Known in Japan as Denpa Ningen no RPG 3 and released last August and known as The Denpa Men 3: The Rise Of Digitoll in the West releasing earlier this month, this review is almost a mash-up of the two versions with both played although local (to me!) language version obviously favoured. Developed by Genius Sonority and obviously drawing comparisons with both the Dragon Quest series (the President once worked on the series) and the Mother series (who several members of the team worked on) but with this third Denpa Men title many other game series rear their cute cuddly heads.
Decorating the Denpa homes brings to mind Animal Crossing, the dungeon layouts remind me of the two The Legend of Zelda DS games, the all-out attacks resemble Pikmin onslaught from the Pikmin series and the capturing of monsters (which in turn join your party) Dragon Quest Monsters. This is not to imply that Denpa Ningen no RPG 3 lacks its own identity nor that it lacks cohesion as neither can be further from the truth. If anyone hasn’t played a Denpa Man game before then not only are they in for a treat but chronologically speaking the third game works as a prequel and thus a perfect place to begin.
Your game starts almost like Face Raiders but where instead of firing at the enemies you merely capture them (they are not enemies dammit!) with your net and have them join your party. Denpa Men with antennae have AP which is the equivalent of JRPG MP and are the most sought after (after the cute Denpa Men – cute Denpa Men with antennae are simply godly!). Initially four Denpa Men can be used in battle (although this soon doubles) and you are ready for action! Beginning in your village you do your normal village things (shop, chat and rob from people’s homes) before dungeon time begins.
Dungeon and overworld battles aren’t random affairs as you can see the enemies onscreen (although some are quicker than your leading Denpa Man!) with the actual battles effectively revolve around you as a strategist telling your Denpa Men what strategy to deploy each turn as opposed to controlling each individual Denpa Man’s move, and surprisingly works well. Overworld movement is via Ship (boat not air), Secret of Mana cannons or just via the X button which warps your Denpa Men into any previously visited main area which kinda nullifies a lot of needless walking around often found in the JRPG genre.
A lot of other areas are simplified -or made simple- in this game, most prominently the replenishment of all players’ HP and AP when entering any village area which isn’t to say the game doesn’t present a challenge as it does without a level of grinding (although not to hardcore levels). This over-user friendliness does leave the player with a lesser feeling of reward and the game also suffers in certain other areas due to several back-and-forths (nothing too severe but it does make it less playable in the Japanese language), some uninspired enemies and a mostly disappointing (due to high expectations) soundtrack.
Fortunately none of the criticisms affect the enjoyment of the game in any major way (apart from possibly the language barrier if playing a Japanese copy) and the third Denpa title is mostly full of great graphics, absolute charm, a lengthy quest (I’m 15 hours in and not close to the end), a brilliant battle system, great controls and more importantly a thoroughly enjoyable traditional JRPG experience that doesn’t just happen to be possibly the greatest JRPG on the eShop or just one of the greatest games on the eShop but is also up there head and antennas with most retail titles costing upwards of five times as many GP.
8/10
Review by Bri Bri. For more information on Denpa Ningen no RPG 3 go to http://www.denpaningen.jp
