Penny-Arcade: OTRSPOD 3 Quick Review

So, I know I touched briefly on this game a few months ago, and now I've finished it.  I had put this game on the back-burner after awhile, and forgot about it.  When I went back to it, and played it for a bit, I realized I stopped playing literally an hour away from beating it.  So there's that.

If you remember my old post (here), I mentioned a few of the gimmicks of the game; class pins, interruptions, et al.  The biggest advancement since then, is an advancement in the class pin system.  At the time, I could only equip one class pin to mix with your core class.  Well shortly after that post, I found that you can equip two classes in addition to your core.  Doing some simple math, with about 10 choosable classes you have roughly 45 total, two-class combinations.  If you want to try mixing and matching to find your play-style, this is the way to go.

Just for the sake of keeping this short, here's a bullet list of thoughts on OTRSPOD3.

• The combat is still fluid and nuanced.  You can find a general strategy that will work on most enemies, but there are some fights where you have to change things up.  
• The class system is clever.  I think the class combination system is really nice in creating interesting strategies for battle.  Some classes, obviously, synergize well together, but having the option to branch out radically adds a really nice touch.  
• The writing is a bit wordy at times, but it fits the whole Penny Arcade mold.  Tycho is verbose, and Gabe is a bit spacey.  It fits the comic well.  Whether you think this is a good thing relies on your thoughts of the writing in the strip.
• Free DLC, so there's that.  If you're playing the Steam version, auto-downloaded.
• Interrupting enemies becomes a huge priority in late game fights.  Once enemies start powering up, you'll want to keep them from attacking.
• In case I didn't mention this last time, enemies get stronger the longer the battle goes.  It's not uncommon for bosses to be at 200% capacity or higher by the time you even get then below 1/4 life.

I highly recommend this game to fans of 16 bit RPGs.  The turn based combat has enough new wrinkles to keep it interesting.  The automatic healing between battles means you're not micro-managing items and abilities that can drag down a game.  The game isn't particularly long, and it's been fairly cheap on Steam of late, so consider it if you have an RPG itch.