I've finished the game recently, got all the achievments and decided to write a review.
Story
Sexual jokes, fan service, predictable.
This is the canon story of the series. Similar to the rest, it also has dimension traveling. I'm sure you all are used to this. Anyhow, you get to meet a new character in a different dimension calling for help. As the main protagonist of protagonists, Neptune somehow happened just to be there. And the story sets off from there with problems related in between dimensions. It's quite long since there are like three stories within this game so be sure to save a lot. I recommend just to play through without guides first and get through the story at your own pace. If you want to get all the achievments, you need two playthroughs anyways. Besure to watch most of the events as you can and not get the bad end. (you don't get anything for bad end, just wasting your time). Youtube has it if you wanna know later.
Translations are as bad as always. If you watch anime a lot you just kinda know what they mean.
Sound
Repetitive, but very well made.
Some soundtracks are reused from the Re;Birth series like when they are about to transform, or something bad happened, or when they regained spirit. It does get repetitive as the time goes on. The new EXE soundtrack is quite nice, very different from the rest. It gives you a goosebump feeling with a certain EXE drive(ultimate skill). However the transition of them are not smooth, meaning they ended very abruptly instead of fading away, kinda kills the mood. But as you reach the end part of the game, you kinda skip all the attack animations so I'm guessing it doesn't not matter that much. But it will sure bugs you. My personal favorite aside from the EXE track (drive away) is Mousou Karthasis. It really does makes you want not to mess up the true ending.
Boss battle theme is very nice too. I'm sure you can feel the tension.
Gameplay
Tedious, not innovative, lacks complexity.
Equipment+combat
If this is your first time with Nep series then you may be ok. But for me who have played the Re;Birth series, I got bored really fast because it's the same stuff. The combo building is a nice addition but it's very linear. If you build combo correctly with the right traits then you can do crits damage. Different weapons have different combo slots making it very difficult to get the right combo traits to fit in every slot. Characters only have a specific amount of skills you can use and you cannot reuse the same skill, one skill one slot. Everytime the characters switch back and forth, you gotta change their equipments again. ?_?_?_/?
Normal combos do more damage than an ultimate skill. (?°?°??? ??? . Unheard of, feels bad when I watch a 20 second animation for an attack and it does 1/4 of normal attacks on one turn. Even, if you have unlimited EXE drive (energy needed to perform an ultimate), normal hit does more. Most bosses in colosseum are prone to elemental attacks. Elemental attacks are very very limited between characters. But hey Million Arthur DLC character has all the elements making her the most versatille character in the game. I see what you did there IF. Seriously, who did the balancing on this crap?
There is absolutely no reason to craft weapons or use any of the equipment in game since most would use the DLC equipments anyways making it very very unrewarding. Even if you tried very hard to get a weapon you want, the stats are so crap that it's very discouraging; this goes as well for the Processors set (transformation armor). Only craft for the achievment. Drop rate/mob spawn rate is a pain so please feel free to use use a trainer.
Lily ranking (affection between characters), really unnecessary. 10 levels total. One character needs to get level 10 with all the characters for an achivement. Level 10 buffs are whatever since you'd finished the game by that point. Refer to guides how to get it. Though, you'd have to battle enemies 1000+ for an achivement too so it just comes naturally haha.
Dungeons
You get to break boxes in the dungeons (again for achievment purposes), items are not neccsary to progress characters. To be able to break all the breakable items, you need a level 2 breaker which you get after you complete the worst hit detection dungeon after dodging, jumping, tilting, hell, I even threw my controller and took a break after I died so many times over no absolute reason and that death music makes me so salty. There are safe spots, and absolute death spots even though it look safe to you. Watch youtube if you're stuck on this dungeon (Neplunker). Boxes blocks certain path making you walk all around the map to progess further. Seriously, I probably spend my time walking more than doing actually battles.
Recycles dungeons everywhere. Like 7 unique dungeons total? The rest is change of monsters and change of color. Heck the music for them is the same. The dungeons are designed so that they make you walk the longest distance to get to the end point. It became so predictable that I managed to make a single trip towards the exit with an unexplored minimap without retracing. Oh the dungeon(s) towards the end game are like a lazy side on the game designers, you'll see what I mean. Plus, there's a dungeon where there's no data on the mini-map. I had to go through it three times to the end level for the achievment... Luckily guides are available.
There is scouting system where you send npcs to explore and gather info (additional enemies+clue for hidden treasures+'new' recycled dungeon). Yes, gotta get them all for the achivement "Treasure hunter" got all the hidden treasures in the game. You can level up scouts with materials that are very rare to find. Can get in colosseum battles. Some clue for hidden treasures including "Defeat all deployed enemies" (wtf...), remember the no mini-map dungeon? Yeah, twice on that. Also making consecutive symbol attacks 12 times without enemies notice you aka strike them first. You can easily do this by escaping battle and do it again. However, all the accumulative attack times resets if you miss an attack even though enemies do not notice you, so don't miss. It's really stupid... Who coded this? The rewards from the hidden treasures are very dissapointing as well. ?(*?Ä?*)?"
Random battle encounters+Random battle encounters: feels like pokemon all over again except it's not pokemon
Final Thoughts
I can only recommend because I am a fan so this review is biased. I really like the new main character, it gives a fresh taste compare the the Re;Birth series. I do wish this game to get animate at some point in the future. The writing is well pace. I laughed at some point, teared up sometimes, and got goosebumps when the music hits. Overall, it was a very enjoyable experience for me within the first playthrough. The DLC characters are also very unique in terms of personalities; finally Vert has an accomplice. Game also stutters as well as having rendering issues so make sure your graphic drivers are good. Refund if not playable.
If you play for all achievments, you really need a macro and a trainer since two are RNG based. Abusing save is somewhat cheating anyways so just break your own gaming morality like I did because I was sitting there 1/2 hr opening a single item over at a rate of 2.5/sec and not get it. Achievments hunting in this game or the series even is time consuming not really skill based so I'm some what disappointed. Combat could have been better. Too grindy to be fun. No replay value in that.
7/10 C+ waiting for 4 Godesses Online
Thanks for reading, Hope it helps.
P.S. Do get DLC since they make your life easier.
