3.5/5 ★ – Lammy's review of Neptunia: Sisters VS Sisters.

Neptunia: Sisters vs Sisters post-plat review: Oh my god, it's a story relevant entry in the Neptunia series! I thought those were extinct, but then, we live in a post-Dire Wolf world now. Sisters vs Sisters is 2022's entry in the sprawling Neptunia series, picking up a few years after 2015's Megadimension Neptunia VII. The parody-filled main continent of Gamindustri is at peace, but trouble on the PC Continent leaves Neptune and the other first-gen Goddesses trapped and the Goddess Candidates led by Nepgear in a 2-year coma. Emerging into a world devastated by monster outbreaks, lockdowns and the invention of TikTok, the younger generation of heroes need to piece everything together and save the world once more. The writing in this game is generally some of the best in the series, thanks in part to Nepgear being a broadly stronger character and protagonist than the irreverent Neptune. With this being a PS5 game running on the post-Re★Verse engine, it's also a generally better looking game than many of its predecessors. The game is let down, sadly, by its choice to pivot towards more real-time combat. In a system most similar to Crisis Core Final Fantasy 7, entering combat transports you and your party into an arena where you use Action Points (AP) to string together combos to damage enemies. The system is functional, but the game doesn't do a great job of explaining some of the nuances of the combo system and it is far too easy to get hitstunned out of attacks without accomplishing anything. AP also takes a bit too long to regen, but you can mitigate this by swapping characters on the fly. It's a workable system, but always feels clunky and half baked. Overall, this is one of the better Nep games in existence, and definitely feels like the series is continuing its slow climb out of the "budget RPG" pidgeonhole its been somewhat inappropriately stuffed into, but the combat's weakness makes it less of a leap forward and more a measured step in the right direction. Gonna call this one a 7.5 out of 10.