1. *("Castle Night")* Castle Night is literally just _Fortnite._ The bit about it not being available on mobile stores is directly related to the fact that Apple forced _Fortnite_ off their platform a few years back for trying to include an in-app purchase that served as a work-around to Apple's App Store policy of providing a them their cut off every transaction on the iOS platform. There was a whole court case that followed, and it basically amounted to both Epic and Apple getting none of what either wanted out of the case and set the stage for a new set of tech company regulations in the EU. Frankly, I found the whole saga rather informative, and the aftermath of the case clued me in on the interest Microsoft had in cracking into the mobile app market with their own app store, something that is certainly in play after the Activision-Blizzard acquisition... 2. *(Anri = Android)* I figured she was Android this whole time. The name, the color scheme, and her behavior made too much sense for it not to be.
Fortnite… Well, I feel absolutely dumb 😭 I was thinking an MMORPG… Which I guess it was half of that. Thanks, looks like I owe the devs an apology. Thats a perfect game to use.
COMPA'S BACK IN THE BUILDING!!! And Maho and Anri continue to surprise me... In fact, I almost worry I'm reading too much into Anri specifically. As if she what I think she is... she _should_ be a CPU as well...
I know it's easy to forget sometimes but the characters DO live their own lives and have their own jobs to do. Compa in particular is a nurse and works in a hospital which makes it more understandable why she wasn't available during the events of this game. Back in Mk2 and ReBirth 2 it was different set of circumstances, sure Neptune was gone but everything was still relatively peaceful. People weren't really getting hurt so Compa's services weren't as needed at the hospital so Compa could find the time much more easily to go out and help support Nepgear and help save Neptune. Here though a lot more is going on and monsters were actively hurting people which means Compa was busy tending to people and couldn't take any time off to go and take care of Nepgear. Not to mention that is assuming that Compa even knew Nepgear had come back to begin since at most a couple of hours had gone by between Netgear and the others being found and Nepgear learning that Neptune was missing and potentially not alive. But again hypothetically even if Compa was aware of Nepgear being sad, it doesn't change the fact that she was more than likely too busy to take some time off to comfort Nepgear. The same applies to IF, the reason she can't join you is because she's busy doing her own thing working behind the scenes in order to gather information.
31:55 the faces Nep and Vert make is the same reaction I make whenever I only get Commons and Rares during 10 pulls in Azur Lane. Especially during events where one of the characters to pull is an UR.
I like Anri's response to missing half things in life. I get Maho as well, though. Some things by themselves can be so fulfilling in your life. Like apples, gaming, anime, some hobbies, traveling, sports, learning one or other things, having one or another relationships, whatever people prefer. But also sometimes people say you're missing on some stuff in life. Nah, enjoying what you enjoy is more important, I'd agree with Anri's position in this. ;P Apples (or any thing) can mean a life to you, and it's wonderful. ;P But also you can choose whatever other thing too. ;P "Things are only enjoyable if you enjoy them." is a strong statement. Sometimes there is no need to force yourself to enjoy whatever. ;P I like how Anri can be about some important things like that, clearly expressing what she likes and doesn't. I won't share opinion with her at all cases, but it still is interesting how she expresses herself at times.. ;P I enjoy Anri as a character.. ;P
QotD: that's a tough one, because the genre dispersion on PC is high and it's hard to define "best games" here. I'd say, the most PC-exclusive genres are RTS and FPS, perhaps followed by MMO. However, RTS is a pretty niche genre: i'd like to call C&C series iconic, but even {War,Star}Craft and AoE are not as popular objectively. FPS (Fortnite) was the right choice here, they could also go with something like CS or Apex, or trace it back to Quake and Doom, or reference HL and Portal. Things like Dota and GTA are also insanely popular on PC en masse, although these are less exclusive. 1:50 I feel like P-ko (PC Engine) is completely unrelated here, but PC Continent being about PC is straightforward. We had one in its diapers in Re;Birth3, and now we have it as the place where events from prologue timeskip (Neptune's disappearance, and attack on the Basilicom) occurred. The CG unambiguously shows PC cases and PC monitors there. Also, at this point it's not likely to meet Hyperdimension!Peashy outside of ancient (significantly older than Uzume) flashbacks or Gamindustri Graveyard. 4:20 Well, given that it's battle royale and Uni has to use her aim, it's totes Fortnite. 6:00 Not only that, they even have maids in Planeptower... But there's nuance. Nevertheless, the conversations between these 6 raises a question: if Maho and Anri were Goddesses, would CPU Candidate or full-fledged CPU role fit them more? 6:39 - 10:36 I wonder how many hours of chilling in Planeptower were cut from the final video here and there. 8:20 The most iconic dungeon in Leanbox is called Halo Forest (or Halo Mountain). 11:58 For some reason i don't recall this as Compa's first appearance; perhaps this event is somehow missable by using teleport or something. Anyway, yay, Compa is back! 13:40 That's an interesting thought. Maybe we did see Compa somewhere before? Pretty sure she must've been present in Chirper, at least. 14:05 That's a *very* nice catch. Indeed, in the mk2 IF and Compa were in Nepgear's OG team. IF even kissed Nepgear for seemingly no reason there. But mk2 also established another thing: eventually they have to part ways, and Compa tends to leave Nepgear behind when she needs her the most. Still, this game's plot is sharp and precise. We know exactly why Compa wasn't here before: she hasn't been a good nurse lately, and she had to go to hospital and actually work. Planeptune's state was awful when the Candidates woke up, Compa has to work with injured people, refugees, etc. If you trace it back to the introduction of Chirper system, you might find the very first Compa's chirp which was `We're really understaffed today...`. She just became rather busy, that's all. 16:02 This makes a lot of sense indeed. 16:45 Absolutely don't check VAs in this game. I would suggest to not even read the VA list in post-game credits, it might contain spoilers even if you are in NG+ and made it to the True End. 17:45 I completely agree with your logic here, but it feels a bit more complicated because of Apple's ridiculous 'Mac and PC' advertisements where they tried to set their pathetic devices as rivals to any other computer. They are also at fault whenever people start comparing different types of things like 'Android or iPhone' and 'Linux or PC'. Or calling Android 'a company'. Consider this analogy: if Nepgear adopted Apple's advertisement strategies, she would aggressively compare Planeptune with Mario and ignore existence of Lastation and Leanbox. So aggressively that people even outside of Sega ecosystem would unironically think that Nintendo = Mario while considering Playstation and Xbox to be some unknown, marginal, unneeded, and hard to deal with nothings. Usually Neptunia series doesn't touch this area, but this actually raises a bunch of difficult questions. What exactly are they, in Gamindustri terms? Goddesses, Oracles, Makers? Or maybe there are another roles in PC Continent, where vendor lock-in is not as strong as in console world? 25:50 The desks... The amount of detail and soul they put into these small and missable parts is unparalleled. 29:45 Can't say for every gacha in existence, but any self-respecting gacha shows detailed numbers about its drop rates, and usually there's a bonus for x10 summons (e.g. 11 pulls at the price of 10, or more commonly guaranteed SR just like Vert said) as well as bonuses for more (e.g. pity system with guaranteed UR every 100 pulls on same banner). Also, gacha games with strong communities usually have significant amount of data to estimate the real rates and calculate the most efficient strategy to save up and spend every single gem and ticket. 38:00 This conversation makes me wonder: if we went back in time just to show IF and Compa from 10 years ago how Neptune and Vert positively talk about mobile gacha games, how would they react?.. Also, this is a rare example of event where Nep Jr. is not present. Which is important by itself: Nepgear takes part in almost every scene, even if she's just silently listening and making a small comment at the very end. I guess, this time she also was here, but couldn't find any words about this particular event.
Ah yes, this part had a ton of sub events. Some people may get frustrated by that, but I liked all of them. It helps flesh the characters out. And no one can convince me IF and Compa aren't living together, XD QotD: For a computer game that's also present on mobile at the time of this game's original release (2022 in JP), I personally would have chosen Genshin Impact.
On the topic of gacha games it would be interesting seeing Blade play Honkai impact 3rd(free gacha game that started in 2016 and still going strong). Especially with how he dives into Neptunia. Though Hi3 lore is incredibly difficult to get into just do to how much material outside the off game you need to read, with some of it not even having official translations only fan translations available(with one material only recently getting a fan translation with the raw not even compted, being put on indefinite Hiatus). Made even more difficult with lost/forgotten media and the famous numoures retcons. The Animatic at the of each arc would definitely excite Blade. Mihoyo is also know to be an amazing at giving back to the community, using all the money they make to improve the game and do little fun things for the community. Those being 4 anime(released and archived on their youtube channel), 4 concerts with advanced visual effects(streamed and archived on UA-cam), serval event stories, with the CaptianVerse multi event plot line being a fan favorite, and Mihoyo sponsored Fan movies(currently 3 on billibilli). Blade would have definitely loved ggz(Hi3's predecessor which is still on going) by it sadly flapped globally and now a China exclusive with a major fan movement trying to bring it back to global via a massive fan project. Project Hoyostans
*1. (Anri and Nepgear scene)* So, I guess this confirms that PCs exist, but there is no PC CPU? 🤔 That does not bode well for there _ever_ being a PC CPU, if the writers are apparently of the opinion that the PC is a console that can exist without having a CPU. *2. (**7:12**)* Oh, so you're aware of it? Might as well say it then: remember a while back (I think it was a few months ago at this point), when I mentioned that there was a character I thought you would _really_ like (blue, water, sword, justice, tragic backstory)? Yeah, she's from _Genshin._ If only she wasn't from a game that's such a black hole-tier time sink. 😅 *3. (**8:20**)* Yeah, there _used_ to be _Halo_ references in this series, but not anymore. Huh. 🤔 *4. (**15:55**)* That "time skip" theory I mentioned a few episodes back is still holding strong, I see. *5. (**16:05**)* I guess Compa can't keep up with Maho's zoomer slang. 😂 *6. (**17:33**)* "Anri". AN-droid. RI-ngo (Japanese for "apple"). 🤔 *7. (Nep and Vert's gacha addiction)* In retrospect, out of the two gacha games I've played, _Bleach: Brave Souls_ and _Genshin Impact,_ they way I play _BBS_ probably _is_ the healthiest in the long run. Completely free-to-play and always make single pulls as soon as I can without worrying about what units might be releasing in the future. Just play _purely_ for fun. *(QotD)* PC games... Good question, and I'm the wrong person to ask. _Not_ a PC gamer. 😅 Uh... maybe a strategy game, either a turn-based one or an RTS? Ooh! _Civilization._ Considering that _Civ_ is all about playing as historical nation leaders and leading your nation to victory over other nations, it would be _very_ interesting to see how the writers would parody it. And if nothing else, it would be an _easy_ excuse to have the characters mention historic CPUs, considering how some of the civs are lead by even _BC-era_ historical figures. 🤩 Only hangup is, I'm not sure how popular _Civ_ is in Japan. 😅 I know that, at the very least, _Civ VI_ has been _released_ in Japan, but would the average JP player get the reference?
Here are my thoughts on Neptunia Girls, Nepgear is Best Girl, Best Goddess Candidate and My Favorite Neptunia Character in General, even though I like Neptune, My Favorite Goddess is actually Noire, Uni would probably be Best Goddess Candidate if I didn't like Nepgear more, C-Sha is Best Gold Third and my Favorite Gold Third Member,Adult Neptune is Best Maker, Compa is Best Nurse and Histoire is Best Oracle.
1. *("Castle Night")*
Castle Night is literally just _Fortnite._
The bit about it not being available on mobile stores is directly related to the fact that Apple forced _Fortnite_ off their platform a few years back for trying to include an in-app purchase that served as a work-around to Apple's App Store policy of providing a them their cut off every transaction on the iOS platform. There was a whole court case that followed, and it basically amounted to both Epic and Apple getting none of what either wanted out of the case and set the stage for a new set of tech company regulations in the EU. Frankly, I found the whole saga rather informative, and the aftermath of the case clued me in on the interest Microsoft had in cracking into the mobile app market with their own app store, something that is certainly in play after the Activision-Blizzard acquisition...
2. *(Anri = Android)*
I figured she was Android this whole time. The name, the color scheme, and her behavior made too much sense for it not to be.
Wow. I'm so stupid for not catching that. 🤣
castle-night = fort-nite...I think, I think it was taken off a store and Maho referenced PUBG's victory thing and that's another battle royal.
i knew it after 100 players yeah fort nite lol XD!
Fortnite… Well, I feel absolutely dumb 😭 I was thinking an MMORPG… Which I guess it was half of that. Thanks, looks like I owe the devs an apology. Thats a perfect game to use.
COMPA'S BACK IN THE BUILDING!!! And Maho and Anri continue to surprise me... In fact, I almost worry I'm reading too much into Anri specifically. As if she what I think she is... she _should_ be a CPU as well...
I know it's easy to forget sometimes but the characters DO live their own lives and have their own jobs to do. Compa in particular is a nurse and works in a hospital which makes it more understandable why she wasn't available during the events of this game. Back in Mk2 and ReBirth 2 it was different set of circumstances, sure Neptune was gone but everything was still relatively peaceful. People weren't really getting hurt so Compa's services weren't as needed at the hospital so Compa could find the time much more easily to go out and help support Nepgear and help save Neptune.
Here though a lot more is going on and monsters were actively hurting people which means Compa was busy tending to people and couldn't take any time off to go and take care of Nepgear. Not to mention that is assuming that Compa even knew Nepgear had come back to begin since at most a couple of hours had gone by between Netgear and the others being found and Nepgear learning that Neptune was missing and potentially not alive. But again hypothetically even if Compa was aware of Nepgear being sad, it doesn't change the fact that she was more than likely too busy to take some time off to comfort Nepgear. The same applies to IF, the reason she can't join you is because she's busy doing her own thing working behind the scenes in order to gather information.
31:55 the faces Nep and Vert make is the same reaction I make whenever I only get Commons and Rares during 10 pulls in Azur Lane. Especially during events where one of the characters to pull is an UR.
I like Anri's response to missing half things in life. I get Maho as well, though. Some things by themselves can be so fulfilling in your life. Like apples, gaming, anime, some hobbies, traveling, sports, learning one or other things, having one or another relationships, whatever people prefer. But also sometimes people say you're missing on some stuff in life. Nah, enjoying what you enjoy is more important, I'd agree with Anri's position in this. ;P Apples (or any thing) can mean a life to you, and it's wonderful. ;P But also you can choose whatever other thing too. ;P "Things are only enjoyable if you enjoy them." is a strong statement. Sometimes there is no need to force yourself to enjoy whatever. ;P I like how Anri can be about some important things like that, clearly expressing what she likes and doesn't. I won't share opinion with her at all cases, but it still is interesting how she expresses herself at times.. ;P I enjoy Anri as a character.. ;P
oddly enough, Compa and IF are not in Game Maker Revolution, the game about making games
to be fair, that a big nep/tune game with her traveling the dimensions....
WHAAAT no shooot....... I mean Ig I shouldn't be suprised but I'm of course a little disappointed my waif ain't gon be ther 😢
QotD: that's a tough one, because the genre dispersion on PC is high and it's hard to define "best games" here. I'd say, the most PC-exclusive genres are RTS and FPS, perhaps followed by MMO. However, RTS is a pretty niche genre: i'd like to call C&C series iconic, but even {War,Star}Craft and AoE are not as popular objectively. FPS (Fortnite) was the right choice here, they could also go with something like CS or Apex, or trace it back to Quake and Doom, or reference HL and Portal. Things like Dota and GTA are also insanely popular on PC en masse, although these are less exclusive.
1:50 I feel like P-ko (PC Engine) is completely unrelated here, but PC Continent being about PC is straightforward. We had one in its diapers in Re;Birth3, and now we have it as the place where events from prologue timeskip (Neptune's disappearance, and attack on the Basilicom) occurred. The CG unambiguously shows PC cases and PC monitors there.
Also, at this point it's not likely to meet Hyperdimension!Peashy outside of ancient (significantly older than Uzume) flashbacks or Gamindustri Graveyard.
4:20 Well, given that it's battle royale and Uni has to use her aim, it's totes Fortnite.
6:00 Not only that, they even have maids in Planeptower... But there's nuance.
Nevertheless, the conversations between these 6 raises a question: if Maho and Anri were Goddesses, would CPU Candidate or full-fledged CPU role fit them more?
6:39 - 10:36 I wonder how many hours of chilling in Planeptower were cut from the final video here and there.
8:20 The most iconic dungeon in Leanbox is called Halo Forest (or Halo Mountain).
11:58 For some reason i don't recall this as Compa's first appearance; perhaps this event is somehow missable by using teleport or something. Anyway, yay, Compa is back!
13:40 That's an interesting thought. Maybe we did see Compa somewhere before? Pretty sure she must've been present in Chirper, at least.
14:05 That's a *very* nice catch. Indeed, in the mk2 IF and Compa were in Nepgear's OG team. IF even kissed Nepgear for seemingly no reason there. But mk2 also established another thing: eventually they have to part ways, and Compa tends to leave Nepgear behind when she needs her the most.
Still, this game's plot is sharp and precise. We know exactly why Compa wasn't here before: she hasn't been a good nurse lately, and she had to go to hospital and actually work. Planeptune's state was awful when the Candidates woke up, Compa has to work with injured people, refugees, etc.
If you trace it back to the introduction of Chirper system, you might find the very first Compa's chirp which was `We're really understaffed today...`. She just became rather busy, that's all.
16:02 This makes a lot of sense indeed.
16:45 Absolutely don't check VAs in this game. I would suggest to not even read the VA list in post-game credits, it might contain spoilers even if you are in NG+ and made it to the True End.
17:45 I completely agree with your logic here, but it feels a bit more complicated because of Apple's ridiculous 'Mac and PC' advertisements where they tried to set their pathetic devices as rivals to any other computer. They are also at fault whenever people start comparing different types of things like 'Android or iPhone' and 'Linux or PC'. Or calling Android 'a company'.
Consider this analogy: if Nepgear adopted Apple's advertisement strategies, she would aggressively compare Planeptune with Mario and ignore existence of Lastation and Leanbox. So aggressively that people even outside of Sega ecosystem would unironically think that Nintendo = Mario while considering Playstation and Xbox to be some unknown, marginal, unneeded, and hard to deal with nothings.
Usually Neptunia series doesn't touch this area, but this actually raises a bunch of difficult questions. What exactly are they, in Gamindustri terms? Goddesses, Oracles, Makers? Or maybe there are another roles in PC Continent, where vendor lock-in is not as strong as in console world?
25:50 The desks... The amount of detail and soul they put into these small and missable parts is unparalleled.
29:45 Can't say for every gacha in existence, but any self-respecting gacha shows detailed numbers about its drop rates, and usually there's a bonus for x10 summons (e.g. 11 pulls at the price of 10, or more commonly guaranteed SR just like Vert said) as well as bonuses for more (e.g. pity system with guaranteed UR every 100 pulls on same banner).
Also, gacha games with strong communities usually have significant amount of data to estimate the real rates and calculate the most efficient strategy to save up and spend every single gem and ticket.
38:00 This conversation makes me wonder: if we went back in time just to show IF and Compa from 10 years ago how Neptune and Vert positively talk about mobile gacha games, how would they react?..
Also, this is a rare example of event where Nep Jr. is not present. Which is important by itself: Nepgear takes part in almost every scene, even if she's just silently listening and making a small comment at the very end. I guess, this time she also was here, but couldn't find any words about this particular event.
Ah yes, this part had a ton of sub events. Some people may get frustrated by that, but I liked all of them. It helps flesh the characters out.
And no one can convince me IF and Compa aren't living together, XD
QotD: For a computer game that's also present on mobile at the time of this game's original release (2022 in JP), I personally would have chosen Genshin Impact.
On the topic of gacha games it would be interesting seeing Blade play Honkai impact 3rd(free gacha game that started in 2016 and still going strong). Especially with how he dives into Neptunia. Though Hi3 lore is incredibly difficult to get into just do to how much material outside the off game you need to read, with some of it not even having official translations only fan translations available(with one material only recently getting a fan translation with the raw not even compted, being put on indefinite Hiatus). Made even more difficult with lost/forgotten media and the famous numoures retcons.
The Animatic at the of each arc would definitely excite Blade.
Mihoyo is also know to be an amazing at giving back to the community, using all the money they make to improve the game and do little fun things for the community. Those being 4 anime(released and archived on their youtube channel), 4 concerts with advanced visual effects(streamed and archived on UA-cam), serval event stories, with the CaptianVerse multi event plot line being a fan favorite, and Mihoyo sponsored Fan movies(currently 3 on billibilli).
Blade would have definitely loved ggz(Hi3's predecessor which is still on going) by it sadly flapped globally and now a China exclusive with a major fan movement trying to bring it back to global via a massive fan project. Project Hoyostans
Seeing Nep, Compa and IF again really hit me hard. Man, felt like the good ol' days.
*1. (Anri and Nepgear scene)* So, I guess this confirms that PCs exist, but there is no PC CPU? 🤔
That does not bode well for there _ever_ being a PC CPU, if the writers are apparently of the opinion that the PC is a console that can exist without having a CPU.
*2. (**7:12**)* Oh, so you're aware of it? Might as well say it then: remember a while back (I think it was a few months ago at this point), when I mentioned that there was a character I thought you would _really_ like (blue, water, sword, justice, tragic backstory)? Yeah, she's from _Genshin._
If only she wasn't from a game that's such a black hole-tier time sink. 😅
*3. (**8:20**)* Yeah, there _used_ to be _Halo_ references in this series, but not anymore. Huh. 🤔
*4. (**15:55**)* That "time skip" theory I mentioned a few episodes back is still holding strong, I see.
*5. (**16:05**)* I guess Compa can't keep up with Maho's zoomer slang. 😂
*6. (**17:33**)* "Anri". AN-droid. RI-ngo (Japanese for "apple"). 🤔
*7. (Nep and Vert's gacha addiction)* In retrospect, out of the two gacha games I've played, _Bleach: Brave Souls_ and _Genshin Impact,_ they way I play _BBS_ probably _is_ the healthiest in the long run.
Completely free-to-play and always make single pulls as soon as I can without worrying about what units might be releasing in the future. Just play _purely_ for fun.
*(QotD)* PC games... Good question, and I'm the wrong person to ask. _Not_ a PC gamer. 😅 Uh... maybe a strategy game, either a turn-based one or an RTS?
Ooh! _Civilization._ Considering that _Civ_ is all about playing as historical nation leaders and leading your nation to victory over other nations, it would be _very_ interesting to see how the writers would parody it.
And if nothing else, it would be an _easy_ excuse to have the characters mention historic CPUs, considering how some of the civs are lead by even _BC-era_ historical figures. 🤩
Only hangup is, I'm not sure how popular _Civ_ is in Japan. 😅 I know that, at the very least, _Civ VI_ has been _released_ in Japan, but would the average JP player get the reference?
Best nurse is back!
Here are my thoughts on Neptunia Girls, Nepgear is Best Girl, Best Goddess Candidate and My Favorite Neptunia Character in General, even though I like Neptune, My Favorite Goddess is actually Noire, Uni would probably be Best Goddess Candidate if I didn't like Nepgear more, C-Sha is Best Gold Third and my Favorite Gold Third Member,Adult Neptune is Best Maker, Compa is Best Nurse and Histoire is Best Oracle.