The Neptunia game series has a simple premise: What if video game consoles were actually magical goddesses in a world filled with video game-inspired characters and in-jokes. Uberdimension Blanc + Neptune Faction Vs. The Zombie Army is more of the same but in a high schoolâand with zombies.
In the world of Uberdimension Blanc, the Goddesses, while still goddesses, are âstudying abroadâ at a human high school so they can better understand the wants and needs of their followers.
Of course, Neptune takes this as a golden opportunity to goof off and ends up becoming president of the film research club. Her goal? To make a zombie movie. Just one problem though: She has no idea how to write or direct. However, by appealing to Blancâs ego, Blanc ends up as not only the writer and director of the film but the heroine as well.
Yet, just as their zombie filming is getting started, a real zombie outbreak occurs, turning the schoolâs population into the walking dead. Not to be deterred, Blanc opts to continue shooting during the zombie apocalypseâusing the undead students as background set pieces for the action scenes.
The result is an impressively funny story that goes out of control as more and more goddess and game company-related characters are drawn into the movie-making ordealâmany cast as zombies despite the abundance of the real thing all around. The plot generally switches between the behind-the-scenes problems and actual scenes from the filmâso we can see in detail how Blancâs supposedly brilliant script becomes nothing but a mashup of every single zombie trope ever.
But as entertaining as the story is, the gameplay is rather uninspired. Uberdimension Blanc + Neptune Faction Vs. The Zombie Army is an underwhelming 3D hack-and-slash. As with many similar games, you face down waves of minions and slaughter them en masse with a mix of strong and weak attacks.
However, the levels are minuscule in size and the enemies are largely interchangeable. All you have to do is get them into a group and then plow through them all at onceâit doesnât matter if they look different or have different attack patterns if they never get to attack. Heck, in truth, about half the enemies on the screen at any time wonât even try to attackâtheyâll just stand there waiting to die.
The bosses are similarly disappointing. Over the gameâs 12 chapters you will face the same four or five of them again and againâeasily a dozen times each. And like the normal enemies, there is almost no challenge to them. You simply wait for them to attack, dodge, get your own combo in when they pause afterwards, and then run out of range as they attack again. (Repeat as needed.)
The game boasts a sizeable roster of characters from across the other Neptunia games. As you play, you get money which can be used to customize them in any number of ways visuallyâfrom hair and clothes to accessories. Likewise you can use this cash to buy weapons and customize their gear.
In combat the characters all play uniquely with their own move sets. Unfortunately, once you find a single good move or combo, itâs unlikely youâll ever feel the need to do any other attacks.
I, for example, discovered that one of Noireâs charge attacks knocks enemiesâincluding most of the bossesâright on their butts for several seconds. During the stun time, I would simply press her strong attackâwhich does a good dozen hits in a 90 degree arc in front of her. Bosses and normal enemies alike had no defense against this.
Of course, not all characters have an unstoppable one-two punch. Some felt downright useless when compared to others. While it can be fun experimenting as you unlock new characters, they start at level one. So if you want them to be useful as one of your two controllable characters, a bit of grinding is needed.
Other than the story mode, Uberdimension Blanc + Neptune Faction Vs. The Zombie Army comes with a coop multiplayer mode. In it, up to four people can team up locally or online and fight various new strong boss monsters. While I was a bit late to the party on this one (and was therefore pitifully weak compared to my partners), this was the most fun I had with the game. There was no easy way to stomp these bossesâit was simply a matter of timing and skill.
To put it in the simplest terms, Uberdimension Blanc + Neptune Faction Vs. The Zombie Army is all flash, little substance. The story is good for a chuckleâespecially if youâre a zombie fanâand the characters look great with all their customizable options. But the gameplayâoutside of the multiplayerâis pitifully lackluster. If youâre really invested in either zombies parody or Neptunia, you may find enough enjoyable to be worth your time. But if not, this probably isnât the game for you.
Uberdimension Blanc + Neptune Faction Vs. The Zombie Army (Geki Jigen Tag Blanc + Neptune VS Zombie Gundan) was released in Japan for the PlayStation Vita on October 15, 2015. There is currently no word on a Western release.
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