Spectral Force 3

Rating Teen Genre role-playing Publisher Altus External Links Official Spectral Force Website

A long promised import from Japan has finally hit US stores. Spectral Force 3 is billed as a strategic role playing game, adding a much needed title to a genre that still runs thin on the Xbox 360. The recent Overlord of Neverland has been defeated and now all ten nations of Neverland are at war with each other battling for control of the world. Your role in the game takes the form of a mercenary group with plenty of opportunities for work given the state of constant war. The main character is Begina, a young fighter who has just been named captain of the Norius Mercenaries. Begina is accompanied by his friend Diaz, a healer. Along the way, new members can be recruited to join your group with over 40 different characters potentially available.

The main object of the game is to choose missions to earn money and respect from the various factions. In the beginning of each mission, players will form the team from their pool of recruited characters. Successful missions earn gold and experience. You can also collect various items from the battlefield. As your experience rises, the level of your character rises and you can allocate that experience to the usual buckets of strength, magic, etc. The collected items and gold can be used between missions in the item shop to upgrade weapons, buy armor, learn spells, and so on. Regular RPG gamers will be familiar with the game elements, but any gamer will be able to pick up the system quickly. The battle system is straightforward enough although it can get a bit repetitive. You can take a squad of up to six characters into battle. All of the action takes place on a map broken into a grid system. Each character on the grid gets a turn and a certain number of action points to use. Moving, casting spells, and attacking all take various amounts of action points. When your points are gone that character’s turn ends. In general, the battles themselves will remain constant while map graphics, enemies, and mission objective change. However, it will eventually seem like later missions are just copies of earlier missions with more powerful enemies thrown in.

The strategy comes in deciding how best to use your movements and align your force against the enemies that will almost always outnumber you. To help compensate the disadvantage, Spectral Force has something called a Friendship Gauge. Successful attacks and some other character abilities build this gauge. These points can then be used to get an assist attack from a nearby ally or you can even grant a team member a full extra turn. Wise use of the Friendship Gauge is very important in some of the tougher battles as you can take out a strong enemy before they even have a chance to do anything, so long as you plan your actions properly.

A big deal was made about the high-definition graphics that would be prevalent throughout this Xbox 360 release. In reality, the look of the game is not much better than what can be found on the PlayStation 2. That may not matter so much if you believe that graphics can take a back seat in lieu of compelling gameplay and an engaging story. Spectral Force 3 falls slight in both of these areas. While playing this title, I found myself drawing many comparisons to Eternal Sonata. In my mind, Eternal Sonata is a superior game in almost every facet. Spectral Force 3 could have easily performed on a similar level. I’m not sure what‘s missing, but there’s something that’s just not there and it’s keeping me from wholly loving this game. Knowing that the game can already be found at heavily discounted prices is demoralizing, to say the least. Regardless, if you’ve already played Eternal Sonata and you’re looking for the next RPG fix, Spectral Force 3 is still a good choice.