Gameplay
The basic interface is like any RTS. You click on you hero to select them. You right click on characters, objects, and terrain to get a menu of actions your selected hero can perform on them. Unfortunately this simplicity means there are a lot of things you can't do. You can't melee a flying character even if they're right next to you (or even if you are also flying). You can't tell your flyers how high to be except by flying them over something that puts them at the height you want. You can't always queue actions, so if your hero is finishing a power you may have to wait for the animation to finish before you can tell them what to do next. These are all minor gripes, but they add up to make the game feel kind of low rent.
The strategy of the game comes in choosing which heroes to send on the mission, deciding which of their abilities to use, and prioritizing threats and targets. These are a few of my favorite things and experimenting with different heroes and their powers was almost always rewarding. The only problem was that I wasn't always allowed to choose my team. I understand you have a plot you want to push through by having certain characters interact. But which is more important, your plot or my fun?
Theatrics
FF3R is cheesy, flamboyant, and over the top. As such, I'm not sure if you can really critique the theatrics. They're supposed to be bad. Still, some of the voices are bad in the wrong way and sound like some developers got on the mic that probably shouldn't have. Try marketing and sales people instead. :) Or just hit up your local community theaters. Folks like Jen Taylor work absurdly cheap. :P
The plotting, when it wasn't getting in my way, was good. The big dilemma of the endgame made me want to keep playing past my bedtime, knowing I should stop but wanting to see what would happen next.
Aesthetics
The game looks decent, with a simple cartoony design. When you've got a lot going on (and bother to pause so that you can bring the camera down and look at it close up) it can be downright impressive.
The sound design is also well done with lots of crashes, booms, and weird energy sounds. The way some of the sounds loop while the game is paused might not have been the best choice, though. :P
One of the coolest things about the original FF was how moddable it was. The customization options in FF3R are not nearly as good as the ones in the original, but I still managed to find a model that looked enough like a super me (after adding a little facial hair) to make the self-insertion Mary Sue I always wanted. :)
Thanks to Alex's Freedom Fortress for the resource collating web site, Courtnall6 for the amazing skins, Gni for making the mesh, and Italpornstar for having them make a hero with hair. (And after all that, it still doesn't really look like me. :)
Here I am kicking a guard off a guard tower. Super Me rules.
Final Score
3 out of 5
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