Not the best JRPG by a long shot. Still reasonably decent to be a 6-7 at best. Enjoyable if you are the key demographic.
The game was created by the same people that created Trinity Universe and so they used the same engine. They even re-skinned some of the mobs you fight. If you enjoyed Trinity Universe you will enjoy this. If you didn't like TU you might still like Neptunia. If you can enjoy a game with cutesy anime character's, heavy menu navigation, dialogue that makes references to gaming in general and often break the 3rd wall, and TBH average battle system then there's something here for you to check out. The game never and I mean never takes itself seriously. There's no install data function and saving/loading can be done quickly.
The story premise is simple. There's a land were 4 Goddesses fight for control all the time but the fighting never ends. These Goddess represent the console wars. They each have a land they control with varying themes. You play as Neptune the 4 Goddess who ends up loosing her memory, meets 2 companions Compa and If (nick name Iffy), she ends up on a journey to explore the world and find very important world saving items...or something like that.
The one thing that stands out for me in this game has to be the characters dialogue in the event sequences. Neptune has to be one of the greatest main heroines in these niche driven games. Her overall attitude is refreshing from a JRPG design point because she's not the typical cutesy/shy/clumsy mess that we tend to get. I can best describe her as being spunky. The rest of the cast are no less entertaining and even if you don't like some of them there's someone else that you can find like able. They way the story event's play out are simple in sequence. The voice acting for me is perfectly cast and you can choose from ENG or JP voices.
Pick a dungeon that's has [Scenario] -> 2D sprite's of the characters with dialogue occurs -> Dungeon starts with one of 3 goals. 1. Beat the Boss 2. Reach the exit 3. Kill certain types of monsters for specific drops. -> More dialogue between characters and the event ends.
All this is done by menum so no walking around and no talking to NPCs unless they are part of an event. If your going to skip the dialogue in this game I can't see too much you'll enjoy from the rest of the game. One thing that's striking is that NPCs mostly are silhouette of people, they have names but really no art drawn for them. This shows the budget of this game had to have been really low.
There's side quest but don't include story events and in the end the dungeons tend to repeat themselves the whole game shortly after you've been to each landmass once. The battle system can be customized in attacks combos but in the end you can just do a repeat of a basic combo throughout the game. You can end up skipping all the battle animation with the repeating pushing of the L2 button.
The healing system has been talked about a lot for this game as "broken" "stupid" "WTF" and to me that seems like extreme descriptions. The game does not manually let you heal but depends on a system that you can customize to fit each battle. You have to collect 4 different types of serums to utilize this healing system. You get them after battles or can be purchased at the shop. Early on your always short on money and each potion starts at 150 a pop. Needless to say you will be fighting just to collect these serums. For example you have your basic heal spell that will heal you for 30% but before the game uses it you have to meet certain requirements. Your health has to be less then 50%, you have to have been attacked first, and you must have enough of the required serum for the skill. On top of this you have to use up points to set the % of occurrence for each skill. The real problem happens early in the game as you don't have enough points to set even one skill to 100% or even close. As you level you gain these skill points, and by LV10 you can have almost 100% heal rate and enough serums to make this healing happen automatically every time. Each of these item skill have different requirements and you most likely can't use most of them because of serums constrains until decently far into the game.
The music is nothing to speak about so i'll go on to something else.
There's an average amount of equipment in the game. The one you will be switching out the most is your weapon. For Neptune her upgrades are all sword type looking weapons. Your other party member Compa uses giant syringes since she's a nurse. The only thing with her different equipment is that hers are the least noticeable, the syringe liquid just changes colors. Iffy uses hand blades and the look of them does vary as you upgrade to newer equipment. You also equip accessories for defense or elemental type resistance. You seem to get a lot less useful upgrades for accessories then you do weapons. Again you buy them (frequently) or find them (rarely) in dungeons.
After it's all said and done this game is very narrow in design. Love it or hate it type of game it seems. The battles are there to give breaks to the story. The dialogue is not for everyone but is very enjoyable if it fits your taste. The dubbing is well done with a wide range of character types on being a favorite ie. Neptune herself. The game is not the greatest JRPG ever but you could do worse, trust me. The game seems to be free of glitches and did no run across any freezing or crashing issues while completing the campaign. Will last your around 25+ hours easy. Give it a rent if you are even remotely interested in it's wacky premise.