Before stating all the impressions below, let me warn you that I had the controversial trip in March 18 where I played Sound Voltex before moving on to Groove Coaster 3 for the first time at Century Square arcades. For a true first play of Groove Coaster 3, that will be in the arcades somewhere at Bugis Junction. What was really inexcusable into going to Century Square arcade was the renovation noise thing which is still on-going until the end of this month. It takes place at my neighbor's home where I heard that her toilet rooms would be renewed as part of the renovation.
First impressions were that the voice of Linka the Navigator is in English for Groove Coaster 3 in Asia known as Rhythmvaders 3. Not only the whole game is translated into English, but also, she speaks in English as well. The strange thing is that instead of calling the game, Groove Coaster, she calls it, Rhythmvaders, that is for the English version. In the Japanese version, of course, everything is in Japanese including the voice acting and the actual name, Groove Coaster, is mentioned. I don't know if the prequels have some differences like the announcer would say, Rhythmvaders, for English version when starting the game for example but I guess that the alternate name, Rhythmvaders, wasn't mentioned at all by the announcer. In the Japanese version, the original game name was said out by the announcer when starting the game.
Also, the navigator in Groove Coaster 3 says tons of stuffs in such a cheerful/polite way regardless of whichever version of the game. The English voice seems to be decent like I can imagine that some voice actress from Singapore might have voice acted her or something for the way she says in English. Her saying is everywhere whether it's Attract Mode, Title Screen, Main Menu, Music Select, Difficulty Select, Result and Game Over screen. Her name sounds English to me when seeing it in Hiragana form except that the long dash at the end is not there so to me, calling her Linka in English version may be a strange but nerdy thing as if the name, Linker, is more appropriate for that. Linka as the character name is much finer in Japanese version though. Lastly, I still prefer the original game name, Groove Coaster, as the alternate name, Rhythmvaders, still doesn't have anything to do with Space Invaders whatsoever as we still know that it's a rhythm game by Taito after all.
The song unlock feature at the end of the game is gone and if you want to get some more songs unlocked, you need to have a Nesica account like I recently had and then register your Nesica card the same way you register your E-Amusement Pass.
The first times I stumbled upon Groove Coaster 3 were the fact that it would be coming in March 10 and the song, Freedom, from Darius Burst Chronicle Saviours would be playable initially. Sure, I attempted that song and it was tricky for sure. Some of the songs like Conflict and Halycon including some Touhou arranges are available in Groove Coaster as well but the thing is, Groove Coaster is not the only game to have those I just mentioned. I might have played those Touhou arranges as part of my skill analysis in Sound Voltex if I can recall.
Lastly, the idol group, Denpa Gumi Inc., is bound to turn me off if I have to play their songs in rhythm games again as that kind of music genre is really unusual but still, I played other Dempa songs as long as they are decent enough not to turn me off. The event starring that group is still on-going or something but I think I'm already better off with other music genres as many people are already turned off when it comes to Dempa genre.
