Class Of Heroes 3 Remaster Review

It’s not often that we get a game that’s been locked away in Japan for over a decade, finally breaking free with a full localization. Class of Heroes 3 originally released on PSP back in 2010, but never left Japan. Now, thanks to PQube and a full remaster for the Nintendo Switch, the game has finally landed in the West, fifteen years later. As someone who’s always had a soft spot for old-school dungeon crawlers, I was eager to finally see what I’d been missing. And while I’ve enjoyed my time with it, this is definitely one of those niche RPGs that will only click with a certain type of player.

The setup is charming in its simplicity. You play as a student at a fantasy academy, training to become an adventurer. At the start, you choose from three schools, Drakken Academy, Preciana Institute, or Takachiho College. The choice isn’t just cosmetic, each one serves as a kind of built-in difficulty option. Drakken gives you a more straightforward path, while Takachiho pushes you into harder territory right away. On top of that, the academy you pick determines the uniform your party wears, which is a small touch but one that adds personality to your group.

Once enrolled, you can either select from pre-built students or create your own. Naturally, I went with custom creation because that’s where the game’s customisation really opens up. You can set names, appearances, race, class, and distribute stat points however you like. With 10 different races and 45 classes available, the combinations are overwhelming in the best way. Do you want a balanced party with a knight tanking hits, a priest keeping everyone alive, and mages frying enemies from the back row? Or maybe you’d rather experiment with more exotic builds of your own? The sheer amount of flexibility is one of the game’s biggest strengths.

Gameplay is split between two main sections, school life and dungeon crawling. At school, you’ll spend most of your time in the hub talking to teachers, checking in with other students, and managing your team. This is where you buy equipment, learn new skills, and even mess around with alchemy to forge or upgrade weapons. It’s also where the game’s relationship system comes into play. Your characters can like or dislike each other, and those bonds actually matter. Good relationships unlock new skills and improve teamwork, while bad blood can cause problems mid-battle. It adds an interesting layer of roleplay on top of the usual stat grinding.

Then there are the dungeons, the real heart of the game. Viewed from a first-person perspective, you move through labyrinths square by square, slowly revealing the map. You’ll battle monsters, trip traps, discover treasures, and sometimes hit dead ends that force you to rethink your route. It’s very much in the style of ATLUS’ Etrian Odyssey series, which fans of that franchise will feel immediately comfortable with. Battles are turn-based, with a classic row system and emphasis on planning ahead.

The weapon and class systems deserve special mention because they’re so deep. The game boasts around 1,500 items and weapons, and each one carries affinities that interact with character classes in unique ways. Equipping the “right” weapon can drastically change a character’s effectiveness. For example, some classes can wield staves that boost their healing power, while others thrive on weapons that align with their natural affinities, letting them deal extra damage.

Combine this with the 45 classes spread across the races, and you have an almost absurd level of customization. On one hand, it’s intimidating, there’s a lot to learn, and the game doesn’t hold your hand too much. But for those who love tinkering with builds and finding optimal party setups, this is going to be your jam. It’s the kind of system where you’ll spend as much time theory-crafting outside of dungeons as you do actually playing them.

Narratively, Class of Heroes 3 Remastered is a slow burn. The early hours feel more like setup than story, mostly lighthearted tasks, school events, and minor adventures. It took a while before I felt invested, but once new characters and larger stakes began to roll in, things got more engaging. I wouldn’t call the story groundbreaking, but it has its charm. The school setting gives it a different flavor than the usual “save the world” RPG plot, and I appreciated that shift in tone.

Here’s where things get a little uneven. The anime-style character portraits are great. They’ve got a crisp, vibrant look that sells the fantasy-academy vibe, and I never got tired of seeing them pop up during dialogue. But the labyrinth environments… yeah, they show their age. The tiled walls and repetitive textures are straight out of the PSP era, and the remaster hasn’t really done much to hide it. Functionally, they get the job done, but visually they’re bland and sometimes a bit confusing to navigate. I understand the limitations of remastering a 15-year-old handheld game, but compared to modern dungeon crawlers, these maps just don’t stand out.

On the audio side, the Japanese voice acting is solid but the lack of an English dub is disappointing. Not a dealbreaker, but it would’ve been nice to have the option. The localization itself is mostly fine, but I ran into occasional misspellings and even text overflowing outside the dialogue box. Little things, but noticeable.

I have to admit, some of the dungeons tested my patience. A handful of labyrinths are too long for their own good, with layouts that feel more like endurance runs than adventures. Getting lost is easy, and when combined with the repetitive visuals, it can drag. To be fair, there are also some really well-designed dungeons with clever tricks and rewarding exploration, but the inconsistency is hard to ignore. Still, performance on the Switch is smooth across the board. Given the game’s age, that’s not surprising, but at least you don’t have to worry about crashes or stuttering mid-run.

Final Thoughts

After spending time with Class of Heroes 3 Remastered, I’m glad it finally made its way west. It’s not a game I’d recommend to everyone, it’s too niche, too old-school, and too willing to let players flounder without guidance. But if you already love this style of dungeon crawler, or if you’re a fan of series like Etrian Odyssey, there’s a lot to dig into here. The customization is top-notch, the relationship system adds depth, and once the story picks up, it becomes surprisingly engaging.

That said, the bland dungeon visuals, occasional localization hiccups, and overly long labyrinths do drag things down. This isn’t a slick, modern RPG, it’s a remaster of a 2010 PSP game. For me, that’s part of the appeal. It feels like opening a time capsule, flaws included. If you’ve been waiting 15 years to play Class of Heroes 3 in English, this remaster delivers exactly what you were hoping for. But if you’re new to dungeon crawlers, you might want to start elsewhere before diving in.

A Nintendo Switch review code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.

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