God Eater 3 is a breath of fresh air for the God Eater franchise. It does not change much in terms of how the game is played, but what it does do is profoundly improve on a lot of its previous systems and its mechanics. God Eater 3 does bring a new mission type into the game that involves 8 players and new features that lets you customize your playstyle a lot more. This is where I will start my tale of how I no lifed my weekend away because it was tough to pull myself away. This is our God Eater 3 review.
If you have never played a God Eater game before nor seen the anime or read any of the mangas, God Eater is set in a world where humanity is pushed to the brink of extinction due to creatures called Aragami. The God Eater games are Action-RPG’s where you custom create a character and much more, especially much more in this third installment. You can further set yourself apart from your fellow God Eaters now. Let's jump into it!
When starting the game, we are opened with an impressive opening cinematic that gets you in the mood for slaying some aragami. The character creator seems more robust than it was in the previous versions. There are a large number of accessories to make yourself look as unique as you want. The standard set of God Arcs (weapons you use) have increased with the addition of 3 new weapons; Biting Edge, Heavy Moon, and Raygun. Out of the new weapons, I find that I do like the Biting Edge more. I've always been a fan of dual blades, but Scythe will still be my primary. Biting-Edge has some fast attack combos whereas the Heavy Moon has some heavy hitting slow swings and a nice charge attack that is like a chainsaw. The charge attack can be pretty hard to land when the aragami is not knocked down.
We start off the story taking place sometime after God Eater 2. The story definitely goes somewhere different as you start locked up and treated as a prisoner and tool. If you played the demo, you would remember that. God Eater's are seen as tools to be used and thrown away when they break. Easily replaceable would be the term with how many abandoned God Arcs you find all the time. The landscape has changed, and aragami are stronger than ever, now having the ability to devour and burst as God Eaters do. It's evident that it is going to be a story of freedom, independence, and liberation from a system that treats others as replaceable, sacrificial pawns used to save humanity.
The combat in the game is a lot more fast-paced than it is in the previous versions. I would say that is due to the new dive mechanic that lets you sort of dash across the battlefield quickly and the improvements made to the combat overall. The fun and intense battles have been one of the main reasons it has been hard to put down the game. Also wanting to collect every god arc whether I use them or not has been taking up my time. The battles have been so much fun that I can not help but want to step out from under my primary weapon, the Scythe, and try the other weapons.
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Customization
Now let's talk customization as that is a big part of the game. There are many ways to set yourself apart now. Skill Install enables you to install skills into your weapons and shield from old busted god arcs that you find on the battlefield. You don't actually see them, but after you beat the primary target, you will be rewarded some randomly. You can take skills from those which will increase your attack, hp, or some aspect of your playstyle and put them in your weapon. If you want a stronger skill, you can combine them to rebuild a random skill at a higher level.
Along with skill install there is an Engage Affect system where you and a partner can share buffs during battle. There are many engage effects to unlock but only one can be used during battle so hope that your partner has a different result. These effects act as buffs like skills increasing stats or whatever suits your playstyle. If you are like me and use a lot of burst arts, an excellent way to get some damage in with the scythe, Burst Crescendo might be the engage effect you want to equip increasing your burst art power by 15%.
I can’t bring up Engage affects without bringing up Acceleration Triggers, another type of buff system that you unlocks for your character. These triggers like engage effects, give you attack buffs, defense buffs, many different results depending on which you equip. I found that not all of the acceleration triggers are easy to trigger. The Avenger trigger requires you to avoid taking damage for 20 seconds. This is nearly impossible for me most times. As with Burst Arts, the more you use a trigger in battle the more it levels up.
Then last but not least there are Burst Control Units that also provides a different kind of buff depending on the playstyle you are going for. Some BCU's will affect skills while others may reduce stamina costs or resist killing blows. As you can see, there are many ways to customize your character to make it your own and set it apart from those that you run into. Many God Eaters may use the same weapon but rarely will you see many that play the exact same.
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The Grind
The customization does not come without a certain kind of grind. To craft different weapons and unlock new engage effects, burst control units, acceleration triggers, you have to get out there and fight aragami and make money. For engage effects you need to get EP to unlock them and to do that is to play Assualt Missions. Assault Missions are the new 8 player boss fights against powerful Ash Aragami. This is also the way to come across new Engage Affects that other God Eaters may be using. The battles are tough being that you only have 5 minutes to beat the boss. More points are awarded for succeeding. Either way, you get EP and Engage Effects to unlock at the end, so have fun with it even if you fail.
BCU recipes can be bought from the vagrant merchant that pops up from time to time on the caravan. Recipes mean needing crafting materials, and those are the same that you use for making weapons and shields as well as other items. This is where I say the grind happens but as with games of this type you would not be playing if it was not something you came to expect. At the same time, its has these goals to want to craft something that you need for your style of play that keeps you playing along with the good fights to get the materials. I have repeatedly found myself hopping into a random player's multiplayer group to help them out as well as farm material and get money. For me I found it to be a useful and fun method to farm and trust me money will be needed so you will farm or sell materials you don't need.
Conclusion
God Eater 3 has been so much fun for me as I love anime and anime-styled games. The fighting in the battles is smoother than in the previous ones. The gameplay sometimes can get repetitive, but finding a reason to keep going that keeps it fun along with the battles. It doesn't bother me, but I know that for some the reuse of area maps and aragami can be repetitive. The story is excellent, and I love where it has gone with God Eaters. Animations are great, especially the cutscenes where it mixes 2D and 3D. Also, Assault Missions have been really fun. The only thing to bother me so far has been the slow walking animations in the hub, but I got over it when I remembered I could run. Overall I’ve been enjoying the trying to complete my set and collect every Scythe. I’m okay with that, the game is fun.
SCORE: 8.5
Pros
- Lots of customization
- Fun Battles
- Great Story
Cons
- Will be repetitive to some
Note: Our copy was reviewed on PS4 with a code provided by PR.
