
3DS owners have watched the pocket-sized portable become something of a treasure trove of JRPGs over the past few years; ATLUS in particular has showered the system with Etrian Odyssey and Shin Megami Tensei titles, Square-Enix introduced the Bravely series, and Nintendo's stepped back up to the plate in helping to publish long-awaited Dragon Quest releases soon slated for Western shores. It's wonderful — if perhaps not entirely surprising, given this atmosphere — to see SEGA add to that pile of riches with 7th Dragon III Code: VFD, the fourth game (and first to reach the West) in a series that's been going since 2009 in Japan. With excellent character creation, uniquely engaging class-based combat and a stellar soundtrack and style, 7th Dragon fits right in with the rest of the all-star adventures available on the 3DS.

The opening moments of Code: VFD play out like a true gamer's fantasy: after having a go at Tokyo's hottest new multiplayer VR game, 7th Encount, you're singled out as so talented at virtual dragon slaying that the game's makers would like to have you do it in real life. As it turns out, 7th Encount was a recruiting tool in disguise, and you're called on by its dragon-hunting developers, Nodens, to help prepare for the coming of an all-powerful, world-destroying dragon, code-named 'VFD'. You're going to need all the knowledge you can muster to take on your eventual foe, and since dragons have been wrecking havoc on humanity for millennia, your mission is to travel through time and space to defeat and take 'samples' from other True Dragons before that final fight.
7th Dragon's story sports some fun twists and it uses the time-travel mechanic to bring players to unique places, like a technologically advanced sea-kingdom of Atlantis in the past, and a medieval Eden in the future. There are also quite a few memorable characters, from Nodens' quirky dream team of scientists and members of the militant International Self-Defense Force to locals in Atlantis and Eden, and though we found talking doll/nagivator Nagamimi's Hot Topic-inspired edginess off-putting, the rest of the cast made up for it. It's also worth noting that even though every part of the game's title makes it sound like a direct sequel, Code: VFD is a completely standalone adventure; there are nods and references to the lore of past games that you'll appreciate if you've played (or read about) the rest of the series, but you won't miss out on anything by jumping in fresh.

Once you do jump in, the first thing you'll do is set up your squad. 7th Dragon may have a pre-set story, but it stars characters you'll make yourself, and the excellent character creation is one of the game's best assets. You'll be able to choose from four classes at first (four more unlock as you play), each with two different basic appearance styles, both of which have a male and female option and three colourways to choose from after that. The best part, however, is that classes aren't actually tied to their art, so you can pick your characters' appearances completely independently of their classes. Want to make your Samurai a female maid? Of course you can! Want your God Hand to be a spunky, pre-teen kid with a hip pack? No problem! Characterization doesn't stop at appearances, either; you can choose between 40 different voice actors (20 male and 20 female) to play your party members' parts — if you're a seiyuu fan, they're even listed by name so you can find your favourites. While it's almost overwhelming at first, we really loved 7th Dragon's character creation tool; it feels like a gold standard, and we'd be very happy to see decoupling character art from class selection become the JRPG norm in future.
After you've got your team assembled you'll be able to jump from Noden's time-traveling Portal to wherever your missions take you. The Portal takes a menu-based approach to location-hopping, and the place of any sort of world map, though once you hit the ground the third-person dungeon crawling leaves you free to explore some seriously beautiful locales. You'll take in plenty of sights on your quest to collect the dragon samples, but as you might imagine there are lots of enemies to get in your way as well. 7th Dragon doesn't have 'random encounters' in the usual sense; rather, as in Etrian Odyssey, a coloured gauge at the top of the screen will let you know how close an enemy is to attacking. When it hits red, you'll be plunged into battle, and that's where 7th Dragon really shines.

Combat here is classically turn-based, with characters being able to attack, defend, and use skills. It gets interesting, however, once you factor in 7th Dragon's different classes, each of which makes for massively different playstyles for the characters that use them. We're used to seeing magic-based mages, strengthy fighters, and healing classes like medics, but in most RPGs the differences are slight; what spells or skills you use will vary, but controlling them each works largely the same. Here, however, classes feel fundamentally different, to the point that it's almost like using a different combat engine with each of them.
Take the Duelist, for example. This class, unlocked from the start, fights using a deck of three different colours of cards: red (fire), blue (ice), and yellow (lightning). A meter above their status bar shows the current 'hand', and you'll start each battle with two randomly drawn cards, and automatically draw another one at the start of each turn. Cards power all of their skills, so to use a 'Summon: Fire I' attack, you'll need one red card; to set a 'Barbed Wire' trap, which deals damage and inflicts the 'Bleed' status on enemies if they hit the user with a physical attack, you'll need to discard one red and one yellow card. These are easily hugely helpful skills, but we loved the 'luck of the draw' element needed to make them work — deciding whether to use a lesser skill we had the cards for right away, spend a turn deck-digging for better options, or change tactics entirely to suit the colours in our hand felt great, and completely different to the usual attack-guard-spell dynamic of most RPGs.

That's to say nothing of the Samurai, who have access to completely different skillsets based on what kind of sword they have equipped, the God Hands, who deal damage by building up a multi-level, cumulative status effect known as 'God Depth' and then 'breaking' it, or the Agents, who can spend a turn 'hacking' enemies to be able to control them, using programs like 'madstrife.exe' to make them attack each other or donate MP to the team. Each of these classes are wonderfully fun to play as, and they really shine in combination, which 7th Dragon takes full advantage of. You'll start out in a three-person team, but you'll eventually be able to create a second and third string as well, for a total of nine party members charging into the fray. You'll still only control three at a time in the traditional sense, but your B and C teams can provide in-battle support through buffs, debuffs and spells, jump in for 'Buddy Attacks' and follow-ups, and go all-in on a pile-up frenzy when the time is right.
All of this makes for incredibly engaging combat, and — considerably more than in most RPGs — that holds true from the smallest fight to the biggest dragon. Since classes play so differently, you won't be able to just choose 'Attack' for all three party members and one-turn your foes — you'll have to think about class-specific strategies and teamwork right from the start. It makes encounters with the lower-level enemies considerably more interesting; rather than simply serving as cannon fodder to add to your pile of EXP, these fights become proving grounds for the intricate sequences of skills and techniques you'll want to use on the dragons, helping you hone your strategies as you head towards the the big boss.

That's a good thing, too, because 7th Dragon is no pushover. Even early fights gave us a run for our money, and dragon battles are genuinely thrilling, akin to the long bouts with FOEs in Etrian Odyssey — they also have a similar tendency to wander into normal encounters if they're nearby. There's both a 'Standard' and 'Casual' difficulty setting, but even with the added buffs on Casual, you still won't be able to muscle through with 'Attack' commands alone; 7th Dragon demands thoughtful tactics throughout, and we love it for that. That's mirrored in character development too; skills can be learned and leveled up using points in a tree system, but those points are far more scarce than in most RPGs, so you'll want to focus on the skills you actually want your characters to use, rather than trying to have everyone learn everything.
Apart from the excellent combat, there's plenty else to do and see in the dungeons, including lots of people who need rescuing. You won't need to escort any powerless civilians, as saving them is thankfully a wholly automatic process triggered by finding and talking to them, but we appreciated the nice sense of purpose it added to roaming around the maps. Dungeons sport interesting layouts, as well, with multiple, intertwining and vertically-stacked paths, eye-catching architecture, and residential areas where NPCs live. They're not the types of labyrinths where you'll end up lost, but they're engaging enough to hold your interest as you go, occupying an underused happy medium between the randomly-generated corridors of recent Persona games and the puzzle-filled catacombs of Etrian Odyssey.
Similarly, when you're back in Tokyo between dragon runs you'll find a diverse but distinctly manageable slate of distractions back at Nodens HQ. This multilevel tower serves as 7th Dragon's customizable hub, and you can carry out various construction projects to add in rooms and activities using the Dragon Points you'll earn in dungeons. You'll start out by adding a simple dormitory for your party, but where you go from there is up to you; to give a taste of the possibilities, you'll be able to turn a basement floor into a cat café (!) if you like.
Aside from that obvious winner, our favourite option is the Skylounge, which opens up the option to go on dates with team members and story characters alike. These fun conversational cutscenes are a great addition, and we love that you can date anyone in your party regardless of gender. And while interactive romance isn't as rare as it used to be in JRPGs, it still feels wonderfully novel to be able to pair up party members you've created yourself — it's another element that helps the user-created characters feel much more fleshed out. Again, we appreciate how 7th Dragon gives you extras to explore if you like, but keeps them totally optional — you won't miss out on powerful spells if you don't get to the dating, or game-changing abilities if you somehow skip the cat café — treading a pleasant middle way that feels like a rarity in recent RPGs.
Both these extras and the main storyline are made all the more enjoyable thanks to very solid writing, and a characterful script. There's a lot of 'eye dialect' that serves to give each story character a unique voice even without full voice acting — from spatterings of French, false starts, and elongated consonants to stars, tildes, and music notes for emphasis, almost everyone has a signature 'speech' style, and we love the offbeat, Internet-inspired charm it lends the dialogue. You'll also have plenty of dialogue options throughout the adventure as the main character, and though they often amount to two ways of saying the same thing, rather than branching conversational paths, being able to choose how you want your character to present themselves really helps ink in your avatar as a person, rather than an empty vessel.
Adding plenty of personality to the game itself, meanwhile, is 7th Dragon's enthralling art style, which skillfully melds a neon-laced futuristic feel with lots of living, breathing, nature imagery. Like Etrian Odyssey, 7th Dragon happily takes the arrangement but not the aesthetics of the word 'dungeon' to heart, with intriguing 'alt-animal' enemy designs and lush labyrinths that seem more like national park than penitentiary. We loved exploring for the chance to get to see what was coming up next, and the graphics do a wonderful job rendering worlds we wanted to jump into, with expressive lighting, set pieces like waterfalls and rivers, and vibrant colours. The chibi character models might be an acquired taste, but we liked their juxtaposition with the slickly stylish character portraits, which helps put 7th Dragon somewhat in-between Bravely Default and post-Playstation Final Fantasies on the scale of abstraction.
Battles look wonderful as well, and sport an engaging mix of perspectives and angles. They're set up like the first-person encounters of Etrian Odyssey or Shin Megami Tensei, but when a party member acts, they'll either pop up as a smaller model in front of the enemy to perform their attack (as in Persona Q), or you'll get a dynamic view of them attacking in third-person. Enemies, meanwhile, will hop towards the front of the screen to attack, with beautifully detailed animations that reminded us of a 3D take on the DS Dragon Quests' battle scenes.
Unfortunately, all this movement along the Z-axis in battle serves to really hammer home 7th Dragon's most noticeable presentational weakness: a compete lack of stereoscopic 3D. Everything is totally two-dimensional, without even a Pokémon XY-style compromise for the occasional stereoscopic scene. There have been plenty of other 3DS games that fail to take advantage of the depth slider, of course, but the omission is particularly disappointing in 7th Dragon because so much of the game seems built for 3D; the multilevel dungeon designs, the on-theme UI frames in battle, and especially the enemy animations that 'pop out' towards the player in battle all had us wishing for stereoscopic support.
Along with the lack of 3D, there are a few smaller presentation missteps, the most notable of which is the lack of a controllable camera. For the most part, the automatic camera gets a good view of the action, but when it doesn't it's distracting; bad angles caught us off guard a few times, and we frequently found ourselves wishing for the ability to zoom in or out. The hands-off camera also plays into another issue: the orientation of the touchscreen mini-map doesn't always match up with the actual overhead view. Since neither is adjustable and locations tend towards symmetry, things can be downright disorienting when you first enter a new area. Finally, there's a slight but salient delay in accessing menus or triggering conversations with NPCs. None of these issues are much of a problem on their own; rather, it's that they stand out in an experience that otherwise feels so polished.
One particularly impressive point of polish, though, is the music: starting from sasakure.uk's (of 'Hello, Planet' and Hatsune Miku fame) catchy theme song and continuing into the soundtrack composed by legendary Yūzō Koshiro (of Etrian Odyssey and Streets of Rage), 7th Dragon kicks off with a musical bang and never lets up. Tracks channel the theme of each era wonderfully; the electronica stylings of present-day Tokyo are a great introduction, but things get progressively more interesting as you travel through time. Atlantis hosts our favourite musical culture, with tracks featuring lots of shifting rhythms and instrumentations as they swirl around; the royal family's theme starts out as a sparse, Celtic-tinged dulcimer melody over low tabla before steadying into a complex-meter battle march, and finally coming together into a full-orchestra arrangement with ambient vocals. Elsewhere, rocking battle themes inspire action, downtempo jazz sets the mood in the Skylounge, and exploration is framed by club-ready tracks that harken back to Koshiro's Streets of Rage days. All in all, it's one of the most engaging JRPG soundtracks we've listened to in a long time, and had us opting for headphones every time we played.
Conclusion
With top-class character customization, a delightfully different combat system and a slick nature-futuristic style, 7th Dragon III Code: VFD is a fantastic addition to the 3DS' JRPG library. It shares quite a bit with the Etrian Odyssey series — including a player-created party, satisfying class-based battle strategies, and an incredible Yūzō Koshiro soundtrack — but feels like an entirely different beast thanks to its unique classes, epic time-traveling storyline, and quietly charming downtime activities, from dating to cat cafés. A disappointing lack of stereoscopic 3D and a few quality-of-life quibbles get in the way, but they weren't enough to dampen our enthusiasm; this is perfect summer adventure to sink your teeth into.
Comments 93
"A disappointing lack of stereoscopic 3D..."
Aaaand just like that, I'm not buying this game.
I don't care if someone thinks that means I've "really reached a whole new level of stupid."
I'm not spending a full $40 price for a 3DS game that doesn't display in 3D.
"a compete lack of stereoscopic 3D"
Meh...lol.
Anyways dunno when, but I guess I wouldn't mind trying this out if I can create my own cast of characters. (...yes I'll go all-females here, shaddap, lol)
I want this! My body is ready!!!!
They had me at "incredible Yūzō Koshiro soundtrack "...
This game looks totally rad
Waiting for this!
The 12th of this month can't come sooner!
Don't care if the game doesn't have stereoscopic 3D, because after all, it's just a weak gimmick :>
It basically sounds like the only reason this game didn't get a 10 was a lack of 3D.
Sounds like a must have 3DS game. Bravo Sega, you got one right!
Already had this preordered and this review makes me want to play the full game right now. Oh well at least the 12th isn't that far away. Definitely will be sinking my time into this.
This looks awesome! It's just a shame to see it come out during a time where I have so many JRPG's on my backlog to play/get this year. As much as I want it, I probably won't get around to picking it up until next year.
Oh, and the lack of 3D is disappointing, but not enough enough to warrant skipping out on this title.
I was not expecting such a good RPG. +1 game on the very very [...] very long RPG list (cumulating DS and 3DS). Thank you Monster Hunter, and all those old anime and SFC ROMs I had accumulated for 10 years -_-
I'm sure it's great and all, but I would really appreciate something other than a JRPG right about now... Only a week or so till MHGens...
I honestly couldn't care less about the lack of stereoscopic 3D...I only have it turned on when it's absolutely necessary.
This is interesting, what with the demo doubling down on the VR world part of it, that was a pretty big turnoff. I'm certainly more interested than I was before.
It's 12,500 blocks though, which is about 1/5 of the space I have left so maybe down the line...
The moment when the monster attacks and when appoacing the skytower. I asked? WHY?!? Despite this. I'll give is a mark on my wishlist. That demo was fantastic.
Was not expecting much from this, very nice surprise to see it reviewed in high regard.
Uggh, now I need to get this sooner rather then later. This just adds to the 2013 feel even more!
And no 3d just put this back to the I can wait list.....
I haven't been following this game or series, but this sounds really good. The lack of 3D is disappointing, but certainly not a deal breaker.
I tried the demo, I thought the 3ds was missing because was a demo, the game itself is nice but the lack of 3D is meeeh, dissapointed.
The no 3D aspect took me from, "Holy crap a 9!!! I'm picking this bad boy up after work!" To "No 3D? Eh, lemme think about it." I hate that I like 3D that much, that's it's taken into consideration as a deciding factor.
Psssst. It's called a 3DS for a reason. People can be disappointed if they want and support it or not with their wallet.
Very nice review! I can't wait to pick up my pre-order on Tuesday.
I've been listening to the OST, and I most definitely agree that the music is fantastic.
Great review, glad to hear the game's excellent - I really enjoyed the demo especially the battle system & music which is just fantastic. The lack of 3d doesn't bother me at all as I use my 2 ds more nowadays & my fav game of the year so far, Stella Glow, has practically none which didn't hinder my enjoyment of the game.
As its now coming to EU at some point, I'm happy to hold off importing & just waiting til then. Put that money towards Disney Art Academy next week.
Just the battle system worries me. It won't be very engaging for me if you can't even see your own characters. A picture of them is detracting from the experience, imo.
I actually prefer no 3D to partial 3D like in Pokemon X and Y or mediocre 3D like in many, many other games. If the 3D is going to be there, I want it to look spectacular.
Not sure I'll be getting this any time soon, though. I just finished Zero Time Dilemma not too long ago (seriously, what's up with the lack of a NL review for this?) and am neck deep in games like Wolfenstein: The New Order, Fallout 4, and Tokyo Mirage Sessions. Not to mention Monster Hunter is coming out this month, and it's not too long before Corpse Party and SMT IV Apocalypse drop.
@Tsurii Hi!
@Gen0neD
I mean, it's not asking much to want a retail 3DS game to display in 3D. It's in the name of the system, after all.
No 3D = sub-HD on a PS4.
It's equally as preposterous.
Well, that actually sounds more exciting than I first thought. I've played 7th Dragon on the DS, and I've followed both 2020 games closely, and this seems far and away an improvement over what were essentially b-tier nostalgia-baits.
I'll still have to try the demo to see whether of not I can tolerate the NPCs, but it seems like that may be the biggest thing I have to worry about this time around. I guess the change in developer was the thing this franchise needed after all...
@CharlieSmile While I get your point, I really do have to ask: what good would it have done? They didn't start out with having no 3D, but 3D sucked up too many resources - both hardware and financial, according to a staff interview I recall reading on Siliconera. I'll try to post a link once I'm on my computer later, but making a game in 3D isn't done by just pressing a button, and while normally developers design the game to accomodate, in this case, they felt they couldn't get it to work the way they needed to, so they put their focus elsewhere.
Judging from this review, I can't help but think they made the right choice here.
@CharlieSmile
I'm not trying to be a shmuck about the subject. But I do love me some 3D. It's why I bought the system. I understand why others feel like it doesn't matter but, I does matter to some. Like me. I won't speak poorly of a game because it doesn't support a feature that I like. I just won't buy it. Just wish other people would come to a 'To each their own' attitude and let people like what they like, without the need to condescend because they disagree.
Imdo not care about this game, but I wouldn't buy a 3DS game without 3D. I've never played a game on 3DS without the 3D eeffect on. Why ? Because it adds to the gaming experience. At last to mine. And to say that people are stupid that are of the same opinion is more than arrogant and stupid.
Played the demo, and gameplay-wise I felt like the gameplay per battling was pretty solid, battles being kept interesting even though they seem pretty frequent (the SP points seem to drain pretty quickly, and initial impressions were that the hacker character was not very useful compared to the others due to long setup times, though I guess double hackers could be interesting (one to hack, one to exploit immediately. Hmm....).
Though in further reflection, it does seem pretty grindy as the battles are quite frequent, and the level design did seem pretty bland and linear. The scenery looks nice, but it did feel repetitive and look like there were a lot of primarily halls to walk through and just an occasional branching path.
The graphics and character designs look fantastic imo, Sega tends to get futuristic wear looking really great (note Hatsune Miku and Phantasy Star Online). The music sounded fantastic as well and whoever did the menus still a stellar job (may seem insignificant, but seriously the menus contain a lot of info in a very clean and intuitive way. Worth mentioning for sure).
I found the dialogue to be a bit bland at times and other times a bit too liberal for my tastes (i.e. the rabbit, and his crude manner of speaking), but hoping that won't permeate throughout the game and hence dampen my enjoyment of the story and dialogue. It does affect my desire to recommend this to my younger gaming friends though, so that's a bummer. The level of challenge, gameplay, general story, art style and the like look great though and does look like a very solid effort, though it does seem pretty grindy now that I think of it, and games that are too much 'go from point A to point B' per level design linearity can get boring (going off the first dungeon example, anyway). Hmm. I think I'll still buy this for my own enjoyment sometime, but I'm changing my expectations a bit for the grind
@CanisWolfred "what good would it have done?"
It would have made me feel better about plunking down $40 for a 3DS game.
If anyone is okay with the lack of 3D, by all means, play and enjoy!
It just happens that I don't want it, that's all.
It's really not a complex idea.
ANy news about a EU release?
THanks for the region lock nintendo
@Tsurii Geez, you have reached a whole new level of stupid to use the "whole new level of stupid" quote that the guy who has reached a whole new level of stupid used to describe someone reaching a whole new level of stupid due to not buying a game because of a stupid lack of 3d! Pft stupid!
@Tsurii
Wow!
They quickly changed their mind
http://www.siliconera.com/2016/05/19/sega-currently-no-plans-bring-7th-dragon-iii-code-vfd-europe/
@CharlieSmile then think of this game as a huge RPG for the 2DS. go get a 2ds for like 60bucks and play assured that its the best game for the 2ds..
No 3d isn't exactly a deal breaker for me anyway but the battle style was just screaming for the slider to be turned on. I guess something happened in the middle of development time.
This looks fantastic. I'll definitely give it a go sometime soon.
Not a huge RPG player these days, but when I got to the part about seiyuus I immediately searched to find out if Hayashibara Megumi was one of them. Very disappointed that she's not; that would've turned it in to a must buy.
@CharlieSmile Well, it's difficult for me to understand how you can say "it would make me feel better about purchasing a 3DS", since I thought having good games would be enough of a justification. I have no problem with you preferring to play your games in 3D, and even passing up a game because it doesn't have 3D. Having just played the demo, it's clear that the devs expected it to be a major part of the game, too, judging from the look of the battle animations.
I'll admit, though, that I was annoyed by your initial reaction, which I thought was reactionary and dismissive before even taking in the quality of the game. But then again, that's not my problem, nor does it really need to be called such. The 3DS is practically swimming in great RPGs, and all the others utilized the 3D effect without any sacrifices to their games quality. I think that's where you were coming from, honestly.
Besides, there's a demo if you ever feel like giving it another look, and see if you really do find it lacking without stereoscopic 3D.
Slighty disappointed at no 3D, but in the end all that matters to me is the game.
@CanisWolfred
my actual comment:
"It would have made me feel better about plunking down $40 for a 3DS game."
I'm surprised to hear people actually use the 3D. I never have it on so that doesn't bother me in the least. Game play people, game play. It should always be more important then 3D or a visual, unless it's horrible, and it sounds like this has it in spades.
I will try the demo. Nice review, thanks.
@Andrzej777 aww god sake! So no euro release at all? Why? Do JRPG's not sell in Europe or something?
I'd totally buy a physical copy of this day one.
Hmm, lack of 3D is disappointing but definitely not a deal breaker. I'll have to give the demo a play and see how I like it.
@readyletsgo No its coming here, he was referencing an earlier article that said it wasn't coming, but another article that came later refuted it. Now "When" its coming to Europe that's whole other can of worms.
Wow. Was not expecting such a high score. I mean, I like the game so far but, this is really surprising. In a good way.
All they need to do now is release a demo for Europe to offset the wait.
Just not my kinda game.
@CharlieSmile Would you buy it second hand though?
Uk release date please.
@edhe I'd buy it for, like, $15.
@CharlieSmile It's kind of the reason I didn't feel the need to run out and buy FF Explorers either. Like you I'd much rather put those resources into a 3d made game first and then later down the road get something like this.
@Spoony_Tech It's a bit disappointing to have a 3DS game not use 3D in 2015 (much less 2016, its western release), but they probably did this in order to lower load times heavily. That, and there's already a bit of stuttering in dungeons without 3D...
I'm more frustrated by their poor use of the touch screen. Then again, they share the HUD between the battles and the overworld, so it may not be such a bad idea after all.
@CharlieSmile
huh. you must not play any ds games on your 3ds either. Shame, because there's some really good games out there that don't have 3d. Oh well.
┐( ̄ヮ ̄)┌
Another great JRPG on the 3DS. Those Sega RPG devs really do still know their stuff when they want to make something great! Too bad it's reportedly the final installment, but what a way to go out with a bang! The JRPG genre may not be thriving anymore like 10-20 years ago, but it's good to still see some devs who keep it going.
There are some games like SMT4 where it's fun to switch to 3D sometimes just to see what it looks like, but honestly, most of these sorts of RPG's just don't need the 3D. There's little to no real benefit. Nothing of important value was lost by concentrating on making a good game instead, within the budgetary and time constraints.
I think a lot of people tend to forget that there are human beings who have their own lives to live while they're making these games, and that they too run on schedules. Oh yes, that's right, these games aren't made by robots or an ethereal concept known as a "company", they're made by people. Sometimes, you can't have everything under whatever their development circumstances were.
@CharlieSmile I remember the days when it cost $50-80 to play the newest great JRPG's... and most of those were 2D in a 3D field! We RPG Fans didn't say, "Oh wow, these 2D sprites are nice, but I wish they were using those newfangled 3D graphics with the new CD technology." We said, "Oh wow, these games are really good, and their 2D nature is going to immortalize them instead of ending up looking like crap 20 years from now!"
The point being, sometimes a sacrifice is a blessing, not a curse. If the devs really couldn't ensure the 3D feature worked throughout the whole game for whatever reason, who knows what they would have been giving up by making the 3D feature a priority.
Looks like something I might try. I'll check if gamefly has it.
So Nintendo released the New 3DS for absolutely nothing, then?
Fates is still plagued with the stupid, inexcusable frame rate fluctuations as Awakening when it should have been optimised for the New 3DS considering that the option is there. Same goes to ANY game with frame rate issues (or inability to render in 3D) on the original 3DS.
We said, "Oh wow, these games are really good, and their 2D nature is going to immortalize them instead of ending up looking like crap 20 years from now!"
Back in the day, we were all kids. So back in the day, we really weren't thinking that far ahead...
I feel like I'm missing something... I played the demo and it bored me to no end. I had a difficult time caring about the characters and the dialogue was boring to me (but the music was good). Yet, I've generally seen online players mentioning how fun the game is... Perhaps they're talking about the full game and not the demo. Is this one of those instances where the demo totally is NOT indicative of the full release? It's possible I just don't like it but sometimes demos aren't very good but the actual game is.
This sounds pretty good. I'll try out the demo and then make a final decision.
I was really looking forward to getting this game but there is still no word on a European release. And the fact that it doesn't support 3D is really putting me off. Yes I like 3D that much. It makes the graphics in the games look oh so clearer, cleaner and much more immersive. Crank that slider all the way up. After playing in 3D there's no going back.
And to be honest I'm really starting to worry that Nintendos next portable wont have it.
@CharlieSmile If you can stand to play games on other consoles in 2D, then why not this game? I will admit, I'm getting the Vita version over the 3DS version of ZTD because the 3DS version doesn't have 3D, but in this case it's the only version you can get. I find it hard to understand the mentality of boycotting a game over incremental things like whether or not the voices or dubbed, 3D, that kind of thing.
@PanzerNomad
Yesterday it was announced that Atlus and Deep Silver have made a publishing deal for Atlus and select Sega games for Europe, and the first game that's coming out of that deal is indeed 7th Dragon. So it's coming here, still no word about when, but it's happening and the info should be coming out in the coming weeks, according to Deep Silver. So no worries.
@Tuulenpoika Thanks for the heads up. I saw that article but didn't get around to reading it. Lets hope it's not a digital only release.
Damn!!! Looks like i will be getting this game, never played the past entries but this review really makes me interested.
I have such a huge backlog , i really need to speed up and get the Dark Souls 3 platinum so i can get back to my 3DS games.
3D is not a deal breaker for me. I got the 3ds to play exclusive Nintendo games on a handheld. The fact that they can be in 3D is just a bonus.
@TheDavyStar how does my purchase decision affect you personally?
@CharlieSmile It doesn't. Doesn't negate me being curious. If you don't want to tell me, you've no obligation to.
@CharlieSmile
„Aaaand just like that, I'm not buying this game.
I don't care if someone thinks that means I've "really reached a whole new level of stupid."
I'm not spending a full $40 price for a 3DS game that doesn't display in 3D.“
To be honest, that's really silly. A game does not need to use every feature of a system. Or do you only buy games that uses 3D where you can use the gyro controls while pointing with the camera on the little AR-card while taking a picture of yourself using the inside camera while blowing into the mic?
But who am I to judge. You don't have to buy it for whatever reason.
@PanzerNomad
They even confirmed that their releases would go both physical and digital, 7th Dragon and SMT IV:A included.
This review sound horribly biased...singing the praises, only barely mentioning that has flaws, only really talking about the lack of stereoscopic 3D...yeah, no. The demo is more helpful, despite not getting to see far or learn much.
Originally I was super excited about the game; then I learned how tedious small battles could be and, after playing the demo, discovered that the game is MURDER on the eyes. It's sad, because it still seems pretty good overall - I'm definitely not saying the game is bad here. The problem is that those little 'quality of life' issues really add up. I have so much hate that flickering loading mark that appears everywhere all the time, even for short transitions.
I've favored the PSP version more after playing this demo because of the low resolution textures.
@Gaeus "To be honest, that's really silly."
Ok.
@Utena-mobile Well you know what they say about those who assume.
Sounds pretty good, I could go for some ..um ...Virtual Fake Dragons?..
...Vicious Fierce Dragons!
...no, with no 3D, it's gotta be Vanilla Flavored Dragons...
"and an incredible Yūzō Koshiro soundtrack"
Didn't know this. Instantly sold. That man could score paint drying and I'd buy a game of it.
@Tuulenpoika OK cool. Haha, I suppose I should just read the article for myself.
Alright, I tried the demo, and I have to agree that the game is brilliant. Add to Wishlist...
I'm surprised more mentions of the stuttering and visual lag haven't surfaced, at least based on the demo. I've gone back to play it a few times this past week and every time I'm hit with how jerky the movements and screen are: it's very unpleasant. (This is on a N3DSXL.)
I have the game, played it and still unsure why this is a 9.
@Morgan19 Been playing the game since yesterday.
So far these lag stuttering seems to happen only at the games hub though.
I haven't noted the stuttering in the dungeons though, but I'm just in the first one.
I thought it was an old 3DS issue, but if it happens on a new 3ds too, I suppose it's bad resource management?
Well I'm skipping because no 3d. If I see it later at a significant price knock off. I will get it then. No 3d on my 3d system is a big deal.
9/10 score for a JRPG - incredibly engaging combat, Yūzō Koshiro soundtrack, great art design, epic time-traveling storyline, new approach to turn based combat, fresh classes and generally engaging and fun, to touch on a few selling points.
And yet some are saying they won't buy what is a really great game because there's no 3D. This is - no joke - why we can't have nice things and why we have no business asking for any localization outside of what's already being offered. When sales numbers are low for a game like this and you hear of so many whining about no implementation of 3D... when you've just created an amazing game that has some fresh takes on the genre - why would you want to localize another for that market? Sad. Really, really sad.
1). Graphics (X/Fail)
The lack of 3D is a HUGE bummer for me!
Pixel density is increased during 3D mode,and seeing the 3D is cool (in general).Native display pixel density is in no way high enough to remedy the lack of 3D.
((This looks nastier than a lot of games do with 3D turned off))
2). Overall system (X)
The fact that I don't fancy the battle system brings my overall score for this even lower!
You have a view of the enemies alone and you only get a brief view of your characters as they attack.....This could've been really cool in 3D,but the fact that this game doesn't have 3D....makes it just a lame drag in my books.
3). Content (X)
I see only a few characters featured in this game...and it appears to be quite limited in area traverse as well....THAT'S IT!
I don't wanna go any further with this!
((CONCLUSION))
This game is pretty much a poor representative of what the Nintendo 3DS is capable of....
This game could've been waaaay better!!
Congratulations Bravely Default! You no longer have the most ridiculous title on the system! I almost missed this entirely because of the name but will take the demo out for a spin.
It's funny how most you were only complaining about the lack of 3D, rather than focusing on the actual gameplay and story of the game.
It's a great game, but I can't give it na excellent. It needs a command to fast forward battles. At the end of the post game dungeon I simply couldn't stand the same batlle animations. But if you have loads of free time and this doesn't bother you it will be a great and sad experience.
@BigBabyPeach God, I love your avatar
Just finished the demo and now that I see this game is 15$ I gotta get it.
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