Holy shit, how the fuck did I stay away from this series for as long as I have? I actually don’t know if I have even written about Neptunia for this blog yet, although I have mentioned it plenty of times. I absolutely adore this series, and seeing someone bashing it for being nothing but fanservice is an instant trip to my shit list. That’s not even a joke, seeing someone bash a series like Neptunia or Senran Kagura as being nothing other than fanservice just because it HAS fanservice tells a lot about their personality; mainly that they are misogynists who think women are “degrading themselves” if they ever show skin and that they project their own sexism onto anyone who has a sex drive, and I can only assume you’re a shitty person if you are this shallow minded.

The truth is that the Hyperdimension Neptunia series is one of the most pro feminist video game series of all time (ignoring the shitty harem spinoffs that is). To have such a strongly developed cast of female characters in an age where AAA developers need to virtue signal their inclusion of a single female protagonist as a key advertising point is incredible. This is something that I could go on and on about for hours, but it is not the point. Among the many incredible aspects of this series is its music.

All four of the mainline entries have had increasingly great soundtracks. The OST of the original Hyperdimension Neptunia was good, but not excellent, Mk2 WAS excellent, Victory had Nobuo Uematsu of Final Fantasy fame involved and the result was glorious, yet Megadimension Neptunia VII STILL managed to top it. I looked through the in game music player and there were at least SIX different composers listed, they really went all out with the soundtrack here. Hell it is easy to see that Compile Heart puts more emphasis on music than on graphics (a LOT more emphasis given that the graphics of their games are typically ass) and if the end result is this good then I’m fine with that.

The track “Voltage” for instance, is overwhelmingly epic. Yes, it sounds good enough to be the final boss theme for some games, but it is a MINI BOSS theme, one that is underused unfortunately (at least from what I have played, haven’t finished this one yet sadly). It makes it sound like you are trying to save the world despite the much smaller scale of the monsters you are fighting, I always loved it when RPGs do that. Other instances being Final Fantasy IV’s standard boss theme, Lufia 2’s boss theme, and Radiant Historia’s “The Red Locus.” It helps set the mood for the adventure as a whole rather than just the single sequence it takes place in (which is why I really hope the game uses it more later).

That opening is as addicting as cheetoh flavored crack and it uses the futuristic techno styling to convey the advanced setting as well. The synth fading out in the interlude and focusing on the strings and drums brings home the feelings of risk while making the song feel more at home. The following melody, in addition to being absurdly catchy, is overwhelmingly heroic and emphasis that “you must win” atmosphere. The track is intense and energetic all the way through and I can’t think of a single thing about I dislike other than that it isn’t used enough.

The most impressive thing is that most of the music in Megadimension Neptunia VII is of this caliber. This is not even the best boss theme in the game! I don’t know if there is much more I can say about it, and I shouldn’t have to. I mean, you ARE listening to it for yourself right? That’s kinda the reason I included it there…

Anyway that is it for this week’s VGM, see you next week. Also I really need to finish this game before the remake gets released in North America.

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