Compile Heart recently released in Japan Cyberdimension Neptunia: 4 Goddesses Online, the first game of the Neptunia series made with Unreal Engine 4. According to Producer Naoko Mizuno, this is a choice that could be repeated for future games.

In a recent interview, conducted by DualShockers at Anime Expo 2017, both Mizuno-san, as well as the series' illustrator, Tsunako, were able to sit down and discuss their plans for the franchise's future. When asked about what it was like seeing Neptunia run in the new engine, Mizuno-san explained the differences both in terms of art technique and modeling:

"Definitely until we got to the visuals down, there was a lot of changing and tweaking the designs of the 3D models in the Unreal Engine 4. This is because that engine is really good at realistic models, which is rather different from Tsunako's drawings. Getting it from where we were to looking closer to Tsunako's designs was a bit of a difficult process. However, even then there's certain things that we could only show because of the new engine, so going forward, it might be nice to use the engine again."

Cyberdimension Neptunia: 4 Goddesses Online is set to release in the west winter 2017 from Idea Factory International. The game follows the main protagonist, Neptune, as she joins up with the other goddesses to play Vert's favorite MMO, 4 Goddesses Online. Instead of turn based combat, 4 Goddesses Online features full action RPG systems that mimic what you'd see in a typical MMO, including bosses with obscene amounts of HP. For an inside look at what happened during developed, Mizuno-san and Tsunako also hosted a panel during the event where they discussed this a much more.

If you want to read more, including the developers' opinion on bringing the franchise to the Nintendo Switch, be sure to check out the full interview, that will be available on DualShockers soon.

You can also read about the purchase of an 18-foot tall 4 Goddess Online poster for $1,300.

[Original Interview: Azario Lopez]