A remake of the remake of the game that started the vast Neptunia franchise, which has explored almost as many genres as Mario and his friends from the Mushroom Kingdom. Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth1 Plus has a solid foundation to stand upon, but does it deliver on its promise? Step into the magical land of Gamindustry to raise shares and save gaming!
Starting up Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth1 Plus feels like coming back to a childhood home updated with the newest tech. The thick TV from the 90s has been replaced with a modern flat screen, and the gameplay systems have received some well-needed updates.
This remake is built upon Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth1. The difference here is mostly that all of the DLC is in the game from the get-go, even the previously paid ones. To answer the most burning question right away: is Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth1 Plus worth buying for someone who played Re;Birth1? Unless they specifically want to play the game on a big screen TV, the answer is no, not really. However, many console-only players never got to experience the original game, as it was released only on the unpopular PS Vita and PC.
What Re;Birth1 Plus is great for, though, is as an entry point for new fans of the game. There is a reason the Re;Birth remakes are praised above the originals. What they did was take the original trilogy of games, draw feedback in from players, and fix up the systems based on said feedback. Keeping what worked and scrapping what didn’t, the developers made a more cohesive system for all three remade games.
The Neptunia franchise’s greatest strength is the fact that it loves to explore different concepts, both storywise and in terms of gameplay, while still holding true to the carefully constructed core identity, and nowhere is the power of that seen clearer than in Re;Birth1 Plus. Not because it makes anything groundbreaking; rather, the opposite: it plays it safe by taking what worked in the experimentation and puts it together into an amazing turn-based RPG.
The gameplay loop is shockingly addictive. It might be daunting to hear that the level cap isn’t just 99 like in the original, but 999 – although the levels fly by quickly because there’s always new things to work towards, thanks to the wonderful remake system. It is a cleverly designed system that works like old-school “cheat” menus, but does so much more. Here, the player can do everything from increasing or decreasing enemy difficulty to removing damage caps to unlocking new dungeons and playable characters. This isn’t just a menu the player is free to tinker with, though, oh no – it has to be earned.
Every unlock requires three things. The first is to get the design for it; the second is to have the memory to add the system to the game, which is earned by playing and replaying the main story; and the third, which is the most clever, is with materials dropped from enemies. These requirements ensure that the player can play the game as is before deciding what changes to make, which, in turn, makes those changes more impactful.
Besides being a means to unlocking content, it is also a wonderful system that ensures there is always something else to work towards, all the way up to level 999 for those who wish to play through the game to 100% completion. This is quite rare in games like these, which often feel like an empty grind.
What has been left unchanged is the cheeky comedic style. Everything in Gamindustry is based on (surprise, surprise) video game companies, games, and consoles. The four goddesses and their lands are inspired by different video game consoles: Blanc, the representative of Nintendo; Noire, the representative of Sony; Vert, the representative of Microsoft; and finally, the main heroine, Neptune, based on Sega and the representative of a fictional modern console follow-up to the Dreamcast. Neptune’s name comes from the Sega Saturn. These are far from the only gaming references in Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth1 Plus; some other notorious ones include the characters IF and Compa, which are obviously based on the developer and publisher.
There is also a fair share of meta humour, such as the amnesiac main character being aware that she is the main heroine and how much of a trope the amnesiac heroine is, talk of event flags, and a bunch of other shenanigans of this nature. While this sort of comedy is quite hit-or-miss, it is so fundamental to the franchise’s charm that if the comedy does not hit, the entire concept falls flat. However, for those it hits with, it feels right at home.
While there is a lot of good to say about Re;Birth1 Plus, there are a couple of grievances that really irk the experience quite a bit. The first is a relic of the past: the lack of an autosave feature. Nothing is more immersive breaking than having to save the game quite frequently because a death or a game freeze/crash means losing hours of progress. Even though the saving progress is quick, it still takes the player out of the loop for a while as it happens. The worst part is that if players truly let themselves be immersed to the point of forgetting to save, the punishment can be quite severe, conditioning them not to let themselves get into the wonderful trance that a great grindy RPG offers.
The second is what makes the lack of autosaving such a massive problem. Re;Birth1 Plus is prone to crashing and freezing. It isn’t uncommon for the game to glitch out at times, making the character’s movements invisible in combat —a bug that is not rare and is often soon followed by a game crash. If this happens, well, have fun if the last save happened three hours ago. While this crash is thankfully telegraphed before it happens so you still have time to rush to the nearest save crystal, the same can’t be said about random game freezes. They can happen at any time during combat, leaving the game stuck on a still picture, forcing a reset.
These are two very annoying problems. The frequent crashes and freezes would have been understandable if this were the first game from a small company. Compile Heart isn’t a small company, though. It is a company that, at this point, has vast experience in game development and a massive library of games under its belt. What is shocking in 2025 is the lack of an optional autosave feature. This isn’t 2013; this is a standard feature in modern gaming now, especially in games that have the courtesy to send the player back to the title screen upon death.
Players will, due to these crashes, quickly become conditioned to save every single time they enter the world map, so why not save them from those immersion-breaking experiences by offering an auto-save feature whenever they step out onto those plains? This would also reduce the impact of game crashes from being potentially devastating to a mere nuisance.
If these two issues can be put to the side, Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth1 is the ideal Neptuniaverse game for newcomers thanks to its slow pace of introducing new mechanics, great tutorials, and generally weeded-out formula. It is almost impossible for those who love weeb comedy threading the thin line between genius and profanity to resist this title, and truly, the Neptunia franchise overall. For those who it clicks with, it is an amazing comfort franchise to play whenever feeling down, to indulge in some relaxing, simple fun without worrying about the world outside – something that, for many, is quite needed today.
