Battles in Iris 3 are much like those in the second game. There's still an action bar up top that lets you know who's attacking in what order, and you can string together attacks to stun enemies, preventing them from attacking at all. The main difference, however, is the Burst meter on the bottom of the screen. Once it's full, you enter a sort of trance mode where all enemies are dazed and your moves do critical damage. If you can keep the moves flowing, the Burst mode will stick around longer - manipulating this meter is the only way to take out stronger enemies later in the game. Equipping Mana Spirits will affect your party's Burst mode, enabling them to morph into more powerful fighters while in the trance. Each spirit will affect each character differently, so there's plenty of room to experiment.
Another major change from the Iris games is the lack of random battles. Now you can see the monsters on screen, represented by Dragon Quest-like blobs. Red ones are powerful creatures, white are on par with your party and blue blobs are the weakest monsters in the area. In fact, you can kill them with a sword slash on the main map and totally avoid loading the battle screen. This is especially handy considering time still flows during battles, so if you're on a quest, quick kills are the only way to go.
Time will also affect areas of the map. Plant a seed in one area and it'll eventually sprout into a usable item, for example. We haven't come across any time-specific quests yet (like "go here with one minute left to save the princess" or something), but they're bound to show up.
There's quite a bit of change in Iris 3, but the core gameplay and overall feel is reminiscent of the past games. You'll notice some re-used sprites, familiar tunes and another elaborate item-blending synthesize mode, but fans may not mind. We're curious to see if the series' anime charm is strong enough to last through another game or if this engine's about out of gas. So far, we're right in the middle of the road, a little unsure but at least eager to see if the story goes somewhere. Look for more as we plow through this latest traditional-style RPG.
February 27, 2007
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