Legend of Heroes III : Song of the Ocean for the Playstation Portable

They often say practice makes perfect and if you keep trying you can make improvements. Well, that is somewhat true with this third installment of Legend of Heroes III: Song of the Ocean for the PlayStation Portable. Although the storyline is more interesting and better developed, it still lacks something.
The story begins in the village of Racos Palma with a young boy named Forte practicing his trumpet on a pier.

As you can guess this storyline is centered around music. After an argument with his grandfather, Grandpa Mac, and the interruption of young girl named Una who happens to have a crush on Forte the game-play begins. You get a series of tasks you must complete for the village who is well known for the dyes they make using the oyster shells they fish from the ocean nearby.

As you get ready to leave you get a message from the gatekeeper that your parents are looking for you, so you go to see them. Apparently they are worried about your grandfather who has been acting strange lately and leaving the village to go to the lighthouse nearby. As you make your way to the lighthouse a monster attacks, but luckily grandpa Mac's trusty companion of ten years, a white dog named Jan, comes to the rescue and the both of you make your way up the stairs to check on grandpa.

Once there grandpa Mac is irritated that you've interrupted his harp practice and makes you go back to the village and help one of the village elders with their dye making. Once there you find out they're done and want you to escort Una to the town of Cranka to deliver the dye and collect the money for the sale. Which at this point you'll be glad to leave the village out of boredom. Once in the next village you meet friendly people who are anxious to use your village's dye for the clothes they make and after delivering the dye and collected money for grandma you also get a tip. Another little girl who happens to have a crush on Forte also begs him to play his trumpet for her.

After giving the little brat a special performance she tells you that your trumpet skills suck, nice kid, huh? Heartbroken you and Una make it back towards your village when you hear a scream, there's poison leaking into the water stream where they wash the clothes they want to dye. But you're not ready to deal with the poison problem alone so you head back to give grandma her money and ask grandpa for help. After asking your grandfather for help you run into the gatekeeper who shows up with a special delivery for grandpa.

When he opens the package he finds a book and a magic map. The book is a rare book about grandpa's favorite music idol Leone Richter and upon reading the book and looking at the map. You discover that there are lit areas on the map pinpointing a resonance stone and one of them happens to be in Cranka.
After learning about the resonance stones and the musical scores on the back of each one grandpa joins you and you return to Cranka to investigate the problem. After talking to the residents of Cranka about the poison leaks in the waterway, the poison leaks again and the town is in panic.

The mayor gives you a key to a hidden door in the waterway asks you to tell the water sluice operator to open the sluice and drain the waterway. From there, that is where your journey really begins. After the a close inspection of the drained waterway you find a door leading to a cave. Inside the cave you discover poisonous creatures who have been multiplying in the cave after being trapped there for years. After clearing the cave of poisonous monsters you find the resonance stone "purification" and you read the inscriptions on the back. They appear to be musical notes and when all the stones are collected it will make up one whole song.

On the way back to Racos Palma grandpa Mac makes up his mind and tells Forte and Una he plans to go on a trip to relive his Troubadour days and search for the stones before he dies. Later that evening, Forte's parents wake him up to ask if grandpa is really leaving and they decide you're going with him. The next day, Forte asks to go but grandpa won't take you unless you put the trumpet away and practice the Kithara since your trumpet skills still suck and as you practice you learn all this time grandpa has been teaching Una how to play the piccolo and all three of you begin practicing together. Finally after 15 minutes of listening to music you give one last concert to the villagers of Racos Palma and leave.

The game is beautiful, but if you've played the previous Legend of Heroes the only thing that's changed is the shorter dialogs and more music. The monster's aren't really that hard and your now able to switch to backup characters when you fight. You can also assign certain magical qualities to your playable characters and develop them along your journey. The pet system is still available in this game although instead of going out to buy pet food you just feed it whatever you have in your inventory. Each item changes the pet's characteristics. The monster's are not very tough so if you need to level up just run into one of the random monsters on the roads.

You still run into the random bad grammar and characters who forget their names and other little glitches along the way. Sometimes you just want to scream, "Don't you people edit the dialog boxes before you publish it? A third grader can write better than this!" That just annoys me how everyone is worried about videogame violence, there's no violence in Legend of Heroes III but it sure can teach a kid lazy grammar usage. Come on Namco Bandai. I know you can do better than this. If anything, at least have your characters remember everyone's name ... or at least the family dog's name.
With that said here is my review.

Pros: More interesting storyline, the puzzles are more challenging than the last game, love that characters from previous Legend of Heroes games make cameo appearances in this game and the pet system is still operational.

Cons: Bad grammar, lame bosses and monsters.