A big part of the reason The Legend of Heroes PSP games never reached the heights of such new classic role-playing games like the excellent Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth was that it never quite reached out and brought us anything completely different or original. If anything, the series seemed to have latched on to all the clichés found in RPGs of yesteryear. Sadly, this also applies to The Legend of Heroes III: Song of the Ocean, the third game in the Gagharv trilogy. Still, despite the generic nature of the game, it’s the best closing chapter for this series.

Song of the Ocean follows the adventures of a young musician named Forte who embarks on a quest after learning his grandfather McBain is about to set on his last big journey after having received a letter and package from an old friend. Forte quickly learns that the message his grandfather received has something to do with a mysteriously lost musical composition created by legendary composer Leone Frederik Richter. Together, with his lute-playing grandfather and his dog, as well as Forte’s best friend Una (who plays the piccolo and has a predictable monster crush on Forte), the musical troupe sets out to unlock the secrets of the Lost Melody and learn why it will save the world.

We follow main protagonist Forte from the very beginning and see what it’s like to be a traveling musician with a skill in swordplay. In fact, even though he plays a musical instrument, Forte can actually hold his own during a battle. The same can be said about his grandfather, Una and the pet dog Jan (who can also heal members of the party during battle). If anything, this is the game’s only original aspect … allowing the dog as well as a squirrel-like creature called Rick to join you as a party member. You can even scold your pet for doing badly and praise your pet depending on their behavior but don’t forget to feed them as well.

Unfortunately, the rest of the game isn’t very original and - dare I say it? - very predictable. It doesn’t take long before you realize that Una will have some major competition for Forte’s affections (shades of Final Fantasy VII’s love triangle) nor will it be a major surprise when McBain’s past becomes clearer later on in the game. There’s nothing about the game that makes us believe their quest is an epic one and the various characters you meet (more than a hundred even!) lack real personality that will make gamers really fall in love with them. Storytelling is a major component in the role-playing game genre and Song of the Ocean’s just isn’t compelling or emotional.

Yet the game isn’t bad at all and, as I mentioned in the beginning, this is by far the best closing chapter of the trilogy. For one thing, the characters might be cardboard cutouts but they’re not uninteresting and neither is the quest that is wonderfully lengthy. The places you’ll travel throughout the game have a lot to offer and there are quests aplenty that aren’t complex in nature. Just the formation of your party and the freedom to pick up to six that would be most valuable to you throughout the adventure as well as in battle is a particularly nice touch that beats anything Moonlight Witch or A Tear of Vermilion introduces.  The game even allows you to band together with past characters from both games if you have the save game data on your memory card for some extra quests. 

Battles aren’t impressive at all but at least they’re not complex either. The turn-based battles range in difficulty depending on the monster or enemies you’ll encounter and you can always upgrade your players’ skill whether they’re short-ranged attacks or long-ranged ones. There’s also magic spells to learn and use during battle and you can combine the magical skills of two characters to create a powerful ensemble magical attack. You can even switch characters on the fly during a battle, which was helpful more than twice when I played.

Visually speaking, Song of the Ocean won’t blow you away with its graphics nor will you be blown away by incredibly detailed environments and characters. While the game plays like an old school RPG it also looks like one with its tiny colorful backgrounds and bigheaded characters. The game doesn’t even possess flashy visual effects except for when you perform a magic spell. At least the character profiles look straight out of a Japanese anime.

At least the music isn’t bad either and it does bring to mind those classic role-playing games of old. The great part about the music is that it perfectly plays to all of the game’s best moments whether it’s advancing the love story or getting dramatic right before you confront a major enemy. There’s no voice acting to be found in the game but at least there’s some sound effects.

The Legend of Heroes III: Song of the Ocean for the PSP plays it strictly by the book and while it is a generic and predictable RPG, it’s somehow much better than A Tear of Vermilion. Story-wise, the game won’t hook you in with originality and the characters aren’t very original but at least the main quest is a lengthy one and the battles aren’t complex. There are better role-playing games available for the PSP but if you’ve been following the trilogy or you’re a hardcore RPG fan you could have done a lot worst than this.

Gameplay: 7.5
The good news is that you can play this game without having played the first two and the quest itself is rather long and filled with characters you can interact with or join your party. On top of that, you can even select a healthy number of characters to join you in battle and there’s a lot of ground to cover in the game’s world. It’s just too bad that it’s all so predictable and not so … epic.

Graphics: 7.0
The backgrounds are wonderfully colorful and nicely detailed throughout the game while the characters look really old school while exploring. The Japanese anime-styled character profiled is a nice touch, it’s just too bad the spells and effects just don’t dazzle.

Sound: 7.0
The game’s soundtrack is also very traditional and it actually does a great job of setting the mood during cutscenes and during the action. While there’s no voice acting, there are plenty of sound effects that just don’t sound as good as they should have sounded on the PSP.

Difficulty: Medium
You won’t be stumped in any way throughout the game and while there are some rather interesting quests to take on you won’t be wondering how to proceed next. Some monsters will really put you through hell but then again there’s nothing a little leveling up can’t fix or figuring out what characters would do best in battle.

Concept: 7.5
The game’s world is big enough to explore, you’ll meet more than a hundred characters you can ask to join you, and the best part is that each has his or her own unique skills. The game even offers extra quests starring characters like Jurio and Avin if you have a save game files from both Moonlight Witch and A Tear of Vermilion.

Overall: 7.6
Song of the Ocean is by far the best game in The Legend of Heroes trilogy despite the fact that this one plays it safe by adding every RPG cliché in the book. Yet even without an ounce of originality or a particularly moving story, this one outdoes the first two chapters in almost every way.