The Neptunia franchise by Compile Heart has always been a mixed bag. While the main RPG titles, most recently Neptunia: Sisters VS Sisters, offer fun JRPG experiences, their increasingly sporadic releases are supplemented by a medley of side games spanning a range of genres. These range from side-scrolling action adventures and action RPGs to bullet hell shooters and even an idol-based rhythm game. The quality of these spin-offs varies widely, from enjoyable time-wasters to forgettable projects that either lacked sufficient development or utilised development time that could’ve been better spent elsewhere. For the franchise’s first outing in 2025, we have Neptunia Riders VS Dogoos, a motorcycle action game that, unfortunately, falls into the latter category.
Returning from Megadimension Neptunia VII is this game’s protagonist, Uzume Tennouboshi, who, amidst the lore of the Neptunia franchise and its links to the ‘console wars’, is portrayed as a personification of the SEGA Dreamcast. She wakes up one day to find herself in an alternate dimension, one where everyone is inexplicably obsessed with Dogoos – small gelatinous creatures that are a proxy for the Slimes featured in Dragon Quest. Snapping out of this bizarre trance, she quickly realizes that she’s not the only one affected. The other goddesses have also fallen under the same Dogoo-loving spell, leaving Uzume to hop onto a conveniently placed motorcycle and set out to break them free. The only way to snap them out of their daze? Engaging them in a series of high-speed, Dogoo-collecting competitions across various themed arenas.
Neptunia games have always thrived on their self-aware, often nonsensical storytelling, but even by those standards, Neptunia Riders VS Dogoos feels particularly lightweight. The premise is entertainingly ridiculous, and for fans who are already invested in these characters, the banter between Uzume and her fellow goddesses offers some amusing moments. However, the narrative is extremely weak outside of these moments, with many of the story beats following the same pattern just with a few tweaks here and there. There’s little effort to develop the world or expand on why any of this is happening beyond the bare minimum required to set up the next gameplay sequence. For long-time fans, the familiar character personalities and silly exchanges may be enough to keep things engaging; however, for those looking for a more substantial narrative experience, there isn’t much here beyond a few chuckles.
Visually, Neptunia Riders VS Dogoos retains the colourful, anime-inspired aesthetic the series is known for, but it doesn’t do much to elevate itself beyond that. Character models are serviceable, and the game maintains the usual charm of its protagonists, but the environments are where the presentation falters. Each of the game’s themed arenas blends in a sea of uninspired layouts and repetitive textures, making it easy to lose track of where you are mid-match. Furthermore, occasional pop-in issues, performance drops, and an occasional lack of visual clarity can make it difficult to distinguish between important gameplay elements, such as your partner and the enemy team. While the Neptunia series has not been a visual powerhouse, especially considering the limited scope of the environments you play in, their penchant for reusing and not putting as much time into environment design as other audiovisual elements hamper the aesthetic experience this time.
Despite its shortcomings in other areas, Neptunia Riders VS Dogoos benefits from a solid voice cast that helps bring its eccentric characters to life. While a bit patchy around bringing their English voice actors back for some of the recent side games, Idea Factory International is offering English and Japanese voices to this release, which is always nice. The comedic timing of the performances, especially in moments of self-aware humour, adds an extra layer of enjoyment that fans of the series will appreciate. The music backing on the other hand is your standard Neptunia soundtrack with upbeat and bubbly tones and a little bit of light techno thrown into the mix. Ultimately, it fades into the background.
Neptunia Riders VS Dogoos builds its gameplay around a simple but quirky core concept—riding motorcycles around enclosed arenas while scooping up as many Dogoos as possible before the opposing team does. The mechanics themselves are easy to grasp: accelerating, steering, boosting, and drifting are all present, alongside a melee and ranged attack for disrupting rivals. Drifting is particularly important, as it expands the Dogoo absorption radius around the bike, making it the most efficient way to rack up large collections quickly. However, while the idea is straightforward enough, the execution is lacking for a console game and feels more like an experience for a half-baked smartphone game. Unfortunately, the bikes never feel quite as responsive as the concept might suggest. The drift mechanic, in particular, comes across as more of a controlled skid than a thrilling powerslide, and when you’re locked in close combat with opponents, the hit detection can feel inconsistent, blunting some of the excitement that should come with high-speed encounters.
Despite these shortcomings, there are glimmers of creativity tucked away in the design. Different types of Dogoos appear in themed worlds, adding simple gimmicks like the ability to fly over obstacles, temporarily shrink your bike, or provide various status effects to fling at foes. Similarly, you’re given some freedom to customise and upgrade your rides, ranging from new motorcycles to parts that tweak speed, handling, or Dogoo-gathering range. Yet none of this ever becomes particularly vital. This is primarily because most stages last only a couple of minutes, and you can generally power through the stages with minimal tinkering. The effort you put into collecting the customisation options ultimately doesn’t feel justified unless you like the aesthetic difference.
It doesn’t help that each of the fifteen stages follows the same basic format with only light twists, causing them to blur together when played in quick succession. With no competitive multiplayer mode and a relatively low difficulty curve, the game struggles to sustain momentum for more than a few hours. While there are optional challenges and time-based goals for completionists, they do little to spice up the repetitive loop of racing in circles for Dogoos. This brevity, coupled with shallow mechanics, makes Neptunia Riders VS Dogoos feel more like a fleeting side minigame than a full-fledged title.
I genuinely enjoy the Neptunia franchise as a whole. While I don’t consider the RPG instalments to be game-changing experiences that redefine the genre, they do complement solid gameplay with enjoyable narratives full of references to anime, video games, and gaming consoles, alongside memorable characters and amazing CG artwork. But I feel that Compile Heart need to rethink its strategy towards its spin-off games, delivering unique genres that I know they are capable of, but perhaps dedicating more time, resources and ingenuity to making them something to look forward to, rather than being at best, decent or miss. This especially holds true in comparison to their other recent release, Touhou Spell Carnival, which had an RPG x Bullet Hell concept and was very enjoyable. But ultimately, Neptunia Riders VS Dogoos specifically feels more like a novelty than a thoughtful addition and never realises its potential.
Final Score for Neptunia Riders VS Dogoos
A PlayStation 5 review code of Neptunia Riders VS Dogoos was provided by Idea Factory International to facilitate this review.
Neptunia Riders VS Dogoos is now available to purchase on the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch; with a PC release via Steam to follow in the future.
