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Millennium 3: Cry Wolf
PC (Steam)
Episode 3 of 5
3.5/5 stars
“Millennium 3: Cry Wolf” is the third part of Aldorlea’s episodic “RPG Maker” creation. There is actually very little worth mentioning that is different from the first two episodes, so instead of rehashing the aspects that have remained the same, I will direct anyone who is interested in this series of games to read my reviews of “Millennium: A New Hope” and “Millennium 2: Take Me Higher” before proceeding.
Presentation
“Millenium 3’s” graphics and sound are largely identical to the first two entries. As the characters’ levels have risen, rendering monsters from the first to episodes powerless against the party, Aldorlea has begun the age-old tradition of pallet swapping for new monsters – that is, presenting an old monster sprite with a different color scheme as an entirely ‘new’ beast.
“Millennium 3” also features a few more dynamic cutscenes than previous episodes, mostly revolving around the final boss encounter. However, these are incredibly mundane and not particularly impressive.
It is also noteworthy that, unlike episodes 1 and 2, “Millennium 3” has a couple of really annoying glitches. One involves a recruitable character randomly switching their equipped weapon for a different weapon after each battle. Another involves an entire series of sidequests that becomes inaccessible if the player does not trigger a specific in-game location before defeating the end boss. The worst, though, is that Marine’s automatic counter attack ability from her Wild Goose class promotion doesn’t seem to work anymore. The fact that these glitches have appeared in a series that has otherwise been rock solid (for an Indie game made in “RPG Maker”) is disconcerting, especially because this series has been available for several years and these faults have yet to be patched.
Story
“Millennium 3” resumes directly from the end of “Millennium 2: Take Me Higher.” Our band of would-be revolutionaries lead by firecracker farmer’s daughter, Marine, and her less-than-enthusiastic cousin Benoit find themselves at loss for where to find more fighters to fill out their roster for the Trial By Combat that will allow the poor and downtrodden to wrest control of the government from the idle rich.
After being assaulted by a couple of Mystrock’s administrators in a cave, Marine decides to lead the team East, into the Forbidden Zone. None of Mystrock’s superstitious and magic-fearing denizens dare set foot in this unsettled territory where witches and orcs supposedly lurk under every bush, thus Marines team should be able to search for fighters to join their cause unharassed. Of course, the fact that Marine’s party has exhaustively searched every town and village outside of the Forbidden Zone is another strong motivator.
Instead of ditching the previous-gathered party members, as was the fact in “Millennium 2,” Abu sticks around for the entire third episode, while Jezebel temporarily leaves before returning at the end. Hirado from “Millennium 1” also makes a temporary return (provided the player stumbles upon him), while Karine from the first episode is available as a permanent team member (provided the player stumbles upon her as well). Of course, the three non-human characters are still available for use. “Millennium 3” actually features four new party members. The first is Marine’s kid sister, Merline, who automatically joins up at the start of the game. Two minor NPCs, Jack and James, return as recruitable fighters, while the final recruitable character is Salome, a woman who is slowly transforming into a mermaid.
The overall theme of “Millennium 3” seems to be overcoming transformative curses, as Jack has also found himself cursed with a slight case of lycanthropy (the titular ‘wolf’). Marine, showing how kind and altruistic she and her new government can be, swears to help Jack and Salome overcome their curses, even if they won’t join her cause of overthrowing the corrupt government (which they, of course, do).
The interesting plot developments revolving around Marine’s mother never go anywhere in “Millennium 3.” Indeed, the entire game seems to be just one big sidetrack, as Marine’s party must fend off an invasion of orcs (by committing orc genocide) and deal with a dragon threatening the Forbidden Zone. Both of these major plot points are devoid of originality, and seem like the type of thing a bored and harried dungeon master would come up with to serve as filler in a tabletop game for which they didn’t have adequate preparation time. The new characters aren’t particularly interesting either, with Salome being something of a passive doormat and Jack and James playing the roles of lovable scoundrels… that everyone else in the party hates because they inexplicably act like Beavis and Butthead.
“Millennium 3” is another short episode, clocking in at around 10 hours. It also features an eve greater number of ‘Is this proper English?’ moments that make the dialog awkward.
Gameplay
“Millennium 3” provides the player with the opportunity to import a save from “Millennium2.” Like the previous episode, gameplay balance seems to be based on the player importing characters with a significant amount of good gear from the previous two episodes in order to avoid tedious, overwhelming amounts of grinding and overly-difficult battles. As it was, I found “Millennium 3” to be rather easy, despite the fact that Aldorlea went out of their way to strip characters of levels (my party was demoted ~20 levels from the end of “Millennium 2”) and locked away two of Marine’s key abilities (one of which can only be reacquired by entering a ‘one chance only’ secret room, which the other is returned after the final boss).
The turn-based combat system is back, still unchanged, from Episode 1. Boss encounters feel good and strategic, while random encounters are easy to steamroll. Unfortunately, due to nerfs and glitches, Marine no longer feels like a badass.
After the well-managed secrets and quests in “Millennium 2,” “Millennium 3” unfortunately relapses into a love for missable content and secrets that have absolutely no visual cues. The first two new areas of the game are both ‘one time only’ visits, and both contain secrets (one of which is indispensable). There are a couple more ‘one time only’ locations scattered throughout the rest of the game. Some people might think that putting missable content and invisible secrets into the game adds to the replay value, but all it really does is pad out play time by forcing players to mash the X button while facing every tile and object in the game. It’s a good idea to play “Millennium 3” with multiple save slots in order to cut down on repetition in the event of missed content (which is practically guaranteed).
Overall
“Millennium 3: Cry Wolf” is definitely the low point in the ‘Millennium’ series. The good combat from the first two episodes is marred by unnecessary nerfing of Marine’s abilities as well as a few tiresome glitches, while the story just doesn’t have the quality or momentum. The overwhelming amount of missable content and obtuse secrets with no visual cues, however, are what really drag this episode down. “Millennium 3” may not be as polished as the first two episodes, but it’s still worth a play for those planning to run through the whole series.
Presentation: 3/5
Story: 3/5
Gameplay: 4/5
Overall (not an average): 3.5/5
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