The Spectral Force series has been a long-running franchise in Japan for some time now, with several different entries for the series landing on systems back to the original PlayStation. However, none of the entries have ever seen release in North America, until now. Courtesy of Atlus and series developer Idea Factory, Spectral Force 3 is the first entry of the series for the Xbox 360 as well as the first to arrive on our shores. Originally released two years ago in Japan, Spectral Force 3 is a barebones strategy-RPG that eschews fancy graphics and newer elements in favor of a decidedly old-school approach. Unfortunately, it’s this approach that disappoints, as the game does nothing to move the strategy-RPG genre, playing and looking like a relic from the early PS2 games.

Spectral Force 3 follows its predecessors by having you play as a group of mercenaries in a war-torn world referred to as Neverland. As this is the first entry of the series to see release in North America, it feels a bit arbitrary to finally launch the series right in the middle of things. Also, the plot and dialogue isn’t really as interesting or compelling as you may hope, which will be disappointing to fans of the series who’ve imported prior entries, as well as to those that are new to the franchise looking for a starting point.

While the game is a pretty standard strategy-RPG, it does feel a bit like an action-RPG title at certain moments. While in battle, you’ll be able to move your characters around their grid using the left thumbstick, similar to moving your characters around in an action-RPG. Also, the attacks are mapped to the face buttons, allowing you to perform light, medium and heavy attacks, which will drain your AP (your character’s turn limit) depending on the attack’s strength.

Aside from the action-oriented control scheme, Spectral Force 3 is pretty standard fare for the SRPG genre. The battles are broken up by dialogue-heavy cutscenes meant to move the story along, after which you can select where you’d like to go next. The battles each have similar victory conditions, usually stemming from killing off a certain enemy on the map or taking them all out. Pretty run-of-the-mill stuff, and nothing that you haven’t already seen from the genre for years.

Graphically, Spectral Force 3 isn’t a terribly impressive-looking game. In fact, it looks about on the caliber of an early PS2 game, albeit in high-definition. The character models are pretty simplistic, and the environments aren’t very detailed.

Soundwise, the game doesn’t fare much better than the graphical presentation. The battlefield effects are pretty low-end, and the voice acting is pretty dull and nothing to get excited about. The cut scenes are done in anime style and look good enough, but the sound effects sound compressed and tinny. The music is also pretty bland as well, getting repetitive before too long.

Spectral Force 3 is a decidedly “low-rent” strategy-RPG, done pretty cheaply and it shows. The aesthetic is not what you’d expect from an Xbox 360 this late in the game, and the gameplay doesn’t do much to move the genre forward. The story also leaves quite a bit to be desired, ranking as a weak point for the franchise as well as a convoluted one for newcomers, making it quite difficult to recommend.

Gameplay: 5.5
While the action-RPG influenced controls are easy enough to get into, the game’s old-school approach doesn’t do much to move the genre forward.

Graphics: 5.0
The simple textures and bland environments look like they were pulled from an early PS2 game.

Sound: 5.0
Weak voice acting, compressed sound effects, and bland music line out the sound presentation.

Difficulty: Hard

Concept: 5.0
The game’s storyline is convoluted for newcomers, and unimpressive for series vets

Overall: 5.0
Spectral Force 3 is a throwback to older days from the genre, but feels a bit too antiquated and uninteresting to be recommendable.