The pedigree of The Legend of Heroes III is very strong due to its developer Falcom. Falcom is the creator of one of my favorite RPG series, Ys. I remember playing the first Ys on the Sega Master System and enjoying every minute of the game. When the Turbo Grafx CD system was released, I made sure to purchase the system just for Ys Book I & II. The series took a stumble, in my opinion, with the release of Ys III and has never recovered. It could be that Falcom has never recovered as well because The Legend of Heroes III just doesn’t achieve the same level of greatness as those earlier Falcom titles.

As the title indicates, this is the third title in The Legend of Heroes series, all of which have been released on the PSP. For those that have played the earlier titles, Legend of Heroes III (LH III) will allow you to import saved character data from earlier games. The characters from the first two LH titles can be used in special battles that you discover in the game. These battles are not connected to the main story of LH III, but the experience points collected in the battles do transfer over. Unfortunately you cannot use characters from the earlier games in the main story of the LH III.

Now for those that haven’t played the first two games, LH III is what I would describe as a tried and true RPG. If you’ve played a Japanese style RPG before, then you will not find any surprises in LH III. The plot, graphics, and game play of LH III will remind you of games you’ve played in the past. A game with a teenager as the main character? A love interest between the main hero and his female supporting character? Turned based combat? Check, check and check to all of these and many more clichA