PixlBit

Did we just put out three one-star reviews in the span of a week?

Eh, I don't really feel like playing the game to an empty crowd while broadcasting. If I knew people planned to show up for it, I'd bring it back for another week, but it's pretty draining to play a game like this live without anyone showing up, instead waiting to watch the replay.

Which is, in itself, pretty funny. From what I gather with LiveStream, the replays have been pretty popular, but I'd much rather have a few live watchers than tons of replay watchers, because the experience is quite a bit more fun for me that way.

I think what you probably stepped in and saw was general RPG minutae. IIRC, I was exploring the town when I was there, and basically gathering some quests to try to complete later on. I think so far, the story and characters are intriguing, and the battle system is simple enough to be fun at this point, but different enough to not feel like it's the same ol' thing. The type of thing you saw probably wasn't too fun for those watching, but it's the little stuff people often find a little enjoyable in RPGs. if that makes sense.

That said, it doesn't look like I'll be playing this live again, given the lack of response in this article. I would have imagined more people would have wanted more looks at the game, but I suppose that isn't the case, and playing an RPG like this over a broadcast like a PlayBit is a little bit of a hassle that isn't worth it to me if not too many people are interested.

This review is very, very late, and to PixlBit's readers, I'd like to apologize for that. I received the game some time ago, but was only able to play it in very small bursts. By the end of my time with Hyperdimension Neptunia, I was desperately looking for something, anything at all, I could find redeeming for the game.

Unfortunately, that quality never showed up.

Also, for those curious, the reason why Neptunia isn't receiving a lower score is because technically, it is a game, and technically, it's possible to complete it. There weren't any notable or even noticeable bugs or programming errors, and I feel PixlBIt's review policy relegates the sub-one-star scores to pretty much broken games.

I'm someone who's not been fond of many attempts by developers that have entered uncanny valley. I'm picky, I suppose you could say. However, if done well, I can suspend belief to an extent where character designs that enter that area don't bother me.

I think there's another issue, though, one that isn't hardly discussed at all, at least as far as I know, that deals with the world and its physics. A game like Dead Space, for example, at a few scripted times, makes great strides in establishing a spooky atmosphere where death could be right around the corner. Then, you kill the ungodly enemy, and its corpse hits the ground. At that point, it has roughly the weight and force of friction of an air-filled balloon. It completely takes me out of the game, takes me out of the moment, and turns it all into a joke to me.

In essence, I'm saying that while I appreciate the work done to attempt to cross the uncanny valley, so many developers forget that other things can throw individuals off in similar, yet different manner.

If I understand correctly, this game is for sale on Steam right now, with a very cheap "Buy 4" pack, valued around 23 dollars. That's only if I recall correctly. I'll add in some of my thoughts about the game tomorrow.

Edit for my thoughts: Nick's review is really great, and covers just about all the aspects of the game I can think of.

As someone who's made it no secret that I don't enjoy FPS titles, I've found that Borderlands can be fun, and it helps that it seems the classes have non-shooting special abilities to offer a little bit of variety.

That said, I'm a little less forgiving in terms of repetition than Nick is. I think the repetition, in this case, isn't a product of the RPG environment than it is of the FPS one: Deaths are quick, both for you and your enemies. Since most enemies can be killed in just a few shots with most guns, the game's solution is to spawn more enemies to take their places. This results in a limited number of enemies in a single skirmish that are nearly instantly replaced once they die. I think if Borderlands didn't limit itself to this type of situation, there would have been more opportunities to individualize a few more enemies.

In fact, I just reached an area where you fight a new type of nemesis, and I've found this to be exactly the case. This type of enemy can have shields, and one class can throw down a turret, just like the game's soldier. The change in gameplay is refreshing, since there were only a few classes of enemies before, but beyond that, these enemies take more hits than before, and from that, they require more thought in their approach.

I've also found that most bosses can be dispatched with almost the same amount of ease as a normal enemy. Sure, they take a few more hits and deal more damage, but often, playing the game with Chris, I'll be dealing with a few side enemies, then we'll kill the boss without even realizing we had found him or her. It's a little annoying, and I wish a little more variety had been put into most bosses, too.

I'd probably give the game 3.5 stars, since I see so many places that with a little change, the game would be much better, but also because I'm a little more negative about the repetition than Nick is, for the reasons above.

If they do announce it, they should get Oprah to help. "You get a new circle pad! You get a new circle pad! Everybody gets a new circle pad!"

Imagine how many circle pads you can put on all of those!

Well now you've left me wanting to hear about Chameleon Twist 2. Doesn't that one have actual chameleons in it? I remember looking at the box art and being puzzled about the character design changes.

...And yes, the familiar part with the rabbit who's late is something from a book, then some movies. It's from "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," by Lewis Carroll. The story is very old, old enough to be a part of the public domain, so there shouldn't be any legal trouble here.

The key is to make as many predictions as possible, and when just one or two fall into place, you have to act like you know what you're doing.