(Spoiler-free) Alphadia III Remake Updated Review (Japanese version)

[ChromaRaine]

The awaited remake taking place during the Alphadian's worse history that will shape its world future.. and the untold story of someone to find the meaning of life. 

The awaited third installment of the Alphadia series, Alphadia 3, was remake on smartphone devices in 2024, which originally released and formerly exclusive on Japanese feature phones in 2009. This current review is for the Android version and subject to change once it is officially release on English and other platform (PC).

Alphadia III is a prequel to Alphadia I and takes place in the Alphadian Year 970, 100 years before the first game.

You play as Alphonse, codenamed 0011, a double-numbers combatant clone series of the Luminere Alliance, one of the last remaining nations along with the Kingdom of Nordstrom and the Schwarzschild Empire in the turmoil of the great war over resources. As he embarks into a journey to find the meaning of life after his encounter with a young woman named Tart, a human who informs him the death of his comrade and his wish for a peaceful world free from war he sees on a child's picture book.

Alphadia 3 gameplay was been significantly improved graphics with the benefits of the Alphadia I & II engine and quality-of-life implementation that wasn't present in the original, with some minor additional changes such as SP don't reset to zero when a character dies, the mon. spawner device, and the teleporting circle in the beginning, in-between and the end of the dungeons. There is also a newly added feature called Energi Vase, which I will explained below alongside the Seaplane.

Seaplane is an endgame dual-function vehicle that can land on water as ship and fly through the skies. Originally a ship but was later on upgraded to access terrains surrounded by mountains.

Energi Vase is a newly added feature that makes your extra items, scraps, unused equipment to a Energi Element, in which can be use to craft and upgrade elemental rings and special accessories. Energi Element can also be used as a payment for tickets to a hidden arena only accessible in a cleared data.

After several updates since its release, Alphadia 3 controls has been slightly improved and some bugs including quests locking has been fixed, although it's still a bit unresponsive at a time.

The battle system was upgraded with the 2 benched characters are now being included in the battle compared to the original with 4 characters are only allowed during battle, improving your chance of winning, adding the Formation tactics and keeping the new levels ands tats cap of Alphadia II remake, increasing it further. The Energi Arts has been rebalanced while still relying on MND and some requires more EP. Some are nerfed, some are buffed. And there are SP skills, SP skills are an improved Alphadia 2's 'Break Skills' system, instead of "BG cost", SP are divided into three category: SP1, SP2, and SP3, which cost bar(s) depends on the skill.

SP1 consumes 1 bar for your beginning 2 SP skills. A bit weaker but helpful in the early portion of the game.

SP2 consumes 2 bars for your intermediate2  SP skills. A stronger variation of SP1, damage to enemies and status effects given to teammates (support skills) are much better and stronger.

SP3 consumes 3 bars for your advanced 2 SP skills. A stronger variation of SP2 and to unlock the ultimate (sixth) SP skill of each playable characters. The pinnacle skills for damage-dealer like Alphonse to unlock Limit Breach.

As the same thing in Alphadia 2, SP Skills levels can be leveled up by using them in battle repeatedly. The monsters spawner at the dungeons can help you learn new skills much faster, especially if you're grinding for levels, ENP, and Gold.

Tactics - Formations are a valuable tactic for turning the tide of battle in your favor, due to the effects they provide. Formations allow you to reposition your team, with the effects varying depending on the formation you've chosen. There are three formations only accessible in the cleared data. (More information on the formation list in the future)

The skill system are the same as the Alphadia I & II Remake. You level up 6 different elements of Energi via the Energi Rings that you can equip on your characters (there are special rings that you can buy in the nebula stone shop and gacha rolls that let your characters learn all Energi up to level 99. These rings were nerfed in this remake).

Overall, Alphadia 3 is a decent remake but the lore for the Nordstrom Kingdom and about Schwarzshild Empire that I can't tell because it's a spoilers is a bit lacking. It can be improved, yes, but it is too late. And honestly, this will benefit with the original devs involvement or at least a direction by Ryuji Takumi but we all know that ain't gonna happen. Though, they sort of did this via Q&A to several original devs with Ryuji Takumi involved. Only Q&A though.



(rating might change in the future)

 

Made: Nov. 10, 2024

(1st) Revision: January 3, 2025

[VertVentus]

If you still have your save data, could I pick your brain about this game's balance and whether it's leaned toward physical or magical? I probably won't have the luxury to grind out/buy currency to afford both Aid Room damage increases in a Very Hard mobile playthrough. For a recap on the balance of Alphadia games I did binge recently (1:2 physical:magical),

Alphadia I (Remake): Physical is in an awful spot since all you have are normal attacks, Lv. 50 Wind's Double Attacks for normals, and Lv. 16/35 Fire/Flame Dance (ATK buff) or Lv. 8/65 Earth's Charge 1/2 (another ATK buff). Half of the bosses aren't in the vanguard to be targeted by Lv. 12/41/69 Fire/Flame/Flare Weapon (DEF debuff). There is no MND de/buff, and weapons only increase ATK with zero INT +% passives or anything, but the Compound Energi Arts are an easy way to clear enemy encounters (Eclair since she's fastest with competitive MND to Sofia, and Enah's too frail despite her superior MND to both) and damage main story bosses. Meanwhile you end up Reflect spamming for the superbosses, since the Lv. 99 cap and 999 stat cap punishes you for not acquiring Status Up Items early via Aid Room due to no easy stat booster grind.
Alphadia II (Remake): Physical is slightly better with Lv. 18/42/70 Fire/Flame/Flare Weapon allowing you to choose your DEF debuff target, Lv. 6/75 Charge 1/2 being changed to +50%/75% damage on the next attack, the new Break skills [14 uses on Rank 1 skills to unlock Rank 2 (lowering Rank 1 costs to 75/100) and 26 uses to unlock Rank 3 (lowering Rank 1 costs to 50/100 and Rank 2's to 75/100)] with some meaty Power values like Enah's Random Shot (280x7=1960) & Energi Release (500x5=2500) or Baroch's Serpent Cleaver (All Allies EP -75% but converted to x10 damage), but the BG system restricts their use outside 1 turn nukes (even if recovery circles generously restore BG, in battle it's not that great without items) and the real star is still magical with Myu's Limit Breach doubling her stats to nuke with Catastrophe's 300x7=2100. You can also level grind outside the Esper Monument (Light) to Lv. 200~300 realistically to overpower things.
Alphadia Neo: Physical is arguably better since Break skills consume EP like Energi Arts, the physical styles tend to have both STR & AGI for turn order when basically every boss from the halfway mark can act twice per action like a typical superboss (sometimes even 4 in a row), and Resonant skills multiply the Force value by the number of participants due to individual damage calculations summed together: Lv. 65 Alt/Carlo's Cross End being 555+200 on a vanguard target, Lv. 50 Alt/Souffle/Carlo's 52x10 being 87x10 if they're all in the vanguard, Lv. 70 Alt/Enah/Carlo's Jet Strike for giving Enah another turn but has no usage counter, and Absolute Buster's 815 Force involving all 4 and unlocked by beating the Fububu Ruins boss. Thank god you can Blast Bomb cheese Olden Oarfish with Materia weapons for 2x first turn damage + FP Mart untouched critical + damage bonus armor for post-game stat boosters, since the Lv. 99 and 999 stat cap made the final boss really difficult.
Magic technically has a higher ceiling in Neo: there is a MND de/buff, weapons/styles offer MND +% increases and there are various passive Energi Art damage modifiers even on regular store-bought equipment with gold (much like Ryuji Takumi's more recent games: Sword of Elpisia, Isekai Rondo, Astrune Academy, Alter Age), you can hypothetically grind 9999 uses on Shadow (200 Force + Uses ÷ 3 = 3533), and then roll the gacha for HR weapons that also increase Force by [Uses ÷ 3 ÷ Hits = 6866 on Shadow]. But that is too time consuming compared to Isekai Rondo's Abyssus weapons [Uses x 2 x Hits] or Alter Age's Heavenly weapons [Uses x 1.5 ÷ Hits]. The Energi weapons ("The effect for the Energi Art first learned for each elemental is 'All'.", which makes Shadow AoE) has also limited purchase availability at the Two Kingdoms' Joint Base, since that specific weapon shop disappears upon reaching Oberg Castle in Story 61 (out of 63 total).

It probably doesn't matter since Alphonse has Limit Breach and the level cap is 999, but I'm curious since the wait is daunting.

[ChromaRaine]

https://www.rpginsanity.com/forum/non-e ... anslation/

This remake has few difficulty spikes in certain parts, and the bosses were buffed, as far as I know, compared to the original Alphadia 3 scaling. However, this also suffers from the same balancing issues that Alphadia I and II have: enemies, including the final boss, were not coded to fight a player above level 150 and can be cheesed off (they're still buffed, can be cheesed but not that easy) since you can reach the final area around level 200. Note that I played this on Very Hard difficulty from the start without any aid room upgrades.

Cleared-data extra content is where the difficulty spike hits hardest. To face these extra-content bosses, including the uber boss to get the true ending, you need to reach level 999 and obtain the best unisex armor for everyone. If you don’t have the luxury of grinding or buying currency to afford storage house keys (since the weapons inside are a good enough alternative), you’ll need to grind for each character’s ultimate weapon you can only obtain through the secret arena, which is much more powerful than the legendary weapons (won’t spoil the fun?).
And since this is a prequel to the first game, there's a familiar face you'll had to fight, and is the uber boss I mentioned above.

The remake leans on both physical and magical abilities, but that’s based on my experience. It depends on your playstyle, as the formations affect the damage of Energi Arts and SP skills. You also need to utilize both, as each character has strengths in either physical (like Alphonse with his SP skills) or magical (like Meteor with her support skills). I mentioned in this post that Energi Arts are either buffed or nerfed. Void Energi's damage is buffed, though its EP cost is also buffed (pun intended). Catastrophe’s damage was buffed to 750, but it hits less frequently, with a maximum of 3 to 5 hits. And only Enah can use it in my savedata, as I don’t have any rings that can upgrade Alphonse’s elements aside from his main element to 99.

 

I'm a bit disoriented while making this reply. I apologize if my explanation is a bit messy or unclear. I have more to add, but I’m not processing it enough right now...?

[VertVentus]

Thank you for the reply, your posts were informative. So just like Myu, Alphonse will need an All-Ability/Intelligence Ring to shine as a mage, even if those rings have been nerfed...

Alphonse's (Fire) skills didn't change much from Leon's aside from stealing Myu's Limit Breach Release to replace Final Heaven.
Tart (Light) has MND buffs (2 stage on a single ally or 1 stage for everyone) and support like Milly.
Fokker (Earth) is a tank just like Jenim.
Alphadia III Remake Enah (Darkness) has offensive skills from both Alphadia II Remake's Enah and Myu, but nerfed Random Shot's potency and made Energi Release consume 50% HP?!
Meteor (Wind) has all-target 2 stage ATK, DEF, and SPD buffs. She also got her design censored since the original.
Rafale (Water) is more support by apply temporary damage absorption or buffing formation effects. So no one inherited Baroch's damage skills.

Enah's Energi Release is still the strongest physical skill (500x5 Force = 2500), as others skills don't reach higher than 1000 or 1050 Force, but you can probably grind the requisite uses to access these SP skills for early good physical damage until endgame's higher Energi ranks for the better spells & magic support. So I'll probably acquire the magic damage upgrades first.

Fire Rank 57 deals 430 Force to apply a 2 stage DEF debuff (more potent than Alphadia II Remake's Rank 42 Flame Weapon with 220 Force or Rank 70 Flare Weapon's 310). The final Fire spell is only a puny 550 Power though.
Water Rank 68 deals 420 Force and applies a 2 stage MND debuff to a horizontal row.
Water Rank 83 deals 600x2~4 Force (1200~2400).
Wind Rank 18 passes a turn to an ally much like Alphadia Neo's Rank 45 Quick Speed, so you can have everyone else funnel turns into either Limit Release!Alphonse or Enah.
Wind Rank 84 deals 600x2~4 Force (1200~2400).
Earth Rank 81 deals 600x2~4 Force (1200~2400).
Light Rank 99 deals 900 Force, applies a 2 stage ATK debuff to a single enemy, and applies a 2 stage DEF buff to the caster.
Darkness Rank 99 Catastrophe deals 750x3~5 Force (2250~3750).
Omegadia got buffed to 500 EP and 1500 Force compared to Alphadia II Remake's 400 EP and 1200 Force.

I got those spell values skimming these videos, and it's nice to see buffs to the other elements.

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