User:Guicool138/CharCriticism
More actions
I'm someone with an active imagination and some knowledge of things. I understand what is good, and what is bad. This is a fact because while self-doubt is real, the trick is just plow through concerns and destroy them or they'll freeze you.
This is how I define good and bad: In essence, everything that has a payoff that feels realistic and can be pondered upon is what I largely consider to be good and if it doesn't do that, I file it as bad. Simple enough.
With that being said, I do have some things to talk about the characters in this franchise.
Please note that this is my personal opinion and not my professional one and it's listed in my personal page for a reason.
Note: I play Neptunia using English voices (deal with it).
Updated in 2026/05/26 with better explanations and some minor changes to things.
Main Characters
Neptune is a lazy girl that feigns ignorance because she doesn't want to do any work. I can understand why people relate to her, but I personally can't, due to the fact that she's absolutely brilliant, and does come up with good ideas in the mainline games... When she wants to. Delegating others to do your work isn't something I vibe with so I don't relate to her at all. She's also a little gremlin, just funny and a bit annoying enough that I kinda like when she goes meta but not enough to say that I want to be around her. Just for the record, gremlins can be funny and all, but I don't actually like characters like this.
And the less we say about her Victory/Re;Birth 3 incarnation, the better.
The biggest change to me when Neptune goes into super mode and turns into Purple Heart, which makes one of the least likable characters to me to the BEST character. Lady Purple Heart is how Neptune should be in the first place. The protagonist that puts the work in, that does exactly what she needs to do while still being herself and helping people, and looking absolutely great too. You can tell how much of the plot goes by when Purple Heart is around, it's not just her Super Mode, it's a storybreaker thing which is why I understand why it's not used often. Shame that Neptune is the character that gets this, I hate it. Anyway, she's my 1st on the top 5.
The representation of the PlayStation 3 (initially) is a twintailed tsundere girl. What? What were they smoking with this idea? Anyway, Noire is fine. I don't dislike her character enough to say that I wouldn't be around her, and she's the opposite of Neptune, a workaholic. However, that's pretty much where it stops to me. The character had hobbies attached to her over the years and Neptune calls her a 'loner' (false by the way), but otherwise, she has remained static for over a decade. Not much to evolve when you don't have much to begin with.
Black Heart is Noire but amped up a bit more and a tougher voice, kinda.
Noire from Ultradimension (Victory/Re;Birth 3) is her but more annoying.
Blanc is a bookworm short-tempered girl with no chest. That's fine, we need variety. I think in terms that describe characters, I believe she's perhaps I'd vibe the most with, as long she didn't explode on me for no reason. Other than what I said, she's just there.
White Heart is Blanc but once again, amped up and angry all the time. Definitely not someone I'd be around.
Blanc from Ultradimension (Victory/Re;Birth 3) is her but worse. Good job, guys.
Vert is probably one of the most annoying and not annoying characters out of the main 4. She's incredibly competent and absolutely gorgeous (breasts notwithstanding), she's also a massive gamer (as expected of a Xbox console thingy). However her obsession with getting a little sister post Mk2/Re;Birth 2 became part of her character and fucking hell, it's so ANNOYING. Like woman, shut the FUCK up about it. You're a goddamn Goddess/CPU, just MAKE one for yourself, don't trying to steal a person from someone! Also the fact that Neptunia: Riders vs Dogoos somehow manages to make her brainwash go away by mentioning 'Nepgear' is quite the telling sign of a really bad case of Flanderization.
Green Heart is Vert but amped up. She's surprisingly less annoying like this and a lot bustier. Not too bad, I guess?
Vert from Ultradimension (Victory/Re;Birth 3) is her but more smug and without the little sister obsession, so she's better? I guess it works.
I made a separate entry because in Re;Birth 1, Vert has no desire to have a little sister, making her a far significantly better character. She's able to pick out things much quicker than the rest of the cast, and is more efficient to the plot in general. Her Dark CPU copy is Flanderized to the point that she's just a gamer and thus completely harmless, making the copy to be beaten easily. Pretty funny. I like her and she's in my personal top 5.
CPU/Goddess Candidates
For all the rankings, they follow the same idea: I like that they exist but if they were removed, not much would change.
When Nepgear was the protagonist in Mk2/Re;Birth 2 and Sisters vs Sisters, the plot gets slightly hijacked by the Main Four, and that makes her a bad protagonist. I get that they were probably parodying the 'protagonist of the next game is a new character, deal with it' that many games do, but like... The parody needs to work in the first place. Nepgear is a hard worker, soft spoken and nice, everything that I think that Neptune should have been and yet, I don't really vibe with her because she's either that or SERIOUS DARK DARK DARK MODE with no in between. It sucks.
Purple Sister is Nepgear but 5% tougher sounding, the difference between "What?" and "What in the hell?".
For all the rankings, they follow the same idea: I like that they exist but if they were removed, not much would change.
Uni is just a mini-Noire, but with tsundere tendencies jacked up. Her like of guns makes her slightly more interesting than a piece of cardboard and I love her smug faces but other than that, girl, you need to stop being so damn attached.
Black Sister is Uni but flatter for some reason, nice one devs... And also 10% tougher sounding.
For all the rankings, they follow the same idea: I like that they exist but if they were removed, not much would change.
Ram and Rom always confuse me, who's who again? I had to look up. Rom is a extreme doormat and Ram is a gremlin. Perfect, the two things I don't like in characters. They are kids, so it makes sense. But I don't have to like it (and I don't).
White Sisters are the same characters, once again, slightly more amped up. Yeah, you go girls, get injected with raw adrenaline... or something.
Extended Cast
Plutia is apparently very divisive and continues to be, as Re;Birth 3 gets re-released to Switch and PS4/5. Honestly, it makes sense that the sleepyhead is a Dominatrix and I like the idea behind it. The issue is that Plutia is a karma houdini and that is not good for stories, even if the character is on the hero's side. She terrorizes both her friends and the enemies and gets away with it. You can see where I'm going with this.
This issue is so bad in Victory that when the anime came out, they actually backpedaled with her tendencies to cause harm to her friends, only to the enemies. And that was much better received, which was somewhat backported to Re;Birth 3, but not fully. Another issue with Plutia is that... She is a flat character, her development is minimal, so much so that nothing changes... She's not my favorite or in my top 5, but the idea could have been handled much better.
Iris Heart might as well be considered a different character, but thankfully, she isn't, because Plutia does show some sadistic tendencies and she usually goes into Super Mode when she's mad. As for her design, it's sexy, probably in an explicit (as in the devs wanted this) way, and it does go well with her.
Peashy is another kid that was brainwashed to be a soldier. Again, not a bad idea. The issue is that her personality remains at the same kid like status, making her probably one of the characters that I couldn't care less if I tried. That's all.
Yellow Heart is like I said, no amped up, just a kid with an adult body (literal womanchild). The body looks pretty nice but what matter is what's inside, always. Pass.
Rei as a character is a good idea that to me was somewhat weirdly implemented. A villain CPU is an interesting concept but why did it have to be in this game?
Another thing about her is that no matter the version, Hyper or Ultradimension, she's completely insane and must be stopped. You really want a villain like this in this game, and every time she shows up, the plot gets a darker, which is what this series tries hard to not be. Even Arfoire isn't that evil...
Her human form is the complete opposite just to show how insane she is when using her Super form. She's not my favorite, not even close, but I like the idea. Maybe a better game would have worked better.
Uzume is probably the best part of VII, in my opinion, both her and her evil counterpart. I really like how she's handled, and it feels like they took cues from Persona (probably not), as regular Uzume we know is the real Uzume's shadow, the good parts that she wanted to ignore given form. And I like it. Not my favorite but defo in the top 10.
As for Kurome, she's probably the best villain in the franchise. She can affect people via their dreams (get it, cuz Dreamcast? haha... ha) and she's massively powerful, brainwashing several of the cast and others to get to do what she wants. Also the bad ending has her straight up winning! Incredible.
No opinion on any of them as I haven't played enough of Sisters vs Sisters or Gamemaker R:Evolution to say anything.
Makers and Gold Third
I like the duo, they contrast Neptune quite nicely. However I don't really have much to say here, IF is the regular tomboy (with long hair for some reason) that is the team dad and also a chunni, so like... Okay? Sure.
Compa is the cute nurse that is such a nice girl that it's almost unbelievable. Her English VA makes her even cuter and like... Why wouldn't you have her around? She's also not that bright but she's nice, so I'll give her that.
Other Makers
There are too many to count so I'll list the ones I like: Cave, Falcom, MAGES., Tamsoft and CyberConnect2.
Not much to say. They are plot related girls, and not really worth obsessing over. C-Sha might be the best one.
The only I care about is Arfoire from Re;Birth 1. The rest can go stuff themselves. Arfoire in that game is pretty good, almost wins and it's quite the competent villain. Also hot short haired witch, can't go wrong with that.
Other Characters
Not much to say. They exist. That's pretty much.
Special mention to Oracle Mina Nishizawa, world's cutest Oracle, babysitter and nice girl AND Financier, Blanc's right hand woman in the Superdimension. Oddly only in Re;Birth 1, because in the first game, she was a heretic. Go figure.
Ranking
Finally what is my Top 5 characters in this game? Well, they are as follows:
- Purple Heart
- Vert (Re;Birth 1)
- Arfoire (Re;Birth 1)
- Mina Nishizawa
- Financier
No, I'll not attempt to make a top 10.