Neptunia: Virtual Stars

While Neptune and her friends are just as enthusiastic and charming as ever, both the gameplay and story feels a little stale. It’s great that the developer has managed to seamlessly blend together real V-tubers with the ladies from Gamesindustri, but it’s a real shame that there’s nothing else that lifts this game above average.

Neptune and her friends return for yet another spin-off in the Neptunia series; their dive into the world of Vtubers is a dull and unremarkable experience unfortunately.

Neptunia Virtual Stars is a good game in the long-running series, but does fall short in terms of being a great gateway game.

Neptunia Virtual Stars is a tough game to recommend even for the fans. The regular cast of characters remains as engaging as ever, while the newcomers fit in quite nicely. The story is a nice take on parodying the current state of the internet using the unique viewpoint that the series has carved for itself. Beyond the overly long cut scenes, the gameplay is dull despite the variety that the title and minigames try to provide. While this game won't attract any newcomers, hardcore fans might want to dabble with this after a very deep discount.

Neptunia Virtual Stars serves up the same zany storytelling that you’ve come to expect from the series mixed with third-person shooting and hack-and-slash action. While the gameplay shows flashes of promise, the overall experience is stymied by the game’s basic level design, uneven difficulty and poor AI for whichever partner you are not controlling. While the game might be a pass for most, it might still be worth getting for hardcore Neptunia fans for the dialogue alone, which remains hilariously on point.

The inclusion of popular Vtubers' isn't enough to save Neptunia Virtual Stars, as it ends up being an underwhelming mess that fails to deliver.

With most story elements already being done somewhere else, and average at best, almost unplayable at worst gameplay, this is definitely not one recommended unless you’re a massive anime fan waiting for something new to come out.

Neptunia Virtual Stars ends up coming on stage as one of the poorer entries in the Neptunia franchise.

Underneath the fan service and incessant yammering during battles, you have a mindless, fun dungeon crawler that’s full of wit and charm. Yes, the environments and plot are stale and it can feel like a slog at times, but the self-awareness and comedy of the script acknowledges these issues constantly. This is perhaps why I kept playing. It may feel like a cheap solution to acknowledge your flaws so brazenly without attempting to fix them, but for the most part, I have to admit that it works. Overall, I’d say that, in spite of the repetitive levels, the gorgeous art style and the characters are enough to keep you invested until the final credits roll.

The developers tried to do a little too much and made an unpolished game as result.