Review by Rydin

Three the Hard Way was a pretty big thing back in the day. When iishenron hosted the Misao Awards at Queen's Court, I sometimes wondered if the sole reason he started it was the pronounce himself the winner over and over again in a humiliating 'up yours' sort of way. Three the Hard Way is no joke as it promises lots of gameplay and additional sidequests on a whole different level, which makes Three the Hard Way quite special. In addition to the fact that Three the Hard Way puts RPG Maker gameplay on a different level, the amount of time that must've been put into this game must have been massive. When you take the game, put it aside and look at it for what it is, you see an RPG Maker game that has fullfilled what RPG Maker, as an engine, has set games out to do.

The civilization of world of Three the Hard Way is very rare. It features a relative aspect of real world, ancient time politics. A land which had been conquered by the human race had been invaded by a merciless group of demons called the Kaibutsu. These demons were much stronger than the human race, and while the demons were naturally calm on their own, the person governing the Kaibutsu had made the treachery of the Kaitsu spread across the land like fire. Man kind was on its last string of hope, and suddenly, one man stood up to them. He took fate into his hands and slaughtered the leader of the Kaibutsu with his own hands. In thanks, the world had made the new leader their king. The world eventually returned to peace, and all was well again. However, 65 years later, political warfare had ensued. The three Dukes of the land, all focused on improving the progress of the human race, had their own ideas about how the land should be governed. With the old age of the king, it was soon ready to pass leadership unto one of the three Dukes.

In every political world though, there must be corruption and that corruption had laid within the reign of the Dukes and the fate that the king had bestowed upon the land. This corruption had eaten mankind like a flesh-eating worm within a man's own skull. People in various regions have been affected by the reign of these evils and in them, have also saught prosperity. This is the land of Three the Hard Way. It presents its storyline and takes us far from the cliche dungeon, dragons, and mystical adventure that we're all used to, and it puts us in a more realistic storyline with a deeper meaning that you must seek out.


To add a touch to this spice of real life politics, the main character is not quite the goody tooshoo hero that one might expect. 'Vance' is the son of a bartender, a money grubbing young adult who only seeks profit, hates his parents, and has but one best friend in the village--Screw everyone else. This life probably relates to two thirds of the population of the world! Well what do you know, even the main character's situation in the game is realistically plausible. It's a story and character that people can relate to in real life corruption. However, this is where the real fun of Three the Hard Way begins..

As Vance, you seek to break from your hometown's clutches and find your own meaning in the world of corrupt politics. His adventures lead him into various situations, and you also find yourself broke at times because money just can't be found anywhere! Three the Hard Way makes up for this by allowing the player to accumulate money through various optional missions. In normal games, missions are just a monotonous, boring thing you have to do to get ahead. Three the Hard Way changes this though and implies, 'Missions can be fun!' You see, sometimes I'll watch a good anime show and then the fun will get really crappy because the series tends to put 'fillers', junk to improve the length of the show. Missions, to me, are a lot like that. Missions in this game are actually progressive in the storyline though. This means that each mission is not only unique and enjoyable, but missions are a key aspect to uncovering more of the storyline! In each mission, the characters can be changed, and you're introduced to cool situations the characters take part in. The funny antics and realistic-view of the game just 'feels fun'. It's just really enjoyable seeing that side of the gameplay. Of course, a lot of missions 'are' optional'. Like most games though, skipping optional stuff just dampens the length and gameplay of the game.

Within the missions and the storyline, Three the Hard Way presents many missions that add to the game's enjoyability factor. In my all my experience with RPG Maker games, I've never seen a game that had so many mini games. This game is truely mini games galore, and not just those boring ones, but fun mini games. You name it, this game has 'em all. Switch fun, boating, racing, etc. Hell, I don't even remember half of them. This game just has so many. Most of the mini games, like missions, are optional. However, the mini games can make quite an impact on the situation your party is in. For example, doing good in some mini games will help cover the expenses on your next equipment shopping spree. Trust me, finding money is no easy task and the weapons get expensive! Don't worry though, the game does very well to balance the difficulty of the mini games. It's a great experience.

Tons of mini games, sidequests, and a great storyline! What else is there to offer? There's much more. In fact, I'm not even covering the true extent of this game's gameplay in the least. Three the Hard Way adds perks even to its battle style. While the battle system is neither custom nor extensive, there's various things that can change the weight in the player's favor. One of which would be the alchemy system. The way this system works is the player will come across various items won from battle (a perk to balance the low paying pash won from battles, I suppose), and you can use these techniques to learn new spells for one of your characters. These spells can be both formidable and powerful. Alchemy isn't the only way to obtain new skills though, sometimes you'll find secret scrolls in various 'hidden' locations on the world map that will allow you to teach your characters special techniques. Aside from that, characters can also learn permanant skills by battling and 'temporary skills' by having a certain weapon/item equipped. This makes each character's skill lineup very custom.


Another custom feature I'd like to mention would be the exclusive 'Menu Prism'. This is iishenson's way of telling you gamer's to shove the 'this game ain't custom' arguement down your throat. Using the Menu Prism, gamers can access various options that make the gameplay more exciting. From the Menu Prism you can access a custom party selecter, various stats (time, battle stats, etc.), and you can even change the difficulty of the game. Naturally the game has a well-balanced and newby-friendly difficulty, but selecting 'Hard' will give gamers to oppurtunity to enjoy Three the Hard Way even more! This most-definitely adds a boost to the replay factor, as playing the game on Hard Mode can offer a whole new challenge. Play the game normally once, and if you like it then try Hard Mode! Works for me.

One thing I'd like to mention about the battle system would be the fact that you don't naturally 'gain levels'. Each time you fight, your character will gain individual stat increases rather than experience. Some people might frown on this, but I find it more applicable to an RM2K game than a level up system. This means that you won't have to run around aimlessly fighting a bunch of meaningless battles forever to level up. Instead, all you would have to do is fight six or so battles to get your stats up to par, move onto the next area, and rinse and repeat. This makes the whole RPG random battle aspect more bearable. In fact, if you were to just play through the whole game just fighting what comes your way then your characters will never be behind in stats. Talk about good balance!

The perks really do add up. I would actually say they add up to over 30 hours of gameplay. No joke. This game is closer to being a professional-length game more-so than any other game out there for RM2K. Not mentioning the rarity of this type of length and completeness, but Three the Hard Way is split into three chapters each consisting of a new turn of events. The last chapter is the longest one featuring most of the freedom. However, this is typical amoungst RPGs, and it's no big deal. The gameplay is just really lengthy and enjoyable, and it's hard to make an actual comparism of gameplay. I'm not sure how many people reading this have played the 'Lunar' series, but if anyone has then they'd probably noticed the funny perks of each character and the nice enjoyable flow the game has. Three the Hard Way is comparable, in most aspects, to a game as professional as a series like Lunar and any gamer would probably enjoy it almost as much. Even after playing Three the Hard Way, the events and situations have left embed memories for me. It's really a rare experience for any game to make such a unique impression. A few years from now, I'd probably even have an urge to play it again just to relive those gaming experiences.

Most great games have their highs and then they eventually come to their lows. No game is perfect, and I would have to say the same for Three the Hard Way. Let's really look at the technical parts of the game now like mapping and music. The atmosphere of Three the Hard Way is very memorable and has decent quality. Not saying the mapping was horrible, but it was obvious that there are some areas that could've used more detail and quality. For the average RM2K game, the mapping really isn't anything to complain about that. However, I believe with a more custom tilesets would have made this game console worthy. I may be expecting too much from a great game like Three the Hard Way, but I felt that the true potential of the game was slightly hindered in its graphics area especially in the selection of facesets. Whether or not the horrible facesets were added as a joke, it still would make any person go 'what the hell' and question the quality of the game. It may come off as a joke, but it adds to the hindering of the game's full potential.

Unlike the graphics, the music in Three the Hard Way really doesn't hinder much. I actually thought a lot of the music sounded custom. While the midis may not make a gamer go 'wow', the music adds a unique feel to the game. I can't really put my finger on it. However, it's really a nice break from the average RPG Maker game feel. One thing I'd like to mention is the use of 'real life music' midis. iishenron sometimes uses midis from some old 80s songs. I didn't notice it at first because they blended really well into the game's music style, but after I discovered it I was a bit thrown off. Most people would agree that using real life music in an 'RPG Maker game' is the worst idea ever. This wasn't too bad though. I think custom all-around would've really upped the quality of the game though.


Everything in Three the Hard Way just shimmers. Perhaps the only problem I saw that bugged me would be the storyline's flow. Sometimes, you were gradually brought to certain circumstances. Sometimes Vance would make a smart-ass comment that would throw you off gaurd. No problem. Yet, sometimes you were slapped with a sudden change that seemed brought up. The progression of the game really needed a little work. Things like that really stand out in a game, especially when the game has so much to offer. However, Three the Hard Way was a monumental masterpiece that showed what RPG Maker was really meant for on a professional level. Three the Hard Way just plays some really high notes. I would have it no other way.

Reviewer's Score: 9 / 10, Posted Sat, 12 Jul 2008 00:35:24 -0700