Well, that's rather disappointing. Compile Heart's latest game, NepuNepu Connect: Chaos Champions, which appeared to be a crossover of many of its popular IPs, has turned out to be little else than a card game.
Compile Heart had recently been teasing a new game on its website. It all started several days ago when the teaser site posted ominous artwork with the words "7 days to go" in English, along with the phrase "The gate to the world of chaos will open" written in Japanese. The following day, it posted the same background with a silhouette of Neptune from the Hyperdimension Neptunia franchise, suggesting that the game could be getting a new entry (other than Four Goddesses Online: Cyber Dimension Neptune).
However, it soon became clear that we would be getting a crossover game when the site posted silhouettes of Tiara from Fairy Fencer F, Faust from Trillion: God of Destruction and Otoha from Omega Quintet in the days afterward.
Now, thanks to the latest issue of Dengeki PlayStation, we know exactly what NepuNepu Connect: Chaos Champions is: a PS Vita exclusive free-to-play card battle game (with microtransactions, of course) that's due out later this year in Japan. The game depicts the story of a girl named Yuriina, who must collect gold fragments in order to save the world from something called "chaos energy."
Naturally, as a crossover game, other characters from popular Compile Heart IPs will be making an appearance. Aside from the characters that showed up in the silhouettes, characters confirmed to appear include Fang and Eryn from Fairy Fencer F, IF and Compa from the Neptunia series and Momoka and Kyouka from Omega Quintet. The roster seems lacking for now, but the game is poised to feature more than 100 popular Compile Heart characters upon its release.
From many fans' perspectives, the announcement of any new Compile Heart game is exciting, though a card game was the last thing they expected. Many had expected the game to be a crossover RPG or maybe even a fighting game similar to Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax or Nitroplus Blasterz: Heroines Infinite Duel (it's only a matter of time, really), so a card game is sure to leave some folks feeling somewhat slighted.
Despite that, however, it should be noted that Compile Heart does have experience with card games on handhelds thanks to Monster Monpiece (part of the Genkai Tokki series), so rest assured, the developer isn't going in blind. More importantly, NepuNepu Connect: Chaos Champions is free, so even if the game turns out to be bad (which isn't too likely), or the game isn't a player's cup of tea, he or she isn't losing anything substantial by getting it.
Like it or hate it, a card game is what we got, but at the very least, its existence means that Compile Heart is interested in making crossovers, which in turn means that we might get more titles in genres some might be more receptive toward.
