I might as well preface this by saying that yes, it's been quite a while since the last RPG lookback, and it boils down to real-life commitments and SO MANY OTHER THINGS. Not only am I accepting a long-term position which greatly prevents me from really enjoying more game time, but I'm also doing another Pokemon ROM hack walkthrough and doing a ton of planning ahead for two different jobs. My 200th RPG to play is going to take a while perhaps, but I will see if I can muster as much time as possible to getting to it. Be warned, it could be months, maybe by summer I would finish my 200th.
So anyways, Last Bible III is a perfect example of a culmination. It started with two lackluster games on the Game Boy Color, and then moved to the Super Famicom where the graphics are greener and the music is prettier. Oh won't you please take it to the home console?
But the quality-of-life improvements to Last Bible III make it a significantly better experience in gameplay. Finally the monsters you recruit have an emoji and a progress bar showing how you can do negotiations much easier than a guessing game of yes or no. You can even level up the monsters and equip them, allowing for endless possibilities. And there's plenty of characters who join your cause, not just plot-wise, but being able to pick the best characters for the big moments is always a plus. This is despite having a somewhat traditional and linear SNES JRPG progression.
And this game honestly delivers quite well for what it holds. Sure, the translation is going to house the usual curse word cause the translators get goofy sometimes. Sure, there's the ocassional call-back to previous Last Bible games, despite Last Bible III taking place a whopping 20,000 years after the second game. But Last Bible III is effective at hooking the interested JRPG player, something that the previous games could have done better in. You see the introduction, and while it's very reminiscent of FF6's intro in the snowfall and such, it shows the bleakness of what's to come. This is despite green grass and humdrum village life at first. Of course, your parent is a prodigy like DQ5's Papas, you have a brother like countless RPGs, a nerdy kid not unlike Earthbound's Jeff, a girl who has a crush on you like countless RPGs, the usual robot and dragon party member like countless RPGs, and while not necessarily new, the seasoned RPG player will get hooked at their inclusions. And then you have faces you see come and go, some unfortunately die and you feel for them as you have lost such a fantastic character at that point. You see villains that you just want dead cause you know how bad they get. Then they twist you several times. Heck, even THE MAIN CHARACTER DIES! Yes, your actual main character is killed in the game, something that most RPGs that aren't Chrono Trigger wouldn't actually think of doing, no matter how close it could get. Hey, at least he gets to meet his parents who also end up dying prior to him, and even better, his own younger brother resurrects the group, being a child prodigy of his own. Oh, and that guy from the beginning? Actually kind of surprising he became a vengeful son of a gun bent on destroying everything, even when you defeat and kill his main nemesis he decides to have it out on humanity. But killing his undead spirit does bring him around. We actually have a wonderful epilogue at the end of it all too.
I'm telling you all, it's a culmination, and actually worth it despite the translation barrier and all. It culminates in things you know, but can appreciate, and even ties together things from previous titles. Things really worked out well for this game.
