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https://milkandhate.wordpress.com/2026/01/26/%e8%b6%85%e6%ac%a1%e6%ac%a1%e5%85%83%e3%82%b2%e3%82%a4%e3%83%a0-%e3%83%8d%e3%83%97%e3%83%86%e3%83%a5%e3%83%bc%e3%83%8crebirth1-cho-ji-jigen-game-neptune-rebirth-1/
English subtitles.
The stupid translation ignored repeated part naming it the same as the original. This one should be something something like hyper dimensionmension, as the original name for the remake was punned upon: hyper next foundation to hyper next next foundation.
It's a ♥♥♥ game so of course it's just a Wizardry clone. Which means a grindy dungcrawler from the late 1970s with no choices. But this remake is probably the least cuckservocuck take on the genre. In a paradigm where you refuse to catch up with the rest of the world, or at least progress to the next step of evolution and make a CRPG.
The first original old game is very close to a basic dungcrawler — the 70s static line combat, the 70s empty dungeons with random encounters, etc. At least the dungeon were real-time. Grid crawlers only make sense if it's Eye of the Beholder types, with real combat instead of encounters.
This re-make is a proper re-make. Not HD, re-release, or remaster. The core gameplay is different, and reportedly parts of the story are rewritten. The combat is still based on encounters, but the enemies are not random. You can see them patrolling the dungeons. You can try to attack them first for some bonus, or fumble the attack so the enemy gets the first turn. You can pick your battle formations, and the enemies have theirs. Each unit has a range they can walk in one turn, each weapon has AoE. So even with the simplest swords you can adjust your positioning to strike several enemies at the same time. And then some spells and weapons have a bigger AoE.
But no matter how much this game is better than a stock dungcrawler, it is still one. The core of the combat is all meaningless exceless sheets of meaningless stats and numbers you barely have any control over. Most fights of your level is beating the enemy with a stick for hundreds of times with no impact no satisfaction. The offer to split every attack into four phases plus one and three ways, but that is meaningless. The difference is miniscule but the waste of time is quadrupled (quintupled). Especially with how you cannot specialize the characters with that many useless stats. Or with how you don't have meaningful fights or a proper bestiary, either fillable or filled. The spells have terrible descriptions, the buffs and debuffs are so miniscule and impactless they feel like a waste of a turn. The usable items are barely worth wasting your brain power on. The equippable items are also a part of this system of overwhelmingly meaningless stats. And most of the choices are very linear upgrades. Nothing is explained in the game. And none of it matters anyway.
If you ever encounter a strong enemy, you can't even know if it's a strong enemy of your level, or a weak enemy that just extremely overlevels you. If you play the main story you barely even encounter anything strong. If something is giving you trouble just go grind somewhere and return stronger. Which also is meaningless, everything outside the main story is just meaningless grind. The craftable items you may need grind resources for are weaker than non-craftable items. If your life goal is not to ask grok to put a miner into a bikini, you do not need to craft the bikini armour in this game. Most of the costumes either do not change the stats, or lower them. The only costumes boosting stats (which also are split bikini overwear) are for side semi-secret character.
Everything that is not the main campaign is just pointless turbo grind of endlessly respawning enemies, repeat that ad nauseam. Or bc nauseam. Because the level cap is 99, and you can hit it super fast by grinding kinda weak monsters that give tons of XP for a not that very long time.
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There are a lot of missable side-content things in the game. And a lot of them are even tied into the DLCs. So if you missed them the first time, you have to complete new game+ for a chance to miss them again. What a deranged idea to give you blueprint for a late game dungeon in the late game, that requires grind of late-game enemies for late-game materials, but the only way to get the additional blueprints for it is to have it unlocked in the very early game chapters.
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For the story the game has a verbose VN with at least i tiny bit of animation. It's not Dragon Commander, but it is better than the usual cardboard cutouts with no yapping animation and no sound at all. The main gimmick is that this is a sci-fi parody of the so-called "console wars" (not sure if a cripple fight can even be called a "war") where the main machines are presented as waifus. And you can tell that it is fantasy, because the protagonist is an unreleased refresh prototype of Sega Mega Drive II going against, xbawks that sold a little, wii that was sold to nursing homes, and PS2 which anyone bought only to watch low-res low-quality video on an old CRT screen instead of getting PC and downloading movies from DC++. What is this, Brasil? The secondary characters are the companies in this business and sometimes even specific brands. So Compile Heart supports their own game inside this game, Idea Factory who published the first game is only horny for xbawks, and Felistella that made this game doesn't even appear until the third re-make.
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Being a ♥♥♥ weeb game it's made of ♥♥♥♥ and sticks. The GUIs are insanely bad and made by aliens to torture humans. The controls layout is absolutely deranged and inhumane. The game runs only in low-res wide-screen, and you cannot run it natively on a 4 by 3 screen, or letterbox it. The only choice is to play in a tiny low-res window. There are no graphical options. The game loses gamepads if you ever disconnect them, even with it being shut down, so you have to switch controls in the menu each time. The sound volume settings are insufficient.
The main game, and even the true ending are fine. It's not too long and you can finish it if you want to finish it. As far as dungcrawlers go, especially doubly grindy ♥♥♥ ones, it is fine. It even offers upgraded more dynamic combat mechanics.
But the game rears it's ugly ♥♥♥ head, if you want to engage with the achievements or DLCs. Almost all the achievements don't ask anything hard even the old level cap can be grinded very fast. But the achievement to earn 100 mil cash requires several deranged days of thankless mindless grinding. Meanwhile the DLCs add high-level dungeons with no story related content or any though about progression. You have to grind boars for weeks of real time just to be allowed to participate in very bad uncontent you paid for. And you also have to buy other DLCs to buy DLCs. High level dungeons do not include level-cap increase. It is sold separately.
If you buy the most expensive Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth1 Digital Complete Set / デジタルコンプリートエディション / 完全豪華組合包 you get less than a half of the DLCs. Basically almost as low as a third of them. You have to buy the rest separately.
