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When dealing with a franchise that hits its third entry after less than a year and a half, it begs the question as to how much actually changes between the multiple installments. Case in point: The Legend of Heroes III: Song of the Ocean. Obviously, the story has to change somewhat, this time dealing with a lost civilization, some magic map, a few teenagers on the cusp of maturity, a danger that threatens the whole world, blah blah blah. But apart from the setting, isn’t there something else that would make this appealing to someone who’s already played either of the past two games or any other role-playing game? Uh, no. Sadly, the plot's about as far as the changes go, meaning the actual game is virtually identical to former two. The hybrid of 2D sprites and 3D polygons still looks off and crap animation continues to make it look even worse. After traveling to a new area, you're still searching for that one damn character with a red exclamation mark above their head. Awkward phrases and grammatical issue again plague the translation, including such highlights as "Forte, Um," "noone" and "receive a Dye Money." The generic battle system remains unchanged as well, leaving players to mash a single button over and over again whenever the clunky oversized menu obscures most of the screen. Really, I could have just opened the Legend of Heroes II review, replaced every instance of II with III and called it a day.
Then again, what do you expect from a franchise that sees a new iteration every seven months? The Legend of Heroes III: Song of the Ocean doesn't offer anything the previous two didn't, a generic role-playing game in every sense of the world. But it's playable, and hey, if you're really craving a role-playing game, I guess that's better than nothing.
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