Rhapsody III: Memories of Marl Kingdom Reviews

[SPOILER-FREE REVIEW] I played Rhapsody 1 and 2, and this latest game left me satisfied. This game feels more like a "complement" to the story developed in Rhapsody 1 and 2. If you haven't played Rhapsody 1 and 2, you wouldn't understand Rhapsody 3. Chapter 1: A filler story for Rhapsody 1, it doesn't add much. Chapter 2: A continuation of the ending of Rhapsody 2. Chapter 3: A filler story about Marjoly, it doesn't add much. Chapter 4: A supplementary story about Akurjo, set at the prologue of Rhapsody 2. Chapter 5: The prequel to Rhapsody 1, featuring Cornet's mother (Cherie). This is the most worthwhile story because it explains many plot holes. Chapter 6: The Final Battle. It doesn't add much to the story; it's more of a (very exciting) fan service. It's a moderately satisfying conclusion. Battle System: It's a turn-based RPG, but you control an "army" of 16 characters. Of these, the four front-line characters are the leaders, and the remaining 12 are support characters. You can't just casually assign characters, as this will positively or negatively affect the leaders. You can recruit monsters to fight as allies. Difficulty: It starts off tricky (I lost my very first battle) if you're not used to the new system. Once you understand it, it gets easier. The problem is that you'll have to level a lot if you don't want to be defeated by the bosses. Graphics: 2D sprites recycled from previous games, but the stages are in 3D (that's the new feature). Aesthetically beautiful. Music: Practically everything is recycled from previous games. Cons: - The stages are small, with not much to explore. They're recycled often. - Sometimes you have to level a lot to keep advancing, due to the artificial difficulty. - Items don't explicitly tell you what effects they have. For example, instead of telling you "Attack +15, Speed +20," they only say "increases attack and speed." To find out their explicit effects, you have to equip them to characters and compare. - Until the end of the game, they don't tell you that certain items affect a character's stats each time they level up. Really? - It's obvious this game was a low-budget game, due to the heavy asset recycling. - Having too many characters to manage at the same time can be frustrating. Supposedly, this isn't the final game in the franchise, but "La Pucelle" would be (or rather, it would be the "bridge" between Rhapsody and Disgaea), although I'm not entirely sure yet. I wish there were more "cute" games like this, with "strong" female protagonists, and that was the reason I wanted to play Rhapsody (and also because I'm a fan of Rhapsody of Fire and Luca Turilli).