The Neptunia franchise is known for poking fun at the gaming industry and Neptunia: Sisters VS Sisters continues that trend. The spinoff mocks the rise of smartphones in our lives and how convenient they are. Behind the usual gaming industry parody lies a story that is surprisingly touching, especially if you view all the endings. Even if you haven’t heard of the Neptunia franchise before, this game is easy to learn and there are several opportunities for exposition.

Combat isn’t difficult to pick up, with various options that help you learn the game’s setting as you go. There are many opportunities to customise your characters to suit different playstyles in combat. However, some concepts aren’t properly explained and the frame rate on the Switch sometimes suffers. But if you are looking for a light-hearted adventure with poignant moments, Neptunia: Sisters VS Sisters is worth a try.

The game begins when the four goddesses of Gamindustri go to investigate an abnormal occurrence on the PC Continent. The goddesses’ sisters, who are the main characters of the spinoff, investigate a monster sighting. During their investigation, they are locked in a chamber and fall asleep for two years. Upon waking up, they find that the goddesses’ hold on Gamindustri is being challenged by the rise of smartphones. But this isn’t a normal takeover as people are acting strangely. The goddesses are dealing with attacks from monsters that force people to stay indoors. With people unable to leave and interact with the world, the rise of the smartphone seems to be more than just a coincidence. The sisters must help the goddesses regain control of their lands and find out the secret behind the smartphones.

Neptunia: Sisters VS Sisters has a good amount of light-hearted humour, poking fun at the gaming industry. Using subtle references to video game trends, characters analyse a trend’s popularity and what it means to get involved. The game doesn’t shy away from some of gaming’s worst aspects like addiction, but there’s always a positive resolution at the end. These references take the form of side stories which serve as convenient breaks from the main narrative.

The main story is decent with lots of predictable tropes. You can probably detect the story twists and important plot points before they happen. Neptunia: Sisters VS Sisters has multiple endings but the requirements for them are vague. The best clue you have is knowing the balance of shares (the goddesses’ power) matters, but you don’t know more than that. This often results in wasted time trying to figure out the right balance or running for a guide. Guiding players toward multiple endings or having obvious requirements would be helpful because multiple playthroughs are taxing.

Gameplay is 3D dungeon crawling with real-time combat. You walk through a number of environments that are wide and easy to navigate. Combat takes place with three characters and random numbers of enemies. Thanks to the variety of tutorials that appear throughout the game, it’s not hard to learn the basics of combat. Even if you forget something about combat or exploration, you can always revisit the tutorials from the menu.

Exploring dungeons isn’t difficult and the paths are often obvious. There’s a handy map that prevents you from getting lost though there isn’t a compass for orientation. It doesn’t help that some maps are also larger than they need to be, making you think there are more paths to explore. While it’s not bad to explore large areas, the design choices of making paths that lead to nowhere doesn’t make sense.

The real-time combat takes some time to adjust to, since it’s fast-paced and relies on Ability Points. You must consider your position, where enemies are, and the range of your attacks. As your characters level up, you get more options for combat. It’s also possible to create discs that provide passive bonuses in combat, giving you more tools to create the ultimate fighters.

On one hand, the game’s flexibility makes it easy to experiment and try new combinations. You can give characters whatever passives you think are helpful and switch out new moves for better damage. On the other, this throws a lot of combat concepts at you and it’s overwhelming. It’s easy to get started in combat but you have little guidance on what everything means. For example, it’s easy to equip moves onto characters that have different effects. But it’s not always apparent what close or mid-range means, or what elements can do in combat. The attack types of rush, break, and power aren’t explained well and stats don’t get an explanation early on. Even making discs for passives is more of a “see-what-happens” operation. While experimentation is standard for every RPG, not knowing if your results will be effective makes experimenting frustrating.

Neptunia: Sisters VS Sisters’s lack of explanations isn’t helped by the fact that the frame rate can drop on the Nintendo Switch. The drops can impact your combat performance and even scene progression. Do your experiments work as intended, or did the game slow down? While combat isn’t difficult, it’s easy to lose control of situations if you can’t respond or your actions are slow. Frame rate drops during the visual novel aspect also disrupt your enjoyment of the story.

This isn’t a perfect game but its good sides stand out. It pushes the Switch hard but isn’t unplayable on the console. There’s a light-hearted adventure with poignant moments that’s waiting to be explored and is easy to get into. You will have frustration and confusion while trying to take apart the game’s combat system, and finding the multiple endings will be just as hard. But the game’s light-hearted humour, ease of play, and experimentation options win out over the flaws. Give the game a chance if you want to poke fun at the gaming industry and you will have a good time!