Having only the prior experience of playing the latest title of this franchise and having watched a little bit of the first two, I approached Disaster Report 3 with enough confidence to think I would enjoy the journey from start to finish. And I surely did. Disaster Report is a video game series that has something especial that it is definitely not for everyone. While I didn't enjoy this as much as the fourth entry primarily for the sacrifices they had to make to translate this into the Playstation Portable, it still offers enough pros to be considered a very good product to me. Clearly this time you shouldn't be expecting much depth in the story, animations or so but the character of Saki has the potential to create some cute and memorable moments that you may be remember in the future like if this were some kind of anime movie. I wouldn't hate a remake of this, because what it mostly lack is artistic design. Don't get me wrong, graphics have their charm but there is not much intention on the presentation putting aside videos. It's like there was a concept, a nice idea, but they just couldn't execute it properly or something like that.
Story is kind of a mixed bag where sometimes is okay and some other times is just not as goofy as it should. Because Disaster Report talks about the implications of being in the middle of a natural disaster, from the human perspective, but it also loves to be absurd most of the time to the point you can't even ignore it and that contrast between both takes is what really makes this series unique. It is precisely because they are in the middle of a disaster that you can expect completely stupid situations because the characters are, well, human beings, and that was something Disaster Report 4 managed to perfect and I think that was very clever of the developers. Here though, the majority of those situations are caused by the player for answering silly things or just being completely rude to the other characters of the pack. Because you have a lot of things you can say and be a dick, a nice person or even find romance. The choice is up to you. That won't change the majority of the main story but it is nice to have such a wide range of silly dialogue options that adds spice to your game and you can get different endings depending on if you've been actively pursuing certain flags during the adventure.
Gameplay wise it's not subtle at all. You have a stress bar that will be getting bigger and bigger, eating up your health bar. That's an interesting mechanic for a setting like this until you see it really doesn't matter at all. Stress fills up too quick and you may find items or do especific actions to lower it but the second happen during the story and not at any time you want. Also if you lower stress you have to refill HP with another item but there are not many of those. Instead there are many more that do both things at the same time and you have save point benches literally everywhere where you can sit and get rid of all your stress just by sighing before saving your game. And you do that automatically after sitting down. There are very little moments where stress does matter and when it does, it really doesn't because it will never fill up all your health. It just means you'll have less maximum HP and you have to be more careful in danger situations. That's all. And you really don't need to be especially careful in this game. Just mind your step sometimes and if your screen shakes, crouch momentarily. Beside that, you should be running all the time because walking is too slow. There are almost no depth in this system and this is consecuence of being launched in a handheld platform. It's clearly made for quick game sessions so they had to make some concessions and that probably did hurt these systems. Aside that, it still has its charm in the little things like when you say something warm in a difficult moment it releases your stress a little bit for example. It's rough and I mostly blame the handheld gaming style for it.
It's a difficult game to judge and not for everybody but if you're minimally interested in the concept, have played any of the other in the series or just want to play something very unique, I recommend you to check a look at Disaster Report 3.
Story is kind of a mixed bag where sometimes is okay and some other times is just not as goofy as it should. Because Disaster Report talks about the implications of being in the middle of a natural disaster, from the human perspective, but it also loves to be absurd most of the time to the point you can't even ignore it and that contrast between both takes is what really makes this series unique. It is precisely because they are in the middle of a disaster that you can expect completely stupid situations because the characters are, well, human beings, and that was something Disaster Report 4 managed to perfect and I think that was very clever of the developers. Here though, the majority of those situations are caused by the player for answering silly things or just being completely rude to the other characters of the pack. Because you have a lot of things you can say and be a dick, a nice person or even find romance. The choice is up to you. That won't change the majority of the main story but it is nice to have such a wide range of silly dialogue options that adds spice to your game and you can get different endings depending on if you've been actively pursuing certain flags during the adventure.
Gameplay wise it's not subtle at all. You have a stress bar that will be getting bigger and bigger, eating up your health bar. That's an interesting mechanic for a setting like this until you see it really doesn't matter at all. Stress fills up too quick and you may find items or do especific actions to lower it but the second happen during the story and not at any time you want. Also if you lower stress you have to refill HP with another item but there are not many of those. Instead there are many more that do both things at the same time and you have save point benches literally everywhere where you can sit and get rid of all your stress just by sighing before saving your game. And you do that automatically after sitting down. There are very little moments where stress does matter and when it does, it really doesn't because it will never fill up all your health. It just means you'll have less maximum HP and you have to be more careful in danger situations. That's all. And you really don't need to be especially careful in this game. Just mind your step sometimes and if your screen shakes, crouch momentarily. Beside that, you should be running all the time because walking is too slow. There are almost no depth in this system and this is consecuence of being launched in a handheld platform. It's clearly made for quick game sessions so they had to make some concessions and that probably did hurt these systems. Aside that, it still has its charm in the little things like when you say something warm in a difficult moment it releases your stress a little bit for example. It's rough and I mostly blame the handheld gaming style for it.
It's a difficult game to judge and not for everybody but if you're minimally interested in the concept, have played any of the other in the series or just want to play something very unique, I recommend you to check a look at Disaster Report 3.