God Eater is a rather specific and relatively unknown series of games, which in fact is a lightweight version of Monster Hunter and works according to a well-known formula - preparing for a mission, killing a monster, collecting loot, crafting more powerful weapons and ... repeating until the final credits. Only here, unlike Monster Hunter, you don’t need to bother with the study of the locations and habits of the monsters, we find the purpose of the task and immediately go into battle.

For the first time, God Eater was released on the PlayStation Portable and could go unnoticed if it were not for an interesting setting. In the post-apocalyptic world of God Eater, all living things on the surface of our planet are methodically destroyed by the invulnerable for ordinary weapons Monsters Aragami. In fact, these monsters are a colony of unicellular organisms - the cells of the Oracle. On the basis of the latter, divine arches were developed, a biomechanical weapon capable of killing Aragami and able to change its shape, adapting to close and long-range combat, however, only a person with Oracle cells can be used. These people are called God Eaters.

 

 

 

 

 

You can start the acquaintance with the series immediately from the third part, after watching the animated series of 2015, but you don’t have to look for your PSP or blow off dust from the PlayStation Vita - the previous games are not very good.

In God Eater 3, besides the monsters, humanity living in the port bunkers had another problem - deadly ash storms, moving over the surface is possible only in armored “caravans”, and another variation of Eaters whose skin is able to withstand the harmful effects of ashes compels Aragami . These warriors are called Adaptive Eaters of the Gods or APB, for short. The mutants selected in childhood do not like it, believing that due to the introduction of cells they lose humanity and become monsters themselves. They keep the APB locked up and only released for assignments, but at the same time they conclude contracts with them, pay maintenance and allow them to have in their personal possession everything that was collected on the battlefield. Frankly, there is not a lot of logic in such an attitude, because without the help of the JSA, mankind has no chances, but oh well. Actually The plot of the third part is built around a group of Adaptive Eaters who happened to be outside their port at the time of its destruction by an ash storm. Having joined the caravan passing nearby, the heroes set themselves the goal of real freedom and at the same time save the strange girl Fim, who is not a girl at all, but a colony of Oracle cells, for some reason taking on a human form.

 

 

 

 

 

And if the plot itself can be called tolerable, then the manner of its presentation does not cause anything but disappointment - rare cut scenes, even rarer animation inserts and painfully long walks around the ship in search of a character with an icon of dialogue above his head. That's all. Dialogues, by the way, are very poorly written, translated even worse, and the characters themselves are worked through somehow and do not cause much empathy.

 

 

 

 

 

However, in God Eater, we still come monsters to shred, and not talk to talk, with this, the third part of how? Tracking goals is necessary on relatively small maps consisting of several rooms and arenas connected by corridors. An exploration of the world usually comes down to moving from one marker marking the location of a valuable resource to another, which is rather a plus, because neither the design of the levels nor the quality of the scenery cause any special delight, they are hardly distinguishable from the average Japanese Action-RPG. The task is usually given about forty minutes, but the scale of the map allows you to cope much faster, even the battles with bosses rarely overcome the ten-minute mark, which is facilitated by the frantic dynamics of the combat system. Streyfa, dodge, bounce,

 

 

 

 

 

Divine arches can be of all shapes and sizes and work exactly as you expect - for example, pair short blades do relatively little damage, but they do it very quickly and slowly exhaust the endurance scale, allowing you to circle around a huge monster, gradually reducing its health, and a pleasant surprise can be transformed into a glafu, which is used for bursts of damage on stunned Arags, and a huge hammer does destructive damage, but requires greater accuracy in aiming and better work with timings. Actually, under the combat style you need to pick up the archery form of firearms - everything is here, from sniper rifles and luchemets to machine guns and shotguns, with the ammunition varying in type and can cause spontaneous damage to the enemy and heal teammates.

The partners, by the way, were very surprised, rarely when you come across such useful NPCs. They not only do not interfere under their feet, but also benefit, with secondary goals they sometimes have time to finish before the player engages in battle and is able to divert the boss to himself, while the main character retreats to the healing fountain located in another room. I would not be surprised if the partners and Ash Aragami are capable of picking up on their own, if given the opportunity. Of course, they need to be addressed, not forgetting to pump skills and periodically change the composition, so that someone would not lag behind in development, since in certain story chapters the game will deprive you of the opportunity to take on the tasks of your favorite characters.

 

 

 

 

 

As for the enemies, ordinary Arags usually do not cause problems, in a fight with them it is not necessary to adhere to any special strategy, hurl it in vain and do not forget to evade and block attacks. Of course, for the sake of appreciation for passing the level, you will have to try and study the enemy a little, identify his vulnerabilities and weak points, which should be hit in order to immobilize first and then devour the enemy with the help of the Divine Arch. You shouldn’t forget about devouring, by the way, because it allows you to quickly accumulate energy to activate the Splash - gaining characters, activating various positive effects. In addition, devouring a defeated enemy is used to collect resources for crafting.

 

 

 

 

 

Monsters are more serious, and especially Ashes Arags, will force them to sweat, here they cannot do without defining weak points and breaking through the armor, since the usual blows cause a ridiculous amount of damage. The ash Arags are able to use Splash themselves, becoming very dangerous, and then the high dynamics of the combat system comes to the rescue, only this time its entire arsenal will have to be used to avoid strikes.

After completing the mission, the hero returns to the caravan to rest, replenish supplies of consumables, improve weapons and get the next mission, but it often happens that you have to go to an already completed task - collect resources for crafting, grind plays a major role in games of this genre. To its credit, God Eater 3 is worth noting that the game clearly displays exactly what resources fall in one location or another and the percentage chance of loss. But the ability to somehow track the type of resources that you lack in order to finally improve your favorite arch, alas, is missing (or I did not find it).

 

 

 

 

 

There are also multiplayer in the game, in which a team of 4 people can be sent to missions, and Shock missions designed for 8 players. With the latter, the essence is still the same - to track down and kill the extremely powerful Aragami, but only 5 minutes are given to everything about everything. But the analogs of dungeons from other multiplayer games would work perfectly in God Eater 3. Most likely the problem is that the level design in Marvelous First Studio didn’t bother much and tried to reuse the same locations as much as possible, where the dungeons come from.

Как правило, недостаточная детализация всего, что не имеет прямого отношения к битве, является бичом Божьего Пожирателя 3. Места одного типа, сюжет примитивен, персонажи персонажей набросаны схематическими штрихами, направление разреза Сцены не впечатляют.  Bandai Namco Games выпустила игру для домашних игровых систем, но уши портативных консолей торчат на каждом углу - игра, похоже, по-прежнему предназначена для коротких игровых сессий.  После Monster Hunter World God Eater 3 выглядит как бюджет, но игра претерпела ряд существенных улучшений по сравнению с предыдущими выпусками и, скорее всего, выглядела бы намного лучше на Nintendo Switch, чем на PlayStation 4 и ПК.