Despite the majority of Neptunia games being of a mediocre quality, I do have a certain affinity for them at this point. Somehow Compile Heart’s role-playing game series has spanned four main entries, even more spin-offs, and several enhanced remakes. Considering I’ve ended up reviewing most of these titles, it’s safe to say that I’ve been through a lot with Nep Nep and her friends over the years.
Neptune’s latest adventure has her taking a backseat (or in this case, literally becoming a seat) as the story focuses instead on a misadventure of IF, an explorer who ends up traveling through time and crossing path with characters from SEGA Hard Girls. If, like me, you only have a passing recollection of what the SEGA Hard Girls are, it’s an anime (and multimedia project) that imagines SEGA consoles as Japanese schoolgirls. Yeah, it’s super dumb, but Dreamcast (yes, the characters are directly named after the consoles) has a VMU on her face, so it’s also super dope. Various mishaps end up taking place and IF ends up meeting an original character named Segami who can somehow transform into every SEGA Hard Girl she meets, and Neptune ends up becoming IF’s talking motorcycle. It’s basically the Neptunia version of Knight Rider, except Neptune talks way more than than KITT ever did. The trio is then tasked with stopping the deletion of history itself, and most travel to different gaming eras (Master System, Dreamca...