Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm

"Come sit on Pappy's lap and let him spin you a yarn. When I was a boy and walked 13 miles each day up a billy-goat..." Thanks to spending time with my grandfather, I'm used to long, drawn out stories that go nowhere. But while this may be an endearing quality in elderly family members, it isn't so great in an RPG.

Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm is a solid game that continues the franchise tradition of crisp 2D sprite based graphics but it feels at times like a longwinded story with no ending.

Thick As Molasses

The greatest shortcoming of the game is the pacing. The story develops at such a slow pace I lost interest long before it became fleshed out enough to appreciate. It also undoes all the goodwill generated by the refined visual style that did such a good job of sucking me into the game's world. Speaking of which, the world is tiny compared to other RPG's and I found myself forcefully returning to the same places over and over with nothing to do but complete quest after quest.

What's also unfortunate is that the presentation and battle mechanics are solid and compellingly done. The battles are well laid out--when exploring dungeons, called alter-worlds, enemies appear as symbols that can be easily avoided. This allowed me to engage enemies on my own terms and really helped make the experience fun. The fighting system is turned-based with the added wrinkle of cards which determine the fight order. Characters stats determine the placement of their card in the deck. This can be improved by using items and completing chain attacks. The ping-pong feel that is synonymous with turn-based systems is noticeably absent, replaced instead by a sense of actual control.

Wake Up And Smell The...

Despite the shortcoming of its snail-like pacing, it's hard not to like Atelier Iris 3, what with its anime-style art and solid battle system. Grand Phantasm takes the Atelier Iris franchise and moves it in new direction that RPG fans should enjoy--just put a pot of coffee on before you delve into it.

Pros: Engaging battle system and characters.
Cons: Slow paced story, repetitive sound.

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UltraBlades

A really fun game to play the only problem I had was the size of the world. Granted a lot of the worlds did eventually become bigger as the story progressed but you were only given a limited amount of steps you could take before being sent back into the main world. While this was great for when you were way deep into a dungeon and ready to get out, it was really annoying when a new area to explore opened up and I had to go back into the world 3-4 times to accomplish my main goal at the time. Everything else was excellent, graphics, voice overs, and I really enjoyed the mana combining.

UltraBlades

A really fun game to play the only problem I had was the size of the world. Granted a lot of the worlds did eventually become bigger as the story progressed but you were only given a limited amount of steps you could take before being sent back into the main world. While this was great for when you were way deep into a dungeon and ready to get out, it was really annoying when a new area to explore opened up and I had to go back into the world 3-4 times to accomplish my main goal at the time. Everything else was excellent, graphics, voice overs, and I really enjoyed the mana combining.

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