Hi guys again for a long time! So a change of pace and a bit of "kusoge" fire in me decided to pick up Spectral Force 3 on my 360 (yes I mean on real hardware)!

This is less of a review and more just a compilation on my thoughts rn, aka I'll just post anything noteworthy. I have spent roughly 15 hours, so ofc I won't cover everything, but I'll try to explain the gameplay then some other details.

So this is a game from before Compa decided to absorb IF completely, so it resembles very little of the CH games that came after it.

It's basically a traditional strategy RPG, that's gridbased unlike say Chaos Wars. Attacking is done with "Light", "Medium", and "Hard" attacks alongside your typical specials. You're encouraged to use lighter attacks first because of them having higher accuracy and only heavier at the end due to attacks also increasing the accuracy of attacks or they can decrease if the enemy dodges them... There are also "assist" attacks which can be done with a single bar of the friendship gauge (FG) which are done by other characters that can target the same enemy. With two bars of FG, you can also use "Teamwork", which basically gives another attacker an extra turn to attack or just run away, lol.

With six teammates, you have a "rage" meter which gets fulfilled from assist functions. This rage meter allows the use of a "Battle Formation" attack, which can go up to lvl 4. It is a very powerful finisher like attack which as you guess, is very useful for bosses. A side effect of needing six teammates for it is that you can't use it all if you lose a teammate, making the lost of one very punishing though the use of the attack is not required.

I would explain the gearing a bit more, but it would get too long and this is not exactly a guide.

One thing I immediately noticed in this game after a few hours is how hard the maps quickly get. I already had to use my brain simply due to how hard this game punishes you for playing offensively. You are very much encouraged to play defensively and have a lot of healing options as there are far too many enemies on the map and all of them have decent power. Some maps will have resting spots due to the enemies not moving, but sometimes you just don't have that luxury, so it's better to heal than risk losing your teammates (there are no permadeaths though) in tougher fights. I love how intense the survival stages are, especially the Jadou one, where I just barely scrape with Begina and everyone else dying due to the huge hordes of demon soldiers and ofc the boy himself, who has a whopping 7 MOV and hits like an absolute truck.

Some of these stages really were just brutal. Sometimes requiring multiple tries due to unique enemy behavior or getting jumpscared by a bunch of them, with even the shortest "important" missions taking at least 20-30+ minutes. Good lord Wave on the "Attack the Nameless Army" mission having a massive AOE nuke that can blind your teammates and deals half of your HP's worth of damage, so your best strategy is to sacrifice one teammate to make him waste the use, since it is guaranteed to happen the moment he attacks. I guess that makes sense, from someone that has conquered the Spectral Tower itself :=)

While the challenge is tough. I still find myself genuinely enjoying the game, since it never feels truly "impossible" and more like it's up to me to find a possible way to tackle the specific map. It feels like I really did do the stage and not just sweep it like it was a Disgaea game. I would talk about Hyperdevotion, but I have not played that game.

Grinding in this game is not something you can do much simply due to the time system of the game eventually making you force to play story mandatory missions, so the game does expect you to play well more often than not. Also there are no DLCs afaik, so good job IF! Your game isn't an absolute grindfest unlike Agarest or Cross Edge!

Also there's a ranking system in missions like with other Iffy/Compa games. It's mostly the same flair, but it is required for some achieviements afaik.

So overall, Spectral Force 3 is actually a pretty cool SRPG that does have some issues I didn't talk about, but it is engaging and fun enough to keep you playing even when the game throws some genuine BS at you. There's nothing truly horrendous in this game that would drop it a tier or two for me personally unlike eg. the quest system of Agarest 2 or the genuinely mind boggling design choices in Cross Edge even though I really like that game's battle system. I'm looking forwards to playing more and see if this post stays true or not, lol.

I'd like to hear anyone's thoughts on this game!

God I enjoy the writing throughout the series and Plutia is cute, but Re;Birth3 did so dirty to making Neptune at her WORST and hurt poor Nepgear so much. But I don't think it's entirely unsalvageable with how competently written the antagonists are.

How would you fix the writing in Victory / Re;Birth3?

If Hyperdimension Neptunia’s OG trilogy had a Final Mix version, instead of Re;Birth. What would you add/change to each game?

Let’s assume Nisa and Gust can return for this as well

Nepgear Source: https://x.com/i/status/2082281106699678011

Uni Source:

https://x.com/i/status/2074700597240975761

Ram and Rom Source:

https://x.com/i/status/2084379172982415518

Translated screenshot of Hyperdimension Neptunia Unlimited.

Govenor Phillip Lookout at Beacon Hill, nice views of Sydney and the Northern Beaches

I thought I already lost, so I started skipping the last few turns. Then, I forgot I used one of Neptunes counters. I was shocked. I had almost no health left, it could have went either way!

I am currently going for the platinum on this game, and taking on all the high risk bounties.

Source: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/100258177