Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

by Chris Miller

I’m no stranger to Japanese SRPG’s. In fact, I sometimes cringe when I look at the sheer amount of hours I have poured into some of these titles (Final Fantasy Tactics, I’m looking at you). I wonder what constructive things I could have done with all those days that simply disappeared while I was moving big-eyed anime characters around battle grids. When done well, I’d argue that there are few genres that give the sense of satisfaction and accomplishment that a deep, epic Japanese SRPG can provide. On the flip side, a mediocre SRPG can be a exercise in tedium and frustration. Enter Spectral Force 3, the newest offering from Atlus and Idea Factory. Which side of the fence does it fall on? Let’s find out.

No, that score is not a typo. Let’s be blunt here: this game looks downright awful. In fact, SF3 shoots right on past what we would normally consider bad and lands squarely in the “Amy Winehouse on a 3 day bender” category of horrific. Honestly, the graphics in SF3 would have been considered lackluster as an early PS2 title, much less a system as powerful as the 360. I’m guessing that even the most rudimentary Xbox Live games are snickering at the graphics in SF3 right now. Don’t be fooled by the couple of decent anime cutscenes you see - this one is a stinker through and through.

The presentation is pretty typical for an Atlus game. Your party is a group of mercenaries that are working for a number of separate warring countries. While the ability to choose sides in a grand conflict has the potential to present some intrigue, it is completely wasted on uninteresting characters and a dull plotline. Most of the narrative is presented with static character portraits on either the left or right of the screen, and these portraits change depending on who is talking. There have been plenty of games that use this narrative style, and I typically have no problem with it. It’s basic, but it works. However, SF3 is the first game I’ve seen that uses one single image for every character throughout the entire game. No matter what the emotion of the character during the dialog (shock, sadness, anger, etc.), you’ll be staring at the same boring image, which smacks of what I believe to be a common theme throughout SF3: lazy developers. It apparently would have been way too difficult to create 2 or 3 different images for each character to be used in different situations, so we’re stuck with one picture for each person throughout the entire game. Nice going boys.

As bad as the dialog screens are, they look like veritable Van Goghs compared to the graphics used during battles. Look, I’m not expecting Atlus to have the same production values as a AAA title. But for $60, I at least expect them to put forth an effort. Everywhere you look, you are surrounded by bland, washed-out, lo-res textures. Trees and plants look like they were made out of Lego bricks. Buildings are simple squares and rectangles. The character models are blocky and poorly animated. To create the effect of light streaming through treetops, they simply threw in a bunch of basic yellow lines that are supposed to look like sunbeams, and the “heat shimmer” in the desert is just the entire screen set to a nauseating wave. Even the special spell effects - which I think were supposed to "wow" me - just left me shaking my head at how truly awful they are. I’m actually wondering if the graphic development for SF3 was somehow outsourced to Mrs. Jones 5th grade computer class, because that is about the level of quality you see throughout the game. To put it simply, SF3 is easily the worst looking game I have ever seen on the 360.

As lackluster as the graphics are, the audio is nearly as awful.  Most of the dialog scenes are read by voice actors, all of whom sound bored out of their skulls.   Of course, given the source material they have to work with, I can’t really say I blame them.  They apparently pulled a few tracks from their “XTreme Rawk!” stock music library to use during battles.  In another stunning example of laziness, instead of having the songs stay on a continual loop like, say, every other game produced since 1998, the end of the songs actually fade out for about 2 seconds before starting up again.  The sound effects don’t fare much better either.  No matter what surface your characters are walking across, it sounds like they are clomping across a wooden floor in combat boots.  It’s a little off-putting to hear when they’re walking across a soft surface such a sandy desert or forest floor.   All the attacks sound the same, using very generic thumps, whooshes, and whacks.  Needless to say, I played the majority of this game with the sound off and my iPod on.  

Here’s a shining example that demonstrates the level of effort they put into the audio.  Early in the game, the characters are discussing a “killer bee” monster during one of the dialog sections.  As they’re talking about it, they are attacked by said bee.  Instead of finding or creating the sound effect of a buzzing bee, they simply had a voice actor say “bzzzzzz” into a mic.  Unbelievable.

The controls are pretty basic fare for an SRPG.  Move your characters around the grid with the left thumbstick,  rotate the camera with the right thumbstick, and activate skills and/or attacks with the face buttons. You can use the triggers and bumpers for special attacks or “teamwork” (more on that in the gameplay section), and it all controls fairly intuitively.   Nothing awful here, but nothing particularly interesting either.  It is worth noting that there is no tutorial at all.  Even with hundreds of hours of SRPG gaming under my belt, I had a hard time picking up on some of the gameplay mechanics.  It took a good 5-6 hours before I really felt comfortable and understood some of the systems.  I can almost guarantee that anyone without a solid base knowledge of SRPG’s will be completely lost.

Shoddy production values can be forgiven if a game has solid gameplay.  While SF3 does fare a bit better in this department, it's not enough to warrant any sort of recommendation.  Most of the game progression is done through your Headquarters screen.  From here you can craft items, view and assign character stats and abilities, occasionally converse with some of your squadmates (trust me, they don’t have anything interesting to say), and select your missions.   While the crafting system isn’t bad, the high cost and huge selection of items make it a bit intimidating.  Each item is crafted using gold and raw materials, and the game is pretty stingy with giving out either one.  I was always nervous about creating an item or upgrade because I knew it would be a long while before I could either scrape up the gold or find the components for a new one.  Many of the components could only be found through breaking the seemingly endless identical crates on the battlefield, which gets incredibly annoying.  Having to spend an extra 5-10 minutes at the end of each battle running around breaking crates is just about as exciting as you would expect.

Missions are broken up into a) random battles for any one of a dozen or so warring countries, and b) the main story missions.  Each one is given a level ranking which, in theory, designates how hard it is.  Unfortunately, the ranking system isn’t much help, as missions of the same level can vary wildly in difficulty.   Once you’ve chosen a mission, you are sent to a prep screen that allows you to choose your squad and do some last minute equipping.  Since you’ll recruit quite a few characters as you proceed, you’ll need to think carefully about their particular strengths and weaknesses before sending them into battle.   Starting a battle with the wrong characters is a recipe for disaster, as I found out on many, many occasions.  Thankfully, the game does offer you a chance to save from this prep screen screen, which is a nice touch if you have to spend time equipping a ton of items.

Once you enter the battle proper, it’s pretty basic SRPG stuff.   Most battles are simple “kill all enemies” affairs, but you will occasionally run into a “survive 10 turns” or “reach a certain square” fight to mix things up.    Each character is assigned a certain amount of action points (AP) per round (usually 6 or 7), and each attack or spell uses up a certain number of AP.  For offensive skills, there is an interesting mechanic of being able to choose Light, Medium, or Hard attacks.  Harder attacks can do more damage, but take more AP and are less likely to hit.  (Word of warning:  the hit percentages the game displays are absolute bunk.  You’ll see a ridiculous amount of misses from attacks with high hit percentages).  You also fill up a Friendship Gauge as you take actions, which allows nearby units to assist in your attack and provide extra damage.  It’s a somewhat intriguing system which requires you to be very strategic about unit positioning in order to be most effective.  Many maps also include Boost Points, which allow certain characters to cast powerful spells or replenish HP.  Again, strategic use of these points is vital in order to succeed.

You’ll need to pick up on this strategy quickly, because you’ll often be severely outnumbered and outgunned.  Many battles will pit your squad against twice as many enemies, all of whom are at your same level or above.   It can prove to be a significant challenge, although the AI can be rather brain dead.   Many mobs will simply stand there until you hit a particular trigger point or kill a particular enemy before they join in the fray.  I found the difficulty to be wildly uneven, with some battles that would mercilessly beat me down, and others that I was left wondering “That’s it?”  I also ran into a couple scenarios where the game shoehorned me into a battle that I was under-leveled for, but there was no way to go back and fight random battles in order to level up.  Being forced to reload earlier saves and level up for a couple hours is not exactly my idea of compelling gameplay.

With a ton of available missions for different factions, SF3 is certainly a long game.  Unfortunately, the story is so boring and the production values so awful, that it’s tough to keep slogging through it.   I will freely admit that I did not make it all the way to the end.  The repetitive locales, enemies, and missions finally got the best of me around 25 hours.   If you somehow really enjoy the combat system, there’s plenty of gaming to be had, but I imagine the number of people in that camp will be pretty dang small. Early on in SF3, I commented to some of the GamingTrend staff that this may be the worst game I’ve played in the last 10 years.   While it doesn’t quite hit that lofty perch, it’s pretty dang close.   It’s obvious that they put little or no effort into developing this turd, and Atlus should be embarrassed charging a full $60 for it.  The combat was unique enough to provide a tiny bit of fun, but overall it is a shining example of how not to create a 360 game.   It is a completely forgettable experience and there are far, far better games out there.  If you ever get the SRPG itch, just fire up Disgaea again and pretend you never even heard of Spectral Force 3.

Gaming Trend Score

43

1. Graphics: 15
2. Audio: 25
3. Controls: 75
4. Gameplay: 55
5. Value/Replay: 30
6. OVERALL:43