Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm Critic Reviews

Though plenty of fun is to be had in Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm, it's also short, slightly repetitive in scope, and lacking a compelling plot.

For fans of the original, its sequel, and for anyone who loves RPGs, Atelier Iris 3 is a retro-infused, highly inspired classic.

Atelier Iris 3 is a game that fundamentally works on a design level, which can't always be said for its predecessors.

Atelier Iris 3 is worth every cent and is one of the more entertaining role-playing games to be released this year. It may not be perfect, but it serves to prove my original point - change is good.

A very solid roleplaying game, and definitely worth the $40 that it's fetching on the retail market. If you're a fan of RPGs or NIS at all, you owe it to yourself to pick this title up.

Enough new ideas to hook established fans, but not those turned off by the fist two games.

It's a good basic RPG that isn't too deep, but still has an entertaining edge. If you don't like games like Animal Crossing, you probably should avoid this title. RPG fans will be more forgiving of its faults.

Grand Phantasm is capable of scratching that RPG itch with its enjoyable Afterworlds, innovative battle system, and exceptional soundtrack, but its thin quest won't linger in your memories for long.

A charmingly colourful, albeit a slow and repetitive RPG with a good cast of characters and a boring narrative.

It currently is very solid. But I keep feeling like they could just flesh things out a little more and make these truly grand adventures.

Fans will undoubtedly want to check Fantasm out, but there isn't much here that hasn't been seen before.

Despite the shortcoming of its snail-like pacing, it's hard not to like Atelier Iris 3, what with its anime-style art and solid battle system.

Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm may not feature spectacular 3D graphics or 5.1 channel surround sound, but it does have enough depth and charm to keep players involved for the entirety of its 40-plus hours.

In the end AI3 will deliver to fans of the series; the obvious improvements are a welcome addition and the fast-paced combat and quest system is a nice diversion from other games in the genre.

The main game shouldn't take much more than thirty hours to complete, with a few more added to take down all of the quests to achieve the best ending.

Grand Phantasm delivers exactly what Atelier Iris series fans are looking for. For the rest looking for something that deviates from the series' trademark formula, it might best to look elsewhere.

This is great fun for a pack rat like me as well as others with similar RPG tastes. The biggest drawbacks of this game are the disjointed story and the generic characters. However, don’t allow this to discourage you especially with the great battle, skill and alchemy systems in the game.

In order to derive any worthwhile enjoyment out of Atelier Iris 3, you pretty much have to be a big fan of both anime and dungeon crawling.

Sadly, we have to say that both previous Atelier Iris titles were better than this one, although Grand Phantasm does maintain that excellent sense of humor.

Atelier Iris 3 is a by-the-numbers role-playing game that exudes a lot of charm but little else.