It’s the anime-esque facial expressions that really steal the show, though, adding that extra little bit of feedback to the vanilla dialogue. There’s not an enormous amount of animation to keep you entertained during story sequences, but characters do move – perhaps, most notably, in the chest area. Meanwhile, the main cast are well developed, all with differing personalities to spice up the relentless gabbing.

Fortunately, the dialogue is witty and includes further references to game and anime culture. There’s no lack of budget, as most scenes in the game are voiced surprisingly well, but there are some sections without acting – even during the main plot. Likely to prove more divisive, however, is the sheer amount of text, as this game unfolds in an almost visual novel-esque fashion. From characters representing famous developers, dungeons named after flagship titles, all the way through to a feline PlayStation 4 monster, this title really covers all of the bases rather than breaking the fourth wall with a wrecking ball, it’s clear that it’s not even there to begin with – and that’s a big part of the appeal.

Given the already quite obvious video game parodies, you may not be surprised to learn that there are a handful of real-world references stuffed into here – but the reality may actually exceed your expectations. Alas, as with all RPGs, there’s danger lurking in the background, and it’s not long before the crew happen upon mysterious game discs which are shepherding nasty monsters into the world. However, with the aid of Compa and If – representations of the game’s developers – the ragtag crew venture the lands of Lastation, Leanbox, and Lowee in search of clues relating to her identity. After losing a fight with one of the other ruling Goddesses, she finds herself suffering from amnesia, and lost in a strange land. You play as Neptunia, the CPU Goddess of Planeptune, one of the world’s four realms. This eternal war is at the heart of Hyperdimension Neptunia Re Birth1 – a PlayStation Vita remake of the original PlayStation 3 title, where the Goddesses protecting their respective platforms must cast aside their differences in order to save Gamindustri. From the days when Nintendo and SEGA contested store shelves, all the way to the triple pronged struggle of the current generation, it’s something that, as gamers, we’re all familiar with.

Irrespective of allegiance, we’ve all witnessed the console wars.

Hyperdimension neptunia re birth1