Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth2: Sisters Generation
Here we go, the Neptunia 2 remake. Compared to the first game's remake, there is significantly less rewriting of the plot going on in this one -- some very minor rewriting in midgame because two characters were replaced with different characters due to rights issues: Red replaces Nisa, and Broccoli replaces Gust. Red is an entertaining anime archetype (she's basically a shameless lesbian who wants every last one of the CPUs as her waifu, to the point of actually calling them her 'wifeys') but her VA is gratingly awful most of the time, unfortunately and she's not terribly good in combat either. Broccoli is a chibi sitting on a roly-poly stuffed animal with precisely the opposite personality you'd expect from such a character (she's a snarky asshole), also she has a mildly annoying verbal tic, nyu. Didn't use her much in battle, but she did come in handy some early-game, since her initial skill is a 90% HP heal (that costs an absurd amount of MP) at a time when your only other healing is 1/3 that strength.
The core gameplay is exactly the same as Re;Birth1 (and thus, exactly the same as PS3 Neptunia Victory), for better or for worse, except that the party size is back to Victory's 4 after Re;Birth1 had trimmed it to 3. On the whole, this was a mildly easier game than Re;Birth1 I think; outside of the beginning I had to do very little grinding, and I played on normal difficulty for the majority of the game (I did drop to easy mode for the final chapter, but that was because I had opted for one of the slightly harder variant ending routes on my first playthrough; if I hadn't dropped to easy mode, I probably would have only needed to grind out 5 levels or so).
I personally find Nepgear to be a more appealing main character than Neptune, and she's also just flat out more useful in battle (whereas Neptune's skillset for most of the original game consisted of a couple fairly mediocre physical specials and a ST offensive buff, Nepgear's consists of a couple fairly mediocre physical specials, a defensive buff and two tiers of ST heal). I can't really imagine ever wanting to take her out of your party in this game, unlike the first game where Neptune was sometimes worth dropping from the active party.
(Purely mechanical) thoughts on the other PCs I used:
Compa - Her offense felt better in this game, a bit? Might be more things being weak relatively to magic damage. It was still fairly poor, but not completely fail. Healing came in really handy in the early and mid-game, and she was still in my backup slots at the end of game and did come out during a late-game boss or two for MT healing.
IF - More or less the same as the first game: great early on, her specials are still badly overcosted for what they do, and she gets worse and worse as the game goes on because she just stops getting power attacks and her rush attacks are never more than 3 hits. Her break moves are super-useful in that band of the game where break moves are useful at all though.
Cave - Probably the best character in this game not named Nepgear, and arguably better at times. Full Option Attack or whatever is stupidly powerful line damage with a stupidly low MP cost; for much of the game it would OHKO entire encounters, or nearly so, and she could spam it with relative impunity. Even beyond that, her normal attack strings are pretty good, and she can competently do both physical and magical damage. Never left my party once she joined.
5pb. - Pretty lackluster. I used her as filler for a short while and she didn't impress. Pure mage and you get better pure mages not long after her.
Falcom - Basically Nepgear- without HDD. Solid character nonetheless, and pretty tanky. Never left my party once she joined.
MarvelousAQL - So-so. Good for building EXE drive.
I have to go so more details will have to wait. Holy shit the Conquest Ending is probably the most depressing thing I've ever seen in a video game.
