A3! ~ RIEview
A quick heads-up: because I posted Ayakashi: Romance Reborn first, I will occasionally compare A3! with Ayakashi: Romance Reborn in this review. There are similarities, but also subtle differences between the two games. At the end of this review I will also include which game I preferred more and why, so read on till the end!
Game Plot
You play as Tachibana Izumi (first name Izumi is changeable) who got herself involved with Mankai Company, a theatre where her father used to work as the director before he went missing which resulted in the spiralling downfall of the company. So in honour of her missing father and since she has experience in acting, she decided to help save the company by taking over as a director. First task: recruit actors! You know, the other main male characters.
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With that said, I do feel bad for Izumi since she's basically doing the job that Matsukawa Isuke (AKA the actual manager of Mankai Company before Izumi joined) should have been doing. Although, in all its fairness, if he had been doing his work well then Izumi wouldn't have the reason or urgency to join the company? The plot might change to her working as an actor alongside the others while trying to find the truth behind her father's disappearance – a plot that I personally much prefer, to be completely honest.
The main storyline shows pretty good character arcs, for the chapters that I've read so far, anyway. I like how the storyline actively incorporates Izumi, which is not the typical 'insert-y/n' here when the characters refer to you (or as manager, as it's frequently referred to in other games like Uta no Prince Sama or Love Live!) in the conversation.
Verdict (4/5)
Overall, despite the fact that I have yet to finish all chapters, I do find the storyline enjoyable. Unlike the more serious undertone in Ayakashi: Romance Reborn, things are more light-hearted in A3!. Granted, if Izumi hadn't join Mankai Company, there wouldn't be a Mankai Company anymore, much less A3!. Personally I wasn't that attracted to slice-of-life genre to begin with, hence why I'm not up-to-date with all of the chapters. Personal opinion aside, good job Cybird/Liber company!
Character Diversity & Personality
The unique trait of Mankai Company is that they have 4 acting troupes, each named after a season: Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. In each troupe there are 5 main male characters and 3 extras, where extras have much less story and cards in comparison to the main characters. There are also 3 characters classified as backstage crew, and they are also considered as extras. All extras don't have super rare cards, which makes sense since they are extras.
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| Main characters in Spring Troupe (Leader: Sakuya Sakuma) |
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| Main characters in Summer Troupe (Leader: Tenma Sumeragi) |
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| Main characters in Autumn Troupe (Leader: Benri Settsu) |
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| Main characters in Winter Troupe (Leader: Tsumugi Tsukioka) |
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| Extras (Backstage Crew), Ensemble cast for the troupes |
So quantity-wise, there is no shortage of guys to fall for. Quality-wise, each character have their own quirks that add to their personality. Again, with these many personalities the game caters for a wide range of preference. I only really dislike one character, and felt that while I don't have a problem with the character himself, the way the game executed his personality just didn't sit right with me. I'm not going to mention who (because this character is well-loved by many players), but I personally dislike the character after coming across a real-life example of this character that went wrong and ended up making headlines after the real-life-character-go-wrong got a popular Kpop artist involved.
(It is actually one of the reason why I am behind on the storyline, just saying.)
Verdict (4/5)
Aside from that one character with poor personality execution by the writers, I like the wide variety of personalities that you can choose from. I understand that some would argue that 'oh it's just a game, the characters are not real, you're just hating on a fictional character blah blah blah...' but to many others the characters are real – in some ways. There are real people who have these personalities, some obvious and others more subtle. Some fans end up so obsessed that not only they spend real money to buy merchandises of their favourite characters, some extreme fans would also build shrines for their bias and almost start a cult following – if you will. Coming back from my minor detour, you will be able to find your favourite character that will suit your preference in A3!.
Game & CG Art
Not an artist nor an art connoisseur, but the art style is okay at best. I'm not putting the art down; I think it's great, but it's not so stunning that it makes me want a particular card because of the art, you get what I mean?
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Is it because Ayakashi: Romance Reborn has the fantasy genre to take their inspiration for fantasy-themed artwork? Maybe, but A3! shouldn't fall behind just because of that reason, seeing that the event-themed cards in A3! would be inspired by the stage that the event is based on; i.e. Shakespeare-style cards for the event cards because the play is on Romeo and Juliet, for example. For this reason, there should be more variety on the art style especially for the event cards. Sadly, I can only feel the same vibe as their normal non-event cards.
Verdict (3.5/5)
A3! doesn't have bad art, mind you. After all, the art has to be synced with the genre – which is a slice-of-life plot and on the dreams of the characters to be actors. A3! uses brighter colours in general, giving a youthful vibe through its pictures. In that aspect, they have done well. But when it came to their event cards, which should have an advantage over Ayakashi: Romance Reborn (since the events all take place in the same era), they fall short in reproducing the same colourful vibe that could be muted or altered in accordance to the different event shows.
Game Mechanics
If you haven't played Ayakashi: Romance Reborn before this, as Ayakashi: Romance Reborn was released before A3! (at least the English version is, not sure about the Japanese version), then you might be relieved to know that the game mechanics are similar but not the same. The chapters will automatically unlocked as you level up, so you don't have to bother with needing keys to unlock the chapters. The practices for each troupe's play correspond to the timeline in the main storyline, but you won't get spoilers if you had only been playing but not quite done the reading (like me). You send characters to train in each practice, and the cool thing is that you can watch the stage play (about 3 minutes long) by sending in the characters of the play or per your choice.
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A3! is different from Ayakashi: Romance Reborn in how you level/skill up your character cards. To skill up your characters, you need items that are specific to the troupe your character is in, like winter items for the winter troupe and so on. Ayakashi: Romance Reborn only uses 3 types of gems (Red, Blue, and Green; they come in 3 sizes: Small, Medium, and Large) that is commonly used to skill up all characters. To level up, you can use any character cards or even the special level-up-only character cards. This is different from Ayakashi: Romance Reborn where you just use points (i.e. the common game currency) to level up the cards; in A3! you need both cards and cash (i.e. the common game currency only for skill/level up characters, as seen in screenshots below) to do so. So in comparison, it is more expensive to level/skill up the character cards in A3! than it is in Ayakashi: Romance Reborn.
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| Main page to skill (Training), level up (1 on 1), or merge same cards (Bloom) |
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| Training: Place to skill-up characters |
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| 1 on 1: Place to level-up characters |
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| Blooming: Merging same character cards for overall stat boost |
A unique feature is a mini game called 'earning cash', where cash is currency you need to skill/level up your characters. So all you have to do is choose a pair of characters and start the mini game of tapping all the hearts on the screen. Different pairs will unlock different mini stories, so make all the possible combinations and try them out!
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| Selection page for the mini game 'earn cash' |
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| Once you select a pair of characters, choose a location and start! |
Verdict (4.5/5)
Is it easy to learn how to play for a first time user? Yes! Is it easy to skill/level up the character cards? You need to do a lot of grinding, AKA you may need to play repeatedly levels and/or the earning cash mini game to get all the items you need. So overall the gameplay is good, nothing bad about it, but you need to grind A LOT to boost your cards so I reduced the marks for that.
In-Game Events
A3! has plenty of in-game events, each with their own event story that mostly revolves around a new stage that they came up with. Like Ayakashi: Romance Reborn, the event practice can be accessed via the 'event' tab under 'play', and the event shows will randomly appear throughout the event practice. Event story chapters will unlock once you reach a certain milestone in the event. There are two versions: one that records event points, and another that requires you to collect event items. Aside from this difference, their goals are the same.
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| Event recording event points |
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| Event recording event items |
While I like how frequent events are, I noticed that it is much more difficult to obtain the event-limited cards. I don't mean the event-limited cards from the event draw (obviously that is down to luck) that will give score boosts; I meant the cards that you can only get once you scored a certain amount of event points or items on the reward list. Be prepared to use a lot of the precious gems if you really want that character card.
Verdict (3.5/5)
While it is good that events are frequent and varied, featuring different troupes in each round, it's near impossible to get that SSR event-only character card without splurging on gems. If you're someone that likes all equally and want to collect them all, you can't go far without spending real money on the game. If you're someone that only favour a selected few characters, then you might have a chance of not spending real money by ignoring events that don't have your favourite character(s) on the reward list.
To conclude, if you're looking for a slice-of-life game with different characters to choose from, plus lots of event stories and event-limited cards, this game is for you. Personally, between A3! and Ayakashi: Romance Reborn, I prefer Ayakashi: Romance Reborn more. Again, that is because I prefer a fantasy-genre and the So, if you do have enough memory space on your smartphone/tablet, why not download A3! and see if you like the game?
~ RieRie
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