I honestly don't know who writes this stuff, or who it's even written for, but conversations in Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory are nothing but non-stop conveyor belts that deliver a seemingly infinite supply of quips and cracks usually reserved for playground banter. This of course makes it seem like something straight out of left field when characters start cursing at or bathing with one another. Even calling these entities “characters” is a stretch, as they're more like moe delivery systems, created for the sole purpose of being adorably vapid while wearing something frilly and/or fetishistic. Mind you, that's not necessarily wrong or offensive – it's just plain boring. Neptune, the story's protagonist, cares for little else besides eating, sleeping, and occasionally playing video games, and her travelling companions aren't any less one-dimensional. This could almost be forgiven if these scenes served as occasional asides to the combat, but infuriatingly, the opposite is true.This isn't nearly my only gripe with Victory, but it's certainly my biggest: the entire game feels like it was designed around getting you to the next interminable dialogue scene as quickly and conveniently as possible. Both towns and the world map are reduced to nothing but menus, and where to go next is always conveniently marked with a bright pink icon. The only places where you actually control an avatar of any kind are the combat areas, which feature visible, often non-aggressive enemies that you can completely avoid by just running in a straight line. Even in these so-called “dungeons,” the way to the exit is clearly marked on your map and is never more than a few 90-degree turns away, making them no more nuanced than the characters who explore them.
The quest system is similarly shallow, offering you story-advancing tasks without ever establishing any connection to the plot. “Go kill five of these,” or “go find three of those” is often all the explanation you get, and when you've just killed or found a bunch of each 10 minutes prior, you can only conclude that Victory is simply wasting your time with an arbitrary chore. The guild hall that gives the quests out usually has several on offer at a time, but don't mistake that for choice. There's no reason not to accept them all and then forget about them, since they'll be naturally accomplished through your routine killing and looting. This reduces quests to mere added bonuses earned for grinding rather than meaningful objectives that are meant to challenge and reward you for making extra effort.The end result of these design choices is that you spend just as much time suffering through story scenes as you do exploring and fighting, which is an absurd ratio even by RPG standards. I understand that the Hyperdimension games don't aim to be taken seriously, but if you expect players to spend a full half of their time reading text boxes with 2D portraits over them, then your writing had better be beyond reproach – or at least beyond grade school level. And that goes double if it has a choppy framerate despite looking like a PlayStation 2 game, like Victory does.