Part 3: Episode 3: Quest

Episode 3: Quest

Last time on Hyperdimension Neptunia Mark 2, we hung around Planeptune. Now, on Hyperdimension Neptunia…

We headed out to the Virtua Forest to hunt Dogoos. You know, those slimes that look like dogs.

Video- “Dogoos”

Watch

I am!
M-Me, too.
All right, let’s do this!
Dogoo: B-Bowooze?

I was a little rusty, so it was good that we got started on something this easy.



LWE Feinne on Neptunia Game Mechanics Mark 2
So let’s talk about the battle system. The turn order up top may seem pretty familiar, but most of the rest of it is quite different. The first thing to note is that characters and monsters have a real position on the battlefield, and can move around on their turn. This is limited by our Move stat, which gives us the total range we can move in a given turn. Now let’s look at our character status down at the bottom. First we see our health, which is really pretty self explanatory. Second we see our current AP, which is required to take actions in battle. We generate a certain amount of AP each turn, and it will actually accumulate up to twice our base value if we let it. SP is generated by actions in combat, and lets us use Skills and later HDD for our CPUs. Now let’s talk about combat actions.



Skills are, as I’ve noted, special abilities. They cost both AP and SP and using one will end the character’s turn. HDD allows our CPUs to transform, and we’ll see that in a later update (Nepgear currently won’t transform and doesn’t have access to HDD until a later event). Attack hits every enemy we can touch with that orange area in front of our character with a combo. Some characters get weapons that hit larger, different, or ranged areas with their Attack. Every action in a Combo costs AP. We can Switch a character with their Support as an action, though we don’t have any set up right now. We will once we start being a bit more sturdy, though, because IF is a thousand times better in support than in combat. We can use an Item if we have enough AP to do so, and if we’re at the edge of the battlefield we can attempt to Escape. Enemies also move around and attack on their turn, and just as with our attacks enemy attacks can hit areas and multiple targets. Enemies are actually generally quite damaging in Mark 2, so avoiding getting multiple people hit is pretty important.

Especially since I’m not feeling up to activating HDD right now.
That’s really inconvenient, by the way.
Oh, hello Iffy. What are you doing here?



Dogoo: Bow…bow-wooze!
What the goodness? It ran away. Please wait, monster!
This ball of slime’s a troublemaker. However, you’re cornered now you little…uh…
Dogoo: Bow-wooze!
Wooze! Wooze!
Bow-wow-wooze!
Oh dear, so many dogoos are showing up!
Wh-What are you little guys doing?
Dogoo: Bow-wooze!
Grandogoo: Boo-goo-hoo…
They fused together!?
It’s huge. It’s gonna be a pain in our collective asses to beat it.

I was looking for you, what are you even doing here?
Didn’t Histy tell you?
Oh man, not that stupid broadcast thing again. Ugh, what a waste. Okay, let’s get this over with so we can get back to work.



What do you mean, ‘bang’?
Um, the insane strength you get from Hard Drive Divinity. HDD, y’know? It’s part of your rehab, so do it.
Iffy, are you sure you aren’t just messing with Ge-Ge’s head for your own pleasure?
I’ll do it. I’ll transform and fight. Urk…
Huh? Hey, hold on, what’s wrong?
No, I can’t. I can’t do it. I’m scared!
Iffy, it’s too soon. Don’t force poor little Ge-Ge!
I…I didn’t mean to be pushy. Jeez. Well, that sucks. Let’s do this the old-fashioned way!



LWE Feinne on Neptunia Game Mechanics Mark 2
The game tells us about a few other mechanics here. Let’s start on Guard Break. Enemies have a Guard Meter just as in the first game, and attacks do damage to it as well as to their health. When an enemy’s Guard Meter empties they go into Guard Break and start taking much more damage. Unlike in the first game, they don’t do any more damage while broken (I’m pretty sure the first game seriously couldn’t handle a damage modifier that didn’t apply to both attack and defense, because of Idea Factory). We also got tutorials for two other things that have nothing to do with this fight but hell I’ll explain them anyway since they’re very important.

So, just as in the first game we can have characters in support that we can switch to. Switching isn’t as strong as it was in the first game, but it makes up for this with Support effects. Basically, we get bonuses from having characters support each other in combat. The active character gets a bunch of special effects like reduced costs and immunities to status effects, and for some characters we also get access to special Coupling skills. This also sort of goes hand in hand with the Lily system (which returns in a much better if somewhat grindier implementation in Victory). In Mark 2 it largely exists to gate us from certain abilities and item syntheses (more on those later) based on where we are in the story, as our Lily rank with a character depends on how many of the scenes with that character we’ve done. Lily ranks also control what endings we qualify for so don’t skip the side scenes!

We still managed to beat the big dogoo, so it all turned out fine.



I’m really sorry. I’m just not ready.
Oh well. We managed to win, so whatever. Let’s go back to the city and turn in our report.
Of course.

Yeah, Histy was still pretty busy so we kind of had to just amuse ourselves for a while.



Yes. First, you apply for a quest. Then you accomplish the objective and report that to the Guild, right?
That’s it. You’re so smart, Ge-Ge. Your memory is quite healthy.
System Message: Every time a quest is completed, you will receive any rewards offered and regain the specified shares.
To regain shares taken by Arfoire and her ASIC minions, proactively challenge and complete as many quests as you can.
It should be mentioned that Histoire works overtime to handle her tasks. Why don’t we do quests in the meantime?
The more we help others, the more we rehabilitate Ge-Ge.
Just don’t repeat that whimpering act. Unless and until you get your power back, the story won’t advance.
S-Sure. I’ll do my best…for everyone!

People started posting more requests again after we finished that first one.





Feinne’s Notes
We get two quests here, and have to complete one of them to activate the next scene. Either one, doesn’t matter.[/i]

Yeah, that was when I gave you that napkin Neptune left with me.
Oh, right, the Nep Bull recipe.



Huh? What is this?
Is this…a Product Proposal?
Yep, Nep gave it to me three years ago. Maybe you’ll make better use of it.
You’ve been good with electronics and machinery ever since you could hold a screwdriver and heat gun.
I’ll accept it, but are you sure? My sister gave it to you specifically, didn’t she?
To be honest, her handwriting is awful and she used crayons, so I can’t read what it says at all.
Oh, I see. The only people who can decipher her crayon code are Histoire and me.
That’s why it’s pointless for me to keep it. I’m sure you’ll take good care of it.



LWE Feinne on Neptunia Game Mechanics Mark 2
Item Synthesis is quite simple. We get a Product Proposal that lets us synthesize something, then we get the materials together and can make it. Even better, from that point on it’ll be in the Shops as well. Some items require us to have Nepgear currently paired with a certain character and at a certain Lily Rank with them to synthesize, this is really just a gating mechanism telling us we can’t make them before a certain point in the game even if we get them early somehow. Anyway we get two more quests and a new dungeon at this point, once again we need to do one to open up the next event.





And just for fun let’s see some of the enemies in the new dungeon.





That looks to be it! Next time on Hyperdimension Neptunia Mark 2: Transformation! Can we save the mascot character from ASIC?