Hyperdevotion Noire: Goddess Black Heart (Vita) - Paying Respects to the Goddess

6/30/2015 - 6:49 PM - GMT+8

By: Seth Legaspi

Noiiiiiire-sama! Here I am again with another game from that same franchise. This time however, we see how powerful, famous, and frightening Goddess Black Heart is. She has replaced the main character, Neptune, in the game's title, and role. This time, Noire, Goddess Black Heart, is the name-sake of the title, as well as the game's main protagonist.

By Idea Factory, "Hyperdevotion Noire" takes place in a similar world to the Ultradimension that is the parallel world to the Hyperdimension, which was Neptune's original world in Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory. The game begins with a really cool CG animation of Noire's total domination of the other CPU's in strength and in number.

Upon starting, one is introduced to the game's characters through a surprising number by the game's main protagonist, Noire. (Note that Noire's Japanese voice actress is Asami Imai who voiced Chihaya Kisaragi from Idolm@ster)

"Jet-black sustain"

    

       

This game also has a tutorial that has a similar build to the original series, though the mechanics are easy enough to understand that it's easy to pick up the controls.

The game, as seen from the tutorial above, is a turn-based tile strategy game, with the move command, attack command, and skill command. It's pretty similar to the Disgaea series, though this game is pretty different in its own ways.

First would be the graphics of course, with its 3D models. What made this game quite cute though, would be the use of "super-deformed" models of the characters.

Next would be this game's version of the Lily System. In previous games, the Lily system simply added extra stats or skills when a character is paired up with another character as a reserve. In this game however, the Lily System takes a more major function.

Everyone's kissing Noire!

This game steps it up, by having the said Lily System affect the sp required for a skill, as well as increasing the skill's base damage depending on how 'close' the characters are.

This tutorial pretty much sums it up

Of course one would be asking, how did the Lily System become such a major function with just those two effects? Well... It would go to one of my 'complaints' on the game, it's simply that skills take a large amount of sp to use in this game, and what makes it worse is that the enemies seem to have an impossibly infinite amount of sp.

In the game's normal mode, it's still possible to kill enemies without the extra boost of the Lily System. In hard mode however, this system is simply too important, since the enemies will most likely make mincemeat of your chibi characters once it's their turn.

In addition, the game also has a really slow-pace to it due to said difficulties, as well as the very limited range of the character's attacks. Yes, some characters have ultimate attacks that have a really large area of effect, but it is an ultimate attack, it's quite difficult to spam them to make the game's pace faster.

For the battles, the scenes when they use their skills are really entertaining to watch.

Also, in HDD (Hard Drive Divinity) form, one can fly over any obstacle! I really liked it when I saw them floating over oceans and stuff.

What makes this game really fun though, is the story, especially the emphasis on Noire. With Noire as the Main Character, one would expect the dialogue to be more serious, but apparently...

This scene really made me smile

Adding to the story, a 'secretary' character to Noire is also introduced, but unlike the other characters, the game's POV in the dialogue scenes are done through this secretary character's eyes. The game then makes use of this through a 'Sim Noire' wherein one improves Noire's room in the Basilicom, while helping her solve random problems in her nation.

    

To add it all up, this game is no Disgaea or Fire Emblem, but it does have its own special functions, such as the Lily System, and the 'Sim Noire' decision making event. Hyperdevotion Noire has that same formula of a turn-based tile strategy game, but with the series' own flavor of comedy that is sure to entertain.

 I totally recommend this for the Neptunia fans due to the signature wacky dialogues, done, not just by Neptune, but by Noire! Yes, as seen in a picture above, Noire does everything she can to m̶a̶k̶e̶ ̶f̶r̶i̶e̶n̶d̶s achieve her ambitions.

My Rating:
(7/10)

Good stuffs:

• Voice-Acting's really great
• Noire
• Battle Scenes with chibi characters
• That revamped Lily System
• Easy to understand mechanics
• That Opening Song
• A lot of characters
• HDD forms are balanced, since they have a time limit

Not so good stuffs:

• Really slow pace at the hardest difficulty
• "Sim Noire" could be better (It's literally just what I stated above, nothing more, nothing less)
• Battles get repetitive