Hyperdimension Neptunia Re; Birth 1 - Gameplay Overview Video

Excellent post, HiddenX!

I actually play without a mouse and just use the keyboard. It actually works quite well this way. I control the camera with the directional keys, the menu directions with the numpad, and movement with W A S D.

Is the Xbox controller detected automatically and the proper buttons assigned, along with the button icons on screen?

Humanity has risen! said:

Is the Xbox controller detected automatically and the proper buttons assigned, along with the button icons on screen?

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It's been a while since I played it, but yes if you use a 360 controller (it can be wired or else you need a special USB wireless receiver for PC) I'm pretty sure the controller configuration is automatic.

Fluent said:

What the Thinker thinks the Prover proves, so I *choose* to think things are great, the future is bright and the world is getting better every day. The Prover inside my mind then proves that it's true. That is the way I think and it's very simple to understand.

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Sounds great

At least if reality isn't of interest!

What you don't seem to quite realize, DArt, or are willfully ignoring, is that we all create our own realities from the innumerable amount of signals that our brains make sense out of on a minute-to-minute basis.

We each have a little Thinker and Prover inside our brains that works without most people even realizing it is happening.

We've had people who live in a Marxist reality, a Nazi reality, a Christian reality, a Muslim reality, etc. etc.

So when I say I live in a happy reality where things are getting better, that is my reality and how I interpret things. Each of our interpretations of a given situation are our own choices that our brains are making instantaneously

Thankfully, we can change those interpretations if we try hard enough. I won't get into all the methods, but one such simple method is applying the Cosmic Schmuck principle that I linked to you earlier.

I don't know you very well, but you seem to live in a more 'negative' reality than I do, simply going by your last quote you posted against mine. If I asked you if you think things in the world are getting better or worse, for example, I have an idea of what you would say, just based on you poking fun at my quote.

So, the bottom line is that we all create our own realities and we all Prove what we Think. We're all Picassos and Rembrandts without even trying.

I try and make a conscious effort to Think good things and my mind in turn Proves those things to be true. Therefore that is my reality.

Since your brain interprets signals differently than mine, you're right in your own mind. But please don't act like you are the conveyor of all things real, or that there is some "real reality" that the rest of us are just missing, because that's just silly, and you're being a HUGE Cosmic Schmuck if that's what you believe.

TL;DR version - Is the glass half-full or half-empty? We all create our own realities with our thoughts. It's really that simple.

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And once again, I will grant you the last word, if you'd like. I don't want to turn this into a back and forth argument, just trying to chisel away at that cinder block you are wearing around your brain! :lol:

It's amazing human beings can communicate at all, given we all create our own realities.

And back to Hyperdimension Neptunia Re; Birth 1, I am currently exploring Lastation, which is protected by Black Heart, and it's a steampunk, Midgar-style city. It represents the Playstation 3 console, I believe, as all the "CPUs" (protectors of the 4 cities) are fighting in a war known as the Console War. :lol:

You play the role of one of the CPUs who has lost her memory, Neptune. This is not a spoiler, you learn this as soon as you turn the game on.

So your story is her adventure in trying to regain her memory, end the console war and protect her homeland of Planeptune (which may represent the Wii console, not quite sure yet), from being destroyed.

As I said, it's a very unique setting and worth playing just to see the various spoofs of the game industry. It also has some genuinely funny humor that I laughed out loud at.

Of course, your mileage may vary, but I'm finding it to be a real joy to play.

The thing is, Fluent, that you're not interested in understanding me. You're interested in promoting a way of thinking that works for you - and that's nice, but you're not looking to understand why it could never work for me.

I'm not telling you how to think or how to live - it's the other way around.

You seem to believe that we create our own reality - and I agree to an extent. But I think of it more like creating our own response to the reality that's actually there. I believe there's a way to get closer to that reality than what you're suggesting. Of course, that means if you WANT to get there.

Obviously, we can't be certain of anything like that. We can just believe what we believe based on our experiences and capacity for perception.

I fully understand the ego-driven need to make reality into something it's not, for your own sake. I understand that it's more pleasant to "create your own reality". For most people, it's more important that they, personally, feel good about themselves and the world - than it is to actually know the world and what happens in it.

While objective reality is nothing but a theory, it's a theory that makes a lot of sense to me. As such, I tend to believe objective reality is something that could potentially be established, given enough knowledge and the right (neutral) approach - and that's what I'm primarily interested in.

I don't want to live life as an illusion of my own making if I can help it.

You're absolutely right that "my world" has more negativity than yours - and it also has, potentially, higher levels of positivity than yours - because I actually feel the difference between the negative and the positive. As such, I call into question that your "constant high" is on the same level as my "occasional high".

But it's not a competition and I'm happy for you - as a person - if you can really manage to believe everything is good all the time. I don't believe that you can, but I'm happy if you can.

But I care about the world as a better place - rather than simply believing it's a better place and then "proving" it to myself, as a delusional measure for my own selfish reasons.

You're never going to change anything for the better if you don't recognise what's destructive and bad in this world.

Also, if you really acted according to your claims, you wouldn't be questioning the value of games like Witcher 3 and Star Citizen - as you've been so openly sceptical about (I value scepticism, and unlike you - I don't call it negativity). But your approach seems to change when certain games are talked about.

You choose scepticism for those games, which means you apparently choose to believe there's something to be sceptical about - and then you prove it to yourself.

That calls your whole "positive reinforcement system" into question - and it all breaks down at the core.

At least, I can't make sense of it.

But, you see, I once lived, for two years, with a woman who suffered from ADHD, as I believe you do too. So, I have some experience with the kind of energy you have to manage - and how uncomfortable life can be in that situation.

As such, I think I might know your situation better than you know my situation - and I have nothing against you as a person.

You're a pleasant individual. Most likely much more pleasant than I am - at least on this forum.

But I don't actually believe in your approach - and I have to say I'm sceptical you're actually positive "all the time" inside. I think you have doubts - and I think you struggle with the world, and that you've actively chosen this "method" because the world was too challenging otherwise.

I never had that problem. I always wanted the harder way - because I think it's the only way to stay sane. I could never convince myself that things are "all good" like you can. It just wouldn't work.

I said you can have the last word and I meant it. Others can read our brief exchange and decide for themselves what to make of it, if anything.

If anyone *is* interested in reading something along the lines of what I posted, just google search Robert Anton Wilson, and perhaps start with one of his many classic books, Prometheus Rising. It's a doozy.

So, that's that. Back to the game at hand. I always feel bad for getting into off-topic exchanges in a thread for a game. 'Watchers do not come here to read exchanges like the one we just had. Not blaming you, DArt, as I'm half-responsible as well.

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So, has anyone else here played the game?

The occasional off-topic discussion is healthy, I think.

I wouldn't underestimate the curiosity of other people when it comes to non-gaming topics.

That said, I agree this is a bad place for such an exchange.

If you ever want to have a real exchange that's not about getting me to "see the light" - and how I just need to read some book to experience a great revelation, then I'm here for it

My fellow esteemed internet semi-stranger,

Excellent post! I have to say I agree with just about everything you say, and even the parts where I disagree aren't so much disagreements as they are difference in opinion

Moorkh said:

I believe saying that converting a game to PC "as an afterthought" is unfortunate is actually being very nice about it. More likely, it's a quick cash-in attempt.
I don't think we should be happy or even content "to be getting the game at all". If a company wants to sell their game to a different audience, we (the consumers) shouldn't give them a free pass for being generous but expect them to make a serious effort and judge the product as a whole accordingly..

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I haven't played HNR and I don't think I will, at least any time soon. However, knowing my preferences, I imagine if I did play this it would probably be with a controller. Any opinions or impressions I develop about the game would be through using the controller. Unless I'm trying to objectively analyze the game for a review, which I generally don't do, it would be silly for me to judge a game by a feature that is irrelevant to me.

I understand and respect yours and joxer's decision not to support the game or the developer because of the M&K issues. It's just not a decision that I share.

Moorkh said:

Your ray of sunshine, alas, is my anathema. Multi-platform by its very definition caters to the weaknesses of all platforms and to the strengths of none. Thoughtful design around this fundamental problem may - at the cost of certain restrictions - significantly alleviate this, yet all versions are going to suffer from the decision (unless one is the "leading platform", turning all others essentially into ports).

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I don't think I explained my "sunshine" statement very well. Allow me to clarify.

As I see it, there are three scenarios when it comes to console games on the PC.

1. Console exclusive, no PC release

2. Console release, followed by a PC port at varying levels of quality

3. Simultaneous PC and console release, aka multi-platform

In my opinion 3>2>1

Scenario 1 is not desirable for obvious reasons.

Scenario 2 is better than 1 but still not ideal. Why? Well at the console release date, the game is complete minus bugfixes and maybe some balance patching. All the major and fundamental design infrastructure is done, hardcoded and optimized for console. When it comes time to port to PC, months or years down the road, most of the lead designers/top level talent are long gone working on other projects. So it falls on the overworked and underpaid mid/low level designers/interns to do all the heavy lifting on the port. Their job is not to re-design the game for PC, it's to emulate the game on PC with as much fidelity as possible. Aside from some minor tweaks or content additions, there often is no room to improve upon the console version and plenty of minor discrepancies that aren't easily solvable. I don't know anything about designing or programming games but I do have some limited experience coding GUIs for remote operating electronic test equipment. There have been several instances where I've been asked to add or adjust a seemingly minor issue with a GUI only to have to rewrite the entire code due to how I first wrote it. Now I'm not saying this is what happened with joxer's tooltip complaint with HNR, but it's certainly possible. Or it could just be a lazy port

All these reasons, in my mind, make Scenario 2 not the ideal method. Which brings us to Scenario 3…

I think that we can agree that in a multi-platform PC/console release the bottleneck for both hardware and control designs is going to be the console. So, for most major design decisions the limiting factor is going to be the console. But, as you mentioned, thoughtful design choices geared towards the PC release at this stage of development can bypass or alleviate some of the limiting factors of the console side. This is where my Skyrim example comes in. By planning a simultaneous PC/console release, the developers were able to incorporate early in the development methods to utilize the greater hardware capability of the PC as well as inserting the extensive modding tools. If Skyrim had been a console release with a PC port, I don't think that would've been possible.

I'm first and foremost a PC gamer. Most of my favorite games, the games I think are the best designed, are PC exclusive and wouldn't port well to console. In my perfect world, all the games I want to play would be designed for and released on PC only. Consoles wouldn't exist because they wouldn't be necessary. But we don't live in my perfect world, we live in the real world where games are designed and released for consoles, or PCs, or both. For the games that are released for both, I think my Scenario 3 is the best current option for PC gamers.

Hopefully this rambling response makes some sense. I cannot verify the sanity of its author.

Thank you for your reply.

Nephologist said:

I understand and respect yours and joxer's decision not to support the game or the developer because of the M&K issues. It's just not a decision that I share.

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Too late for this, alas! I did buy that on a whim, tried it out for a bit but left after a while thinking there was something not quite right with it. Maybe it was just the interface awkwardness, but maybe it was something else that I don't recall now.

I - reluctantly - agree with your order of preference concerning the three options. But I do believe there are more than those three, even I they are not along a road well trodden.

The recent release of GTA V is a high-profile example how you can attain better games on each platform you develop without the common multi-platform approach. There are other examples out there. They did this by forking parts of their development path from an early point in time, daring versions to have significant differences in design to best adapt for each platform. Others have backtracked into their own development to make more than superficial changes.

Skyrim, frankly, let the modders do much of that, but that option is slightly less than perfect, not least because some restrictions proved to be pretty much hard-coded. Just imagine Skyrim with a m&k-based user interface that truly supported the amount of world interactivity that was later madded into it!

Of course I realize my desire is at the moment rather far from reality. And I do realize that I am restricted to - more or less - an emulation if I want to have a look at certain highly interesting games when sitting at my desktop. Much as I am when viewing cineastic treasures on the small screen! Yet exchanging my m&k for a gamepad (which I have proven to have no aptitude at whatsoever for) won't change that fact anymore than plugging in a lightgun would.