7th Dragon III Code: VFD Review (3DS)
Okay, let’s get this out of the way – the title of this game is pretty ridiculous. That said, I enjoyed it far more than the demo ever hinted that I could and I spent the majority of one of my days playing it. Thankfully, I didn’t need prior experience with the series to enjoy this one.
7th Dragon follows your character as they’re hired by Nodens to defeat dragons that are invading your world and other timelines – don’t worry, you passed an aptitude test via a game to show you’re the right person for the job! After creating your character and the rest of your team, you’re sent to different periods throughout time to slay the dragons that have appeared and to ensure that history continues as it originally had done. Whilst you have the power to defeat huge monsters, do you also have the power to ignore those who need help just because that’s how it previously was? It’s interesting and provides enough depth to easily continue playing although it’s a shame that all of your playable characters get close to no fleshing out.
I didn’t need prior experience with the series to enjoy this one.
Being a dungeon-crawler, you’d be excused for thinking that you’d be forced to grind for a couple of hours here and there. Thankfully, as long as you aren’t frequently running away from battles, you’ll level up at a natural pace where minimum grinding is necessary. Traversal is quick and I didn’t find myself getting lost often – something I can’t say for a good few other games in the genre! The battling is addicting – I may or may not have spent 7 or so hours on my day off playing it – and easily accessible, making this a great entry point for those looking to play dungeon-crawlers but are not very familiar with them. 7th Dragon III’s dungeon design made it quite fun collecting treasures and searching every nook and cranny too, thanks to dungeons being easy to navigate.
The battles themselves are in first-person, as opposed the dungeon-crawling being in third-person, but the character models appear once attacking which adds a lot of character and flair to the game. You have a party of 3 along with other teams which can be used for support moves, such as healing you of negative ailment status’, and with a wide range of classes to choose from you can have a varied, unique team fit to take down all foes. It’s not a wholly challenging game but that doesn’t stop it from being fun, and it doesn’t prevent you from getting your arse handed to you on a few occasions either! You can customise all your characters however you like and at times you’ll be forced to use another team but fear not, all party members gain experience even when not in battle, so you don’t have to grind out each time – however, you’ll want to prepare equipment for everyone!
This a great entry point for those looking to play dungeon-crawlers.
As is standard, the 3DS doesn’t do justice for spectacular 2D artwork but regardless, the character designs are colourful and intricate and making characters was a joy! The 3D models are chibi-style which is cute and they animate well, and the art design (again, I love the character designs) is fantastic – it’s a very pretty game with much to happily look at. The voice-over is Japanese-only and the subtitles are easy on the eyes, and it seems to be very well-casted. The soundtrack contains some pretty jammin’ tracks with battles accompanied by synth-rock tunes, and there are several relaxing tracks featuring piano and more synth! The soundtrack really is great and I’d happily listen to it outside of the game – composer Yuzo Koshiro’s work here shouldn’t go unnoticed.
7th Dragon III Code: VFD is a brilliant 3DS dungeon-crawler despite its confusing name which will likely turn some people away from it, sadly. An engaging game that acts as a great entry point for newcomers to dungeon-crawlers and one that offers plenty of fun to those familiar with them, 7th Dragon III Code: VFD is worth picking up and should keep you busy for a couple dozen of hours. I didn’t know what a 7th Dragon really was until I played this but now it’s a series I’ll be keeping an eye on in future.
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