Earth Defense Force 3 Portable, or Earth Defense Force 2017 Portable in its digital-only Western release, is, shockingly, a port of Earth Defense Force 3 for the PS Vita. The original EDF3 is a bit of an odd one. It initially released as an Xbox 360 exclusive in the brief window when Japanese games were doing that, and it’s a significant step down from EDF2 in terms of content. Although it did feature improved graphics and, for the first time, voice acting in the English release, you were only able to play one class instead of two and had roughly a third fewer missions available. Portable improves the content side of the equation by bringing the mission count to 60 (against 78 in EDF2P) and bringing back the Pale Wing class (still not Air Raider from EDF2P), but also comes with dramatic graphical downgrades compared to the console original, at least on Vita. There is a Japan-only eShop port available for the Switch that appears to bring the graphics closer to 2017, but I haven’t played it.
The oddness of EDF3 becomes even more apparent once you start the game. The scale of the world is all off, with cars and doorways that are at most half the size they should be relative to your character. There’s a bizarre system that causes fences to gradually fall over as they take damage, but it’s too sensitive, so you’ll constantly be wandering past fences that appear to have been installed at a 45 degree angle to the ground. That sort of graphical silliness could be part of the game’s charm, but it’s harder to justify the lack of a reload button despite not using all of the Vita’s inputs. That’s bad enough for any shooter, but since strategic timing of your expensive reloads is critical to playing Pale Wing well, it’s extra baffling in this particular game. EDF3P does feature more weapons for the Ranger class than even EDF4, but not by nearly as much as you’d hope for in a game that initially only had one class, and I found little reason to use anything other than my best available rifles.
All of that might have been surmountable with good mission design, but EDF3P stumbles here as well. Although it is the origin of many of the excellent enemies from EDF4, the original version of Portable launched almost simultaneously with that sequel and anyone looking back to this game in 2026 or later also has easy access to 4.1. You could find these enemies in EDF3P, yes, but you could find even more of them in 4.1 along with twice as many classes, 28 additional missions, normal shooter controls, and greatly improved graphics. The real kicker, though, is that there’s just barely any variety in the missions that are here. EDF3P opens with five missions in a row that are basically just fighting a bunch of small waves of black ants on the same map and which frequently interrupt you to force the camera to look at something pointless for a bit. Although later missions do introduce new enemies, there’s a truly bizarre reluctance to spawn more than one kind of enemy at the same time, so you’re hardly ever forced to adapt or prioritize. I was still having fun with EDF2P after beating its 78 missions with three characters on three difficulties each, but I was bored of 3P after finishing 60 missions once on a single difficulty.
On top of all that, the balancing is a mess. Your armor accumulates far too quickly relative to enemy damage, so even boss enemies struggle to provide a meaningful threat. The game really wants to emphasize playing with NPC squadmates and spawns loads of them on each level, but they don’t scale to difficulty and are idiots, so they spend a lot of time shooting walls on lower difficulties and die immediately on higher levels. Vehicles, similarly, do not scale, making them uselessly fragile compared to your regular character and likely not able to compete on damage either. The low challenge is possibly a good thing if you’re determined to 100% this game without needing to grind, but it’s otherwise not much fun.
Conclusion
I was able to recommend returning to EDF1 thanks to its short length and EDF2 thanks to its unique enemies, but EDF3 has very little to offer in 2026. Portable is clearly the best version of it, but it’s ugly, poorly balanced, and difficult to acquire. It’s possible that the voice acting is hilarious and makes up for some of the repetitive design, but my Japanese is not good enough to get anything out of walkie-talkie quality audio in the middle of a chaotic shooter. If you want English voices, the only official option is to buy the Vita version on PSN for $40 since sales no longer happen on that storefront. Still, the text in the game was nothing interesting, so I wouldn’t bet on the story being comedic genius. I got a used copy for the equivalent of about $10 and it was just about worth it, but I’d give this a pass unless you want to play the whole series.
Rating: 50%
Time to beat: 10 hours for one difficulty
Price: $40 on PSN, ~1200 yen used, 2000 yen on Switch
Feel free to leave a question or comment below!
For more reviews, see my Steam curator page: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/43219041