Played the English Translation patch

Man....

This is one of Goemon's most ambitious games on the SNES by far, but the execution ranges from being solid, baffling, or downright bad to the point where the game feels rushed. Konami decided to have the action platforming level to level based gameplay take a bit of a backseat and opted for a more Action RPG-like experience on par with A Link to the Past.

It has neat ideas, I love how you can swap between Goemon, Ebisumaru, Sasuke, and Yae on the fly each with their own set of abilities, I did like some aspects of the overworld exploration, the bosses were fine (the mecha fights were a downgrade from Goemon 2). Music is solid, presentation is nice, and the humor is definitely a hit or miss for me.

As for my issues: The mecha fights are less challenging than they were in the predecessor, the points leading up to the mecha fights themselves are a boring slog, gone are the quick skating levels you done with Impact in Goemon 2. The biggest smoking gun is how punishing this game is with game overs. The 2D levels in this game are LONG (with some exceptions) averaging 20-45 minutes of playtime each. The save feature is present in Inns, but they also moved them to designated signs on the overworld located outside of the levels you'd play through. But if you happen to game over within the level(s) say goodbye to all that progress you initially made, you're back to square one where you last saved. You do get the ability to save in the level only after you beat a boss or enter a section with Impact. It feels really cheap especially with the levels themselves being fairly stingy in handing out recovery items and whatnot too (which can be counteracted by buying armor and recovery items) but you also gotta be careful cause enemy respawning is just a constant thing the series does so you'll be caught off guard in more ways than one.

I was also pretty annoyed with a snippet of the endgame being a convoluted fetchquest that you aren't entirely clued in on unless you talked to alot of NPCs throughout the game. It definitely felt like a last minute "we gotta wrap this game up" pull to have an excuse for getting the last 3 metal plates you need to unlock the finale, a semi-underwhelming finale carried by the heartwarming ending.

Overall, Goemon 3 isn't a bad game, it's more of a mixed bag that had alot of ambition crushed by the weight of it's execution. I'd say it's worth a play to form your own conclusion, but personally, I don't see myself coming back to it even with the knowledge I have now when it comes to getting through it.

Probably my least favorite of the SNES Goemon games I've played so far (that is to say the first three). It's super ambitious but that ambition never really congeals into anything coherent, maybe due to rushed development. It's trying to focus more on exploration, with an AlttP-style overworld and dungeons, but that feels unsuccessful. Some of the dungeons are grueling slogs (for whatever reason, there's a super punishing lives system, which the previous game, a more traditional side-scrolling platformer, didn't have, and it totally ruins exploration) and some of them are basic as hell or just nonexistent (as I mentioned, the game is obviously rushed. One level is literally two rooms before the boss, and the endgame is just a massive fetch quest). In short I think it loses a lot as a 2D platformer, and doesn't gain much as a metroidvania or whatever you wanna call it.

Some random thoughts:
- The Impact boss battles are MUCH easier compared to Goemon 2. This is appreciated, though a bit anticlimactic.
- The comedy in this game is weirdly crass and even mean-spirited, especially regarding LGBT folks. I'm not exactly paying for the game so it doesn't bother me too much, but I wish it wasn't there.
- Still a very pretty game but it didn't blow my mind as much as 2.
- The aforementioned AlttP overworld is only introduced halfway into the game, which is very weird.
- There's four player characters and they all feel pretty distinct in gameplay and useful in exploration. Yae was my favorite for most of the game, until I got Goemon's chain-pipe.
- Boss battles are mostly one-note but thankfully not too hard.
- Overall the stage design of the last third of the game feels like a whole lot of nothing, and it's weird that the game starts at its most demanding and mechanically complex only to become easier and simpler.

Not a bad game but not really a must-play either. Hoping Ganbare Goemon 4's better.