: Don’t use acronyms in your title like this unless it’s more popular than the words it stands for.)

Sorry it’s been a while. Ever since December 29^th, 2016 I’ve been either coding or learning code 12+ hours a day. I finally decided to take a bit of a break yesterday, which involved only about 6 hours of coding. It’s become an impulsive habit for me to wake up in the morning and at least complete an algorithm challenge or some work on a project before I even brush my teeth or take a shower.

On The Literary Industry… and Other Things

Fair Warning: There are no more pictures or subheadings in this article. 

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results.” – Someone in the past who wasn’t Einstein

I hate starting with quotes, it’s as cliché as a broken down car in a horror movie, but in this instance the opportunity is too apropos to pass up. For seven years I’ve tried making a living as a writer, and frankly it just isn’t working out. It hasn’t all been bad and you don’t do it for seven years without seeing a modicum of success, but here I am one month away from being homeless again so I think it’s time for a change.