Legend of Heroes III
© Namco
Platform: PSP
ESRB: E 10+
Genre: RPG
Players: 1
Online: No
Developer: Microvision / Nihon Falcom Corp
Publisher: Namco Bandai
Suggested Retail: $39.99
Graphics: C+
Sound: B-
Gameplay: C
Replay: C-
Fun Factor: C+
Buy it now!
"Legend Of Heroes 3: Song of the Ocean"
By: CAPTAIN GORDON EDWARDDate: Thursday, February 22, 2007
The Legend of Heroes trilogy has been the longest running RPG series on the PSP, for better and for worse. While each of the games standalone, where you would not need to play the previous games, they exist in the same world, unlike the Final Fantasy world. The game starts off in a little ocean town, in the realm of Weltuna, which was once home to the ancient Water Tribe. The tribe was immensely powerful, and was able to use songs to affect the world much like magicians cast spells. The interesting part their musical power is that each of their songs are comprised by up to 24 different verses, where each verse changes the direction of the song. If one were able to combine all 24 verses in a song, it would that the power to save the world in its darkest moment.
But perhaps their own power got the best of them, which caused the Water Tribe to eventually disappear with their works. This indeed included the 24-verse song, which aptly became known as the Lost Melody. As time passed though, a continuing search by a legendary musician enabled them to resurrect the lost verses, which he called the Water Melody. Fearing the possible power that each of the verses held, mainly once combined, he decided it was best to prevent them from being released to the general public. As such he etched the verses on tablets and scattered them around his world. He did not destroy them upright because he must have known that the power of these verses may once again be needed to save the world. Of course if that time were to arise, people would need a chance to find these tablets, so a magical map was created to help track down these tablets.
The game opens with you playing a young musician named Forte. Currently dedicating himself to the magical and musical arts, he wishes to follow the path of his family, and become a great musician. His grandfather is his tutor, once world trotter, now a grizzled old coot trying to let the days pass. For the family, everything seems to be in harmony though progressing slowly. Forte, under the direction of his grandfather, continues to develop musically but also socially. It seems that he has everything going for him, a musical recital, and the fact that a local girl is attempting to put the moves on him so that she can be his girlfriend. This all changes when Forte’s grandfather, McBain, receives a package from an old friend, reminding him of what he sought years ago. Once reminded, he goes off in search of it, and wouldn’t you know it... It involves the Lost Melody.
Since the game is part of a series, it retains much of the previous game’s properties. This includes a 3D world with 2D characters, which is fairly appealing for the old school RPGers. This could not ring any more true for the battle system, which remains tactical and turn based. At the beginning of each round, both sides choose their attacks and which creatures they wish to attack. There is also a given range, and while you may select those outside of it, you may not be able to physically connect with them. Of course there are also some characters that are able to attack from afar to bridge the gap.
Movement can be a bit irritating, where there is no displayed order of attack at the beginning of battle, which means you are going to need to guess who attacks first. This tied in with the fact that when a player connects with an attack on an enemy, it pushes them back, can lead to other character being unable to reach them. If an enemy is out of range, making it impossible to attack them, they will still advance towards them even if it means passing other creatures. For one reason or another, you will not attack these creatures, which makes me scratch my head.
Outside of battle, while navigating the world you will notice that that there are no random battles. Each enemy can be seen, and you basically choose if you wish to initiate or not. Of course -- depending on your level -- they may decide that it is in their best interests to attack you. You can tell their level of aggression by peering above their heads to an icon, which shows you their disposition. I found that the enemy characters were a little too battle happy, since they would often die in the first or second round. This means you will be pulled into a bunch of extra fights, even though you may not wish to be there, though the gross battle often will last only thirty seconds.
Of course in battle there are several options, like your standard attack, using skills, magic, items, running away, or of course switching characters up from your party if you have more than five on the field. This can also include pets, but they sometimes choose to make themselves unavailable. Also if you generate enough power via attacks, you may have the option of unleashing finishing moves, which often ends up with an instant kill, further shortening the battle.
Graphically the game is very simple, with 2D sprite characters being illustrated quite nicely. While conversing, a larger anime styled images arrive, displaying their overall mood. Each character has multiple poses, which change depending on how the world changes around them. This even includes an evolving love interest, so be ready for a bout of children in love. The game looks decent but in this new age of graphics it seems to fall behind the times. I personally enjoy the graphics because of their style, but the PSP was created to outdo the DS, not match it. Musically, since it is part of the quests, it is a little better than most other RPGs on the market, even though it only uses little catchy “midi”s to get the job done. There are several epic tunes pumped into the background, which may even have you humming along after awhile, but overall they are fairly forgettable.
In the end, this is a standard RPG for the PSP, which is not giving it a lot of props. I am glad that the system has another RPG, but so far none of them are enthralling. This game uses plenty from their other games, including the same world, though the other regions are blocked off due to invisible walls. I will say that if you enjoyed the previous games, you will enjoy this one as well, but I will also say that I did not enjoy them greatly, which does not help this game. This is the best game in the Legend of Heroes series so far, and I hope that they even better in the next few games. As a side note, I do love the fact that if you played the previous games, and there are save files of them on your memory card, that you can unlock additional features, though it is not enough to save the game from mediocrity. Wrapping up, Captain Gordon gives Legend of Heroes 3: Song of the Ocean a C+.
Questions? Comments? Suggestions? CaptainGordonEdward@Gmail.com
