Neptunia Virtual Stars

56%
Game Brain Score Based on 133 reviews
  • gameplay
  • story
  • graphics
Neptunia Virtual Stars Game Cover
If you can get past its confusing story, Neptunia Virtual Stars has a great setting and decent combat that fans of the series will enjoy.
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Neptunia Virtual Stars is a hack-and-slash game set in the digital world of Virtualand, where the planets Emote and Gamindustri face destruction by the Antis group. Players control members of MEWTRAL and the Goddesses of Gamindustri, switching perspectives to battle enemies and save the planets. The game also features a rhythm game mode for a musical twist.

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Reviews

56%
Audience ScoreBased on 133 reviews
gameplay13 positive mentions
optimization7 negative mentions
  • The game features improved character models and vibrant graphics, making it visually appealing.
  • The dialogue and character interactions maintain the humorous and quirky charm typical of the Neptunia series.
  • For fans of VTubers, the game serves as a nostalgic time capsule, showcasing various popular VTubers and their unique styles.
  • The gameplay quickly becomes repetitive, with a lack of variety in combat mechanics and enemy design.
  • The game suffers from numerous technical issues, including crashes, poor optimization, and laggy controls, making it frustrating to play.
  • Many players feel that the game is more of a promotional tool for VTubers rather than a fully realized Neptunia experience, leading to disappointment among long-time fans.
  • gameplay63 mentions

    The gameplay has been criticized for its repetitive nature and lack of depth, with many players finding it becomes tedious after a short period. While the game features a mix of third-person shooting and hack-and-slash mechanics, the balance is skewed heavily towards the goddesses, making other characters feel underutilized. Additionally, technical issues such as crashes and poor sound design further detract from the overall experience, leaving many players disappointed.

    • “The gameplay is pretty good, nice ARPG-style gameplay where you can shift between modes on the fly: vtubers use traditional hack-and-slash ARPG combat, whereas goddesses (Neptune, etc.) play more like fast-paced third-person shooters, with lots of skating around and shooting your targets.”
    • “Ok, how to describe this newest installment of Neptunia... for starters: it's a hybrid genre of third-person shooting but with hack & slash gameplay mechanics too.”
    • “Interesting mixture of gameplay mechanics which seems to be well balanced so far.”
    • “Gameplay depends on a lot of repetition, very noticeable repetition even for a game from this franchise.”
    • “The gameplay balance is a bit off as you never need to switch from the goddesses; I barely switched from Neptune because if you use her enough, you can get an ability that kills bosses in like one hit.”
    • “Even as someone who has played and enjoyed other spinoffs, I can't recommend this title; gameplay is either a scuffed shooter or a mediocre hack and slash, and the dialog has a lot less charm than usual.”
  • story41 mentions

    The story has received mixed reviews, with many players finding it mediocre and padded, which detracts from the overall gameplay experience. While some appreciate the charm and humor typical of the Neptunia series, others criticize the focus on Vtubers and the lack of depth in character development. Overall, the narrative is seen as a light, easygoing experience that may appeal to fans of the genre but leaves others wanting more substance.

    • “The dialogue is the same as always, pretty decent, and in cutscenes they use the 3D models, so any costume changes like adding accessories or turning on the swimsuit DLC shows up in any story content without CG, which is pretty great.”
    • “You're not buying Monster Hunter here... it's a fan service JRPG with a great story, fun characters, fan service, great music, and fun gameplay.”
    • “The only saving grace of the game would be the story; the writers at Idea Factory still got it, some of the gameplay and soundtrack.”
    • “The story is mediocre, which drags on the tedium of the gameplay even more.”
    • “Even for the Neptunia series in general, gameplay is never the best, but characters make up for it. However, this is the first time I genuinely couldn't actually play the game just due to how boring it is and how much I really don't care about the story.”
    • “The game’s main focus is on VTubers, while Neptunia characters are treated as guests. They take part in the main story and interact with the rest of the cast, but are just placeholders with few lines and basically one recurring gag for each of them.”
  • graphics16 mentions

    The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with some players appreciating the visuals while others criticize them as laggy and poorly optimized, leading to crashes and unplayable experiences. Despite some improvements over previous titles, many users report significant performance issues, making the game frustrating to play even on high-end systems. Overall, while the graphics have potential, technical problems severely detract from the experience.

    • “Graphics are good too.”
    • “Graphics - great as always.”
    • “The graphics are fine, honestly.”
    • “Ugly graphics, it's somewhat tolerable, even found a way to make the gameplay playable (switching between keyboard+mouse and controller in battles), but crashes and freezes without autosave make the game absolutely horrible.”
    • “Basically unplayable due to a graphics glitch that nobody knows how to fix.”
    • “Performance is noticeably sluggish with a powerful rig, yet the graphics are a huge step down from what we saw with Four Goddesses Online.”
  • music14 mentions

    The music in the game has received positive feedback for its overall quality, with many praising the engaging soundtrack and the unique integration of anime-style songs during boss battles that enhance the gameplay experience. While some players noted that certain tracks could become repetitive, the soundtrack is generally considered a highlight, contributing to the game's fun and immersive atmosphere. Overall, the music is seen as a strong aspect of the game, complementing its story and characters effectively.

    • “The soundtrack of this game is really good.”
    • “It might get annoying to hear the emotional overdrive track a lot, but still a great soundtrack overall.”
    • “The music in this game is top tier.”
    • “The boss fight music feels like a Japanese anime song.”
    • “In addition to this, we have the hit count meter and the extra elements from boss battles, with the boss health, the finisher meter, song information, and the lyrics displayed all over the screen, making it a nightmare to follow what's happening on the screen.”
    • “Oh, and the music is alright, I guess.”
  • optimization8 mentions

    The game's optimization has received significant criticism, with users reporting poor performance, especially during combat, and sluggish loading times even on high-end rigs. Many players have noted frequent frame drops and a general lack of polish compared to previous titles in the series, indicating that the PC port is not well-optimized.

    • “The game is not optimized very well, so expect to use high TDP to hit consistent FPS.”
    • “This game feels like it's really poorly optimized.”
    • “Performance is noticeably sluggish with a powerful rig, yet the graphics are a huge step down from what we saw with Four Goddesses Online.”
  • monetization7 mentions

    The monetization aspect of the game has been criticized for being overly focused on advertising, particularly for vtubers, which many players feel detracts from the overall experience. Reviewers describe the game as a cash grab, lacking substantial content and feeling more like a promotional platform than a fully developed title. Overall, the heavy emphasis on ads and the shallow gameplay have left players disappointed.

    • “Though if you only come in for the vtubers, I do not recommend this for you; most of the vtuber content is just basically ads.”
    • “You expect the game to feature the vtubers they so prominently display in their advertisements and promotional material, but all you get is a shallow and empty platformer/dungeon crawler that has little to no content in it.”
    • “It feels really clunky and feels more like a cash grab than a game.”
  • humor7 mentions

    Reviews indicate a decline in humor in the Neptunia series, particularly after "Victory II," where character development has led to a reduction in the comedic elements that initially defined the games. While some players still find moments of humor, such as vtuber cameos, the overall consensus is that the characters are no longer as funny, diminishing the comedic impact of the series.

    • “As good as the games may be, and as good as the story and social commentary may be, I was here for the laughs, and I'm no longer laughing.”
    • “The game is funny.”
    • “The VTuber cameos exist and can honestly be annoying sometimes, but seeing Korone in a Neptunia game is kinda funny to me.”
  • stability5 mentions

    The game's stability is widely criticized, with reports of frequent crashes, freezes, and a lack of autosave functionality, leading to a frustrating experience for many players. While some users have found workarounds and have not encountered significant issues themselves, the overall consensus points to a buggy and unstable launch, with hopes for future patches to improve performance.

    • “Ugly graphics, it's somewhat tolerable, even found a way to make the gameplay playable (switching between keyboard+mouse and controller in battles), but crashes and freezes without autosave make the game absolutely horrible.”
    • “3/10 a buggy mess.”
    • “Can't really give a review right now since the game is buggy and all but still would buy and hope for the patch soon.”
  • replayability5 mentions

    The game's replayability is criticized due to a misleading marketing strategy that suggested playable vtubers, which are not included, and the lack of a mission menu for replay value. While some characters are well-received, the absence of playable options and reliance on future DLC for additional content detracts from the overall replayability experience.

    • “Faira and Kado are great characters, but unfortunately neither are playable.”
    • “However, if you're looking for mission menu for replay value, don't play it.”
    • “❌ mission menu for replay value.”
    • “More playable characters will be DLC.”
  • character development4 mentions

    Character development in the Neptunia series has faced criticism for becoming stagnant, particularly after "Neptunia Victory," where characters transitioned from humorous goofballs to less engaging personas. While the character designs remain visually appealing, the overall depth and evolution of the characters have declined, leading to a perception of redundancy in gameplay and storytelling.

    • “I really like the enemy design as there is a fair amount of variety in this game and the character designs are really good.”
    • “Overall, for a game titled as the 10th anniversary of Neptunia, they did an amazing job and show what modern Neptunia is: product placements, weak story, interesting character designs, and okay level designs.”
    • “The problem is the characters.”
    • “That convention, however, changed with Neptunia Victory, the point at which the following games became sequels. Alas, the moment the clock started moving, all acquired character development stuck with the characters, whose point of sale was being a quartet of goofballs. Ever since Victory II, the casting has progressively become less dumb and less funny. While I saw that Victory II was as far as they could ever go history-wise, and the following games tried to move into terra incognita, they kept the continuity. It is until now that I can finally pinpoint the problem: the problem is the characters.”
    • “- Declining character design even worse than many indie games.”
  • emotional3 mentions

    The emotional aspect of the game is highlighted by the poignant experience of revisiting characters over time, creating a strong sense of nostalgia. While the soundtrack enhances the emotional depth, some players find it overly repetitive. Newcomers to the series are advised to start with earlier titles for a more impactful emotional journey.

    • “Coming back to see them as time passes is very emotional.”
    • “It might get annoying to hear the emotional overdrive track a lot, but it's still a great soundtrack overall.”
    • “I wouldn't recommend this to anyone as their first Nep game; go play an older one like VII or something—those are emotional roller coasters.”
  • grinding2 mentions

    Players find the grinding aspect of the game tedious and unengaging, as it primarily involves revisiting previously explored dungeons to farm currency for upgrades and achievements, leading to a repetitive experience.

    • “Once you finish the ending, the rest of the achievements or videos require too much farming and RNG.”
    • “It's boring and grindy since all it does is send you to previously visited dungeons to collect more currency to buy the upgrades needed for better shop items.”
Positive mentions (%)Positive
Neutral mentions (%)Neutral
Negative mentions (%)Negative

Critic Reviews

50% average critic score

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Play time

2hMedian play time
2hAverage play time
2-2hSpent by most gamers
*Based on 1 analyzed playthroughs

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