7th Dragon III: A long-awaited foray

Ever since I read Kina's inspiring posts about 7th Dragon, I've been longing to play the series. Alas, my meagre notions in Japanese didn't allow me to dive senselessly into the first two—or three depending on how you consider them—instalments, released on the DS and the PSP. (Not that I didn't try, mind you; but the kanjis were barely readable on the DS screen and the text scrolled way too fast to allow a beginner like me to decipher it. Oh, well.) I though I would have to wait a few more years and make substantial progress in Japanese to be able to discover the series, until Sega took the gaming world by surprise by announcing something no one expected: they would localize 7th Dragon III both in North-America and Europe, and grace us with physical releases of the game to boot. Oh, the joy!

Since Sega announced the North-American localization long before the European one, I pre-ordered the former and was treated to a lovely 'Launch Day Edition' that packed a small art book compiling all the character models and bites of concept art. Given that the game's art is all-around gorgeous, this is certainly a nice treat, made all the nicer by the fact that I didn't expect it at all. Thanks a lot, Sega!

This gorgeous art book inspired me so much that I decided not to shelve the game, sticking it instead right away in my 3DS and starting a playthrough. I chose the blue-eyed girl featured prominently on the game's cover as my main character, because in my mind, she's somehow the hero of the game. She's not, of course: 7th Dragon III is one of these games that let you choose your party members' character model, completed with palette swaps and voices options so that you can craft the ultimate moe team of your dreams. Anyway, upon having selected the solemn and aloof beauty featured on the cover, I was pondering a solo run for a little while; but that plan was quickly ditched when I discovered that the game kindly allots the exact same number of XP to all party members, regardless of their numbers. Running solo would have meant that I would have literally needed to grind thrice as much than with a regular party, which I was totally not in the mood to do. Especially not when there are so many cute character models and interesting classes available.

So far, I absolutely love 7th Dragon III. Interestingly, it reminds me somewhat of Ecco the Dolphin, of all games. I reason that this uncanny association is due to the splendid crystalline colours, the 70s prog-rock infused soundtrack (layers upon layers of synth, what a ear candy!) and, last but not least, the Sega logo that graces my eyes every time I boot the game. (Oh, sweet nostalgia.) I've played roughly 9 hours, and from what I've seen, 7th Dragon III is shaping up to be a rather long game. Which is totally fine by me if it keeps being that wholesome—and awesome.

If I had to express a minor gripe, that would probably be the fact that the game is a trifle too easy, even in the normal difficulty mode. I didn't especially go out of my way to grind, and yet my team is so powerful that they can take down minor dragons in two turns without suffering a shred of damage. I expected these dragons to be more of a handful and to have more bite, so to speak, so I'm a bit disappointed; however, that minor point doesn't tarnish my love for the game in the slightest.

Another minor gripe is the fact that 7th Dragon III is extremely linear and pretty much a game on rails. My team is at the beck and call of the shady organisation they enrolled into, jumping when their bosses say jump and exploring that dungeon when they say explore that dungeon. Explore might be too strong a word, mind you: given that dungeons are as linear as they get, there is very little actual exploration to be performed there. Heck, even random encounters are streamlined. See that bar on the up-left corner of the picture on the right? That's a random encounter meter of sorts. As your team runs around, it goes from blue to red and triggers a random encounter when it's fully red. This means that random encounters always happen with the same frequency, which is a bit boring when you think of it. All in all, the only space of freedom granted by the game regards the decision to kill or spare the many optional dragons littering the dungeons, which is left to the player's discretion. You probably know me enough to guess that I decided right away to exterminate every single one of the 250-or-so dragons that roam the game world. Grinding is me life!

With that said, I'll take my leave, dear fellows gamers. These pesky dragons won't slaughter themselves, now will they? See you soon for more juicy bites of 7th Dragon III! And as always, thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!