|| Gaming || God Eater 3 Review

Back in February I finally picked up one of the games in the series called God Eater, specifically God Eater 3. I will say that I am kinda familiar with the series through another game and some of its anime series. This was the first time I’ve played this game series, here are my thoughts on God Eater 3.

God Eater 3, the 3rd (but not) installment to the God Eater series, God Eater 3 was developed by Marvelous and published by Bandai Namco. Both a well known if you don't know Marvelous you've probably played a game developed by them and didn't realize it. Marvelous is known for games such as Senran Kagura, Harvest Moon on the Wii, Muramasa, and they published the game SkullGirls.

Bandai Namco has published a plethora of games too many to list.

Being completely new to the series and being drawn to the game because of the character customization ( I'm weak to character customization) I decided to give it a try knowing that I would be going into this game series completely blind.

Since the game is new to me, of course, I dug deep into the God Eater wiki to try to put things together and have some type of timeline of events. Here's my quick and basic (and maybe a bit confusing) rundown of God Eater.

It begins in a post-apocalyptic world where humanity is on the brink of extinction from these large creatures known as Aragami, that are hell-bent on consuming everything that is not itself. The only way to kill the Aragami is to extract the Aragami core using weapons called God Arcs.

What the hell are God Arcs? A mechanical weapon that you can use to defeat the Aragami by devouring the core of the Aragami, also the Aragami core is also known as Oracle Cells.

What the hell are Oracle Cells? In short Aragami, a mutation in DNA.

So…God Arcs are Aragami & Mechanical? Confusing right but it’s a good story mechanic :)

Each of the God Eater games are linked to one another, God Eater 3 is the sequel to God Eater 2 Rage Burst. The plot for God Eater 3 begins with the mention of a tremendous  calamity happened in a place that’s referred to as the Ashlands and how it consumed Fenrir (the main base in the previous God Eater games)

In addition to the loss of Fenrir and the need to protect humanity there is a new type of God Eater called AGE – Adaptive God Eater (that’s you!), AGE's are able to withstand the arduous conditions of the Ash and Ashlands longer than normal God Eaters and because of this AGE are considered a dangerous commodity and all freedoms have been revoked and some are even enslaved

This is where you start the game – handcuffed in a jail cell with other AGEs.

You quickly begin to understand that you and others are being used and treated poorly as a means to protect humanity and the organization you were enslaved to 'work' for.

The basis of the game requires you to protect humanity from Aragami and use the Aragami cores to upgrade your God Arc to level up.

Of course, there's so much more in the game that I am omitting or haven't discovered myself but I at least wanted to provide an intro to the plot. That's the simple break down of the story with a little backstory.

Rating Guide:

☆: Could be better

☆☆: Ok

☆☆☆: Decent

☆☆☆☆: Great!

Story: ☆☆☆
Being completely new to the story of the series, I felt I had a lot to catch up on and felt the need to pay attention to the story. I will admit there was one thing that really kept me focused on the story – the characters. Specifically Hugo, the main character’s best pal aka the eye candy of the game…but I digress.

A lot of terminology, environments, etc I feel have been pulled from the previous games but I was not expecting to be a prisoner handcuffed in a cell with other (friends) people and children! Because there was no clear explanation as to why you were put in these conditions and what the hell was going on.

You don't find out till much later in the story. I will admit there were some parts where I became worried about some of the characters but on the other hand, there were some parts of the story that felt forced. And because I don't have much to go on for the previous stories and pacing, but GE3 was decent

Gameplay: ☆☆
The gameplay is super straightforward, fast past and extremely real-time. The gameplay is hack and slash with a bit of gun usage. You are able to use weapons such as guns, hammers, dual blades, swords, and even giant rings.

Don't get me wrong, I love hack and slash games, specifically Musou games - one of my favorites but there was something about this specific gameplay that was boring.

There is one aspect that I purposely omitted but there is a Burst/Devour attack that both you and the aragami have, a burst attack can be used to turn the tide of a battle or maybe the downfall of your expedition. Burst attack raises your ability whereas for the aragami the Devour attack increases their abilities and causes them to transform into a more stronger version of them that can be a nuisance, especially if you're playing with AI and they are 'devoured'


You are also limited in terms of how many items you can take with you and use while on the field but the saving grace for this specific feature is that maybe sometimes you can find healing items while you're also on the field.

Another important factor to mention is the fact that you are being timed which is my least favorite but you were given a fair amount of time and the missions shouldn't take you the entire time unless you are exploring the map for items. There's no relationship building in the game, so many cool looking characters but no ability to build a relationship ( I was rooting for Hugo x MC ship)

To put it bluntly, the gameplay gets over time and the fact that there is no relationship building available in the game leaves a hole in the story.

Art/Graphics ☆☆ ☆- I love the art from the GE series, the games not the anime. The anime has a completely different art style than the games but I digress, the character designs are simple, crisp and well made but some signs were there were some characters that were copy & paste, specifically the women in the game.

Don't get me wrong, the women and men were both gorgeous but you could tell by the shapes and faces of some of the women.

C'mon Marvelous.

Besides the copy & paste character designs, you can see the details in the character's clothing, weapons, and abilities. In addition to the details on the character and abilities as you're exploring and encountering aragami (the enemy) you will see the detailing in the environments the 'dungeons' (that a really aren't dungeons but feels like it cos of the time limit) you can also see the details in the enemy designs.

I love a good enemy that is beautifully dangerous or look disgustingly terrifying (and strike trepidation in their prey)  you can see that in the larger Aragami designs.

As a whole, the art is simple but still yet striking.

If you have played the God Eater games before, it's a no brainer that you would pick this up just to see what's going on in the GE universe. But for those that have not played God Eater and you are interested in God Eater I don't recommend you start with this game.

As I played the game, I feel as if there was something missing in this game based on the previous games. I suggest playing the previous games and then pick up God Eater 3.

• Have you played any of the games from the God Eater series? 
• What are your thoughts on God Eater 3?
• Have you played God Eater 3?