It's a risky move by SEGA. Fans of the Bleach games obviously enjoy the extravagant fights and side scrolling action that has been present throughout. Fans of turn-based strategy games may not be familiar with the franchise, which started nearly a decade ago. There is the distinct possibility of alienating both audiences, and sadly the gamble doesn't pay off.
Due to the limited western release of previous games, Gamestyle is quite happy to admit that they have little experience and knowledge of the Bleach franchise. It doesn't help matters that the game hits the ground running, and you're immediately plunged into a battle between Soul Reapers (Spirit enforcers, who ensure that souls travel smoothly between the human world and the after life) and Hollows (mischievous souls who aren't behaving as they should). With a less-than-helpful instruction manual, it takes a few turns to get to grips with the combat system, but once the battle was in full flow, Gamestyle had high hopes for The 3rd Phantom.
People familiar with turn-based strategy games should take little time to settle with The 3rd Phantom. Battles are split into phases: the player's turn, and then the enemy's turn. The battle ends when the winning condition is met, which is usually the destruction of all the enemy forces, or if your opponent kills one of your key characters. In order to attack an enemy, you must manoeuvre one of your characters to an adjacent square on the game grid, which give you the option to unleash a powerful strike. An automated fight then takes place, and the amount of damage dealt and received depends on the various stats of the characters involved.
It's an established system, but The 3rd Phantom manages to add some unique and interesting elements to set it apart from its rivals. The first is "Reishi", which is a mystical ether-like mist which flows through the battle field. The shade of the square determines the concentration of Reishi in the air, and if a character stands on a square containing Reishi, his attack, skills, and defence are raised. A character can also use up their turn in absorbing the Reishi in the squares surrounding them, filling up their pressure, or "PRS" meter. This has a positive affect on their teamwork, which is another area in which The 3rd Phantom shines.
Before a battle each character can be linked with another, and during an attack, you can select an ally to assist you in either attack or defence. The effectiveness of this is determined by the amount of PRS both characters have, but it provides a further strategic element to the battle. By ensuring that you have players adjacent to each other (and therefore being able to use the support feature), it gives you a certain degree of freedom in attacks. Weaker characters can be guarded by stronger ones, or gain xp points by having help in defeating stronger opponents.
Another element that works well is the superiority system. Much like Fire Emblem, each character has a strength which works well against another, in a scissors-paper-stone system. Speed characters have an advantage over Technical characters, ,Technique over Power, and Power over Speed. The advantage is a boost in power and accuracy, and also the ability to perform a follow-up attack. Whilst this system is not particularly revolutionary, the option to defend or counter-attack when attacked is a good feature. Again, this has tactical implications, and deciding to guard, or leave yourself open to heavy damage and attack, can be key to victory.
After this first battle, with its impressive battle animations and good sound effects, Gamestyle were buoyed, and eager to press on. The 3rd Phantom had other ideas, however. What ensues is a seemingly endless string of text conversations, between a plethora of characters, that slow the pace of the game down to that akin of a snail on glue. Fans of Bleach may like the scene-setting, character-revealing exchanges about apples and chores, but they add little to the game, and do nothing but frustrate as you strive to return to the battle field. It's no exaggeration that in the first 2 hours of The 3rd Phantom, Gamestyle played three battles, and these were fairly short.
To make matters worse, in between battles your character is given the opportunity to spend some "free time" around the training facilities. This involves a mini-game of sorts, where by you have to move along a path in set amounts of steps. To move along the path you must choose from a list of characters. Each character carries a certain number of steps, and by choosing that character, you move that number of steps. If you land on certain squares, you gain power-ups and stat increases, which help you in battle. There are pits on the path, and if you land on these, the free time is over, and you lose the chance to collect further items. It is fairly entertaining to try and ensure that you reach the goal, landing on all the items and avoiding the pitfalls, but the journey there is so tedious that it feels more like a punishment. Choosing a character just opens up a further exchange between the two parties. You have to sit through a mind-numbing conversation, without the option to skip, just to move a couple of steps. You can, of course, choose to land on a pit, putting you out of your misery, but it's not a good sign when you're contemplating virtual suicide in a game due to boredom.
It really is a shame, because the time spent inbetween battles completely ruins the fun and entertainment that the battles themselves produced. It leaves you with no interest in the story, characters, or perfecting your squad. It perhaps wouldn't be so bad if there was the ability to skip the great chunks of dialogue that litter the screen, or even if there wasn't a slight delay between pressing the continue button and the next text bubble appearing (mark Gamestyle's words - this will be more apparent the longer the game goes on). Gamestyle struggles to believe that even hardcore Bleach fans would find this interesting, especially as previous games in the series have been high in the action stakes.
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