Summary
Lost in translation
The Good
In the same way SoR 2 improved on pretty much every aspect of the first, this one also improved on a fair number of areas. The minimal plot of the previous games, only told at the starting sequence now develops between the game with some cutscenes, and now there are a few different endings depending on well you do some key parts.
Gameplay was also tweaked a bit: it's now possible to run with any character, as well as perform a defensive roll left and right (or more accurately, up and down). Weapons now can be used a certain number of times before breaking, instead of magically vanishing every third time it is dropped, and Axel's Rising Upper was toned down... until the player reaches two or more stars. Then, it becomes more powerful (and spectacular) than before, but gaining such ranking requires a lot of beating to be done, and each death means a setback. Level-design wise, death pits and traps re-appeared, making levels a lot more varied and opens strategies missing from the second. The developers weren't shy on that, and most levels include a part with them.
The ability to play as Shiva is interesting, although he's far too strong to be taken seriously.
The Bad
I really don't know what went through through the heads of Sega of America executives with this game. Making a few changes to close a bit on cultural differences (such as the removal of the character Ash - with all the noise about video game violence, the last thing they needed was accusations of gay bashing) is acceptable; butcher the story left and right
because they could, change the character colours for
no reason whatsoever and make the game
impossibly hard are the reasons why the game is so lowly regarded among fans of the series. And not only is impossibly hard, but the ending is crippled for those who don't select anything but the
hardest difficulty settings. Yeah, there's no doubt SoA knew how to screw up a game completely.
Surprisingly, the music isn't even half as good as the previous efforts. I've read somewhere the music was rendered rather than composed, which explains how Ventolin-ish it occasionally sounds like.
The Bottom Line
On an interesting note, the same SoA refused to give a green light on a SoR4 project for the Dreamcast. So not only they spoiled the last game, but also effectively killed the series. Nice.
Anyway, the game strikes me as a bit of a paradox. While its improvements come in the line of the previous games, making the game effectively
better, the butchering of the game at the hands of SoA spoiled most of the game with idiotic changes and an incoherent plot. My advice is to play the original Japanese game with a translation of the plot at hand.
