Rise of the Trendfluencer!
The Neptunia series is one that is often overlooked. Its simplistic JRPG visuals and visual novel approach to its narratives can immediately feel outdated to those who are unfamiliar with them. As someone who has only played maybe four or five titles across the series, I often know what I am going to get from either a new entry, spinoff, or remake. Neptunia: Sisters vs Sisters is a spin-off, taking place after the events of Megadimension Neptunia VII, and while it can be fun, a barely there difficulty and bland level design sadly place this title as one of the more disappointing entries I've played so far.
Sisters vs Sisters continues the tried and true Neptunia formula of taking various gaming consoles, industry tropes, and trends, and creating a fun if a bit thin narrative that places each console waifu goddess in some action-packed scenarios compete with jokes, hi-jinks, and enough fan service that its file size allows. And, in typical Neptunia fashion, it never amounts to much more than that, offering a fun and yet breezy story that has the girls come out on top, sharing their victories with friends and family alike.
As the core group of Goddesses are exploring the events taking place on the PC Continent, their younger sisters are attempting to address other concerns plaguing the joyful land of Gameindustri. However, during this outing, the girls find a mysterious goddess trapped in a stasis tube. Upon her freedom, this unknown goddess then traps the siblings in said tube, trapping them inside for two years. Eventually, by sheer chance, they are found and revived to the present day. As the young sisters then begin to understand the current state of the world after their eventful disappearance, Nepgear, the young sister of the series lead, Neptunia, discovers that her sister has also disappeared without a trace. Nepgear will need to then step up and take on her duties to save the day.
The narrative that follows is getting to the bottom of not just Neptunia's disappearance, but just who this new goddess is. And, to add to matters, the girls will also investigate the wave of obsession with a new smartphone that has taken over its citizens as well as dealing with terrifying monsters called Trendfluencers and the rise of the Vtubers. If there is a current gaming trend, then you bet that the Neptunia series is going to turn it into a mechanic, monster, or add to its ever-growing harem of gaming goddesses.
Now, your mileage for the quality of the story is going to vary, but what is here is cheeky and entertaining, complete with all the characters you've grown to love and the relationships that have been forged across this series. The humor is fine without being too laugh out loud, but I certainly did offer a good chuckle from time to time. As a game that is largely all gimmicks and fan service, Sisters vs Sisters gets the job done without aiming too high.
While the method of experiencing the game's story is as visual novel as it has ever been, each game generally handles combat in new and mostly interesting ways, constantly shaking up the formula to fit within a few different genres. From real-time hack and slash to turn-based battles to even a side-scrolling shooter, the Neptunia series is a constantly evolving beast that can stumble from time to time, but can nonetheless produce some compelling combat and shared systems.
Now, that said, Sisters vs Sisters is easily my least favorite of the Neptunia games I've played so far, largely due to two factors; combat and level design. While the story takes up a decent chunk of the game's roughly 25-30 hour playthrough and is enjoyable, combat and traversing through a variety of uninspired environments takes up the rest. Having such an imbalance of quality here is where Sisters vs Sisters disappoints, so let's discuss why.
Combat in Sisters vs Sisters is through real-time action, dictated by an AP gauge that depletes with each action and then slowly replenishes to continue with additional attacks and abilities. Swapping to other girls will allow you to continue the action, as does swapping during a combat alert. This attack ability is usually available after performing two standard attacks as a prompt indicating that one of your two other companions is free to perform a special combo attack alongside your combo string.
This; however, breaks combat down to being a simple and repetitive grind. While you can customize your girls with additional attacks, creating new combo strings as you learn new skills, this combat swapping is simply too effective in combating enemy forces that you'll constantly perform a few attacks, then press the bumper button to swap and pull off that attack. Then it's simply a need to repeat this process as you overwhelm any enemies in front of you, regardless if it's the smallest creature to the biggest monster; it's simply too effective not to use it.
Each girl will have a range of different weapons from staves to swords to guns, each providing a different range to take into consideration when building your team, even if the story will sometimes deny you most of your characters for quite some time. However, due to the combo swapping attacks, the types of weapons, damage, and capability of the girls, regardless of them being in their standard forms or their scantily clad goddess forms, makes combo simply too easy and repetitive to really stay engaging during the game's pretty lengthy playtime. Honestly, I felt I saw everything combat had to offer within the game's first two or three hours, at best.
Regardless of how you approach combat, Sisters vs Sisters won't offer you much challenge with its few monsters, and even bosses for that matter, rarely feeling like you are working for it. Throughout my time with the game, I never once lost a character or died whatsoever, making this the easiest title I've played in the series by leaps and bounds. And given the shallow depth to most of its combat systems, you likely will find what works for you and stick with it, limiting the game's depth and fueling the game's repetition.
While you'll find new accessories and weapons to boost your stats even further with added vitality or strength, you'll also come to rely on the Disc system, at least until you figure out a certain recipe. Discs are crafted by combining game genres to a series of items and NPCs. Once I discovered the disc that boosted my experience earnings, I never looked back and didn't feel the need to use the system much more after that. I would tinker with a few discs to add some boosted key stats as each girl can hold onto a few discs at once, but it felt largely useless even a few hours in.
When it comes to the title's environments, this is where the game's repetition really drags the experience down. Throughout the adventure, you'll unlock new areas to explore, complete with entirely new aesthetic changes. From caves to wide open fields to city streets, there is a decent variety to diversify what you'll explore. However, the pathing and layouts are almost all the same across each location, complete with enemies in the same spots, ladders where they were previously, and more; making most locations just a palette swap. That brown cave? Same as the blue one. And in regards to the city location, a wealth of roadblocks prevent you from having a lot of freedom, regardless of the map not even showing those restrictions.
And since you'll need to travel back to previous locations for all your side quest needs, levels start to become tiring affairs where you never feel like you're discovering something new. While fast travel spots are fairly plentiful, they still don't really address or fix the core problem here. Previous Neptunia games had most of the same issues, but levels rarely pulled from the same layouts as often as I feel Sisters vs Sisters does. Due to the game being a spin-off and not a new main series title, it's likely this was due to budgetary reasons, dressing up old locations in a different colored texture.
One aspect of Sisters vs Sisters that I was very impressed by was the fact that the game provides a full English voice cast with most of its narrative voiced. While there are certainly some repetitive lines made during exploration, the fact I could enjoy the story in English was a huge bonus and something pretty unexpected given the budget feel of what else the title offers.
Neptunia has been a series I go to for very light engagement and to just enjoy the story, its characters, and its action. While most of this title does offer all this, and more, I still felt a degree of disappointment here that I just couldn't shake during the entire game. Its story and charm are all on point and really do entertain, but the core gameplay elements just don't hold up, creating a bland and uninspired adventure that felt like I was playing the same five minutes over and over.
Developer - Compile Heart. Publisher - Idea Factory. Released - January 24th, 2023. Available On - PS4/PS5, Switch, PC. Rated - (T) Fantasy Violence, Suggestive Themes. Platform Reviewed - Windows/Steam. Review Access - A review code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.
Jeff is the original founder of Analog Stick Gaming. His favorite games include The Witcher III, the Mass Effect Trilogy, Hi-Fi Rush, Stellar Blade, Hellbade: Senua’s Sacrifice, and the Legend of Heroes series, especially Trails of Cold Steel III & IV.