Story	5/10	Characters	5/10
	Graphics	7/10	Music	8/10
	Gameplay	7/10	Extras	5/10
Reviewer: Chi Phan Final Score: 6.2/10

The great thing you can say about NIS America is that they are becoming the gaming company that brings out the smaller lesser known rpg games to the North American market that the mainstream public don't normally notice but the core gamers do. One of these lesser known rpg series is called Atelier Iris that has slowly become NIS America trademark rpg series next to the popular Disgaea series. Atelier Iris 3 marks the third installment in the series that has slowly garnered a loyal fan base. Like with other rpg series, each new game is different from the previous one but at the same time uses similar gameplay mechanics that fans have grown to love within the series. Here we take a look at the returning core gameplay of a turn base rpg system that uses an alchemy system. Overall is Atelier Iris 3 a premier rpg game for rpg fans across the broad or will it still only attract the core NIS America rpg fans? You decide for yourself by reading this review.

Will you grant my one wish? My hatred of Alchemist grows deep.      In the town of Zey Meruze, Edge and Iris are Raiders who work for the Guild picking up quests issued by the Guild to help others in needs by venturing out to the various Alterworlds nearby. One day as they were out in an Alterworld completing a quest, a mysterious fragment showed up. Iris sense a mysterious presence within the fragment and decided to pick up the fragment and bring it back to town for further study back at the Library in Zey Meruze. With the help of Ewan, an alchemist researcher, it was discovered that the fragment is a piece of Escalario. The Escalario is said to be a legendary item that is said to grant the user any wish they want if all 8 fragments of the Escalario was discovered and brought together. Excited by this discovery, Iris and Edge set about doing various Guild Quests but at the same time were on the look out for more possible Escalario fragments. As their adventure move forward, the duo will soon discover that there are other rival Raiders that are also looking for the fragments for their own private wishes. What is the secret of the Escalario? Find out by journeying into Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm. The thing about the story is that there's not much of a story or even a purpose to the story till near the end. The story is broken down into 10 chapters and for the first 9 chapters all you really are doing is going around doing Guild Quests to boost up your Raider Rank. At the end of each chapter, the storyline involving the Escalario begins in the Mission gameplay mode but each mission storyline is very short that it only involves picking up one of the eight fragments of the Escalario after a major boss fight. When chapter 10 comes around the story converts to the typical lets save the world from this big evil boss. By then you are basically just fighting a boss for the sake of having an end game boss that threaten the world. The story is very poorly developed with little interests to the readers or gamers. You shouldn't add in the end of the world plotline just for the sake of having one and that's what this story feels like. The whole story is more or less tiny little quest stories that are added into one as oppose to one big main focus rpg storyline. I didn't find any major interest in this story at all. It's even hard to give out a major plotline involving the story because all you really are doing is going around and picking up Guild Quests to help out the people that submit requests to the Guild. Well the good news is that if you need a break from a major long in-depth rpg story and looking for a light hearted story than I guess Atelier Iris 3 fits the bill.

We are Raiders here on a quest.      This is by far one of the weakest features in this game. The cast of characters are forgettable that come off very dull and stupid at times. There are only three main characters in the game and they are Iris, Edge, and Nell. There's not much of any character background development for these main characters other than a few mention of their past. The voices for these main characters and all the characters in the game are decent with the exception of Edge who seems out of place with his voice. Edge looks young but his voice is too low and too old that doesn't fit his character at all. As for supporting cast of characters, well it's mostly composed of shopkeepers and Guild workers. The supporting casts of characters don't really have much to do within the storyline itself. Heck it's kind of a far fetch when you call shopkeepers, guild workers, and other various nameless characters as supporting characters. It's not that these supporting characters don't have a speaking role, it's just that they could easily be nameless sprite characters because they have no effect on the actual story in the game. When you play from the beginning to the end, you have no connection or emotional attachment to any of these characters at all. When gamers can't connect with the characters, it means the game failed at making likeable and memorable characters.

A simple world with a simple view.      The graphics are similar to what was presented in Atelier Iris 2, a semi design 2-D world done through artwork models. For a 2-D game, it actually looks very nice due to the designing of the drawn artwork. Character models have that short anime characteristic feature that you normally see from a Japanese influence rpg game. The background environments such as dungeons and towns are exceptionally well drawn out with details. The game does have a bit of a cartoon look to it. The coloring of the game graphics are also done exceptionally well. The only problem with the overall look of the game is that it seem a bit outdated compare to what today's rpg graphics can do. Most of the story cut scenes or dialogue is done through anime character artwork talking in bubbles. There are no major anime movie scenes or anything except for the opening anime intro of Atelier Iris 3. This is kind of a disappointment to not have any major story scenes other than hard drawn character artwork. Still there are other bigger problems with this game than the outdated look of the graphics.

Everyone love my singing.      The music is probably the best feature in this game feature over 50 different musical BGM tracks. You can listen to these tracks in the Extra menu after you complete the game. All of the tracks are in their original Japanese version. Each score is base on dungeons, towns, or a storyline moment. There are two really stand out musical scores. One is the main track called schwarzweiB which you will hear at the opening of the main introduction movie. The other track is the closing track at the end of the game where the credit role which is called Flowers In The Rain. In honesty, all the tracks are beautifully rendered in the game. If you take the time to listen to each musical BGM in the game after you finish the game, you'll realize just how good this music is even if it's not evident when you are playing the game. The story doesn't do the music justice in this game.

Feel the power of the Mana! Ranking in a Burst Chain. Game Information     Genre: Traditional RPG    Publisher: NIS America    Disc: 1 DVD Disc    Memory: 300 KB    Players: 1 Player Mode    Digital Control: Yes    Analog Control: Yes    Vibration Function: Yes    Rating: Teen    Release: May 2007      Atelier Iris 3 gameplay is a turn base rpg gameplay system that uses an alchemy system and guild system. If you are a returning Atelier Iris fan than you should be very familiar with the alchemy system. The rest of the gameplay features are pretty easy to understand. The concept of the gameplay is divided into a Quest mode and a Mission mode. From the Quest mode, your objective is to do as many quests as possible to increase your quest points so you can raise your Raider ranks for your characters. This is the main bulk of the gameplay where you go to the Guild and select all the Quests available for you to pick up and do. All quests are fairly short and easy to complete, although they do require a bit of running around. Most of the quests require you to travel around and enter the various different Alterworlds that are around the town of Zey Meruze. Once you've achieved a rank up in Raider rank from doing quests, the game switches over to the Mission mode. Once Mission mode is activated, all quests will be suspended till the Mission is complete. The Mission is actually the storyline gameplay and each mission gets activated once your character Ranks up. When a mission is activated, it's also a sign that this is the end of the story chapter before a new chapter begins. There are a total of ten chapters so that means there are ten missions in the game. The mission themselves are similar to doing quest but they are just a bit longer and involve more of a story plotline. They are still easy to complete though. So the basic of the gameplay is doing quests to activate a mission than complete the mission to move onto the next chapter and you repeat the process again. Now the game does use an alchemy system since Iris is an alchemist. You can synthesize just about every item, weapon, armor, and accessory in the game through the use of alchemy. You can buy ingredients from shops or find them in the Alterworlds. Now in terms of the actual battle system, it's pretty much a simple turn base system that uses item, magic, and skills. There's nothing much that needs to be said about the battle system that most rpgers should already be familiar with. There are a few new features but we can go over those features a bit later. The game does use a roaming monster encounter system as oppose to a random encounter system. As you travel through the different Alterworlds, you'll see different type of color blob monsters. Coming into contact with these color blobs will result in a battle. There are three types of color blobs. A blue blob means the enemies are weaker than you. A white blob means the enemies are about the same level as you. While a red blob means the enemies are stronger than you. Outside of all this, the gameplay is fair simple. Now let's looks at some of the unique feature of this game. Quests: You can pick up all your quests at the Guild bulletin board. Once you have picked up a quest, you will need to head off to see the client that posted the quest for details on how to complete the quest. While there are many quests being posted all the time, the quests themselves are broken down into two categories, repeatable and non repeatable ones. The non repeatable quests are the ones that will reward you with item and guild points to help boost your Raider Rank up. Repeatable ones don't have any effect on your Raider rank but they are good to do to get certain items that you may find hard to obtain elsewhere in the game. Especially some alchemy ingredients that can only be obtain through quests. Alterworlds: Alterworlds are like fields or dungeons that are placed in a different dimension around the town of Zey Meruze. There are about five Alterworlds that you can explore and venture in. The interesting thing to note about Alterworlds is that you can't stay in them from long. There's actually a time limit as to how long you can stay in an Alterworld before you get booted out and back to the real world. Of course to make things a bit easier for you to explore in an Alterworld, there is an item called Time Fragment that will help boost your time limit in an Alterworld allowing you to stay a bit longer than usual. Alchemy: Iris is the only one that can use the alchemy system back at the workshop. Of course in order for Iris to synthesize something, she needs to know the recipe first. Iris can find recipes in chests or as a reward from quests. But in most instances she will gain and learn new recipes by just raising her Alchemy Level. The more times she synthesizes something, the greater chance Iris Alchemy Level will go up in level. Mana: Like with previous Atelier Iris games, the Mana Spirits are back. However the Mana Spirits aren't a major focus in the gameplay and storyline in this game. As you play the game, Iris will discover and make pacts with various different Mana Spirits. Once Iris has made a pact with a Mana, she can summon them and use their special abilities. A new addition is that back at the workshop, Edge and Nell can be fused with a Mana Spirit to use their special abilities through a special skill called Blade Mastery as each Mana Spirit is blessed with a certain type of weapon. Skills: Skills in this gameplay is very dependant on the weapon your character is equip with. Each set of weapons have their own unique set of skills. You can unlock more skills from a weapon when the weapon you are using goes up in level. During battles, there is a skill gauge on the upper right hand side. The skill gauge can reach all the way to level 9. This is important to understand as each set of skill will require a certain amount of level that the skill gauge need to be. For example some skill will only require 1 level of skill gauge to be use while others may require the skill gauge to be at level 5 to be use. Being able to build up your skill gauge is the key to having a successful battle. Burst: Burst Chain is actually a new feature in this game. You have what you would call a Burst gauge at the lower left hand corner. Once the Burst gauge is filled, you would go into Burst Chain Mode. When this happen, your Skill gauge will fill up to level 9 right away and all damage and skill attacks will be twice as powerful. During this short period of time, you can unleash some very powerful attacks to finish off strong bosses in the game. Understanding and achieving Burst Chain Mode is the best way to defeating most of the bosses in the game. Overall the gameplay isn't too bad. It's very easy to get into and learn without having to read the instruction book. And if you've played any Atelier Iris game before than you'd have no problem understanding how the mechanics of this game work. The game is really set up as a great beginner's rpg game. From that stand point, hardcore rpgers may find this game lacking in terms of overall interest and features. The game can be very fun at times while on the other hand after a few hours into the game say after the 8 hours mark, it can be quite boring at times. Spending all your time doing different small quests over and over will wear you out eventually. And without a strong storyline to drive you forward, you might find the gameplay becoming stale after 20 hours into it. I would say Atelier Iris 3 gameplay is strictly for Atelier Iris fans and if you not into Atelier Iris than you be better off skipping this gameplay.

Score: 7/10

Wow, look at all those quests.      Unfortunately there's not much of an offering when it comes to extras and replay value during the game. The game does have lots of various quests to accomplish but those quests are part of the main story gameplay as oppose to extra side quests. You need to do quests in order to gain Guild points to boost your Raider Rank to accept story missions. So for the most part, quests from the Guild are practically mandatory to do. There are optional side quests from the Guild that doesn't reward Guild points that you can choose to take or not to take and they do provide various alchemist items that you can use in Alchemy but these optional side quests are too short or even worthwhile to be really consider side quests as an extra value incentive. The game does provide two different endings, a normal ending and a true ending in the game, depending if you are able to complete all the quests from the Guild. But outside of this, the game doesn't provide anything else in terms of extras, no major optional side quests, no mini games, no extra dungeons or areas to explore, and no extra bosses to fight. There is one good thing though and that is after you complete the game and made a Save+ clear file, the Extra option menu will appear at the title screen. The Extra menu provides you with images of all the characters in the game, a library list of all the items in the game, and all the musical scores from the game. The musical scores is the big treat in the Extra menu if you are a huge fan of Atelier Iris 3 music. Still, the game could have provided much more in terms of extra and replay value.

Atelier Iris 3 is a decent rpg game that can help rpg fans past the time when they don't really have any other major rpg games to play. I guess you can say Atelier Iris 3 is an appetizer before dinner. The problem that prevent Atelier Iris 3 from being a big rpg game is that the story and characters in the game are too lightly develop that gamers may lose interest in the game after the half way point. The gameplay itself is too focus on doing various side quests than an actual storyline gameplay that prevent the overall story of Atelier Iris 3 from having any real flow. It's still is a good light hearted rpg game for fans to play and enjoy, just don't expect too much out of it though. Final Score: 6.2/10