Review for God Eater 3. Game for PC, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 13/12/2018 The version for PC came out on 08/02/2019 The version for Nintendo Switch came out on 12/07/2019
When years ago, on the now venerable PSP, we approached the first God Eater, we were pleasantly surprised. Reinterpreting Monster Hunter with a more action footprint and a different artistic inspiration is a simple idea that proved to be a winner. Today, playing God Eater 3 on PlayStation 4, we fail to share that same euphoria. The first title was a nice surprise, but it showed evident flaws from many points of view, flaws that should have disappeared gradually, chapter after chapter; unfortunately Bandai Namco seems to have rested a little on the laurels of the satisfying success of the series, given that the steps forward are practically non-existent.
The beginning of God Eater 3 is already a first demonstration of what characterizes the title negatively: the lack of care in dealing with one's strengths. We begin the adventure in a prison, creating our character and witnessing the transformation of the latter into a God Eater through the tremendous transformation treatments. The atmosphere is well done, and there is the potential for something interesting in the very early stages, but it's already starting to glimpse how Bandai Namco didn't want to overdo it. The well-constructed mood in the first few minutes is soon broken by the character creation section. The editor is very limited, more than that of Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet even, with which it shares the graphics engine. This makes the models of the characters in the game, many of which based on the aforementioned creator, rather trivial and easily emulated by the player who could find himself playing with a character identical to an NPC. The customization options increase as the adventure progresses, but it is still quite limited.
Even glossing over this “secondary” element, God Eater 3 soon betrays itself also from the point of view of writing and atmosphere, removing any semblance of originality from the scenario and placing us in a banal and obvious adventure. So here is one of the main points in favor of God Eater compared to Monster Hunter that is missing, given that the dialogues and videos will be for a good 90% simple obstacles between one mission and another; at this juncture the aggravating circumstance of having a bad narrative pacing is also underlined, forcing the player to turn to the main hub to talk to the NPCs before every single mission, even to communicate useless information. This obviously stands as an obstacle to the frenetic pace on which such a title should aim.
In addition to the bad management, even the narration itself, as already mentioned, is forgettable, with rather banal characters and implications and some flashes of good deed present in the rare animated videos exceptionally from the Ufotable studio (responsible for the animation of the opening of Tales of, God Eater and the anime taken from the aforementioned games).
A different type of defect can be found in the artistic sector. What is lacking here is not simple care for one's work, but a heavier element: The God Eater 3 engine is used the same way as seen in many other Bandai Namco titles... and the graphic and aesthetic impact no longer makes it as it once did: God Eater 3 can only seem an “old” game, with many low-definition textures in the backdrops and no interactivity with the environments that can be visited.
Il design general does not help particularly, since it proposes few hints of originality and a rather limited color palette that can tire easily. This is reflected in every element, monsters, npc, environments.
Fortunately, there are glimmers of positivity when analyzing the gameplay. The action core that made it fresh, compared to the competition, remained intact, giving God Eater 3 the potential to be fun for many, many hours. The weapon upgrade system is not as broad and complex as in Monster Hunter World, but it is not necessarily a bad thing, on the contrary, God Eater 3 stands as a simpler and more user friendly alternative to Capcom's behemot. This is also found in the duration of the battles themselves, never more than thirty minutes and often solvable in 15-20 while remaining at an excellent difficulty. Unfortunately there are also here negative details to report: the lack of real news it's a well-functioning but very retrograde online sector further penalize the title.
Positive note for the soundtrack: it's not memorable, but offers a great accompaniment. Good idea to link certain songs to specific races of monsters, so as to maintain a constant mood in the battles between the various Aragami of the same species.
God Eater 3 is on the safe side, too safe for our liking. Although an insufficiency is impossible to assign, given the good core of gameplay, the game stands as an exemplary refusal to evolve a franchise with immense potential. Fans of the series will still find hours and hours of fun in God Eater 3, but the game offers nothing to recommend it to those unfamiliar with the brand, other than its being much lighter and more affordable than Monster Hunter. At the same time, however, the comparison with the latter is inevitable and fatal for God Eater 3, which remains retrograde and unable to act as a rival of the Capcom behemot as it managed to be years and years ago on PSP.
► God Eater 3 is an Action-RPG type game developed and published by Bandai Namco for PC, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 13/12/2018 The version for PC came out on 08/02/2019 The version for Nintendo Switch came out on 12/07/2019
