It does seem that in most RPGs that the idea of a hero or heroine that is noble, not selfish, and honorable and higher traits always seems to be a recurring theme. It is nice to see every now and then but sometimes a different kind of hero or heroine emerging. This is the case with this game where we have our hero that is not motivated by noble intentions at the beginning but by money, that is the main goal our hero wishes to pursue in his journey, which will take him too many places and locations, meeting up with many different characters in his travels. In Three The Hard Way, we have a pretty good RPG, with an interesting story, great writing and dialogue, a different sort of ability system and some excellent music that really is a stellar RPG in many ways.

The story of the game actually starts off with a flashback that tells about the story of a great warrior who managed to defeat an evil force, which had been plaguing the land; it was a costly victory though, as he had to kill his sister, who was the leader of this evil group. As a result, the people decided to make him king for showing his strength and power and ridding them of this evil menace. Many years have passed though since that great battle and our king has aged quite a bit, which brings us to our character Vance, a lad who does not care much in his life. All he wises to do is gather enough money, and get the heck out of where he lives; he does not wish to end up in his dads line of work, the faster he does it the better. Yet fate does have an interesting way of working, as soon Vance is engulfed in a plot that will threaten the stability of the kingdoms.

The game looks very reminiscent of the old console RPGs as its built on the RPG maker 2000 engine, and although it may seem like it is similar to games like Final Fantasy, it is quite different. Firstly, the game does not use the system of battling monsters to level up and do this a million times till you get to your desired level. Well that is not entirely true, the game does recommend battling whenever necessary but it is not for levels, it is for stat building. The game uses the idea that during the battle depending on your actions and what happens, at the end of the battle one of your stats will increase. So perhaps you attacked a lot, and then in the end your attack stat would increase. Or perhaps you dodged quite a bit, and then your agility would rise. So battling is an advantage but to give you an edge in areas such as attack, defense, agility, mental abilities, HP raising and more.

The game also allows you to learn spells, through equipping different items, so are temporary till you learn the skill but it does allow you to craft your different characters that join your party in different ways as a result. Also, you will take part in creating different items such as tonics, antidotes and more as the game goes on, through collecting different enemy parts, which will then be combined to create different things.

The story I thought was very strong in the game and add to that our main character Vance having that different personality of not being this noble and lawful character, it just gave the story a different perspective and really as you explore more of the story you will see how it develops. The ability system while different, also brings out a different system that while different to adapt at the beginning for traditional RPG gamers, it does the trick nicely and really brings a new look to the game, in terms of planning and strategy. The music also was pretty nice to hear; it fit in with the different scenes very nicely, and that was key in certain scenes for setting the mood and how a scene would play itself out.

The difficulty of this stat system can be pretty tough, because at times you may think you are prepared for some of the enemies, only to be wiped out in a boss battle, but remember that your stats will only take you so far, staying well equipped is the key in this game and it will take you far. As you advance, the game does get harder so be prepared, this is RPG is not that easy.

Nevertheless this was an enjoyable game and highly recommended for fans of the genre, even to see what the game has to offer. So check out Three The Hard Way and see it for yourself.