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MegaTagmension Blanc + Neptune VS Zombies
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Graphics & Sound:
MegaTagmension Blanc + Neptune VS Zombies is the newest game in the Hyperdimension Neptunia series. If you’ve played any of them, you will definitely recognize the goddesses in their new setting.
MegaTagmension Blanc + Neptune VS Zombies is in English with on-screen text, but if you want, you can change it to Japanese. You can also go into Config and turn off any particular voice you want. This means that if you find a character particularly annoying, you can just stop hearing their voice. Some of the English voices don’t seem exactly to me what I would think a particular character would sound like based on their looks, but none of them are horrible. I do like the background music; it’s pretty upbeat and peppy.
This is not a game where you will get to create your characters and choose what they look like. All of your characters are set, but you can change their outfits, weapons, and hair styles, giving you a bit of customization. You will have a lot of characters to play with once you unlock them all. If you’re a fan of the series, you’ll probably recognize quite a number of the characters, like Vert, Noire, Neptune, and more. If you choose to play Multi, you will have access to choose any of the characters in the game. The settings are a bit nondescript. While they are bright at times or creepy at other times, it’s pretty much generic locations. The monsters are a bit more varied, with more zombie creatures than I would think of creating.
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Gameplay:
Gamindustri is located in a faraway dimension and they have goddesses who are called CPUs. These goddesses decided that they wanted to know what it was like to be human, so they decided to attend school to learn about their culture. The academy they are going to, Gamicademi, is in trouble and about to shut down at the end of the year. Some of these girls are determined to stop the school from closing and the story in MegaTagmension Blanc + Neptune VS Zombies is about them.
In Story Mode, you have a few options. Action will start the story going and Setup will let you change up your equipment and your look, which includes your hair color and outfit. Treasure will let you check out the stuff you’ve found and Shop is where you go to buy new equipment. Finally, Config lets you change up settings, but choose Action to get the story going.
The action starts pretty quickly. You will find out that Rom and Ram (Blanc’s sisters) are somehow being attacked by zombies. Blanc has no clue where the zombies came from, but she will stop them. Once they’re all down, Blanc finds out that they weren’t real zombies and this was all staged for a movie script that Neptune is making to try and save the school. Blanc decides to help her, not because she cares about saving the school, but because she might get to be known as a famous writer and director. They decide that the movie should be about schoolgirls and zombies. Just then, they find out that there are real DQN zombies in the hallway. Talk about timing! They can just film all of this for a very realistic movie! DQN zombies can talk, by the way. Tamsoft joins you at this point and she just shows up and wants to fight. When you start the scene, you get to choose which two characters you want to take into battle.
Making this movie (and saving the school from the real zombies) isn’t going to be as easy as you think. You need to get permissions to film in the school, and take care of all the rigmarole that goes along with becoming a recognized club and such. You’d think Vert as class president would want you to save the school, but she likes rules. You might feel like the game will be over quickly, but it’s not done once you finish the first movie. You’ll find out there’s more going on than you thought, when you start making the sequel.
If you want to play with other people (or even alone, but with different quests), choose Multi from the Main Menu. From there, you choose if you want to play Ad Hoc with local players or on the Internet. You can also choose Ranking if you want to see your rank. Once you choose a method, you are given the choice of several dimensions you can choose from. You can then search for a game that someone else has created or start your own. You can play with anywhere from 1 to 10 players. Obviously, the more people you have, the easier it will be to defeat the level. You can earn different items from beating quests on Multi than you can the scenes on Story. |
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Difficulty:
There is no way to manually set the difficulty in MegaTagmension Blanc + Neptune VS Zombies, so you’ll just have to deal with it as is. Granted, the game is pretty easy at the beginning. There are time limits on stages, but I never came anywhere near them. You shouldn’t have any trouble with the first few stages and after that, you will hit a boss stage. These are a bit tougher, but even if you die, it’s no big deal. If you kill your first character, you will simply switch to the second one. That first one can be switched back to, after they revive, which will take 60+ seconds. If you happen to not be careful enough and kill them both, you still won’t lose anything. You will even get the experience for the zombies that you did manage to kill.
If you find you’re having trouble, go upgrade your weapons and equipment. You might have to replay a few scenes to get enough money, but it shouldn’t take you too long, at least for a few characters. If you’re looking to upgrade all of your characters, I would recommend playing Multi to earn more money quickly. Also, don’t forget to use your ability points (AP) to boost your character’s stats. You will earn more every time you level up, so make sure not to forget your skills! |
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Game Mechanics:
I don’t like that they give you all of the instructions on how to play at the very beginning since it makes it difficult to get used to everything when you’re trying to do it all at once. I much prefer when games introduce more powerful things as your character matures just a bit, simply so you get used to the controls.
In MegaTagmension Blanc + Neptune VS Zombies, (O) lets you dash and (X) is jump and double jump. (Triangle) is your strong attack and (Square) is your normal attack. (L) will reset the camera and lock on., while (R) will guard. (Start) is the Start Menu and (Select) is the Item Menu, and you have a map in the top right corner. SP skills are your support character skills and you can use them when the bar is full. There are four SP skills: (R) + (Triangle) or (Square) or (O) or (X). Each one will call a different support character, each with a different action. Then there are EXE moves. These can also be called when the bar is full. Some of them are for Story Mode only. They are called with (L) + (R) + (Triangle) or (Square) or (X) or (O). I recommend getting used to them all on easier boards so that you know what you’re calling and can call it when you want it.
Overall, I have enjoyed MegaTagmensions Blanc + Neptune VS Zombies. There are things that I don’t like, but overall they are few. Sometimes it is hard to find the last few enemies you need to kill, so you just roam the board until they appear. Also, it is not instantaneous when you’re switching characters in the setup screen. It’s not much of a lag, but it can be annoying. These are minor annoyances though. The story isn’t the most in-depth or addictive one, but given how short the scenes (fights) are, you’ll find that you want to keep going, just to find out what happens next.
If you’re a fan of the Hyperdimension Neptunia series or you just like being a schoolgirl fighting zombies, you will enjoy MegaTagmension Blanc + Neptune VS Zombies, so check it out today! |
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-Cyn, GameVortex Communications AKA Sara Earl |
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