by Peter Berger on November 14, 2008

Atlus has published some of my favorite games of recent years, including La Pucelle Tactics, Disgaea, and Disgaea 2. When I was chosen for this review, the thought of having an Atlus tactical RPG on my Xbox 360 was exciting.

Spectral Force 3, however, is not delightful. It is not joyful. It does not, alas, even rise to the level of “pretty good.” It’s a stubby, unpolished game, full of rough edges and grit. At times I was forced to wonder whether the developers had actually played it.

Much of the criticism I’ve read of this game focuses on the graphics, but to me that’s no matter at all. I’m happy as a clam playing the original GBA Advance Wars, which has visuals far inferior to those of SF3. Rather, it’s an issue of polish. The on-screen displays are disorganized and chaotic. At any given time, you are only barely sure which button to press to cause a given attack. There are three different mechanisms for team and combo attacks, and you can’t tell which one’s useful at any given time without cycling through multiple menus.

The tragedy is that there was a good game underneath all of this. At its heart, SF3 could be Fire Emblem, if only more effort had gone into polishing it. In SF3 you lead a plucky team of mercenaries in a series of tactical, turn based battles. You move your team members one at a time, telling them where to go and who to attack, using both swords and sorcery. You accept missions from various countries, and depending on who you work for (and how successful you are), the state of play in the strategic map shifts. To be honest, I found this aspect of the game more interesting than the tactical battles, because at least there the user interface was straightforward.

SF3 is a missed opportunity. There are a thousand games in this genre for the PS2 and almost none in the Xbox universe. Xbox 360 owners who are absolutely desperate for a tactical RPG should pick it up. It is, at least, better than the execrable Shattered Union. Those who are not completely in love with the genre should pass. Or you could just buy a PS2 and both Disgaea games, and be much, much happier.

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