It's moe overdose time!

I platinumed Re;Birth1 over the weekend, and the Re;Birth2 limited edition is on a truck to be delivered tomorrow. I was skeptical of this series for quite a while, but now I'm actually clearing my schedule for this dang thing. I'm looking forward to pouring a lot of hours into this --- anyone else hyped or know what I have to expect (I didn't play mk2)?

I keep seeing Neptunia games released but I'm super gunshy after the first one. Have they improved since then or is it a case of "if you liked the first one you'll like this as well"?

These games, just like the Atelier series, release so often and with so little splash that I have NO IDEA what to expect about any of them or which ones to care about. I'm also interested in finding out what people think.

@cat_herder: The recent series has changed a lot since the first game (as in Hyperdimension Neptunia, for PS3). Most notably, Re;Birth1 (a remake of the first game) uses the combat engine from the third game, Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory (which is itself an improvement over mk2's engine), as well as its dungeon exploration elements. It also adds a couple other features and whatnot. In a lot of ways the gameplay has been improved over the original game. The general plot of Re;Birth1 is the same silliness, but if what you didn't like was the gameplay, it's quite a bit different. Re;Birth2 follows in that same line, a Vitaified remake of mk2 with the same improvements from Re;Birth1.

If you're curious about it now, you're probably most interested in the Re;Birth games as they are marked improvements over their earlier iterations. Re;Birth1, Re;Birth2: Sisters Generation, and the upcoming-but-almost-certainly-making-it-to-the-West Re;Birth3: V Century are all remakes of the PS3 JRPGs. They have positional turn-based combat with HP/MP and special attacks and all that fun stuff. Hyperdevotion Noire is a SRPG. Hyperdimension Neptunia U is a musou game by the people who made Senran Kagura. There's also Hyperdimension Neptunia: Producing Perfection, which is an idol sim. Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory II is an upcoming PS4 game, which will probably come here eventually too.

All the games are moe as heck. They're also fairly clever self-aware pokes at otaku culture and especially the video game industry and culture. They're by no means going to be anything near serious games, but I find them good dumb fun.

@bsstephan: Hmm, hearing that the gameplay is better makes me intrigued. I dabbled in the first game's original release and found the combat to be a bit impenetrable, making it hard to keep playing no matter how I enjoyed the story and character ideas. Seeing that Re:Birth1 just came out on Steam is even better (and kinda crazy). I might have to pick it up.

I see that the first Re;Birth is out now on steam. Can you still summon Keiji Inafune?

NO KEIJI INAFUNE, NO SALE!

Unfortunately no Inafune in the first game. :(

@bsstephan: Thank you for the synopsis, I also was not aware that Rebirth1 was out on Steam now (and at a 50% discount to boot!). I'll give the series a second look, thank you.

@cat_herder: Good luck! If you get into it, it looks like Re;Birth2 will eventually be on Steam, too. I think they are perfect games for Vita, but either way, they're good stuff.