Is HyperDimension Neptunia actually a good series?

Most of the games are at least decently good, though heard the Vita exclusive Producing Perfection should be skipped.

I've only finished Superdimension Neptune vs Sega Hard Girls (fun JRPG, enhanced with extra Sega references) and Cyberdimension Neptunia: 4 Goddesses Online (action RPG, beaten with all achievements because it was surprisingly good IMO). I have the rest except for VIIR, and as long as you enjoy JRPGs and think you can enjoy comedy and game references, you should give the series a try.

Spinoffs can branch off to action games, strategy RPG and the Vita idol game. A platformer will also release soon.

the first 3 are daijoubo but idk about the rest. They are def worth the 12 you can get them for on steam right now. Fun jrpgs that dont require that much grinding, if you dont like weeb tropes and weebshit in general then you shouldnt be looking at jrpgs imo.

also "...just going to be a bunch of girls doing stereotypical japanese pervy anime stuff all the time and commenting on each other on how they're getting fat even though they're like as skinny as a toothpick, and gratuitous breast comments. I'm really not interested." Ive never seen a jrpg like this so i have no idea where you got this notion from, but the series definitively isnt like that. Its lighthearted and fun with a overall comedic tone.

Well i am completely biased , but yeah i think they are on the good side of JRPGs these days .

The action game is utter garbage , you can skip this one ... ( tho you can buy it for like 2$ on sale )

ReBirth 1-3 are basically same game with different story
VII is pretty decent as far as i got into it ...
Heard good stuff bout Sega Hard girls .
Havent play the latest one yet so i cant comment on it , but id say its just more of the same ... but maybe slightly bettter

The games are mainly about funny dialogues. The rest is boring and repetetive. You won't know if you like it or nor until you try it. I personaly like it.

Well, the games confirmed my suspicions that I'm basically not into JRPGs of any shape or form. I had fun for a bit with the first game, but it's very repetitive, the levels don't look very good, and it has that JRPG unattractive menu thing going on. As far as JRPGs go, not bad though.

Hmm, I wouldn't say it's great. It's... okay. Gameplay is, well, pretty weak in general - It involves a turn-based combat system that doesn't really make any sense, very little strategy or tactics, and most of it relies on grinding levels until you can overpower your enemy (that's why I dropped r;b3, got tired of the grinding).

The "story" is filled with generic Japanese anime trope shit, but it also has some good gems here and there (see screenshot below) that gave me a good laugh. I think you either love or hate the characters, and they are mostly the reason people play nep games. Personally, I got tired of the games after the first. The first game was fantastic to me, the plot was funny and interesting, I really enjoyed it - so much in fact, that I completed it 100% on Steam. The second game bored me, the cast was annoying and boring, the story felt like it had lost its charm. Third one was a good improvement, but I dropped it midway since the grinding started to tire me. I think mostly is that the nep franchise is one big recycling factory - You've played one game, you've played them all. If you play the first game, you might like the setting, quirky characters, stupid jokes etc. Then you'll go onto the second game, which kinda sucks honestly (never finished it). Then the third game, which again, is just "re;birth v1.3". It gets repetitive.

So in fewer words... gameplay is not that good, but it's fine if you don't mind a bit of grinding. Story and "VN" parts are mostly silly jokes and interaction between characters. Setting is pretty much the same in all games.

My suggestion - Buy the first game on sale. See if you like it.

View attached image.

If you're enjoying VNs, it can be a pretty good VN with good humorous dialogues and a disappointing repetitive gameplay as a content-filler.

If you're looking for a JRPG, you're looking at the wrong franchise. The amount of better JRPGs is overwhelming.

Just my subjective opinion of course. I hate this franchise with passion. The game can be fun, it can be enjoyable, but definitely not because of the gameplay or story, but rather humorous aspect and dialogues. I did not enjoy it at all, but then again, I hate majority of VNs as well, so there is that.

play Vii and re;birth 1, if you enjoy them play the rest

It doesn't look very good. Like, in my opinion, even for an anime game it looks sub-par.
About the only bit of it that seems even mildly interesting is the targeting system in battles/the battle system in general.
I suspect some other modern-ish JRPGs might have similar things going on, but I'm a bit inexperienced with them.

I played Re;Birth 1 and didn't like it. The dialogue was mostly just references (not jokes) to other video game franchises, half of the dungeon segments are literally copy/pastes of previous dungeons (same scenery and everything), and you won't be able to access all of the secret dungeons if you don't unlock them during their designated chapter. Plus, in my run, the final boss was impossible to beat without grinding since it heals way too much health each turn; I had to lower the difficulty to get past.

Other than that, the combat was pretty well done, but you have to remember that the combat is the only good thing about the game, and the final boss kinda ruins even that part, so I wouldn't recommend it.

Here's my more detailed review, if you're interested: https://www.backlog-assassins.net/posts/37zrrmb

I enjoy a good jrpg but the series always struck me as excessively weeb.

No.

I really like the series, but I can see why others do not.

Yes, it is :)

Ehhhh... it's kinda in the middle tbh.
Rly.

Haven't played HyperDimension Neptunia series so I can't comment on that, but I would recommend Trails in the Sky series if you want a JRPG with actually superb storytelling and characters you can treasure. ... assuming you are into turn-based gameplay anyway.

Its cringeworthy garbage with various performance and game flaws depending per title, constant recycled content, implied pedophilism, shitty designs, its a strong franchise as it is thanks to thirsty males who love memes and the games shamelessly provide them my friend was repulsed at the newest port of a game on steam from that franchise in the state it was brought over, it was the same problematic shit piece that it was on consoles, no fixes, no improvements but everyone looks past and forgives it if they get more underaged annoying girls to look at, no, its a bad game and the franchise needs to die for a actual good franchise. Idea factory should just become a division for Sega or something, making sidequest minigames in the Yakuza series, i dunno, better than this. Its just cringe by just looking at them if not hearing its drones repeat Nepu nepa whatever on a daily constant basis regardless of anything. Its criminaly succesfull but we very well know there are suckers out there for hot hot garbage. The Senran Kagura series might be better to go after than this if you had to have something such as this, that game wants to be a porn game but stops before it becomes a full blown porn game.

True gamers would say No, weebs would say Yes

The gameplay is mostly pretty bad. Individual aspects of it have potential, but they're not put together very well (levels tend to be very, very repetitive, enemies tend to be similar to each other, and so on.) It feels like most games made by that company have an "inmates running the asylum" problem where it's crammed full of ideas that people who played a lot of JRPGs might have thought were cool, but without really figuring out how to make them all work together properly.

Even if you want an anime / visual-novel-style JRPG, there are better options. I'd recommend the Atelier series, for instance, which are broadly similar but have better mechanics, writing, story, and gameplay. (Of course, to be fair, those games are also much more expensive, since each one has far more work put into it and they tend not to get steep discounts or anything.)

Or, if you want something more comedic, the Disgaea series has better writing than both (although it's a strategy-RPG.)

i only liked Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth1 that's all the rest is just the same engine same graphics same everything.
if its ok with you if you repeat the same missions over and over then go buy it.

it's just a meme game
If You like Merch-with-mouth type joke

I do enjoy the series and I do have to admit the flaws: the games are rather memey in a way that I can see people getting turned off. Story is pretty nice in R;B1 and VII, okay in R;B3 (if you can get past the characters becoming more assholish), and R;B2 had the worst out of the main series.
I don't remember having to do too much grinding to beat the games, but it is there. For 100%ing the games, the grind is absolutely real.
The worst thing about the series is the amount of recycling, even contained in single game. If you've completed R;B1, you've seen a major chunk of enemy roster of 2 and 3, and you're bound to see the same dungeons with the exact same layout, maybe with some different enemies.

Like others suggested, try R;B1, it's a good litmus test.