The Denpa Men 3 takes the features and ideas of the first two games and expands upon them, making a complex JRPG with plenty of systems to master.
The Denpa Men 3: The Rise of Digitoll
Developer: Genius Sonority
Price: $10
Platform: 3DS (eShop)
An eShop code was supplied to us
If you have played the previous two Denpa Men games you already know what to expect from “The Rise of the Digitoll.” Genius Sonority has taken their experience from working on established RPG franchises like Pokemon and Dragon quest and made something of their own which takes advantage of the uniqueness of the 3DS.
The Denpa Men are these creatures that live in radio waves that can be captured with an in game antenna. Each of WiFi access point offers a unique Denpa that can be recaptured if they fall in battle. This encourages the player to take 3DS with them when they leave the house. The actual capture process uses the motion sensors and the camera of the 3DS, and has the player shoot the costumed men out of the air. The whole process is very similar to the gameplay of the 3DS AR game, Face Raiders. I found this quite enjoyable and gave me a reason to lug my 3DS to new areas, searching for new WiFi access points to build a more diverse party.
The core gameplay The Rise of Digitoll” is difficult to describe without making the comparison to the Pokemon series. player controls a maximum of 8 Denpa Men in a party and take place in turn based advantage and weakness based combat. Each Denpa has elemental strengths and weaknesses which impact their battle performance. Traversing through the game’s various dungeons running into enemies triggers a turn based battle. You can assign individual commands to the Denpa Men or you can choose from predetermined group wide strategies like “Go for it” which encourages the Denpa AI to use physical attacks and skills, “Pinch” which restricts to only physical attacks combined with the use of recovery items. These battle strategies are a great method to speed through some of the more repetitive fights.
Each Denpa can also be customized with their own gear from head to toe. The gear provides crucial stat bonuses but can also change elemental strengths and weaknesses. I enjoyed the cosmetic changes that the equipment adds to the Denpa Men, It made things easy for me to recognize my favorite Denpa and laugh at their goofy costumes during intense battles.
I found the game to be very challenging when I would go into battle with a full group of the first Denpa I could catch. The combat is made easier by taking the time to tune your party to the types of enemies you expect to encounter. Unfortunately the strengths and weaknesses of the enemies aren’t surfaced and need to be discovered through trial and error. The typical grinding that a JRPG usually has, is not as nessicary. The Rise of Digitoll lets players capture new Denpa Men at a scaled level which is based on their strongest party member. This means that when you catch new Denpa you don’t have to worry about training them or leveling up, even Denpa Men you caught but haven’t been using will scale up. This let me focus on party members and Denpa power strategies instead of micro managing every one individually.
New to the Denpa Men series is the deep customization options available to the areas where the Denpa Men live. Each house can be customized with different furniture giving each home a personalized feel, “Animal Crossing” style. Customization items are found throughout the world in chests, and sometimes a Denpa will give you an item as soon as you catch them. Additionally there are sections of the home town where plants and trees can be grown. They later can be used to give bonuses to individual Denpa. I didn’t engage in these systems very often during my time with The Rise of Digitoll because the home decorating didn’t have any direct impact on the stats. I would like to have seen these cosmetic changes impact the
The Final Word
The Denpa Men 3 Rise of Digitoll is a good followup the the other games in the series. The story is lacking any real substance, closely following JRPG cliche and tropes, but the quirky writing keeps the players interested and encourages players to seek out new conversations. The combat is tough. It will not be an easy game you can blindly walk through, paying attention If you are looking for a system heavy JRPG with some clever 3DS exclusive mechanics you need to download The Rise of Digitoll.
– MonsterVine Rating: 3.5 out of 5 – Fair
