It has been a long time since Neptunia has gotten a new mainline title. News of a new mainline title finalized on the series anniversary with a trailer for Hyperdimension Neptunia Unlimited. I already went over what I was expecting out of a new Neptunia game based on the previous titles, Neptunia: Sister vs Sister and Neptunia Game Maker R:Evolution. Though Famitsu now has an interview out with Mitsuru Yasui and Tsunako, that is their expectations with this newest title.
Let’s get started!
This Wasn’t The First Planned Mainline Entry
Famitsu: This is the first title to aim for the 20th anniversary, but how did you start the project?
Mitsuru Yasui: This will be a long story… In fact, apart from this game, there is another game that I tried to make as a numbered title.
Mitsuru Yasui: This will be a long story… In fact, apart from this game, there is another game that I tried to make as a numbered title.
Famitsu: I didn’t know there was such a back story… What happened to that phantom numbered title?
Yasui: Neptunia: Sisters vs Sisters. “It was released in 2022. It is a spin-off work with the goddess candidate Nepgear as the main character, but originally, Neptune and others were planned to be the main characters since it was going to be a mainline title. However, while I was developing this game, Tsunako appealed, “If you want to make a numbered title, I want to participate from the planning stage and go all out.” It was probably about five years ago, wasn’t it?
Tsunako: That’s right. Just at the time, I was not able to participate due to my schedule …
One thing to note is that many, including myself, got confused thinking Neptunia Sisters vs Sisters was a mainline entry due to the story and how much of the gaming industry it dealt with at the time. So it makes sense that it was initially planned as a mainline title before it was reworked into a game for the Candidate Goddesses. I even considered it a mainline title in my review.
Active Development
Active development started in 2023 while the new goddesses were being created.
Yasui: The reason we decided to introduce a new goddess is that new characters have always attracted attention in previous numbered installments, and Tsunako suggested that she wanted to “update the world of Gamindustri to suit the current era.” Once it was decided that a new goddess would appear, the project started moving forward rapidly, and the story has now been announced.
Tsunako: The keywords for the new game are update and reboot. “Hyperdimension Neptunia VII,” released in 2015, had a lot of themes based on the game industry at the time, so I thought that if we were going to make a sequel, we needed to update it to match the current era. That’s why I decided to introduce a new goddess, but I also wanted to show that the country had changed with the times, so I completely changed the cityscape. However, actually introducing a new goddess required a lot of courage from me. The “Neptunia” series is supported by fans who love the existing characters, so I strongly requested that the previous goddesses be portrayed as seniors and not as if they were retiring.
Yasui: Many people are probably worried that the introduction of the new goddess will cause existing characters to lose their place. In order to differentiate them, we took our time and carefully created the setting and design of the new goddess.
Tsunako: This time, there were so many new goddesses that it took a lot of time to figure out how to balance them with the existing characters. We had to avoid character overlap, but since they were all guardian goddesses of the same country, they wouldn’t fit in well unless they were similar in style… I remember struggling with this quite a bit, as the number of characters from previous installments has also grown considerably.
Thanks to the current era of the game industry and to the new goddesses we have to look forward to, Hyperdimension Neptunia Unlimited will be a very interesting title to play. I am excited, especially at seeing Vert deal with Anna and Lotte.
Hyperdimension Neptunia Unlimited
Famitsu: We’ll ask you about the new goddesses later. Could you tell us what the “∞ (Unlimited)” in the title means?
Yasui: Choosing a title for the Neptunia series is always difficult, and this time was no exception, with several changes. In this game, we’ve translated “∞” as “Unlimited” in English, but in Japanese it’s read as “Mugen” (infinity). We’ve included various meanings of “Mugen” throughout the game, and the most important meaning will become clear if you play to the very end.
Famitsu: Without giving away any spoilers, what does “Mugen” mean?
Yasui: Like an endlessly stretching sky.
Tsunako: And then there’s the idea of infinite bonds… There are many other meanings as well, but one reason we chose “∞” is because it looks like the number “8”.
Yasui: It’s the same “V II” as in the previous game, “New Dimension Game Neptunia V II.” It’s written as “V-Two” but pronounced “Victory Two,” but it also looks like the Roman numeral “VII” (7), doesn’t it? The previous game wasn’t the 7th numbered title, and this one isn’t the 8th, but we thought that fans would recognize it as a legitimate sequel. So we tilted the “∞” in the logo a little and had it designed to look like the number “8.”
Usually, when I condense some of these interviews, like the one with .hack//Zero I generally only focus on very important details; however, the Neptunia one here deals with a lot of important information. So this one might read a lot more like just grabbing the whole thing, but note I am not actually grabbing the whole thing, but a lot of important pieces!
The infinity sign was for the look alike to 8, so it is a proper sequel to Victory two even if Victory two is the fourth mainline entry of the Neptunia Series. It is interesting to note that there is a difference with Mugen and Infinity. I wonder if the end of the game will have multiple playthroughs that signify the meaning of Mugen. Maybe a focus will be on New Game+, which will make this game endlessly replayable.
Flight In Neptunia
It’s worth noting that CPU HDD forms generally let the goddess fly, but it doesn’t generally get depicted in playing the game. Even in Neptunia Re;Birth, there is a moment where Compa and IF ask to get flown by Neptune while in her HDD form.
Famitsu: In this game, you can fly, but what was the process behind implementing that?
Yasui: To put it simply, it’s what Tsunako wanted.
Tsunako: When the game system hadn’t been decided yet, I told them, “I want Neptune and the others to be able to fly.”
Yasui: Someone said, “Isn’t it strange that they can’t fly when they transform into goddesses?” Initially, there was a plan to prepare a map specifically for flying, but the development staff ended up letting Neptune and the others fly in the field (laughs).
Famitsu: What inspired you, Tsunako, to want to make the goddess versions of Neptune and the others fly?
Tsunako: The TV anime “Hyperdimension Neptunia,” which aired in 2013, had a big influence on me. In the show, the goddesses were able to fly freely, so I’ve always thought, “If you become a goddess, you should be able to fly.” When I tried to implement a flight system in a game back then, it was difficult to develop, but I thought it might be possible in this game, so I suggested it. I had always wanted to recreate the flight scenes I saw in the anime in a game, so I’m grateful to the development staff for making my dream a reality after 13 years.
I always love it when an answer is a simple yet passionate one. Tsunako has been the main character designer for Neptunia since its inception. So to see her have a role in getting the development team to construct a whole game mechanic for flight is really something.
Overall, there is a lot of information about this game coming out from the interview, such as the character designs, the importance of infinity, and the brand-new goddesses. It definitely looks like Compile Heart is going all out in making the newest mainline Neptunia game, and I am excited to learn more when we can.
The Japanese release of the game is slated for August 27th, 2026. We have no details currently on an English version or when it will be released outside of Japan. Hyperdimension Neptunia Unlimited is going to be released on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch 2.
Source: Famitsu (Translated via Google and edited for clarity.)
