Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm

 PlayStation 2
Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm Image
Metascore
63

Mixed or average reviews - based on 34 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
7.0

Mixed or average reviews- based on 18 Ratings

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  • Summary: Long ago, the power of alchemy allowed people to travel between different worlds through dimensional gates; however, with the collapse of the first great civilization, people lost the means to "jump" worlds. A long time has passed since the great destruction and now people once again areLong ago, the power of alchemy allowed people to travel between different worlds through dimensional gates; however, with the collapse of the first great civilization, people lost the means to "jump" worlds. A long time has passed since the great destruction and now people once again are unlocking the mystery surrounding the dimensional gates and adventuring to unforeseen territory, seeking the magical book of infinite wisdom. With the fast paced ACCB system, battle sequences are ordered by cards that represent the characters' action order. The quicker the character, the faster their action turn comes around. An innovative change for Atelier Iris 3 is the introduction of a symbol encounter system. Players no longer randomly encounter enemies, but visually confirm and engage them. Unlike previous Atelier Iris titles, this game adopts a guild quest system through which players can easily accept quests and missions that the guild posts. [NIS America]… Expand
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Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 34
  2. Mixed: 22 out of 34
  3. Negative: 4 out of 34
  1. RPG Fan
    84
    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.
  2. GamingTrend
    80
    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.
  3. Pelit (Finland)
    73
    A charmingly colourful, albeit a slow and repetitive RPG with a good cast of characters and a boring narrative. [Sept 2007]
    All this publication's reviews
  4. Game Informer
    65
    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. [June 2007, p.110]
  5. Official Playstation 2 Magazine UK
    60
    The fighting and alchemy are great. But the repetitive questing, slow storyline and disappointing graphics will wear out the biggest RPG freak. [July 2007, p.84]
    All this publication's reviews
  6. Jolt Online Gaming UK
    57
    The game is a giant leap in the wrong direction for the series.
  7. GameSpy
    40
    We really wanted to like Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm, but the series is stagnating in gameplay that was obtusely old-fashioned ten years ago. It's unfortunate, but the magic is long-gone.

See all 34 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

Write a Review
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 5
  3. Negative: 1 out of 5
  1. Dynel
    Nov 15, 2014
    10
    Amazing game, with even better story than the other 2 previous games, and, even better than the ps3 ones.

    Back when this game was    Amazing game, with even better story than the other 2 previous games, and, even better than the ps3 ones.

    Back when this game was announced, I decided to pre-order it. And I was not disappointed. A very good addition to any RPG fan out there.

    Has a very good story, characters, battle system, synthesis mechanics, everything that the current ps3 games lack.    … Expand
  2. BreatheOnMe94
    Sep 3, 2013
    10
    awesome game. great characters, great story, great battle system and the alchemy system is amazing. fan of the atelier series or not, i canawesome game. great characters, great story, great battle system and the alchemy system is amazing. fan of the atelier series or not, i can guarantee you will love this game.… Expand
  4. JohnS.
    Oct 7, 2007
    9
    This game is highly underrated. While it won't be winning any awards for originality, its fun gameplay and great sense of humour warrant This game is highly underrated. While it won't be winning any awards for originality, its fun gameplay and great sense of humour warrant a purchase. I didn't mind the repetitiveness, as there was always something to do, whether it be questing, training or hunting down ingredients for alchemy (the alchemy system is great, by the way.) I'm not too familiar with the first two games in the series, so I can't give any judgement as to whether it lives up to them, but as a standalone game it works perfectly.… Expand
  5. GenTrailsFan
    Mar 1, 2022
    6
    I was looking forward to this final entry in the Iris trilogy so much! The other two had endeared me to the franchise so I was excited andI was looking forward to this final entry in the Iris trilogy so much! The other two had endeared me to the franchise so I was excited and then I played Iris 3. The story is very disappointing, the structure of the game was really interesting at first and then just felt like a total slog. Too much backtracking! If only the rest of the game was given the attention the combat system was given this would be a legendary game! instead it's just kind of mediocre.

    Story 3/10
    Graphics 7/10
    Gameplay 9/10    … Expand
  6. Barjoe
    Jan 1, 2021
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. If you wanted to know why Gust stopped making Atelier Iris or games with similar style in general then this game could probably answer your question why, though I'll write a review about why this game sucks & deserved to fail & be forgotten like it already is .

    Story: Boring, predictable & cliché, the story could pass as a generic harem anime since most of the girls in this game are dressed in a weird outfit & all the guys other than the protagonist are portrayed as either a villain, a joke, a pervert, or a side characters. Even the Arland games which many considered to be "girly" have a far more interesting & well-written male characters.

    Exploration: There's only 5 dungeons in this game with a lot of backtracking & repetitive fetch quest, every dungeon also have a time limit which will automatically kicks you out after a few minutes exploring, if you think that the time limits from the PS3 games are bad then you'll likely hate this game even more.

    Battle System: Only 3 playable characters with a barebone job system called Blades, in battle you also have a shared skill gauge system which is really limited & makes the battle extremely boring since most skills are useless because of this.

    Others: Really annoying soundtracks & generic character designs, anyone could probably tell that the protagonist of this game are just a dollar store knockoff of Cloud Strife and the third party member you got looks like that she designed only for fanservice.

    TL;DR: If you wanted a repetitive JRPG with harem anime story, annoying soundtracks, boring gameplay, and bad dungeon design then you might enjoy this game, otherwise just stay away.

    Though I'll give this game a 0/10 since I can't understand why some people would like it unless they're around 13 years old or this is their first JRPG ever, I recommend people to get Atelier Ryza or Atelier Sophie instead since those games are almost similar but infinitely times better.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

63
#63 Best PS2 Game of 2007
54
#54 Most Discussed PS2 Game of 2007
66
#66 Most Shared PS2 Game of 2007