This is part of a disaster video game series developed by Irem. The first two games were released on the PlayStation 2 and for this third one it was released on the PlayStation Portable.

Known as Disaster Report in the west, this series was non-existent to me as I do not own a PS2. It was the news on the cancellation of Zettai Zetsumei Toshi 4 that I started looking into it. The fourth game was supposed to be released on the PS3, but due to the 2011 Tohoku earthquake in March the developer had no choice but to cancel it.

I can’t comment on the first two games or do any form of comparison as I have not played them, but from what I’ve experienced in the third game this is quite an… interesting title. Although you are generally just travelling from Point A to Point B the set pieces, random events and story help to prevent this game from being a snore and the gameplay is different from the many games that I have played before.

You play as a university student who is trying to survive in the aftermath of a huge earthquake that left Central Island in a very bad state. Before I started, I was pretty skeptical and wasn’t quite sure how Irem is able to develop a game like this without making it boring. However after playing it, I was impressed and rather intrigued by some of the game design choices that they make. So instead of holding the R button for a shield attack or hitting the square button to slash some dude like what I’m used to, you can crouch/crawl during random aftershocks to prevent the character from falling down and getting injured, or shout to locate survivors.

There is a health bar that is shared with the stress bar which I thought was neat and also really fitting to the type of game this is. The stress bar increases through certain factors and overrides the health bar from the right. Some of the factors that affect the character’s stress level include witnessing a traumatic scene, getting drenched in the rain, and hanging from an edge. You can use items that you have picked up to lower the stress level (but does not recover any health), or rest on allocated benches to fully restore both stress and health.

Some of these are probably common features that can be found in many games but when they are put together here, they make sense and are very suitable.

Zettai Zetsumei Toshi 3 also features unique set of dialogue choices and multiple endings for each of the two characters (a guy and a girl) that you can choose from at the start of the game. This also mean pre-rendered FMVs for each of them so if you are a completionist then you will have a lot of replaying to do. The dialogue choices affects the protagonist’s relationship with other characters which changes how they interact with each other during cutscenes. The choices are not deep and the developer definitely didn’t try to blur the line between good and evil, so it is easy to aim for the ending that you want.

Earthquake is a large scale disaster, which means the environment should be reasonably big in order to evoke that sense of scale. However with the PSP’s current hardware it is difficult to achieve that and at the same time ensure that the visuals hold up. Other than the main characters, most of the assets in the game are really blocky looking. At a distance, the environment look okay but when you get closer (which you are often doing) everything looks quite bad.

As bad as I may be commenting on the visuals, the developer is probably already pushing the limits of the PSP… though maybe a little too much because the frame rate is choppy in a number of places. This will be solved when the series finally makes its way to the next-gen consoles.

Zettai Zetsumei Toshi 3 is the first game in the series to feature a multiplayer mode and it supports up to 4 players. As you play through the game, you will unlock more missions for multiplayer. I have not tried this out yet and probably never will since there won’t be anybody who can play it with me, but I think it is safe to assume that the environment puzzles are the same as the singleplayer ones except that you are solving them with another human being instead of an NPC.

The costumes that are picked up in the singleplayer campaign can be used in multiplayer. I’m not sure if that applies to usable items like gas mask and umbrella, but I can see them helping a great deal especially if you can give and receive the items from other players too.

I like what I have seen and played so far of this game and I look forward to the next installment in the series. However, as much as I wish for a sequel, how long Irem feel that the series should take a break as a respect for the lives lost in the Tohoku earthquake is completely up to them and I’m sure everybody understands that.