7th Dragon III Code: VFD, apart from being a game with a very long title, is a dungeon crawler that seems similar to an Etrian Odyssey game, aside from the fact that you explore in a third person perspective, rather that in a first person one. When 7th Dragon III Code: VFD was announced for Japan last summer, many assumed it would never see Western shores. After all, none of.

SegaTechnobubble covers games, gadgets, technology and all things geek. Follow Technobubble poobah Jason Hidalgo’s shenanigans on Twitter @jasonhidalgoHot chocolate.Interestingly enough, that’s one of the measures I use to determine if I’m enjoying a new Japanese role-playing game.It’s a strange and curious tale born from my days playing classic JRPGs as a broke college student. Back then, I would go to school during the day then punch in 40 hours per week of work in the evenings to pay for my food and rent. As tough as things got at the time, however, I had plenty of fond memories. Those include preparing a hot mug of chocolate during the winter, wrapping myself under a comforter and playing JRPGs like Final Fantasy, Breath of Fire, Chrono Trigger and Secret of Mana for hours during my days off as a way to decompress. SegaThe first time I loaded “7th Dragon III: Code VFD” on my New 3DS on a summer weekend, I didn’t think much of the game. For starters, you begin the game with your team entering a video game world, which isn’t as fresh a concept as it once was.

I also never played any of the past titles in the series so I had no emotional attachment to it. As a result, I thought 7th Dragon III was just another generic new JRPG simply playing on the nostalgia of genre fans desperate for content at a time when such games no longer ruled the roost. As the minutes I spent playing it soon turned into hours, however, something happened.

I started remembering those cold winter days spent underneath a comforter with a warm cup of chocolate nearby.“You know what?” I said to myself. “I think I’m actually enjoying this game.”A big part of it is 7th Dragon III’s embrace of old-school JRPG mechanics. In the game, you play the classic JRPG protagonist created from a bunch of preset characters who doesn’t really speak. Some may not like that but it should actually be familiar to classic JRPG veterans. It’s an old-school convention that extends to the rest of your party members, whom you create the same way.Instead of your crew being tasked to carry the storytelling load, that job is left to the supporting cast around you. It’s a cast filled with colorful albeit stereotypical characters from Japanese manga and anime. In 7th Dragon III, the world is on the brink of a world-ending cataclysm as hostile, destructive dragons consistently lay waste on humanity’s advanced civilizations throughout history.Like “The Last Starfighter” movie, the video game at the start of the story is but a means to find worthy warriors to recruit in the fight against mankind’s foes.

In order to end the threat, you are basically required to travel during different time periods to collect the means to defeat the ultimate evil that’s set to appear in the present.Although it doesn’t rival the scope of the story seen in games such as Final Fantasy VII, it’s still an interesting premise that’s enough to keep you invested in what you’re doing throughout the game. Production values are also surprisingly solid, especially for a 3DS title. The game basically feels like Etrian Odyssey with better graphics and overhead adventuring.

I just wish that it allowed for the use of 3D as JRPGs are one of those genres where the effect does not detract from the gaming experience. Then again, 7th Dragon III’s strength lies in its character classes and turn-based combat, which feature great synergy that make for lots of fun fights. You start out with four classes in the God Hand, Samurai, Agent and Duelist. Eventually, you unlock four more with the Rune Knight, Fortuner, Mage and Banisher. SegaAlthough you have more classic jobs such as Samurai and Mage, it’s the more unique classes that bring a breath of fresh air to this JRPG (for more, check out my class guide for 7th Dragon III Code VFD, including a list of all class skills as well as how to get every EX Skill in the game).

The Agent, for example, can hide in the shadows and hack foes to make them more susceptible to damage or use them as fuel to replenish your mana stores. The Rune Knight, on the other hand, is a spellcasting tank that can also inflict massive damage by sacrificing its health pool and even its life.

You also have the Banisher, which can boost its damage by using a limited number of bombs and the Duelist, which plays like a tricky Yu-Gi-Oh! Character.While the characters are fun on their own, it’s when you use their skills in conjunction with others that takes things to another level. Place a Rune Knight, Agent and Duelist in one party and each can play on the others’ elemental skills to either do more damage or make foes more susceptible to them. Put two God Hands in one party and they can use each other’s God Depth stacks to access their high-powered moves faster and lay waste on foes. Pair a Rune Knight, which tends to live life on the edge, with a class that can resurrect and you’ll have its most powerful moves at your disposal almost all the time. Personally, tinkering with various team lineups as you progress through the game and unlock all the classes and skills available is one of the most enjoyable parts of 7th Dragon III.

Even your reserve characters can continue to help you out by coming out during Unison Attacks. This ultimate combination attack allows your three active party members and six reserve characters to attack consecutively one after the other without any mana costs, allowing you to turn the tide during a long boss fight.To give you more things to do, the game also features several side quests to embark on. Most of these are essentially fetch quests that require you to acquire or deliver items. The game also places lost people and cats (seriously) in the field that you can rescue, allowing you to access various rewards as well as an ultimate skill for one of the character classes if you find all the missing felines. There’s also a faux dating mechanic where you spend time with other characters, sometimes leading to some suggestively creepy and hilariously inappropriate conversation. You’ll definitely want to pay attention to these extracurricular activities and also do the requisite research to ensure you get access to important skills and weapons later in the game. SegaAlthough the foundation of 7th Dragon III: Code VFD is certainly solid, it has some drawbacks as well.

Difficulty is a bit uneven as the game starts out a bit hard, then gets too easy as you unlock your skills before reaching crazy difficulty once again in the end with its last few bosses. Regular mobs are pretty much no challenge as your various classes level up and gain access to their entire moveset, with the only difficulty coming either from bosses or dungeon skirmishes where you fight more than one dragon. While classes that require setting up such as the God Hand are fun, boss battles tend to favor classes that can end fights more quickly toward the end like Banisher and Rune Knight as hanging around too long allows bosses to gain the upper hand on your party. I also wish there were more areas as I would have loved to see more of 7th Dragon III’s world. There's definitely a good foundation here that could’ve made for an even better game if it was fleshed out even more.All that being said, 7th Dragon III is an enjoyable JRPG that manages to push many of the right buttons for fans of the genre. Once I started playing, I found myself having a hard time putting it down. Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I’m going to make myself some hot chocolate.FINAL THOUGHTS7th Dragon III: Code VFD is a welcome addition to the JRPG genre that features many classic elements fans will enjoy.

Difficulty can be uneven with no middle ground and its world could be more fleshed out. An excellent turn-based combat system with interesting classes and excellent synergy between them, however, makes this a worthy addition to any JRPG fan's library.

Rating: 4 out of 5. Cost: $39.99, 3DS. Official site:http://gamesp.net/7th-dragon3/.

In 7th Dragon III Code: VFD, players will be able to acquire DLC that will bring additional quests to the Nintendo 3DS game, some of which, like the Dragonsbane and Gold Rabi quests, will be repeatable for extra rewards. Atlus has announced the release schedule for the eight add-ons that will be released between the game’s launch and the end of July. In addition, the company confirmed that each of seven quests that cost money will be free for a week after they launch.Here are all of the 7th Dragon III Code: VFD quests.July 12, 2016.

World Atlas with links to maps of countries, states, and regions, and find a geography guide & facts about every country in the world. Atlas. ATLAS is now crossplay enabled to allow PC and Xbox One players to play together in the same world! From the creators of ARK: Survival Evolved comes ATLAS - the ultimate pirate experience! Explore a persistent, massive open world with thousands of other players simultaneously. Atlas scheduled maintenance occurs Monday through Saturday from 2AM to 3AM, and Sunday from 2AM to 6AM. Atlas is unavailable during these times. Try logging in with the first letter of your first name and your entire last name (example: Charli Atlas would have catlas as the username). An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or a region of Earth. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geographic features and political boundaries, many atlases often feature geopolitical, social, religious and economic statistics.

Gold Rabi Outbreak! Quest: Gold Rabi encounters.

Free until July 18, 2016. $1.49 after. Nagamimi Doll: free DLC that adds a talking Nagamimi to the player’s dorm. Seed Outbreak! Quest: Dragonsbane Seed encounters. Free until July 18, 2016.

$1.49 after.July 19, 2016. Code: Otaku!: recruit 7th Dragon 2020’s Hacker. Free until July 25, 2016.

$1.99 after. Code: Student!: recruit 7th Dragon 2020’s Samurai. Free until July 25, 2016. $1.99 after.July 26, 2016. Allie’s Death March: boss rush of every encounter, with the bosses at their max level.

Free until August 1, 2016, $1.49 after. Code: Lucier!: recruit 7th Dragon 2020-II’s Lucier. Free until August 1, 2016. $1.99 after. To My Beloved Unit 13: unlock classes’ ultimate weapons and the Blaster Raven character. Free until August 1, 2016.

(Note: only available in the quest list after beating 7th Dragon III Code: VFD.)7th Dragon III Code: VFD will be released on the Nintendo 3DS on July 12, 2016.