Franchise Thoughts: Hyperdimension Neptunia Part 1: Introduction

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gaming, HDN, Hyperdimension Neptunia, JRPG, mk2, moe, RPG, video games

こんにちわみんなさん (Hello everyone!)

Welcome to my first installment of Franchise Thoughts. The series to get the honour of going first is Hyperdimension Neptunia, one of new favourite video game franchises. It is a JRPG franchise but with a twist: The series is based off of the video game industry. It is basically a video game industry parody. Its characters all represent a company, console or famous figure in the video game industry. The first game is a standard turn-based JRPG while the second and third game are tactical RPGs. Also, I played all of these games using the Japanese voice-overs. Voice acting is a big industry in Japan and, as such, they put a lot of focus into training good voice actors. There are times when I will watch an anime just to hear one of my favourite voice actors or actresses in it.

Now, let me introduce the setting of the game and its characters. In order to prevent this post from becoming too long, I’ll just introduce the main characters.

The world is called Gamindustri (game industry).

There are 4 countries: Planeptune (west city), Lastation (east city), Lowee (north city) and Leanbox (south city). Each of the countries is ruled over by its goddess: Neptune AKA Purple Heart (Sega), Noire AKA Black Heart (Sony), Blanc AKA White Heart (Nintendo), and Vert AKA Green Heart (Microsoft). The countries’ names are derived from the name of each company’s consoles: Planeptune (Neptune), Lastation (Playstation),  Lowee (Wii), and Leanbox (Xbox 360). In the games, Leanbox is seperated from the other countries by sea, a play on how Microsoft is an American company while the other three are Japanese. In the first game, the entire setting of the game was the “console war”. The console war was fought over Shares, the majority rule of Gamindustri and the source of the goddeses’ power.  The goddesses were constantly fighting each other over them. In real life, the console wars are fought between three companies: Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft.  In order to not be biased, the game developers threw in Sega, an older gaming company who used to compete in the console wars.

The main characters are as follows:

Neptune:

Neptune’s name is derived from the Sega Neptune, a never-released game console that Sega had planned to succeed their hugely popular Sega Genesis AKA the Mega Drive. Neptune is extremely lazy and airheaded, but she’s always bright and cheerful. Neptune’s laziness is likely a play on how Sega has already exited the console wars. Neptune’s hairpins are d-pads, the standard input on every video game console since the Nintendo Game and Watch systems. Her weapon is the katana. Her HDD or goddess form is Purple Heart:

When she transforms into Purple Heart, her airheaded and carefree nature disappears and she becomes much more serious. Her voice also changes drastically from cheerful and high-pitched, to serious and low-voiced. She is the most powerful character in the game while transformed. She keeps her sword in battle but it enlarges in size.

Neptune/Purple Heart’s Japanese voice actress is Rie Tanaka. I don’t know much about her personally, but I do know she voiced Morrigan Aensland from Darkstalkers in the recent Marvel vs Capcom 3, as well as Project X Zone.

Noire is French for black, Blanc is French for white, and Vert is French for green. Those colours are representative of the company’s colours for their consoles.

Noire:

Noire represents the PlayStation 3, Sony’s current game console. Noire’s hard work ethic is most likely derived from the Playstation’s  success worldwide. Noire enjoys cosplaying and voice acting as her hobbies. Noire is the tsundere of the group (girls who start off unlikeable but eventually become friendlier) and as such, is the fan favourite girl according to a survey done by the game creators. She prefers to work alone, away from the distractions of others. She spends so much time away from others that Neptune often teases her for being “friendless”. Funny enough, her personality does reflect in a few Sony fans that I know. Although they appear cocky and don’t seem to like other consoles besides Sony, they actually do show admiration and respect for the other console makers. Noire has very flashy attacks that are designed to look cool. Her weapon is a rapier. Her goddess form is Black Heart.

As Black Heart, she becomes very cocky but other than that, there’s not a whole lot of change in her personality. She keeps her rapier but like Neptune’s it enlarges in size.

Noire/Black Heart’s voice actress is Asami Imai. She’s new to me, but she’s known for doing multiple video game roles in Japan. A few more recent examples is Ayumi Shinozaki from Corpse Party, the Elf from Dragon’s Crown, and Ikaruga from Senran Kagura Burst.

Blanc:

Blanc represents the Wii, Nintendo’s current console (although as of right now, Nintendo has the Wii U, the successor to the Wii). Blanc’s hard work ethic is due to Nintendo’s success worldwide with their consoles. Blanc’s hobbies include reading and writing fan-fiction. Blanc is normally a quiet and reserved girl who barely speaks above a whisper. However, she is extremely quick to anger since she gets defensive really easily. She is easily the most foul-mouthed of the four goddesses. Her personality can be reflected on Nintendo fans such as myself. Nintendo fans are quick to defend any bad-mouthing towards Nintendo oftentimes with harsh words. Blanc’s under-developed body is a reference to Nintendo’s family-friendly business policy (Although it seems Nintendo doesn’t care too much anymore). Even though she appears to be the youngest of the group, she is the strongest physically. She wields a sledgehammer using only one arm. In the game, she is best utilized as a tank since she has the highest defensive stats in the series. Despite her harshness, Blanc is my favourite of the four goddesses especially after her performance in the latest game, Victory. Her goddess form is White Heart.

When Blanc transforms into White Heart, forget trying to reason with her anymore. She will simply want you dead at that point. Any semblance of her quiet personality completely disappaears. Her weapon changes from a sledgehammer to a battleaxe.

Blanc/White Heart’s voice actress is Kana Asumi. I know her more for voicing the moe girls (girls that are drawn cuter than normal; usually have high-pitched voices and are short) in whatever anime she’s in. I’m still not used to her voicing Blanc but it was helped by the fact that Blanc was the second character I heard her voice (the first being Lissa from Fire Emblem Awakening, who also happens to be somewhat moe).

Vert:

Vert represents the Xbox 360, Microsoft’s current game console. Vert isn’t as lazy as Neptune, likely a play on how Microsoft has barely made a dent in Japan but are successful in North America and Europe. Vert is a hardcore otaku when it comes to games and manga. Vert’s huge breasts are a reference to the Xbox and Xbox 360. Both of them are a lot bigger than Sony’s and Nintendo’s consoles. The same holds true in the next-generation of consoles as well. Microsoft’s console is a lot bigger and heavier that Sony’s and Nintendo’s. Vert likes to think of herself as the mother of the four goddesses. She isn’t very fond of fighting and she always looks for a sensible solution to issues the other goddesses have. She always speaks in a polite and formal tone. Her weapon is the spear. Her goddess form is Green Heart.

As Green Heart, she loses some of her formality and her polite way of speaking turns more into condescention. Even while transformed, she still acts as the voice of reason for the goddesses. She keeps her spear from before her transformation.

Vert’s voice actress is Rina Satou. This is the only role I’ve heard her do in both anime and video games.

The younger sisters were introduced in the second game and they represent each company’s handheld video game systems (in Microsoft’s case, lack of one). The younger sisters are also able to transform but their goddess names are used very rarely. Even when transformed, they call each other by their human names.
Nepgear:

Nepgear is Neptune’s younger sister. Nepgear’s name is derived from the Sega Game Gear, Sega’s most popular handheld. Although she doesn’t look it, Nepgear is a whiz with machines and she loves to work with anything mechanical. It’s probably another joke that’s derived from the ‘gear’ part of her name. Her outfit resembles that of a sailor suit, which is a reference to how popular the white and blue-striped design is in Japan for schoolgirls. She has an obsession for her older sister and reveres her sister for being so strong. In a stark contrast to Neptune, Nepgear is shy and quiet but always serious and responsible. She is always attempting to become friends with everyone and she is well liked by all the characters for her cheerful nature. A running joke in the series is that Nepgear appears to be older than Neptune in terms of personality and body maturity. She wields a beam sword in battle. Her goddess form is Purple Sister.

Out of all the characters in the series, Nepgear changes the least when transformed, whether it’s physical or personality-related. Nepgear herself makes reference to this fact a couple of times during the series and she wonders why she doesn’t change all that much. Her weapon changes from a beam sword to a gunblade when transformed. Nepgear is my favourite character in the series.

Nepgear’s voice actress is Yui Horie who happens to, concidentally, be my favourite female Japanese voice actress. I’ve heard her voice a variety of different roles from moe girls, regular girls, and even male characters at times. She is very versatile which is the main reason why I like her. She is the voice actress that I have heard the most out of all the anime I have watched, mainly because I wanted to hear her voice the characters. Yui Horie is a very popular voice actress in Japan.

Uni:

Uni is Noire’s younger sister. Uni represents the PlayStation Portable, Sony’s last-generation handheld (although at the time of the second game, it was Sony’s current handheld). I’m not sure if her name is what it’s referred to in Japan. Uni is a tomboy and she has her own gun collection. Nepgear occasionally gives her hints on how to properly maintain her weapons. Like her older sister, she is a tsundere and she keeps her distance from everyone else until Nepgear reached out to her. Uni is always trying to live up to the standards that she thinks has been placed upon her by Noire so she has an inferiority complex that is caused by Noire’s perfect work ethic. Perhaps this is a reference to the fact that the PSP was supposed to be as good as console gaming and crush the Nintendo DS but didn’t even come close to being as successful as the DS. Even though the PS2 crushed everything in its path, the PSP didn’t even compare to the sales numbers of the DS. Naturally, since she has a gun collection, Uni’s weapon is a sniper rifle. Her goddess form is Black Sister.

(There is a less revealing costume but the Internet isn’t interested in that 😛 )

In terms of personality, she doesn’t change too much but she does gain more confidence. The most drastic change is her voice which deepens like Neptune’s. Her sniper rifle is kept from her human form. Uni is also the only character in the series whose breasts actually shrinks when she transforms. All the other characters’ breasts either grow bigger or stay the same.

Uni’s voice actress is Eri Kitamura. She is a very prominent voice actress in both games and anime. I haven’t heard her do a lot of roles personally; Uni is only the second role I’ve heard her voice.

Rom and Ram:

Rom (left) and Ram (right) are Blanc’s younger twin sisters. Rom and Ram represent the Nintendo DS, Nintendo’s last-generation handheld (at the time of the second game, it was Nintendo’s current-generation handheld). Rom and Ram’s names are from PC terms, Read-Only Memory, and Random-Access Memory. There are two reasons why there are twins for Nintendo.
1. Nintendo has produced more handhelds than Sony and Sega combined.
2. The DS stands for Dual-Screen.

Rom and Ram take Blanc’s split personality and divide it amongst themselves. What I mean by that is that Rom takes Blanc’s quiet half, while Ram takes Blanc’s rowdy half.  Rom and Ram also have dual Nintendo references. The square symbols on their hats are the Nintendo DS’s logo. Their blue and pink coats are the same as Popo and Nana’s from Nintendo’s game: Ice Climbers. Rom and Ram are mages, unlike their powerful sister. Rom is the healer, while Ram is the damage-dealer. This could possibly be a reference to the White and Black Mages from the Final Fantasy series. It’s unclear which sister is older since neither of them use “onee-chan” (big sister) to address each other. It is widely assumed that Rom is older due to her hair length (Neptune’s hair is shorter than Nepgear’s and Blanc’s hair is shorter than both Rom’s and Ram’s). Both of their goddess names’ are White Sister.

Rom is extremely shy, to the point where Ram has to speak for her at times. Even if she does speak, it’s never above a whisper and it’s never more than a few words. A part of the second game involves Rom trying to become more independent from Ram and expand her social circle. Of course, it’s Nepgear that reaches out to her and helps Rom come out of her shell.

Rom (White Sister):

Rom becomes much more confident after she transforms although her voice is still quiet. Other than that, she doesn’t change too much.

Rom’s voice actress is Yui Ogura. She is an upcoming voice actress and I’ve heard her voice a few roles so far. She’s mostly done the really young girls since it suits her really well. She’s also the youngest voice actress that I know has gone professional in Japan; she’s only 18 years old at the time of this post. When she did Rom initially in 2011, she was only 16.

Ram is the loud and rowdy member of the cast. She is a pranskter and her favourite target is Blanc even though it usually incurs Blanc’s wrath. She is the more dominating twin so she often brings Rom along with her pranks or whatever she’s doing. While Ram was initially suspicious and later jealous of Nepgear, she later came to accept Nepgear as a friend.

Ram (White Sister):

Ram changes to a more lady-like tone, but becomes condescending like Green Heart. Other than that, not much changes.

Ram is voiced by Kaori Ishihara. Like Yui Ogura, she is upcoming. She is starting to really get recognition as I’m starting to see more roles headed her way. One of the games I’m hoping will get localized next year is Fairy Fencer F which is done by the same team that makes these games. She voices the main heroine from that game.

I actually find that when Yui Ogura and Kaori Ishihara are paired up together, they make one heck of a team. I’ve seen them paired up together three times: this series, Mugen Souls, and the anime The Hentai Prince and the Stony Cat. The two of them complement each other unlike any other anime pair I’ve seen yet.

Each of the younger sisters carries around a handheld system that somewhat resemble the handheld they are representing.

The villain prevalent in all of the games so far is Arfoire (Magiquone in Japanese). Arfoire gets her name from the R4, a device that allows for the illegal download of DS (and now 3DS) games. Her role in each game has gradually gotten smaller.
There are human characters in this sries as well. They represent companies that were involved with the making of the games.

Compa:

Compa is derived from Compile Heart, the game’s developers. Compa is a nurse that serves as the party’s healer. She has a sweet personality but is a little slow when it comes to conversation.
IF:

IF is derived from Idea Factory, the game’s original creators. IF works for Planeptune’s Basilicom (government building) as an intelligence agent. IF acts as the voice of reason and is always focused on getting the job done.

There were other companies involved in the making of the first game and the second game, mk2, like Nippon Ichi Software, Gust Incorporated, and comcept. Each of those companies had their own characters.

So there is my introduction to this series. It’s quite a bit to take in for sure, but there are three games that slowly introduces you to everyone. That being said, the next section will focus on the first game, my first step into this game world.

また後で (See you later!)