Where do I start with Spectral Force 3? I'm not familiar with the
series at all, since this is the first one to be released here. I'm not
entirely impressed with this one though. The storyline is almost
non-existant, which means, I really didn't care for the characters at
all. Especially the optional ones.
The graphics are completely outdated, and unstylish. There is no reason
why this is on the 360, as it takes no advantage of his horsepower at
all. The controls are clunky as hell. This is not a game I would
suggest SRPG newbies to jump into. While it's not hard at all, the
complex controls can be a total turn off. They don't explain ANYTHING
with the tutorial missions. You basically figure everyone out on your
own. I didn't learn about the "fast foward" button, which speeds up
enemy attacks for you, until 45 hours into the game.
However, the battle system was kinda fun. There was really nothing BAD
about it, but then again, there was nothing NEW about it either. It was
just there. The battle system was this games only saving grace, but
it's a shame the controls were just so crappy about it.
I enjoyed the freedom of the game though. The first couple hours you're
forced through a linear mission to mission system, but once you get
over that hump, the whole world opens up to you. This means you can
tackle any mission you want in any order. You eventually unlock the
storyline mission, which you are require to do, but between then, you
can go along at your own pace. Even fighting older missions if you want
to grind.
I'm having a hard time rating this game, because I wasn't entirely
bored of it, but at the same thing, I know it has MANY faults and it's
only for hardcore fans of SRPGs.
----------Battle System----------
Spectral Force 3 is a turn-based strategy RPG. The turns are determined
by the character or enemy with the highest speed or agility. After you
accept a battle, you can bring 6 characters into battle with you.
However, you are almost always locked with the two main characters,
Diaz (healer) and Begina (warrior). That leaves pretty slim pickings
after all.
Each character is assigned a job class, and they have to stick with it.
The game does a good job at introducing these type of classes with the
main characters. There's a healer, standard fighter, a heavy attacker,
a spearman, magic user and archer/gunner. The enemies you fight usually
follow these sort of lines too. All the optional characters you recruit
follow suit aswell.
You don't gain experience by each successful move you make, like you
would in Final Fantasy Tactics and it's clones. Rather, you gain
experience after each enemy you kill or each time you Heal someone
(since Healers can't kill things, typically). This sounds stupid, but
your characters do level pretty fast this way. You only need a flat 500
experience to gain a level, and the experience runs over, so if you
gain 1,000 experience for killing a boss, then you'll gain 2 levels. If
you are a lower level character and fight a higher level monster, then
you'll gain a ton of experience. If you are higher level, and kill a
lower level monster, then you'll gain less experience.
After you gain a level, you get to distribute 1 point towards your
stats for bonus stat boosts. After you complete a mission, you gain
bonus experience. You can distribute that among your characters after
on the menus screen. This is alot like the Fire Emblem games.
On the menu, you can buy armor, accessories, skills and emblems by a
blacksmith. You can also improve your weapons abilities too. This is
alot like the Suikoden games, you stick with one weapon but improve it
over and over again.
The combat system is where it gets kinda confusing. While they use the
typical grib battle system, and certain characters can attack in a
variety of grid attacks. For example, a fighter like Begina can only
attack in close range, but a magic user can attack in 4 grids out. A
gunner has long range attacks, but can only attack in straight lines. A
Spearman can attack in 2 grids, but they can only attack on flat
surfaces.
Ok, that's not the confusing part, that actually makes sense. The
confusing part are all the small little factors they throw into the
game. The most annoying thing about them is they don't really explain
them at all. I learned most of this stuff on my own, which is kinda
satisfying in a way, but I felt really gimped at the beginning of the
game until I learned by way through it. I'm going to have a heck of a
time explaining this.
Basically, each character has 7 AP points. Each time you attack, you
lose an AP point. So you can walk up to an enemy, and hit it with
combos. You can attack it with a low attack (1 AP), medium attack (2
AP) or a hard attack (3 AP). Think Xenogears. There's also Skills you
can use and up to 6 special moves you can pull off. You can equip 3
skills, all which heal your character or boost your stats within a
mission. You can also equip characters with 3 Special abilities the
same way. Each character will gain 3 unique special abilities though
out their span though.
To use Special abilities or Skills, you need SP, I'll assume that means
Special Points. You gain SP by attacking monsters. The more time you
attack, the more SP you build up, and this means you can start pulling
off good moves. So the start of battles are usually slow paced, unless
you equip special SP boost accessories.
Also, each time you attack, you not only gain SP but you also gain FG.
FG stands for Friend Gauge. When you build up enough Friend Gauge
points, you can click on an "assist" button, and have a near character
toss in an extra attack during one of your turns that doesn't cost any
AP. If you have 2 FG points filled up, then you can give a character an
extra turn. Each time you use Assist or when you give a character an
extra turn, you gain points in ANOTHER meter.
When you have atleast 25 points meter, and all 6 of your characters are
still alive, then you can pull off a special move where all your
characters attack a single enemy at once, creating a huge attack. This
is very important for boss fights. You can boost that meter to 4 levels
(100 points) for a MASSIVE attack too.
They also toss special colored spots on the map. If a character stands
on one of these things, then they get bonus stats boosts after a turn
is up.
There are no healing items in the game, so you mostly have to rely on
healing just by your healing character's magics. If a character dies,
then they retreat. You can't revive them, but they do come back to your
party after a battle.
----------Characters / Story----------
You play as a rookie Mercenary, Begina. While on a routine mission,
your Mercenary group is attacked, and your leader is murdered in the
battle. Before he passes, he assigns Begina as the new leader.
Untrusted as leader by his teammates, they decide to disband his group.
The only person that stands by him is fellow greenhorn, Diaz. Begina
and Diaz try to reform the mercenaries group to make money and survive.
That's basically the jist of them. I enjoyed the opening of the game.
It starts off pretty strong, but the storyline pretty much stops there.
Most of the game is just doing odd jobs for random Kingdoms. You take
no sides and there isn't a greater evil that you must stop to save the
world. There is barely a story to this game at all.
You might get a dialog scene before you recruit a character, but they
have nothing to do with the plot. There is only one small, reoccurring
plotline in the game, and it felt more like a sidequest you would find
in a generic JRPG than the backbone of a game.
----------Graphics----------
Oh god. The graphics are awful. It's not so much the aesthetics. I love
the main menu, I love the anime celled characters during dialog scenes.
I just hate the battle system. All the characters remind me of the
squatty 3D characters from Final Fantasy III DS. They have giant
exagrated heads, and short bodies. It just looks really dumb. The maps
are generic, with little flair at all.
The game starts off with a cool anime cutscene, but that's the only one
in the game. When characters use special moves, a nice looking anime
cell will show up, and they'll try to flair it up with CGI around it,
but it's still a weak looking cutscene for a special move.
While I did enjoy the anime cells they used for dialog, I just wish
they would add more animation to them. The dialog scenes are alot like
Fire Emblem, they'll have one character on the left and right talk at
all times. They just use the same cells for a single character. They
don't change them up at all, and there is no animation either. So the
dialog scenes are kinda boring to watch.
----------Sound----------
I enjoyed the music quite a bit. It was very simple, keyboard driven
JRPG music. Basically the same quality music you would find in PS1
RPGs. The songs are catchy and rememberable. I found myself humming the
battle theme even after the game was over. So that's a plus.
They only include voice acting to important storyline sections. The
voice acting wasn't terrible but very typical with JRPGs. All
characters have battle cries when doing special moves, so that's a plus
in my book.
----------World Map----------
The world map, in a lot of ways, reminds me of the map in Final Fantasy
X-2. Basically, they give you 10 or so locations to visit. Each
location is a rival kingdom, and it's your job as mercenaries to take
on their jobs. Most of the jobs require you to fight other kingdoms.
You can also eventually destroy Kingdoms aswell.
Each Kingdom has a set of seemingly random missions for you. Some
missions are identical though, but you're basically taking the same
mission (like to Raid the Overlord Army) from various Kingdoms. Each
mission has a skill level set for you, for example, the earlier
missions are Level 1, and the later, harder missions are level 9.
You will fight on the same maps through out most of them game though,
all they do is just tweak the monster level and mission tasks. They
will start you on different parts of a map, so it gives an illusion
that it's a different map. This is kind of like Final Fantasy Tactics
Advance in a way.
----------Time to Complete Game---------
52:51
The ending is quite possibly the worst ending to a game I've seen in a
long time. You beat the final boss, and they say two lines, and BAM,
credits. After the credits roll, there is another small and short
scene. After that, you can save your game for a New Game+ mode.
I didn't bother loading the New Game+ mode up, but from what I read
online, it just carries over your items and money. You can also unlock
another character too. Big deal.
