Hyperdimension Neptunia

NOTE 1: Entry is a WIP and I will accept editorships,
NOTE 2: I really do not trust the Pixiv results, can someone try to help me with that part?

About

Hyperdimension Neptunia is a series of JRPGs based on the Console Wars. Featuring Moe Anthopomorphisms of various consoles, handhelds, game development companies and aspects of piracy and gamer culture

Origin

In 2006, a company called Idea Factory collaborated with Compile Heart, a subsidiary, to release a Game called “Hyperdimension Neptunia” on the Playstation 3 Console. The plot involves Neptune (based on an unreleased SEGA product codenamed “Neptune”) a CPU (Console Patron Unit, one of 4 goddesses in the game’s setting) who lost her memories following a defeat that ousted her from Celestia from the other CPUs and sent her falling to the landmass below, called “Gamindustri”. There she meets Compa and IF (Representing the primary developers and trio go on an adventure to restore Neptune’s memories, meeting the other 3 CPUs, Noire, Vert and Blanc (Based on the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii, respectively) as well as Arfoire (based on the R4 card for the Nintendo 3DS or the Majikon with her original Japanese name) , the game’s villain, Histoire, a powerful tome-fairy and ally to the goddesses, and other characters representing other game companies. The game was published by SEGA in Japan and Nippon Ichi Software in Western territories.

The plot, which included several jokes and references to video games, and the appeal of the characters contributed to the game’s success, and in turn warranted a sequel.

History

Since the release of the first game, there had been 2 subsequent games with a fourth game coming out. The first of which, Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2 introduced 4 new characters Nepgear, Uni, Rom and Ram, the sisters of 3 of the CPUs and based on the SEGA Game-Gear, Playstation Portable and Nintendo DS, respectively. as well as new supporting characters and villains. This game focuses more on software piracy, and has Arfoire’s impact on the story increased as a result.

Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory returns to the Console Wars theme of the first game, but based around the 16-bit era. Several years after the end of the second game, Neptune is thrust into a parallel dimension that features a version of Gamindustri set in 1989. This game Introduces 2 new playable CPUs, Plutia (based on the Sega Genesis) and another one based on the Turbo-Grafix16, known as the PC Engine in Japan as well as having a third CPU as the primary antagonist, and based on the Atari 2600 (yes the 2600 of bad Pacman, ET, and Great Crash fame)

Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory II is an upcoming installment to come out in Japan in April 23^[1]. It features an Older Human counterpart of Neptune and a CPU based on the SEGA Dreamcast. as well a new transformations for the goddesses. The game will take place throughout three different and completely new dimensions.

There are also several spin-offs games, including a Senran-Kagura like Beat-em-up, an Idol Sim game, mobile spinoffs, a Strategy RPG focusing on Noire, and remakes of the 3 currently released core games for the Playstation Vita (with the first one ported to Steam and the next installment on the way^[2]) These games take place in alternate universes that are more or less the same as the originals, but exist seperately to account for the abundance of new characters added ever since the first game came out. There are also several manga adaptations of the games.

Anime

An anime adaptation was produced by David Entertainment in 2013. It’s plot and continuity are separate from those of the game, but elements of the 3 games released at the time of its airing are in the anime. It will be dubbed by Funimation^[6]

Online Relevance

WIP

On Reddit there is a subreddit dedicated to the franchise, called r/gamindustri, which started in 2013. On Sunday November 10th of 2013, redditor Rubydragon79 posted a thread about Noire to the r/awwnime subreddit. The thread’s subject references a voting contest held from September 1st to 29th of 2011 to determine who will be the protagonist of a spinoff^[13] (which Noire would eventually win, the spin-off being called “Planet Destroyer Black Heart” in Japan and “Hyperdevotion Noire: Goddess Black Heart” in the west^[14]), the post obtained 185 upvotes. Another voting contest was held recently from November 6th, 2014 to December 4th, 2014 on Compile Heart’s website that once again asked fans to vote for their favorite character, who would be cast as the next lead in another spinoff game^[15]. This time around, Blanc took 1st place, which means we’ll be getting a title sometime in the future that centers around her^[16].

Over at 4chan, a thread was posted at Nov. 21, 2013, declaring itself to be the 290th general thread about the games ^[7], as well as a total 12777 archived threads as of this writing ^[8].

There is also a dedicated forum^[3], 2 wikis ^[4]^[5] a TV Tropes entry^[9] a total of 10 pages worth of pixiv entries^[10] around 9000 entries on DeviantART^[11].

Fandom

WIP

The first game’s story and characters built up a dedicated fanbase. Some of which created mods for Left 4 Dead 2. others created a series of fan-animations of Game Grumps Featuring the characters of the series of video games.