User blog:Tecku/Tecku Talks: Neptuna Choices

Hello, everyone! Last time on Tecku Talks, I made a list of the most baffling descisions by PopCap's PvZ team. Near the top was Neptuna, or rather the series of decisions regarding Neptuna. Neptuna is a very interesting character for the PvZ team to come up with. She has a clever idea being a mermaid zombie, a cool design, and adds a much needed female zombie to the world. However, there are some gameplay choices that PopCap made when designing her that downright baffle me.

Tecku Talks About: Neptuna Choices

Analyzing Neptuna
Before we talk about why the Neptuna choices baffle me, I want to take a closer look at Neptuna herself. Neptuna is a mermaid zombie, with obvious connection to aquatic and sea-faring zombies. She is also half-fish, which makes her the most beastly hero after Brain Freeze (who even then is actually a robot). This is backed up further by her signature superpower, which creates an amphibious pet zombie.

Another interesting note about her is her tank. Having a zombie heroine fight from a fishbowl is a very interesting idea, and it makes me curious as to how she can move around. In her main comic, we see other zombies push her bowl around whilst on shore, but we also see in her intro comic that she can manipulate water into torrents to move her. This opens up a lot of unique ideas. She could move around in a bubble of water. She could leap out of the tank on torrents of water, and return with the water to the tank when done. Maybe she could even create watery "legs" for the tank to haul it around. But that's another story.

Now, let's take a look at how the game uses her. Neptuna is listed as a Sneaky/Hearty Zombie. Her superpowers include In-crypted, Dolphinado, and Possessed. She is also given this description: "This fishy fow thrives in the water and keeps Imps at the ready. And she'll try to get an early advantage if she can!" *Sigh* Where do I begin with this? So, how do I think it could be improved? Let's take a look.
 * First, her Hearty side. Now, this choice isn't automatically wrong. If they played up her glass tank a little bit more or made some useful Sneaky/Hearty decks, I would have given her a free pass for the whole thing. But right now Hearty/Sneaky is not a very strong pair, and it is not connected to her at all. Especially considering:
 * She isn't a Beastly hero. I get making her Sneaky to give her amphibious cards, but Beastly heroes have almost as many amphibious cards as her. Furthermore, her signature superpower is a pet trick, and well as the fact that she's half fish. Would it be more sensical to make her a Beastly hero than a Sneaky hero?
 * "Thrives in the water." Yes, her Sneaky side gives her quite a few amphibious zombies. However, her Heart side does not add a single amphibous card.
 * "Keeps Imps at the ready." If you don't count Turkey Rider, she ties for least number of Imps for a Sneaky hero. Even with Turkey Rider, she comes in third. And keep in mind, Mascot Imp is not not often useful unless you are dedicating yourself to a Sports deck.
 * "S he'll try to get an early advantage if she can! " What does that mean? Having more health than the enemy hero? Having more zombies in play? Having zombies with better stats in play? I'm not saying it's wrong, but it is undefined.

- More coming later today. This is going to be a long post.