A Stolen Time Machine and a Crowd of Tales Heroes: Narikiri Dungeon 3
Narikiri Dungeon 3 turns the Tales of the World idea into something closer to a tactics game. Alfa System developed it and Namco published it on the Game Boy Advance on 6 January 2005, in Japan only. Parties of three walk across enclosed maps one step at a time, with movement range shown as dots, and a fight starts as soon as you meet an enemy group. Cooking is part of the loop too: meals restore HP or temporarily lift stats.
At a glance
- Based on: original spin-off in the Tales of the World line
- Created by: Alfa System; published by Namco
- Released: 6 January 2005 (Japan only)
- Genre: Tactical RPG, billed as a "Cosplay S-RPG"
- What sets it apart: a time-travel premise that visits other Tales worlds
The plot, step by step
- After an earthquake, Dr. Brown uncovers an ancient time machine that lets two teenage Tales fans, Frio and Kyaro, visit the legends they love.
- Frio reads one legend that ends badly, with the hero arriving too late.
- The machine is stolen, and a recoloured copy turns up alongside Dr. White, an older Dr. Brown whose hair went white from stress.
- Thieves are damaging the Tales timeline, so Dr. White enlists the teens and heroes from several games to repair it.
A very large cast
The guest list is wide: characters from Tales of Phantasia, Destiny, Eternia, Destiny 2 and Symphonia appear, from Cress and Stahn to Reid and Lloyd, alongside the original Tales of the World cast.
The English patch
The English version is the work of Kajitani-Eizan, who returned to the project after about a decade of silence with a version 1.11 update dated March 2021.