>>719846993
A common theory is that after VII, they wanted to use their cash reserves from Neptunia's success to fund "hobby" projects of sorts, as they started experimenting a bit with new settings and characters with different spins on their JRPG formula (and a few dungeon crawlers). Death end re;Quest and Mary Skelter came out of this, as well as Dragon Star Varnir. Possibly Fairy Fencer F and the later entries of Genkai Tokki as well. All of these were good efforts with spins on a JRPG formula that they and their fans were familiar with, and I would say many of them are among their best offerings. Problem is, after the Sony censorship hit and many of these projects started running into difficulties, combined with Nepfags getting increasingly annoyed at being treated as a funding bank, they started losing the plot hardcore, their old president left, and now they're reduced to pushing out halfassed, gimmicky games that are far removed from their classic JRPG formulas in a desperate attempt to make something stick, all while the former problems keep amplifying and the disastrous Neptunia 10th anniversary killed off Neptunia's public presence. That they're finally greenlighting a new Neptunia mainline after all this time reeks of a desperate move; they realize that nothing they've tried is going to stick and this is their final card to play.