Western reviews of ero-RPG Hyper Dimension Neptunia have seen the game denounced for its “disturbingly sexualized caricatures of young girls” and “depressing stereotypes of vapid, sexy cuteness,” a promising condemnation if ever there were one.
The game is definite niche title even in Japan, and by no means a masterpiece, but has generally received average reviews in Japan and amongst western JRPG fans – however top US reviewer-for-hire site GameSpot considers it a virtual abomination:
This hypersexualized role-playing game degrades the console war with questionable gameplay mechanics, choppy animation, and some truly awful music.
The Good:
* Building combos can be rewarding.
The Bad:
* Characters are disturbingly sexualized caricatures of young girls
* Visuals are choppy and poorly animated
* Music is so repetitive that it verges on painful
* Story does little to build on promising premise
* Random healing system is irritating and poorly executed.Hyperdimension Neptunia begins with a promising premise: It personifies each of the major systems in the so-called “console wars,” lending each its own personality and powers.
But if you’re expecting an amusing deconstruction of the video game industry, prepare to be disappointed. Instead, Neptunia’s premise is a thin excuse for a role-playing game that revolves around hypersexualized young girls.
Thus, key characters amount to little more than disturbing dolls wielding such weapons as a giant syringe.
Characters like IF (short for Idea Factory) and Compa (Compile Heart) have their own look, but otherwise, they’re almost completely devoid of personality, existing only as depressing stereotypes of vapid, sexy cuteness.
With no marketing bribes forthcoming and a (female) reviewer who evidently hates both anime girls and JRPGs, let alone niche ecchi RPGs, such a rating is perhaps none too surprising.
Those interested in depressing stereotypes of vapid, sexy cuteness and disturbingly sexualised caricatures of young girls will find the game to be readily available.
Phantom World Stretching Expectations
Charming Futaba Nendoroid
How You Wish KyoAni Made Phantom World…
Togijo no Senhime: Another Story Unexpectedly Gory
Coming of Age Day Illustrations Quite Formal
Atelier Shallie Plus Trailers Unbearably Cute
Pyramid Head’s Great Knife Replicated
Mortal Kombat X DLC More Gruesome Than Ever
Top 10 Most Anticipated Anime of Winter 2016
Splatoon “Super Play Time” Absolutely Cringe-worthy
Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut “Dragons & Mechs?”
Monster Hunter X Megaman Event Profusely Blue
Love Live! Sunshine!! MV “Will Brighten Up Your Day!”
Top 10 Best Anime Girls of 2015
Hai to Gensou no Grimgar “Has Oppai!”
Picking Up Japan Express Vol. 36 Worth a Pickup
Dimension W Out Of This World
Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir PV Certainly Nostalgic
One-Punch Man Soundtrack PV Packs A Wallop
XmasTrickStar “A White Christmas Indeed…”
Skimpy Elf Bikini Cosplay by Saku Supremely Sexy
Gothic Lolita Hatsune Miku Cosplay Busts Out
Delectable Dizzy Cosplay by Lechat
Dark Elf Cosplay by Non Very Dark Indeed
Titillating Tamako Cosplay Perfectly Pink
Goddess of 2ch: “Full of Lust & Urges (& Also Videos)!”
Raunchy Reisen Inaba Cosplay by Tsuyato
Haruhi Bunny Girl Cosplay Rocks Out
Youmu Ero-Cosplay by Madoka Adachi Deadly Sexy
Comiket 89 Cosplay Sickeningly Sweet
WTF This game is bad-ass!!!
She wouldn't know a good game if it snuck up behind her and gave surprise buttsecks
Biased reviewer is biased reviewer. My moralfag sense is tingling.
Wow I never thought that being sexy would be a bad thing in a video game o3o;;
Oh wait this review was from a girl, who not only hates anime girls but JRPG's as well. So...I don't know about everyone else but I'm going to completely ignore her rating >.>;;
I like anime girls and JRPG's and I intend on getting this game >.<
Biased reviewer is biased -nods-
I am female. I adore the art in this game. Frankly, a shitty game with smexy anime girls is worth playing sometimes XD
I agree with ya XP
sexualizing girls? i don't see any difference with the girls in this game compared to others. i have to -1 to gamespot for this for trying to be different, retardedly different.
Who cares imma fap to it and anyone who says different can jump off a bridge!
FAP FAP FAP.
Sexualizing 'young' girls.
is there something about Kat Bailey exactly, or are people just raging because she bitched about sexualized girls?
in all seriousness, i was just curious if this is part of some trend for her.
i don't recognize the name and frankly i stopped reading Gamespot after Kasavin left as he was the last editor they had who was worth anything.
Part of the issue, of course, is to never trust 'professional reviewers'. If you're a part of any decently involved gaming community, which this more or less is anyway, you already know this.
Youtube is a wonderful source for evaluating a game and how it plays, just from watching gameplay videos. I just wish more people would actually do a little research themselves rather than blindly following reviewers.
It's not. Only to prudes and religious zealouts hate it.
Most hypocritical :P
You know in an age where you can find porn in .3 seconds on the internet, fanservice is just becoming annoying.
Nope. Porn and fanservice is different.
If I want to find a good story, I won't look for porn nor fanservice.
Fanservice is good for teasing or some lols.
Porn... is just meh, especially western porn
it's a gamespot review, who cares?
play it, you'll like it or you won't...
personally, gimmie...
Fun stuff to click on "Reply to Fapping Time".
I understand the "it's a gamespot review" part, they've always been one of the gaming sites with the worst reviewers.
Just for the fun of it I went and red her review.. it looks like something a pre-adolescent kid could come up with as far as writing reviews go, GameSpot will never cease to amaze me with how bad their reviewers can be.
I'm a girl and I'm getting this...looks cute to me =3
Quick, someone should tell 2ch about this!
I want to see how they respond.
I hope they'll respond it by taking this review to the Pixiv artists and make the reviewer into a running internet joke.
Gamespot are a bunch of anti-loli moralfags.
Dude, did you see the tits on some of these girls?
If those are lolis...
I don't know, but every human has nipples. Or the lolis aren't humans?
Sankaku Complex are a bunch of loli weaboos.
I wish I were a loli. Does that count?
Whining about people being weaboos on a website that reports what's happening in eastern asia and on 2ch? How goddamn stupid can one be?
Not all of them are. Don't have anything against them personally, but I really despise the ones who obsess over Japan and such through the sole influence of anime and related material.
Gamespot typical shitty western review website.
Hater gonna hate. They rather have people fapping to 50 year old grannies than the beautiful.
Gamespot suck. HN is good game for a right person.
Since it's intended for niche market, it's not surprising it gets very low score from GS/Gamefaqs, and not to mention it's reviewed by (female)(biased) reviewer.
The irony in all this is that it's on the top 10 list of messageboards on their sister site Gamefaqs and most users there are hailing it as 'a gem you need to pick up asap'
The picture shows that the average ratings of users and other critics are significantly higher than theirs.
Yeah. It would seem that actual gamers enjoy this game more than the reviewers. That being said, check out the ratings on G4 or GameStop. I, myself, greatly enjoyed this game. Just got the second one. It is really entertaining and funny.
I downloaded the game and tried it out and I completely agree with the review. I was looking forward to the game but I found it painful to play. Everything was terrible about it. Poor script, poor voice acting (JP track, didn't listen to english), vapid characters, constant slowdown, etc. Granted I only played through the first dungeon but it was not the slightest bit enjoyable.
You downloaded it? Buy it, you useless twat.
If the game was worth any money I would have bought it. I'm glad I didn't waste my money on such a piece of shit game. The last thing I would want to do is encourage more sub-par games to be released.
"* Characters are disturbingly sexualized caricatures of young girls"
"key characters amount to little more than disturbing dolls wielding such weapons as a giant syringe."
i dont see anything wrong or bad with this, in what hole does this people live?
OMG there's a people still believe gamespot's rating? lmao..
You will never know a great game out there in this wide wide world if you still sitting inside cave with your gamespot's reviews.
(─‿‿─) V
Gamestop is so biased--only IGN is worse.
I guess that they think "Bolder-punching Chris" is better
"there's a people still believe gamespot's rating?"
Yes, why not? "User Score" usally speaks truth.
I think it's like saying To Love-Ru has too much ecchi in it. They're totally missing the whole point.
It's just yet another situation where the dumbasses had someone who doesn't like JRPGs or whatever review the game. There'll be nothing particularly groundbreaking about the game at all, but the concept itself is amusing enough to be a bit new in the midst of all the other stuff we're used to.
Anyone who gives a game like this a 3 is a moron, plain and simple. You can tell how stupid it is by this line:
"This hypersexualized role-playing game degrades the console war..."
Degrades the console war? You actually gave credence to childish fanboys and irrational marketing bullshit as something worth putting on a pedestal? Again, a good, hearty, go fuck yourself. You don't deserve your job.
This game is hardly ero if you ask me >_>
my biggest upset with the game, as with all games such as this, that there are no subtitles during combat sequences for w/e little excerpts characters may yell out...
i was thinking so....they're suprised that an ero game has...ero in it~?
it's like giving a shooter a bad score for 'characters are disturbingly willing to shoot anything and everything that moves'
Can this even be compared to stuff like ero?
They all look like typical personification girls to me...
Unfortunately most common people will belive it. It's fun getting such review. When most western games do the same of worse.
Funny enough, disturbingly sexualized caricatures of women are considered acceptable in western games. Makes me wonder how the reviewer would react to old grandmas in tights.
Well, some people absolutely hate these things.
Me for example. Can't stand it.
Still, i don't make a point out of people that do like it.
That'd be like trying to stop porn.
And you can't stop porn.
In Soviet Russia the Porn Stops you
Fucking female reviewers...
or gays reviewers...
completly agree