I am no stranger to the Neptunia video game parody franchise with its anthropomorphic personifications of game systems, companies, and series. However, one thing has always freaked me out when playing them: the characters' constantly heaving chests.
In the Neptunia games, the story is largely told with visual novel-style cutscenes—i.e., 2D anime-style drawings of the characters appear on screen and have only the most minor of animations to the eyes and mouth as they converse. However, what the Neptunia games do that most visual novels don't is animate the characters' breathing.
This breathing animation is done by stretching and distorting the different layers of the character's 2D images to simulate the rise and fall of a person's chest while breathing.
What freaks me out about it is that the breathing animation is far too big. Instead of a slight, barely noticeable rise and fall of the chest, the characters' chest heave like they've always just finished a 10-mile run. Moreover, as the cast of Neptunia has more than its share of quite well-endowed females, the animation looks even more unnatural and over the top as their breasts bounce up and down rhythmically—and often completely in sync.
But don't get me wrong, I actually think the idea of animating the characters' breathing is an interesting idea that could be a nice touch. However, unless it is toned down significantly, there is no doubt in my mind that it'll continue to just freak me the hell out.
Hyper Goddess Faith Noire: Ultra Goddess Black Heart was released for the PlayStation Vita on May 29, 2014, in Japan. There is currently no word on an international release.
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