Neptunia GameMaker R:Evolution Review – Get Induced Into Neptunia

Two years ago, Neptunia came back in a new way with the release of Neptunia Sisters vs Sisters. It had a new game engine and a new style to play with a more fast-paced action-oriented play style. The next iteration of Neptunia on that same engine is Neptunia GameMaker R:Evolution. Will it be able to surpass Sisters VS Sisters?

Game Name: Neptunia GameMaker R:Evolution
Platform(s): PS4, PS5 (Reviewed), Nintendo Switch
Developer(s): Compile Heart
Publisher(s): Idea Factory International
Release Date: 5/14/2024
Price: $49.99

Neptunia GameMaker R:Evolution lets us play in the shoes of Big Neptune, a dimension-traveling bug collector looking for adventure. She stops by a new dimension that focuses on the Goddesses of Gamindustri creating games to earn shares in their world. As she is there she gets recruited by three Goddesses who have failed in their duty to give quality games to their fans and have become known as the Failure Goddesses. Neptune becomes the president of the game-making company known as Victory as the three of them try once again to create a new and engaging game to give to Gamindustri.

Making Games For The World

Neptunia GameMaker R:Evolution takes the engine of Neptunia Sisters vs Sisters to new heights. It automatically makes it a much more interesting combat system by adding a party slot. You can now have four members in your battle party. Instead of having to level up to level 15 to gain your new combo button, you immediately start with both combo combinations in your arsenal. Moves in your combo selection are categorized by Power, Rush, and Break. Power moves deal heavy damage but usually require more of a wind-up that makes you vulnerable to enemy attacks. Rush moves are fast and quick moves that will not stun the enemy but you can do a lot of hits at a time with the Rush combination. The Break category is a middle ground with a normal speed and normal wind-up and is usually best for making your enemy stunned.

When you end a combo in battle you can then chain with another character in your battle party. If you do multiple combos, you gain a chain combo, and if you do more than three combos, you gain a strong combination attack at the end of the combo that involves the party members in battle. Spamming these combination attacks is a good way to leave enemies stunned to get more combo hits in before they try to retaliate.

Disc development makes a comeback in a big way with Neptunia GameMaker R:Evolution. The bigger your renown becomes from making games and getting your name out there by acquiring sales areas, the more creators will join to help create discs. Disc development is now tied to your game company, Victory. You unlock game genres to make by using CP. CP can be earned by doing side quests or by defeating enemies in dungeons. CP is also used, however, to acquire sales areas and unlock new dungeons to explore. It is also used in reducing development time and hiring creators to help out in dispatching around Gamindustri and learn more intel and earn them more experience.

When creators get experience points, they can level up, and that helps them create discs. When they create better discs it has better passive effects. However, you can get special recipes that give you a better chance to unlock a certain passive in discs. Discs can have up to four effects. You can equip up to four discs on a party member too. Each creator has two specialties. One is the genre they specialize in, and the other is the style they prefer most. When making discs it is good to keep track of which creator will best improve its quality.

Dungeons have been reworked a great deal in Neptunia GameMaker R:Evolution. Dungeons have a huge variety of locales now. You have foggy swamp areas, forest areas, island areas, desert areas, cave areas, and even areas that are stores and offices. Compile Heart went to large lengths to make sure that most areas were pretty big and unique. There are optional dungeons that are akin to the older Neptunia games where they take an exact dungeon set up of one you enter for the story but provide much stronger foes to fight.

A big addition to the dungeons is the ability to ride a motorcycle. Big Neptune gets a motorcycle from Reedio early on in the game, and with the big areas, you can now traverse them with a lot more speed using the motorcycle. The first two motorcycles you unlock are janky due to their turning and handling being low. When you get later motorcycles, I prefer the ones with great handling above speed. It helps the jank of the bike a lot with better handling and it already is pretty fast in general. If I did a dungeon much later on in my playthrough than I should have, I sped through the dungeon with a motorcycle and it was a blast. It reduces the walking and jumping and lets me just go fast through dungeons.

It feels like the engine they created and optimized for the Nintendo Switch was one they liked better than the PS5 and PC. Rather than immediately transitioning to battle after touching an enemy. It takes you to a battle area where you then can attack the enemies. Once you beat the enemies you see an aftershow of the characters doing a victory celebration. Then they continue on the adventure. If you do not like the victory celebration, you can turn it off in the settings menu, and it makes it faster to delve into the dungeons.

Creating In Gamindustri

Neptunia GameMaker R:Evolution retains a lot of the same graphics and effects of Neptunia Sisters vs Sisters. That said, the textures for shadows and grass are slightly improved from its predecessor. The animation of the in-engine cinematics is faster, but they don’t include as many as they did in the older game. However, there is a lot more 2D Cinematic Artwork to make up for that fact. A lot of new art especially of the new characters introduced in this game. Pippih, Reedio, and Jagaa get a lot of artwork and scenes. The focus of the game is heavily reliant on them working with Big Neptune and I am happy they don’t get overshadowed by the characters we already know and love in the series.

A con about this game is what was true of the console versions of Neptunia Sisters vs Sisters, the 30 FPS. What’s worse about Neptunia GameMaker R:Evolution is there is no PC release out yet that would let you play at 60 FPS if you are not a fan of being locked to 30 FPS. The game runs well otherwise. There are frame dips when there are a ton of battle effects on screen but it has to be a lot of effects and covers the whole screen. Otherwise, it is a solid 30 fps title.

Beginner Friendly Neptune Game 

Overall Neptunia GameMaker R:Evolution is a phenomenal game, especially when you compare it to its predecessor on the same game engine. It has a lot of content in the game. Dungeons, disc development, the arena, the Nep tower, and an assortment of ways to change up your strategy in combat. I had a long-range combo and a short-range combo on each character in my party. If you are a Neptunia fan this is a must-buy game. If you are new to the Neptunia series this is also a solid entry. The lore itself is explained in a good detailed way. You get to explore the parodies and skits with fresh eyes that don’t require you to understand a ton of old references from prior games.

Neptunia GameMaker R:Evolution releases May 14th, 2024 on PS4, PS5 and Nintendo Switch.

Review Disclosure Statement: Neptunia GameMaker R:Evolution was provided to us by Idea Factory International for review purposes. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy.

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