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Lance VII Reviews Phantsia 3!

Aloha! Lance here, and today, I'm bringing you a review of Phantasia 3 by J-Man!

Graphics

The game's visual style is based mostly on Star Ocean and the Tales Of series. There's also a hint of Chrono Trigger used in the Chipsets. It meshes together well most of the time.

The mapping is well done most of the time. It all brings a nice atmosphere to the game. I rather liked the world map and the mini map. It really, really helped figuring out where to go next.

The monsters were a hit and miss as far as consistency goes.

The battle animations were VERY well done. You could really feel the power behind the attacks that anyone used.

Sound/Music

This game had a really good soundtrack! Nearly every track was rather catchy, even it was from another game. It all came together for a very original-feeling game, even if it is cliched.

I must say that the Final Boss music was one of the most epic climaxes I've ever played in an RPG Maker game.

Gameplay
The game is standard RPG flare. Explore dungeons, find treasure, town hop, etc. However, it remains fun.

The only drawback that the gameplay really has is the amount of bugs encountered. Some of them render the game unplayable if you don't change it in RPG Maker. One such instance is in a cave. You must find pieces of a bridge, and when you get them, you can't lay them down. Of course, I could be an idiot and overlooked something, but I don't think so.

Regardless, the battles are fun. The battle animations really intensify the battles, and the music is really fun an driving to listen to.

Story/Characters

This is one of the major flaws of P3, but also one of it's strengths. The story is rather cliched, and is re-used in the fourth installment to this series.

A group of teenagers that live on floating cities are thrown into an adventure to save the world after their homes are destroyed.

Sound cliched? It is, but it also keeps the player engaged. I was always looking forward to what happened next.

The characters we merely passable, but still slightly memorable. The problems with the characters comes with some of the writing, which can range for rather good, to rather immature. I may find these characters memorable simply because this was the first RPG Maker game I played to completion that I didn't make. Regardless, the characters are great, but not bad either.

Overall Score

In the end, Phantasia 3 is a fun RPG. Jaymonious really knows how to make a fun game. If you have RPG Maker and don't mind fixing a couple of bugs yourself, you should give this game a try.

I give it a 7/10.

Posts

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With each game, new experiences are developed. Heh heh.
Admittingly, the dialogue is pretty awful. It had it's moments, but it still remember these characters. Again, it may have been because it was my first RPG Maker game played to completion. I await number 5.
I disagree, the dialogue was absolutely the worst part of this game.
The best part of the game is that something is always happening to push you in a new direction. And the mapping is pretty damned well done too.
I think Jaymonious should revisit this and Phantasia 2 to improve the dialogue, as it would make them both a helluva lot more appealing to a wider audience. Maybe he will after Phantasia 5 is released.
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