Further Info: "Tales of the World: Narikiri Dungeon 3" was released for the GameBoy Advance on January 6th, 2005 in Japan, selling 123,000 copies. Although the game's title includes the words "Narikiri Dungeon", this game is not a direct sequel to the previous game in the series, Tales of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon, but is similar in various ways. While the game is a direct sequel to Tales of the World: Narikiri Dungeon 2, the game has its own individual new story. The two main characters (detailed below) are back, and the game features characters from previous "Tales of..." games (Tales of Phantasia, Tales of Destiny, Tales of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon, Tales of Eternia, Tales of Destiny 2, and Tales of Symphonia) who fight alongside the two main characters. This game is not multi-player, and one can only switch out Frio or Kyaro for the first slot in party formation, and the character in this first slot will be who the player controls during battle. This game focuses more on battling and its quest system than any sort of a deep story or even necessarily character-depth. Much of the game is spent going on quests for townspeople and "Tales of..." heroes, and fighting and growing stronger throughout the process.
Story Info: Frio Sven and Kyaro Olange have always heard and loved to listen to stories and legends about the adventures of the "Tales of..." heroes. The local town genius, Dr. Brown, along with Frio and Kyaro, discover an ancient machine one day that can travel through space and time. Dr. Brown fixes it up, and Frio and Kyaro decide to call it the "Dream" since it can take them to the areas of "Tales of..." heroes, which is what they dream about. One day Frio notices that one of his stories has a different ending, in that an evil villain has started to travel through time and disrupt the "Tales of..." heroes efforts! To help our two modern-day heroes, Dr. White (who is actually Dr. Brown from the future) offers them "Narikirishi" clothes that allow them to take on the powers of whatever clothes they wear. Along with the Narikirishi power, Frio and Kyaro vow to travel through time and fight alongside their "Tales of..." heroes in order to rectify this problem!
Characters:
- Frio Sven
- Kyaro Olange
- This game also uses characters from Tales of Phantasia, Tales of Destiny, Tales of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon, Tales of Eternia, Tales of Destiny 2, and Tales of Symphonia who fight alongside the two main heroes
Skill/Spell System: Regarding the two main characters, they learn spells/skills depending upon what costume they are wearing, and they learn new moves by leveling up. Regarding the other cameo "Tales of..." characters in the game, they mostly have their spells/skills that they learn from the original "Tales of..." game from which the character hails, and they learn new skills/spells when they level up. With skills/spells, one configures four skills/spells to be used in conjunction with the "B" button and a combination of a D-Pad direction and the "B" button, for the human-controlled character in the first slot. i.e., one skill is performed by pressing the B button by itself, another skill is performed by pressing the up button+B button, another with down button+B button, and another with left or right+B button.
Battle System Info: Tales of the World: Narikiri Dungeon 3 uses the exact same battle system as Tales of the World: Narikiri Dungeon 2. It features the beloved Linear Motion Battle System (LMB), original to the "Tales of..." series. The brand of LMB offered in this game can be thought of as "Condensed Linear Motion Battle System", and feels very similar to the LMB system used by Tales of Eternia (but it is not the actually the same engine, by any means). That having been said, in battle, the party fights on a single plane with enemies. The human character can fight with an attack button, use skills/spells, enter the menu, block, and target enemies. However, new to this game is a strategy element before one gets into the normal battle sequences. That is, similarly to Tales of the World: Summoner's Lineage, this game utilizes maps in which the player moves different units that do battle, against another team's units. Now each unit on the map can hold anywhere from 1-3 battle characters, and can be any mixture of Frio/ or Kyaro/or various "Tales of..." cameo characters that have been collected. Within the menus, one can re-arrange units, teams, equipment, abilities, costumes, and totally customize each map unit. Then, one moves the battle units across the map, and when the unit touches a unit from the opposing team (or a unit on the opposing team touches the player's unit), battle ensues, and one is carried back to an identical Tales of the World: Narikiri Dungeon 2 battle engine.
- When one presses the Menu button (Select), one can pick "Spells/Skills", "Strategy", Item", and "Formation".
- As stated above, every character in the game has spells/skills of some sort. With the human-controlled player in the first slot, one configures four skills/spells to be used in conjunction with the "B" button and a combination of a D-Pad direction and the "B" button, for the human-controlled character in the first slot. i.e., one skill is performed by pressing the B button by itself, another skill is performed by pressing the up button+B button, another with down button+B button, and another with left or right+B button. Choosing a non-human controlled character allows you to command the character to cast a spell/perform a skill.
- Choosing "Strategy" allows the player to individually set AI-controlled characters' battle strategy (how the character moves, attacks enemies, etc.)
- The "Item" option allows the player to enter the item menus and choose an item to use during battle. New to this game's battle system is that the entire battle pauses whenever an item is being used.
- The "Formation" option allows the player to set the physical location of each member of the battle party.
- The D-Pad allows the player to move the human-controlled player in the first party slot.
- The Select Button enters the menu.
- The Start Button pauses the game.
- The L Button blocks.
- The R Button allows player to change targeted enemy.
- The A Button attacks.
- The B Button is used for skills (detailed above).
Audio/Music: The music played in this game seems to be remixed versions of, or really similar to the songs played in previous "Tales of..." games--composed by Motoi Sakuraba. Honestly, some of the town music and battle music can grow old after a while, though.
Graphics: Following in the usual trend at the time in the "Tales of..." series, Tales of the World: Narikiri Dungeon 3 uses classic 2-D, colorful, splashy graphics. Die-hard "Tales of..." fans do not mind such graphics.
Difficulty: For the most part, the battle system is fairly inherent if one is remotely familiar with the series. However, the sometimes cramped-feeling of the buttons on a handheld device, and occasional fights where enemies (such as bosses sometimes, especially) can cast spells very fast can prove challenging at times. Also, the fact that this game intermixes a strategy element to the battle system may throw players off at first, but it is very easy to pick up on.
Replay: If one wants to shoot right through and beat the game, one can do so. However, adding more to the game is veering off into the many quests and side-quests the game offers, and taking time to meet other "Tales of..." cameo characters and taking a variety of different actions.
