Video Game / Hyperdimension Neptunia: Producing Perfection

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The game centers around the main character, the producer, whose goal is to help the Goddess of their choice compete against rival company MOB48 in concerts to earn more shares. The main goal of the game is to get fans. By raising the selected CPUs various stats through training and lessons, and promoting through through advertising and media stunts, the CPU must aim to become the top idol in Gameindustri.

For each concert, the number of fans and haters will change, though it all depends. The CPUs can be changed into various outfits before the concerts, and during the concert, special effects can be triggered and the camera angle can be changed to change the viewing experience. During live events, the CPU can use HDD to transform mid-song, altering their singing voice and earning more points.

The game itself was released in Japan on June 20, 2013. NIS America released it in the rest of the world in 2014.

The question at the end of all of this isn't exactly why this game was made, so much as what took it so long in the first place.

Tropes in Hyperdimension Neptunia: Producing Perfection:

• Alliterative Name: The subtitle, "Producing Perfection".
• Alternate Universe: Judging from the looks of it, Producing Perfection is set in yet another alternate Gamindustri (these people really cannot stay in one place), that is quite similar to the Ultra Dimension from Victory. However, the Candidates have their own counterparts in this universe, Neptune is Planeptune's Goddess, and Plutia is nowhere to be seen. On the plus side, Lonely Heart is here.
• Ambiguous Gender: Subverted. While it would seem to be this way, due to being The Faceless, The Voiceless, and able to be given any kind of name in the book, the Game Over screen shows the producer is indeed male. Although, the Bathtub Scenes should have already set the player off by now.
• And Now for Someone Completely Different: The main character of this game is not the Goddesses so much as the Goddesses' producer, a random human (apparently from the real world no less) who was transported to Gamindustri. According to NIS America's (now-deleted) description of the game, said human was selected due to having had prior experience in training video game idols back on Earth.
• Art Evolution: A minor case, but the Candidates receive all new artwork (that doesn't truly resemble Tsunako's work); while Nepgear's portrait is carried over from Victory, Uni is seen in a 3/4 angle, while Rom and Ram get front-facing portraits for the first (and only) time.
• Bathtub Scene: Each CPU can receive one, after their love meter for the producer is at the maximum. Considering Blanc would probably kill anyone else, this makes sense...
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: As is typical for the series, but one notable instance is Neptune breaking out of her own game in her True Ending route.
• Bittersweet Ending: The Good and True Endings both involve the producer having to go back to their own world and say a tearful good-bye to the CPU they assisted.
  • In the Good Ending, the CPU refuses to assist. The other three CPUs attempt the warp but it fails, causing the producer to be stuck in Gamindustri.
  • In the True Ending, the producer succeeds in persuading the CPU and all four of them are able to successfully send them back home. Though it becomes somewhat less bitter when:
    • Neptune reveals that she warped alongside the producer.
    • Noire gives the producer a "platonic" kiss before they warp. In their world, they then start to play Producing Perfection with the most Noire-like character.
    • Blanc gives the producer a charm, which they discover a letter inside after warping.
    • Vert and the producer reunite in an MMORPG.
• Bland-Name Product: MOB48 is basically the series equivalent to AKB48, only that their idols are composed of enemy monsters instead of school-graduated human girls.
• Bragging Rights Reward: Earning the HDD forms and the CPU candidates tends to feel like this, due to earning them after working like bloody hell to get the True Endings for the Candidates sisters.
• Brick Joke: In a Nepstation segment, Blanc states she wrote the game's entire scenario and says to check the credits... and indeed, the credits roll lists "Written by Blanc".
• But Thou Must!: When being offered the job as producer, the player has three choices: "Accept.", "Accept!", and "Accept!!" And this is lampshaded by Neptune, naturally.
• The Cameo:
  • Listed in the idol rankings:
    • The Oracles becoming producers for the CPUs that the player producer doesn't pick.
    • Neptuna (Peashy's nickname for Neptune) as an idol, presumably a copycat with her producer named "Copy-Copy Heart".
    • Arfoire and the CFWs as rival idols.
    • Chu-chu Group and Mouse Chief, which presumably refers to Pirachu/Warechu.
    • Iris (without the Heart), with Croire as her producer.
    • The Seven Sages being a producer group.
    • Rei being a producer separate from the above organization.
    • The producer of MOB48 is none other than Linda, of all people.
  • In Neptune's route, Histoire is mentioned to have gone away on a business trip but planned ahead for Neptune's debut concert in advance.
  • IF and Compa can be unlocked as back-up dancers.
• Dating Sim:
  • Like mk2 and Victory, Producing Perfection has its own form of this, referred to as a "Love Scene", where you can actually date the Goddess who you are training to become an idol. Before anyone gets excited, it doesn't go anywhere, nor does it seem to have a huge impact on the game outside of a trophy.
  • From a meta-perspective though, the whole game revolves around the producer connecting with each of the goddesses, who return the favors with their heartfelt attempts at love. This is especially true with the outcomes of the True Endings.
• Doppelgänger:
  • Neptune meets a doppelgänger by the name of "32x". As it happens, she is actually a representation of Neptune's hard drive, apparently born from the songs she had been singing.
  • Neptune also faces a robotic copy of herself, which was built by a lonely Nepgear. It looks exactly like Neptune, except for her expressionless face, robotic voice, stiff movements, mechanical whirring, and her tendency to ask for Nepgear's instructions after a few seconds when idle. However, it quickly defeated Neptune in one blow. After snapping Nepgear back into sense, the robot was reprogrammed into Neptune's rival in videogames.
• Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Noire gets away with a ton of abuse, both physical and verbal, towards the Producer. It's played for laughs, too.
• Exact Words: Blanc once told the producer "defeat doesn't exist in my dictionary". When he thought she was simply being confident, she revealed that the word literally doesn't exist in Lowee dictionaries, so that Blanc can say that phrase and be correct.
  Blanc: I also erased the words escape and impossible.
• Excuse Plot: The "shares being stolen by MOB48". It really is just an excuse to get the Goddesses up on stage and singing (which makes enough sense, as only Vert and Neptune are attention-whorey enough to do it, Blanc would simply shout obscenities at everyone and Noire's pride wouldn't allow it).
• The Faceless:
  • While the standard silhouettes return, the new player character, the producer, doesn't even get one of these, this keeping gender ambiguous.
  • This is the first time since the original Neptunia (Ganache, Yvoire, etc) that antagonists (the term used as loosely as possible), receive this treatment; while the members of MOB48 do appear, they never receive actual art, only appearing as silhouettes. They do receive voice acting however.
• Forgot About His Powers: The Goddesses have a total of one song each in which they are able to use HDD in, and it is limited to that song, and that song only. It makes you wonder why they do not simply use HDD in every song, given the spectacle it would cause the amount of fans it could garner. Heck, the moment you form a duo or a trio, you cannot use HDD from that point on, despise three Goddesses on stage singing would be a total success.
• Gratuitous English:
  • A few phrases like this slip from the Goddesses' mouths, notably "Bye bye" from Blanc (and it is adorable) and "Nice morning!" from Noire. There's also the various Goddesses saying "Now Loading..." when a screen is...well, loading.
  • The producer's name can also appear like this, with the player able to type it in English. Which is really fitting for the importers, who could otherwise unintentionally create hilarious names with the Japanese characters.
• The Gods Must Be Lazy: Averted for the first time in the series. Due to the shares being stolen by MOB48, the Goddesses actually have to take initiative themselves by summoning a producer from another world and work to become idols. Heck, being lazy and doing nothing actually results in the Bad Ending.
• Gods Need Prayer Badly: The entire reason the CPUs became idols in the first place, to regain their lost shares.
• Have a Gay Old Time: The producer mentions that the CPU(s) he's with when studying are "boning up" on their skills.
• Heroic Mime: While the producer does converse with the goddesses and receives text, they have no voice acting.
• Idol Singer: The Goddesses take up this role to regain the shares stolen by MOB48.
• Irony: Producing Perfection centers around singing and idols. 5pb., the Idol Singer Maker, is nowhere to be seen.
• Knight Templar Big Brother: Applies to any of the Candidates. If you have the Goddesses work into high levels of stress, the CPU Candidates will get on your case, none more so than Nepgear, whose entire tone suggests she is extremely pissed at you. Rather ironic, considering the entire Victory plot was kicked off by Neptune not doing enough work...
• Lighter and Softer: Being the first in a line of spin-off games, it is significantly chipper, lighthearted and down-to-earth (by Neptunia standards) compared to mk2 and Victory. Instead of mass slaughtering or destruction of inter-dimensional rifts, the conflict of this game centers around the CPUs losing their Share Energy from a rival pop band, forcing them to summon a random bystander to become their idol manager. The game plays as an idol Rasing Sim where the producer manages the CPUs so they can perform on stage to regain their former shares, while also having them grow a romantic bond with the producer.
• Multiple Endings: The usual Bad, Good, and True endings are present, as well as a harem route upon getting the True ending for every CPU.
• Mundane Utility: While HDD forms are normally used to combat the physical god-like forces of piracy in the mainline games, this game has the CPUs only activate their forms when performing on stage.
• Never Trust a Trailer: More like never trust the opening, at the very end of the opening sequence of the game, Next Stage!, you see all four Goddesses on stage in HDD form. Not only are groups limited to trios, but you can never have more than one Goddess use HDD on stage, and never in a group.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: In an event, you can encounter an eggplant wielding a lance riding a horsebird, an enemy that also appeared in Victory.
• Put on a Bus:
  • This Alternate Continuity, despite being based off of the Ultra Dimension from Victory, completely excludes Plutia and Peashy, with Neptune being the definitive Planeptune CPU. However, Iris (without the Heart) is listed among the idol rankings.
  • None of the Makers appear in this title (with the exception of IF and Compa, who can be unlocked as back-up dancers), which is just further demotion from Victory, where the Makers were DLC at the very least.
• Office Romance: The producer can form a bond with any of the Goddesses, resulting with any of the four eventually getting close to or falling in-love with the producer.
• Shout-Out: This series has its own page.
• Self-Insert Fic: You, as the player, act as the producer.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: While Noire is similar in her behaviour towards the CPUs and Uni, her default actions towards the Producer is immediately to demote him/her, say they're completely pointless and that she doesn't need them, and act harsher than Blanc would ever be. Uni is also meaner than her last appearance, though she's at least better than her big sister.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: The CPU Candidates have an event where they can knock out the producer and drag him to a place where he's never been, all for the purpose of introducing themselves properly. When asked why they chose to knock him out, Uni says they didn't have any chloroform and Rom's hypnotism would take too long. And then they agree to resort to MORE violence to take him back, with Ram preparing to whack him with a book that's as thick as a dictionary, and when none of them can decide who will knock the producer out, they all just gang up on him.
• What the Hell, Hero?: The Candidates will give one to the player if their respective sister gets too stressed out for too long.
• Zero-Effort Boss: The entire game is very difficult to lose in general, which led to very negative reception in the West. However, while easy to win, it isn't so easy to get 100% Completion. To explain how hard it is to lose, it's possible to complete the game while not doing any concerts beside the single mandatory one.