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The Colonel
Jun 8, 2013


I commute by bike!
the dark ages of unvoiced Tales Of skits

also the second half of Tales of Legendia

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Dehry
Aug 21, 2009

Grimey Drawer

Golden Battler posted:

It's a trend I've been noticing in jRPGs going back to the PS2 era. I'd guess it's because of wage differences in english VS japanese VAs but that's just a guess.

There's a lot of stuff happening:

Japanese VAs are cheap for releases inside of Japan/Asia thanks to anime industry. Localization companies have to pay for the JP voices again and they ask for a lot of money.

Actual credited talent is required to be paid Screen Actor's Guild wages aside from getting waivers (good luck with that.) So that option's out, along with slightly more famous voices.

So then the final option is renting a studio out and asking freelance actors to come in and "lend" their voice to a character. It looks like that's done in LA so it's limited to who is in the area.

Then of course they don't want to pay for a lot of studio time, so they pick out the major scenes and only get voices for those.

GreenBuckanneer
Sep 15, 2007

Yeah, at $12 I'm buying into this dump nep nep game

there is literally so much DLC I'm not sure what dlc to get, is there a like....list of what has what so you don't double up on it?

edit: took me a while to figure out but these are the packs you'd want to be complete in no particular order:

1. trial weapon pack $15
2. ultimate weapon pack $15
3. weapon pack $15
4. swimsuit pack $5
5. PC God Eater/Million Arthur/nepgya/Umio $8
6. Nightware Pack $3
7. scout pack $1
8. fallen neptune/eye mask set/protruding spirit $3
9. PU fairy/flower spirit/wonderland $4
10. ultimate armor set a/b $2
11. god eater set/god eater swimsuit/fiery summer swimsuit/god eater ciel set/nimue set/thief arthur set $3
12. the free items

weapon packs sound like they add OP items, swimsuits/nightware is costumes, rest is just items of stuff.

All in all $74~ worth of dlc.

GreenBuckanneer fucked around with this message at 09:35 on Jun 20, 2016

Takoluka
Jun 26, 2009

Don't look at me!



If you're going to get DLC to trivialize the game, get the Ultimate Weapon and Ultimate Armor packs. They make the game an absolute breeze, so you can just experience the story.

Otherwise, you can grab the DLC characters if you want. The free stuff is mostly Colosseum battles, so might as well.

Oh, and definitely grab the Scout pack regardless. Extra Scouts is always a good thing.

Dehry
Aug 21, 2009

Grimey Drawer
The NitroPlus character actually does some world building in her events. Millionarthur is mostly yuri side stories where she shows her CALIBUR, and God Eater is more or less normal for a nep game.

The character DLC also is activated during the story and if you do an NG+ you can't carry over characters(the first option) to activate them. Levels are fine though.

HGH
Dec 20, 2011
Oh, so that's why some people reported the DLC characters didn't have scenes. Given they released so far after the game, most people would probably on their NG+ runs, and you wouldn't think carrying over characters would stop new DLC cutscenes from spawning.

davidHalestorm
Aug 5, 2009

Takoluka posted:

If you're going to get DLC to trivialize the game, get the Ultimate Weapon and Ultimate Armor packs. They make the game an absolute breeze, so you can just experience the story.

Otherwise, you can grab the DLC characters if you want. The free stuff is mostly Colosseum battles, so might as well.

Oh, and definitely grab the Scout pack regardless. Extra Scouts is always a good thing.

Yeah, might be a good idea to grab the armour and weapon dlc in particular, because honestly all of the mainline game expects you to do a lot of grinding, especially if you want to 100 % it. If it wasn't for the charming character, story and voice acting, I would've stopped at Rebirth 1, and the orignal Hyperdimension Neptunia got even worse gameplay.

Nep-Nep
May 15, 2004

Just one more thing!
I feel like the grinding in Idea Factory RPGs is a general problem, but that's a matter of opinion. I prefer in RPGs where I'll be powerful enough if I just fight the encounters that I come across, so long as I employ strategy and pay attention. IF Rpgs pretty much want you to do everything you can in an area before moving on, and even that often doesn't feel like enough. In Neptunia games and Omega Quintet in particular you just gain so small of stat gains from leveling up that if you're having trouble with a boss then you're going to need many levels before it feels like the scales have tipped in your favor.

Takoluka
Jun 26, 2009

Don't look at me!



davidHalestorm posted:

Yeah, might be a good idea to grab the armour and weapon dlc in particular, because honestly all of the mainline game expects you to do a lot of grinding, especially if you want to 100 % it. If it wasn't for the charming character, story and voice acting, I would've stopped at Rebirth 1, and the orignal Hyperdimension Neptunia got even worse gameplay.

Re;Birth 1 actually took out all the charm in its localization, and they got the translator for the original Nep games to come back and refine RB2 and RB3, while staying with them for literally everything else. Oddly enough, "hardcore" Neptunia fans praise RB1's translation for being "more literal and accurate," and a group got together to retranslate RB2 on Steam. This version was praised by the same people for being "more accurate with less memes," while the rest of Neptunia's players (the majority) went "Cool, you took out everything interesting and then added typos. What a superior version!"

The translation and localization is a big deal with Neptunia, because it was so highly regarded by both the Western and Eastern audiences that IF/CH started to change aspects of the characters to better reflect their English-localized versions at the source. That may actually be part of the reason Nepgear has such a larger focus in later titles.

The Colonel
Jun 8, 2013


I commute by bike!
i think the dialog in re;birth1 is cute and funny, but i haven't played any other neptunia games

GreenBuckanneer
Sep 15, 2007

I played part of nep 1, hated it (oh god it was so bad), got rebirth1, never finished it, thought it was okay

after about 5 hours of this game, it's definitely better but the jury is out on whether to keep the meta/memes in. It's definitely charming with Arfoire = R4 and poo poo like that, but it's just kind of....awkward and fourth wall breaking most of the time. The rest of it is just ~moe~ aha, first real cgi is a bath scene, aren't we cute? like uh....

Takoluka
Jun 26, 2009

Don't look at me!



The memes are in the JP version too, and Nep is anime as hell, so you're getting the moest of moe bath scenes.

Nep-Nep
May 15, 2004

Just one more thing!
I prefer the game to be odd and break the fourth wall. It's a series of comedy games that may have their serious moments, but ultimately are meant to be about silly video game console girls going on adventures.

The Colonel
Jun 8, 2013


I commute by bike!
re;birth1 is goofy and dumb and smh if you think that's a bad thing

there is nothing bad about a game where one of the video game company self-inserts is a super wizard who is, for all intents and purposes, genderswapped Okabe Rintaro

The Colonel fucked around with this message at 23:23 on Jun 21, 2016

GreenBuckanneer
Sep 15, 2007

I thought Compa at first was for Computer.

I'm disappointed they don't have windows-tan in there somewhere.

The Colonel
Jun 8, 2013


I commute by bike!

GreenBuckanneer posted:

I thought Compa at first was for Computer.

I'm disappointed they don't have windows-tan in there somewhere.

actually, i think canonically, Peashy is supposed to represent both the PC and the PC Engine

Takoluka
Jun 26, 2009

Don't look at me!



The Colonel posted:

actually, i think canonically, Peashy is supposed to represent both the PC and the PC Engine

She's just the PC Engine.

Dehry
Aug 21, 2009

Grimey Drawer

GreenBuckanneer posted:

I thought Compa at first was for Computer.

I'm disappointed they don't have windows-tan in there somewhere.

They created a "PC Continent" in Victory/Rebirth 3 but it was a post-game mission in the Ultradimension. Vert does mention the PC Continent existing in the Hyperdimension, but that it does not have a goddess during the Nitroplus DLC.

Dark_Tzitzimine
Oct 9, 2012

by R. Guyovich

GreenBuckanneer posted:

I thought Compa at first was for Computer.

I'm disappointed they don't have windows-tan in there somewhere.

She shows for like three minutes in the anime as one of Vert's assistants.

Takoluka
Jun 26, 2009

Don't look at me!



That was specifically Bing, MS's search engine.

cheetah7071
Oct 20, 2010

honk honk
College Slice
If I remember correctly, it was someone named Setag who ended sentences with -bill as a verbal tic

Takoluka
Jun 26, 2009

Don't look at me!



If it helps, I'm going by the English dub, so I wouldn't be surprised if that was the original.

Dark_Tzitzimine
Oct 9, 2012

by R. Guyovich

cheetah7071 posted:

If I remember correctly, it was someone named Setag who ended sentences with -bill as a verbal tic

Correct

Dehry
Aug 21, 2009

Grimey Drawer

Mordaedil
Oct 25, 2007

Oh wow, cool. Good job.
So?
Grimey Drawer

GreenBuckanneer posted:

I played part of nep 1, hated it (oh god it was so bad), got rebirth1, never finished it, thought it was okay

after about 5 hours of this game, it's definitely better but the jury is out on whether to keep the meta/memes in. It's definitely charming with Arfoire = R4 and poo poo like that, but it's just kind of....awkward and fourth wall breaking most of the time. The rest of it is just ~moe~ aha, first real cgi is a bath scene, aren't we cute? like uh....

The literal point of this series is to step back and make fun of the entire video game industry. I remember while playing the original, I'd do the cut-scenes once in English and in Japanese and I feel like they captured a lot more of the history and backdrop of the industry in the English translation as the Japanese voice overs almost barely made mention of things that happened or make references to historical events in the industry. The English translation for the first game absolutely nailed localizing the humor and perspective to adapt to what the Western video game industry had been through.

Szurumbur
Feb 17, 2011
The most revolutionary aspect of this game is male characters not only having faces, but also being important to the story and not simply ad villains/rivals.

What are the ending requirements this time? Should I balance shares or just try raise them all as much as possible?

Lord Ephraim
Feb 22, 2008

That's one way to get ahead in life, but nothing beats an axe to the face.
I almost gave up on the series after the first one on the PS3. It was so bad. The mechanics of the game were so unintuitive and not fun. I don't understand the idea of reactionary healing items based on your missing health. Compile Heart/Idea Factory RPGs just couldn't get the idea of a simple and fun RPG. Pretty much every single RPG before Neptunia was terrible. The Agarest Wars, Trinity Universe, Cross Edge I couldn't finish any of them. I did most of Chaos Wars simply because the dub was legendary.

I was completely blown away by how decent the MkII was. Not only was is a good Idea Factory game, it was a good RPG period. Of course, the series never really evolved past MkII/Re;birth2, but at that point I was in it for the memes and cute girls.

I share a PS4 and thanks to Sony not having folders I can't hide my shame of playing Victory 2. Thankfully, I can wait out for the PC version.

Detheros
Apr 11, 2010

I want to die.



There's no shame in liking Nep-Nep. :colbert:

Sakurazuka
Jan 24, 2004

NANI?

What male characters?

The Colonel
Jun 8, 2013


I commute by bike!

Sakurazuka posted:

What male characters?

Sakurazuka
Jan 24, 2004

NANI?

Top Nep

Sakurazuka fucked around with this message at 11:02 on Jun 22, 2016

Szurumbur
Feb 17, 2011

Sakurazuka posted:

What male characters?

Umio's a guy, isn't he?

The Colonel
Jun 8, 2013


I commute by bike!

Szurumbur posted:

Umio's a guy, isn't he?

he's a fish

Lord Ephraim
Feb 22, 2008

That's one way to get ahead in life, but nothing beats an axe to the face.
There were plenty of male characters in Neptunia, just most of them were robots, old men or fish.

It's something the artist of the series, Tsunako, didn't really like drawing male characters. Fairy Fencer F was an outlier for having 5 primary male characters.

coolskull
Nov 11, 2007

it is fine to like bad things. let's celebrate them. nep nep hooray!

Sakurazuka
Jan 24, 2004

NANI?

Nep is good though

HGH
Dec 20, 2011
It's just good to not have shadowy silhouettes used for all the NPCs anymore. Even if the portraits are just generic kids and such.
I think the one use of a shadowy silhouette in VII is during an important flashback and it works there.

All this talk reminded me, one of the jokes in VII flew over my head until yesterday when I saw this commercial compilation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPktjDHO0Y0

Specifically the part with the wheelbarrow, that's directly referenced in game.
I can't really remember the US advertising for Dreamcast though, other than 9/9/99 and "IT THINKS, IT'S ALIVE", but I distinctly remember a trailer with the video game characters shown living inside the console and another with a dystopian looking city, so I wonder if those were intentional references too.

cheetah7071
Oct 20, 2010

honk honk
College Slice

Sakurazuka posted:

Nep is good though

Nep is good and Nep is bad. Embrace contradiction.

Dark_Tzitzimine
Oct 9, 2012

by R. Guyovich
You know what it sucks? The way the other oracles were dropped from the plot.

Chika and Mina in particular, they were awesome.

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Takoluka
Jun 26, 2009

Don't look at me!



Lord Ephraim posted:

I was completely blown away by how decent the MkII was. Not only was is a good Idea Factory game, it was a good RPG period. Of course, the series never really evolved past MkII/Re;birth2, but at that point I was in it for the memes and cute girls.

Victory refined the battle system into the state that it's in now. Quite literally, the entirety of Victory's systems and assets are used for the entire Re;Birth series. Victory II took that even further by introducing all sorts of new mechanics that made things really fresh, primary Formation attacks, which are necessary to take advantage of in the new Giant Boss battles (unless you're using DLC weapons, at which point strategy is trivial).

Also, as bad as Neptunia PS3 is (and it is), it's hard to imagine how it's somehow still better than the other pre-Nep RPGs you mentioned. Agarest War is an absolute mess and is slow and unenjoyable. Cross Edge was one of the ultimate RPG fanservice games of 2008, taking advantage of things like the absence of Darkstalkers games and the popularity of Ar Tonelico and Disgaea, and inexplicably, they implemented some of the worst battle system mechanics I've ever seen. Though, somehow, none of that compares to Nep PS3's item system.

If you've not played the original Neptunia, the game's item system work by applying percentages to items, increasing their chances of auto-usage, depending on the circumstances. I joke that this is an Earthbound reference, because when you're about to die, you just start praying and hope it works out.

Dark_Tzitzimine posted:

You know what it sucks? The way the other oracles were dropped from the plot.

Chika and Mina in particular, they were awesome.

Honestly, Chika, Mina, and Kei don't really have much place in later stories. The game needed to give them each a Histoire for plot reasons, but unlike Histoire, they're exceptionally boring. Histoire basically keeps Neptune (and sometimes Nepgear) in check. The other goddesses aren't completely slackers, so in later games, their entire purposes would be to give the girls thumbs-ups and say "Yup. You're doing your job!" It's best that they took them out while still referencing them from time to time. I liked Kei.

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