Final Fantasy III (1990)

Preliminary: Welp, I'm at another Final Fantasy! This was one of my least beloved when I played through most the FFs back 5ish years ago, but I still enjoyed it. And I can't deny I always get excited for the fantasy world, referencing guides and looking up confusing parts, grinding, wandering around etc. There's something just so inimitably Final Fantasy about, well, Final Fantasys. However, I was quite disappointed in FF2, which was one of my favorites when I played through them 5 years ago, plus I'm really feeling like the NES RPG era is over and it's time for Genesis/Turbografx/SNES RPGs etc etc. (annnnd throwing out there that Mother 1 felt like the peak of the NES RPG era). But I am still excited! I will, of course, be playing the original Japanese version, but with a fan translation so I can see it as closely to the original as possible.

Right off the bat the classic FF music playing as the wall of text appears in the classic blue/white color scheme brings me back. Ahhhh so comforting.

Ooooo this one has auto-retargeting when an enemy dieesssssss. Yay. Maybe it will manage to compete with the next gen already being out with Genesis RPGs and Turbografx-CD's amazing Ys remakes?

Early Game

Oops I accidentally put a space before one of my characters' names. Despite the very basic and dated name entering, the music at the start and battle were fun and fast and I like how you see the damage done to you in a small number by you and yada yada. Feels more updated than I expected. Still the actual dungeon has that very rudimentary NES RPG FF look... like DQ3 did. At least this has some improvements from the other FFs tho! Unlike DQ3

Overall cute starting dungeon to ease you into the mechanics of the fights and dungeons. Cute simple puzzle with the wall that appears and disappears. Nice to already have a healing spot for grinding, the type of nicety I look for in a 1990 RPG, so I'm glad to see it in this one. The movement is as slow as one expects for an RPG of this time, but at least this first dungeon feels built around that reality. Okay I'll stop typing so much it's still so early in the game lol, but I'm happy with the initial playing. Ok, one last thing, gotta love the battle victory jingle :-p

Silly that you have to unequip when job changing, but I am really impressed with this so far. Epic way to introduce the title screen after a short intro to the gameplay. Good music so far. Feels very nostalgic and like the NES is a nostalgic cozy vibe (even tho I had just been playing so many NES games lol, I guess Phantasy Star 3 for the Genesis just renders this feeling more retro and cozy).

I love love love that it shows an X by items you can't equip. Such a basic nicety that not enough of its contemporaries, even for the next gen consoles, had. Nice got my Fighter with 2 Long Swords. I am surprised how much I am loving this so far. And a secret 2000 Gil in the first dungeon mwahahaha I love a good guide!

Poison still sucks, so Imma load up on a bunch of Antidotes. When I remember to do that, I never need em, but hey better than not having them.

It's sooooo nice having the item listed once and then the quantity listed by it. Ahhhh, so much better than the DQ or even the Phantasy Star 3 type of inventory.

I'm probly just biased from a) being a lifelong FF fan and b) having played through most of the FFs 5 years ago, long enough to build nostalgia. But despite the Fighter sprite looking the exact same and much being unchanged, this just feels "clearer" than FF1/FF2 and so cozy at the same time, unlike how DQ3/4 disappointed me. Like, take the Inn screenshotted above. The music is so calming and pleasant. The Look reminiscent of RPG Maker and early FFs, while feeling at least a bit higher-quality than the earlier ones (could be my eyes playing tricks on me ha). Okay I'll stop blabbering: I just am surprised that I'm not frustrated with the dated engine being largely unchanged, but just changed enough with the exact niceties I wanted (autotarget next monster, multiple of the same item on the same line, clearer sprites while still having the nostalgic look, etc.). Well-done.

Despite all these positive, I will note one negative: the plotline aint doing much for me so far. Hopefully, like most FFs, it develops into something more epic. Plus, the Light Warrior concept is undeniably nostalgic.

Ah! Cid!

lol

The tune while flying the airship is a jammmm. And lol the way these side characters follow you is so sloppy but lovable, they can just walk through walls and skip impassable objects etc :-p

Even tho the whole Mini segment is quite frustrating, this town was cute

Ugh just like with DQ2-4, the status effects are just far too common (and annoying). And unfortunately this gimmick of Toad/Mini as the limits for combat and adventuring feels, well, gimmicky. The dungeons, at least, have been relatively straightforward and forgiving. Nothing like the brutal Phantasy Star dungeons. However, it's still quite early in the game so we shall see.

Lol this Desh character turning out to be an Ancient guardian >.< And the plotline itself feels a bit like it's just a tedious neverending quest to get this Fire Crystal so far, just one petty issue on the way after another. Hopefully it develops into something larger soon

I like how there is an "edge of the world" quite literally. Cute. And lol I thought this white line following me was a glitch at first

That Salamander boss was rough! Ugh and this Hyne boss is just tedious. I had to switch to a Scholar but didn't realize that somehow negated all my MP for my Black Wizard when I switched it back? Then I ran out of Capacity Points? Annoying. Oh! Nice! There was some strange spot in the dungeon that healed my HP/MP? I didn't see any info about it online but I stumbled upon it ha. Nice. (Sheesh! The bosses continued to be brutal. This Goldor boss hits so hard! One hit KOs when he hits... so many Fenix Downs used)

Mid Game

Sheesh! Salonia is huge! And omg I love the "Fat Chocobo" for item storage

I like how the characters you tag along with you throughout the game give actually useful hints. There sure are a lot of jobs! But it feels quite redundant for the most part. Still, a neat touch that could allow for certain limitations or unique playthroughs.

Oh I think I remember my first playthrough of this. I may have dropped it once I got to Dark World. Or was burning out in general. Just found it too prolonged without anything epic or uniquely addictive (e.g., if the job class was as exciting and addictive as FFV's) to keep me hooked. But I definitely feel more into it this time around. Thank goodness for Fast Forward feature :-p And love seeing Summons! (Oh boo that's only for Conjurer job. But still, neat)

Tho the need to use them for the boss was gimmicky, I do love the Dragoon job/Jump skill, reminding me of later FFs.. And it was fun discovering things that weren't mentioned in either guide I was referencing, like the extra Dragon equipment you can get from townspeople once you have the Prince following you in Salonia. Definitely helped against that gimmicky boss.

Wow yea all these bosses are rough... They really are bogging down this game. As is the gimmicky use of jobs. But whenever I start to burn out, they introduce something exciting/nostalgic/great like Moooooglessss

Also the underwater concept is a neat idea. Feels exploratory/adventurous. And oooo this Invincible ship seems so powerful, that classic feeling of unlocking the Airship at endgame and having niceties like a free "inn" (bed) right on board and shops etc. However it didn't feel so clearly exciting at first, since airships have been on and off throughout the game. As soon as you realize all the conveniences on board though, definitely exciting! Wow and a Fat Chocobo (item storage) too!!!

Ugh another gimmick now with the splitting enemies. I suppose you need to use gimmicks to make RPGs "interesting" beyond just usual simple weaknesses, still the Mini/Toad/splitting factors have felt mostly just tedious not exciting, as have the uses of the jobs. Too bad cuz (from what I remember) I love the jobs of FFV. Still, this was overall better than I remembered, and mostly transcended the usual NES RPG I expected it to be. Still, it didn't hold the initial excitement and sense of advancement-while-maintaining-nostalgia/coziness that the beginning gave. And oddly the later game new tunes are feeling less and less exciting.

I train to plenty high levels but these bosses are constantly one-hit KOing me... No wonder I burned out on this one the first time I played it. Some great balancing, with healing spots at proper places etc., but in other ways it feels so unbalanced. Or just trying to be NintendoHard I suppose.

Ooooo pretty. And the boss in there (the Earth Crystal Titan) finally felt well-balanced and enjoyable. Not gimmicky etc. Just good ol fashion RPG fun. And now I'm excited to finally have Warlock and Shaman to, I believe, upgrade my BW and WW, but I was hoping for Ninja. Seems like that doesn't come till very late game. At least I'm enjoying the Magic Knight job now that I have Genji equipment.

End Game

I like the colors here. If only it really were the end of the game, I remember being irritated that there was the Dark World after this dungeon.

Some more great colors

I already have Masamune but no Ninja job... feels weird. But hi there Ribbon :) I hope all the cool final jobs don't only become available at the very very end of the game, I like getting to know my final versions of a character earlier than.. the very end. (Oh nice, at least Magic Knight can equip Masamune). Sheesh it's just a series of boss battles for weapons at the end game lol they could've spread this out, possibly in optional dungeons or something, throughout the game... Instead it's just Masamune then Excalibur then Ragnarok. Kept thinking they'd be my best for a while..

Oh shoot. Turns out I missed some of the sidequests, most notably Odin (not that I was going to use the Summon but) and Bahamut. In general, the Summons were a really cool idea and I'm glad they stuck for later FFs. This game is very robust and full of secrets and different ways you could play it. I suppose I shouldn't belittle the jobs as simply gimmicky, I just felt some of the main quest parts and bosses simplified the jobs and Mini/Toad spells to gimmicks.

The plotline does get a bitttt more epic at the end there, but mostly just in how difficult/hopeless everything seems. And I like the idea of Void as opposed to Light/Dark (tho I suppose it's very akin to the Chaos trope in many of them). Jeez that Two-Headed Dragon boss near the end of the game was brutal! Thank goodness for savestates.

Both ending tunes were really good, so that was a nice relief. The tunes had gotten a bit dryer for the 2nd half, but still held their own. And these ending tunes shine. I always like visiting all the old places for the ending a la Mother etc and most JRPGs tbh but I was so eager to move on. I blame Super Mario World for my impatience in 1990, plus Ys remake being from 89 heh. The way it shows your characters and their levels reminds me of the original generation of Pokemons :-p

Look: 8/10 Really nothing special. That classic NES RPG look. It felt crisper at first, and some nice colors at the end.

Sound: 8.5/10 Some real highlights here, tho for the most part just another good NES RPG soundtrack.

Play: 8.5/10 I can't deny that RPG hook. Plus it had a lot of niceties I'd been waiting for in JRPGs. But I also can't deny the frustrations of mid and late game. That being said, this one had very robust and enticing side quests, and there's so much more to explore like summoning. I just wish it had been hashed out a bit better, instead of having such a wide array of jobs without fully fleshing them out.

Feel: 8.5/10 Important series to me, good game that was inaccessible for most of my childhood, now at my fingertips in multiple formats.

Attachment: 8.5/10 I mean this was my 2nd full playthrough. If I find myself really delving into the sidequests and optional stuff some day, this will be boosted up. But for now, it's another good NES JRPG, and I finally admit it deserves to be seen as better than FF2.

Overall: 8.4/10 So close to a 5 star! Ah!

Completion: Main Story

Review for the Pixel Remaster version of the game.

In FF3 we see the series taking more shape, where ff1 was pretty barebones and ff2 added some things to the series, ff3 really starts defining the series, with the introduction of key series elements, like the job system, summons and moogles.

While the story takes a bit of a step back in consistency (compared to FF2) for the first half of the game, it feels like many substories woven into eachother, in the latter half of the game the red-lining becomes much more clear. It is a more simplistic take (use crystals, defeat evil guy), but it's written in such a way that it is still very enjoyable. The tech for more emotional bonding with the several guest characters just wasn't there yet in this era, and it shows, because at multiple points in the story some of these characters die and it doesn't invoke the same raction as it does in the later, 3d games in the series.

The job system itself is still in it's infancy, as the first title to introduce it. It is very enjoyable nonetheless, and let's you choose from a plethora of jobs to play with and make your own party combinations with. In a clever way some of the dungeons play out way nicer if you have at least 1 or 2 of a certain job present, this is the game's way of telling you no job in the game is permanent and you're better off experimenting with all the different ones.

A big surprise is how much terrain there is in the several worldmaps, and it shows why this was one of the largest Famicom titles in gamesize. It being a Famicom title is sometimes easy to forget with how nice the game plays, and in my book makes it even more impressive that it's such an enjoyable experience.

What really makes this game, again, is the music. The original music is already great, but the Pixel Remaster version really brings it to new heights with remasters and several additions to the different tunes. Often i felt myself standing still in areas just listening to and enjoying the music for a while.

All in all, from the 3 Famicom/NES titles, i think this is far and beyond the most enjoyable one. It really feels like a natural evolution of 1 and 2 and i definitely recommend any FF fan to give this game a playthrough.

As with the other PR titles, it adds several QoL improvements (f.e. increased walking speed, amount of chests/secrets you've gathered ine ach area displayed on the map) and optional boosts that can be enabled (f.e. 2-4x increased xp or gil).

After the oft-derided Final Fantasy II, Square returned with what would be the last Final Fantasy title to release on the NES, Final Fantasy III. The third game in the series returned to the more traditional class-based mechanics of the first Final Fantasy, doing away with the stat-focused system of the second game. It also is a return to the more whimsical storytelling of the first title, though it does have some of II's DNA in the occasional tragic moments and companions that you encounter.

Not to sound like a broken record, but I once again have to credit the Pixel Remaster for introducing quality of life features that have finally made it possible for me to finish this game. Final Fantasy III is a grindy affair, much moreso than the first two games. More than ever, I truly appreciated the ability to turn off random encounters and boost EXP gain, which I actually did use this time around to mitigate the absurd grind at the end of the game (I'll get to that in a bit).

Final Fantasy III is perhaps most notable for being the first game in the series to introduce a Job system. You once again take control of four nameless heroes, who you can assign to a variety of "jobs." Unlike the first Final Fantasy, you can now freely switch between these jobs as you wish. As you progress, your repertoire expands to a whopping 23 different jobs that can fill a variety of different roles. On paper, the job system provides the freedom to make different builds for your party and tackle the game however you wish. In execution, that couldn't be further from the truth.

While you do have the freedom to switch jobs however you like, you are often forced into certain roles by the game's scenarios. There are dungeons that require your party to be shrunk down to a small size, making physical attacks useless and funneling you towards magic-using jobs. There's certain bosses and dungeons that pretty much require you to use specific jobs, like a late-game dungeon whose enemies annoyingly multiply if attacked by anything other than a Dark Knight. Jobs in Final Fantasy III are not used as a new dimension for exploration and build-crafting, but as a lock-and-key system to slow down your progress.

The variety at play also leaves a lot to be desired. While there are many job options, there's plenty of them that are situational at best, and completely useless at worst, with Bard and Scholar being particularly egregious examples. Plenty of jobs are also just stronger versions of jobs you already have. And for the handful of remaining jobs that did feel viable, I still felt discouraged to switch, since you are forced to grind out the job level for it. I ended up sticking with the basic party template: a Warrior (Knight), Black Mage (Magus), White Mage (Devout) and a Monk (Blackbelt). Well, I DID do that, until I got access to the endgame Ninja and Sage classes that make everything else useless.

Final Fantasy III does at least feel far more ambitious in scope than the first two games. There are multiple world maps this time around, and a huge variety of really interesting locations to find. Dungeons and towns are full of secret paths that lead you to hidden treasure, which made exploration pretty rewarding. I also found most of the characters and dialogue to be really charming, even if the story's connective tissue is weaker than Final Fantasy II's. There is a sense of wonder to Final Fantasy III that persists, despite the feeling that events just sort of happen, and there isn't a clear end goal giving context to your quest for most of the adventure. It helps that there's a phenomenal soundtrack from Nobuo Uematsu that has been superbly redone in the Pixel Remaster.

While I enjoyed most of my time with Final Fantasy III, the game takes one of the most dramatic nosedives I've ever seen. Final Fantasy III does have its moments of grind throughout the game, but the final dungeon presents a brutal, lengthy gauntlet with 5 bosses that you have to beat back-to-back. Unless you spent a lot of time grinding beforehand, you'll find yourself completely stuck in that miserable dungeon for hours and hours of grinding. This kind of difficulty is not interesting in any way. It's a lame excuse to waste more time grinding levels in order to be able to survive cheap one-hit-kill attacks. If it weren't for Pixel Remaster's 4x experience boost to save time on the menial grind, and auto-save to prevent me from having to restart the whole thing, I would not have have persevered.

The entire final dungeon knocks this game down a few pegs in my eyes, and as a result I think I like it a bit less than the first two games. Final Fantasy III still has a lot of heart, but it was clear that Square still had some searching to do before finding the ideal formula for their budding RPG franchise.

Final Fantasy III oli pitkään mystinen länttä karttanut osa mittavaa saagaa. Nyt Pixel Remasterien myötä se on sangen helposti lähestyttävässä ja alkuperäisjullkaisua kunnioittavassa muodossa saatavilla.

FF3 on hyvinkin perinteinen japanilainen roolipeli, joka aikanaan oli eittämättä kehityksen kärjessä. Pelissä on hauska ja paljon joustovaraa antava ammattisysteemi, jonka avulla omasta partystä saa omiin tarkoituksiin sopivan. Peli tuli vedettyä kaverin kanssa padia kierrättäen, ja meidän tiimissämme oli useimmiten melko tasapainoinen jako maagia/ranged-tyyppiä ja kovaa melee-kurmottajaa. Ammattisysteemistä ja ylipäätään pelin mekaniikoista olisi kyllä saanut olla enemmän ohjeistusta pelissä: oikein mitään ei neuvota ja ohjeisteta. Lienee jäänne NES-ajoilta, jossa aukot pelin ohjeissa täydennettiin ohjekirjasta. Pixel Remasteriin olisi silti odottanut uudempaa otetta.

Pelin tarina ja hahmot on kyllä tusina-tavaraa, mutta muuten pelissä on sitä tuttua FF-magiaa: maailma on monipuolinen lokaatioiltaan, kylät ovat viihdyttäviä taukopaikkoja ja hirviöt ovat varsin mielikuvituksellisia otuksia. Grafiikat ovat Pixel Remasterissa saaneet SNES-aikakauden näköisen kasvojenkohotuksen, joka on omaan makuuni erittäin sopiva valinta. Musiikit ovat puolestaan saaneet hieman pidemmälle tulevaisuuteen menevän aikakorjauksen sähkökitaroineen ja CD-ajan krumeluureineen (joskin alkuperäisetkin musiikitkin ovat mukana). Toimii sekin.

Ohjeistusten puuttetta lukuunottamatta, pelissä on kyllä mukavia QoL-lisäyksiä mukana. Esimerkiksi navigointi on harvinaisen helppoa. Kaikista paikoista saa avattua ison kartan, ja luolista on nähtävillä myös kätevä minimap. Sinänsä navigointi on jopa liian helppoa, mutta satunnaistaisteluiden ollessa niin tiheitä ja toisteisia, tämänkaltaiset avut ovat tervetulleita. Satunnaistaistelutkin saa pois, mikäli ne käy korpeamaan, mutta tämä oli ainakin meidän pelikerrassamme pelin henkeä vastaan sotivaa toimintaa.

Vaikutti myös siltä, että peliä oli tasapainotettu uusiksi. Viholliset eivät olleet kovinkaan pahoja, mitä ainakin omia aiempia retro-FF-kokemuksia käytän vertailukohtana, ja expaa tuli taisteluista palkinnoksi kosolti. Ihan mukavaa suoraviivaistaista tämäkin. Ei haaste nollissa silti ollut, lähimainkaan. Loppupuolella bossit alkavat olla aika kenkkumaisia, että nukkuen ei peliä läpi juosta. Kenkkumaisuuksien vastalääkkeenä peliin on lisätty myös quicksave, joka on varmasti monelle mieluisa lisäapu. Etenkin pelin vikat dunkut ovat niin törkeän pitkiä, että niissä jonkinlainen mielenrauhan takaaminen voi olla tarpeen.

Final Fantasy III Pixel Remaster oli itselle sinänsä yllättävä hitti. Tiesin, että pelissä on QoL-parannuksia, mutta en ollut varma, olisivatko ne merkittäviä. Nyt peliä pelanneena tiedän paremmin. FF3 on melko kliseinen mutta hauska roolipeliseikkailu mielikuvituksellisella ammattisysteemillä, ja Pixel Remasterin parannusten kautta se on melko pienelläkin retronsietokyvyllä viihdyttävää näprättävää tänäkin päivänä.

(This is the 11th game in my challenge to go through many known games in chronological order starting in 1990. The spreadsheet is in my bio.)

Final Fantasy III was released exclusively in Japan for NES on April 27, 1990 until it got a worldwide release multiple times since, the first of such occasions occurring in 2006 with the DS release (a 3D remake). Most recently, a Pixel Remaster released worldwide on July 28, 2021.

I have played the original NES version because the DS version, despite few QoL improvements, is a 3D remake and therefore differs significantly enough that I chose to stick with the original. If you're considering playing this game, I would only play the NES version if you are really into old school RPGs of this time and have already played and finished something similar. Even though I found this to be more than playable, it hasn't aged well in many aspects that make a playthrough without using any guide extremely difficult. The HowLongToBeat time on this game (~20 hours for a playthrough) is very wrong in that regard. You will be stuck multiple times, you will die multiple times and most importantly, you will have to grind a lot (though this will not differ much from version to version).

The grind part is probably my most significant issue with this game and the reason why I didn't finish the game, and I'd assume a reason for many others. The game introduced the "job system" to Final Fantasy. This is a system of different classes (white/black/red mages, warriors and knights, dragoons and ninjas etc.) that you can apply to your characters on the fly. Each job has a separate level to your overall level and only the job you are currently using gains XP. This is in itself a great system and we will learn how it gets refined over the next few entries as this challenge progresses, however the first time this is implemented creates quite a lot of pain to first time players, especially those who don't check guides for this game.

The game has multiple sections where specific jobs need to be used to actually progress through them, and especially once you get near the end, there only are very few jobs that will actually be good enough for you to beat the game. Since jobs don't get XP unless you use them, this means you either have to use a guide (1), have to be lucky and figure out a working group of jobs (2) or grind out multiple of them (3). Even if you end up using a guide, you will not be spared of the grind.

It is typical for JRPGs of this age that you are expected to grind, and it's something I have done for a few hours over my 15 total hours with this game, but ultimately even that wasn't enough to progress through the boss that I ultimately abandoned the game at. I've definitely extended my tolerance for grinding with this game, which was pretty much non-existent before starting this challenge due to my inexperience with games like these (current JRPGs I usually play on "easy"). If you have a high tolerance, again, without a guide there is a good chance you will have build the wrong "team" to face the final dungeon with, which makes this a tough game to recommend to first time players on multiple fronts.

But if you're OK with all of that and want to play this game to experience every Final Fantasy entry (if you haven't played any FF games before, I would have to suggest picking one from 4 onwards), then you can check out the following review sections to learn more on what this game has to offer and what I thought about it. :)

STORYTELLING

This game has a very basic story about darkness and light that ultimately is your typical "the world is about to end, so be its hero" plot. I've not played many games from this time but they've so far all been the same overall. The reason why they're the same is because it works and is motivating enough, but don't look for anything special in the plot of this game.

You control four orphans who at the beginning of the game check out a cave that opened up as a result of an earthquake and find a crystal of light. The crystal gives the four of them its power and tells them to restore the balance in this world. In the past (a thousand years ago), a group of Warriors of Darkness fought against a "flood of light" to restore the balance, now our heroes of Light need to do the opposite. There are light crystals and dark crystals, antagonists looking to abuse their power, a bunch of characters that are aiding our heroes and all that stuff that works but is ultimately not memorable.

What makes this game stand out in this aspect however is the lore and world building. Each town has multiple town-folk running around who are waiting to dump a tiny bit of lore on you when you talk to them. This is optional and you don't gain anything from it apart from immersion - some NPCs do offer you items though - but the immersion gained is definitely worth it. They talk about the town you are currently in, the towns that are near, secret caves and/or entry points, about important characters in the world, about what ails their town and so on. So if you're looking for something extra from this game's story, this is where you find it.

GAMEPLAY

You start by giving names to your four characters, who all have the Onion Knight "job" when you start. Once you find the crystal in the first dungeon, new jobs unlock and you can start turning your characters into Warriors, Monks and three types of Mages. With each new crystal you find later on, new job sets unlock, though some prove more useful than others. Especially the final one you find pretty much gives you some of the only viable jobs that will help you go through the end game portion. Unfortunately, since only an equipped job gains XP, choosing "wrong" ones at any point can make you lose hours to grinding up the level of your newly chosen job. Also, before switching jobs, you have to unequip all items a character currently has on them.

A character can have 2 weapons, head gear, body armor and something for their hands. To my knowledge there is no level requirement for gear, you just have to have the correct job for them, but I'm not 100% on that. You can buy gear in item shops, but also find a lot of gear in items throughout the game world. I found that the more useful gear usually was hidden in the game world. Unfortunately, you had no way of knowing what items do in this game, so I found myself looking that up online many times. For example, who knew that "MidgetBread" would reveal the map of a specific location you're in? Some items are explained through specific people in towns but you'd have to find that person first.

So whenever you would switch jobs, you would have to unequip the gear, switch the job and then equip new gear. Why gear wouldn't automatically unequip itself when you switch jobs? Well, that's because there is an arbitrary inventory limit, at least for the NES version. You can carry a billion potions, but you can't carry more than 40 different items. The only way to clear your inventory is to sell stuff or use a "Fat Chocobo" that can only be found in a few specific locations. Since a lot of items are useful and shouldn't be sold, I found myself having to quicksell some of the stuff that was useful whenever I found multiple chests in dungeons. The items in the chests wouldn't be shown until I had enough inventory space, so it happened that I quicksold something useful for something that I had no need for and that was cheaper.

The DS version I believe has unlimited inventory space, and this is yet another reason to go with that (I think most ports of the game are based on the DS version) or the Pixel Remaster.

The items you do get are pretty varied however. For mages, there are tons of spells to use, both to heal your party and to attack the enemy. For your hand-combat focused party members, there are swords, nunchaku, daggers, bows and more. Unfortunately, bows need arrows that in the NES version where limited, whilst in newer versions are unlimited. Plus, in all my time playing this game I didn't find a single store selling arrows. Still, a lot of variety here.

Combat is turn-based and you can take your time before choosing your action. Your characters can attack and depending on the items they carry and their jobs, they can parry or cast magic or even "jump" (jump in one round, attack from the top in the next). You can also run away (in the NES version this reduces your defense to 0 and doesn't always work, so you can insta-die this way) or use items. I used a Warrior, Monk, White Mage and Black Mage until I unlocked the Black Belt job, and this group worked pretty well since I just let my White Mage heal party members while auto attacking or using black magic with the others.

In the game world, you always find better weapons and spells and are always incentivized to explore, but ultimately will need to grind to get your character stats up.

There are no side missions, mini games or other gameplay features in this game besides the overworld travel and the combat. Overworld travel first happens on foot, but as you progress you unlock a boat, an airship and various improvements to the airship, which was pretty neat.

MUSIC/SOUND/VOICE

No voice acting. Sound and soundtrack vary depending on the version you play. The Pixel Remaster for example modernized both but especially the soundtrack is still recognizable from the original, just remixed a bit. Since I'm rating the original, I can say that the sound design is great and that the music is for the most part excellent. As far as the tone of the music goes, I found that some boss fights could have gone for a bit more of an eerier tone since you're fighting this guy that is just pure evil to a rather cheery beat, but the soundtrack overall is pretty fun to listen to.

GRAPHICS/ART DESIGN

The game looks really good for its time. Locations are really varied in terms of color, tiles and design, which is nice, and sprites look mostly clean but I also really like the attention to detail in a lot of areas or the dev's attempt to make some cutscenes look much more realistic than the technology allowed back then, like two characters having trouble falling asleep, the crystals sparkle transferring from west to east, NPCs dancing when you talk to them etc. There is also a huge variety of both enemy and character designs. With character designs I'm talking about the variety in how your own characters look when you change their jobs in particular. The models are different, unique and frankly some look pretty cool.

There are two minor gripes that I had that are worth talking about. First, some areas needed you to press a hidden button to progress. There was no indication that the button was at a specific wall, so I had to press every single one, which was not unique for this time but still annoying considering I sometimes had to fight multiple tough battles before I could find the right one. The other is that the NES version used a ton of flickering and flashing, which should be noted for those of you who have an issue with flashing lights. I believe this was toned down significantly in later versions.

ATMOSPHERE

Overall, the lore and world building, the soundtrack and the locations differing based on appearance and simply their placement in this world (Floating Continent, Flooded World etc.) made for a pretty atmospheric game.

CONTENT

There is a lot of content here. I got a bit over 1/3 of the way through this game as far as a walkthrough goes that I checked out after deciding to abandon the game, and that was after 15 hours where I used a guide a few times to not be stuck for too long when I didn't know where to go. I would be surprised if you get done with this game with less than 30, if not 40 hours of playing time on your first time with minimal uses of guides. The Pixel Remaster may be easier to go through since it provides you with maps but I don't think it saves you from the hours and hours of grinding that is necessary, which fills up your playing time but essentially is mostly qualitatively low content.

LEVEL/MISSION DESIGN

The NES version doesn't have side missions from what I can tell, so you go from main target to main target. At times, NPCs will follow you who have their little sub-story to worry about (which still is part of the main mission). These NPCs usually aren't around for long and don't help in combat, but you can talk to them and they sometimes give you advise. Their own little stories are nice little distractions from the heroes main goal, even if they don't necessarily all have happy endings. Since you don't spend much time with them however, nice distractions is what they pretty much all amount to and their endings often fall flat emotionally. Still, it definitely breaks up the monotony to have traveling mates who have their own goals and actually help you at the location you're going to anyway.

Apart from that, here is how it usually goes. You go to a town, get a mission which requires you to travel to a different town or usually to a dungeon. The dungeons often have multiple floors and require you to fight through a couple dozen random encounters before you meet the dungeon boss. You return to the town, get an item necessary to progress further, and so you do. It is not always clear where you have to go to progress, though most of the time it can be figured out by reading the dialogue or talking to people. Since the NES version doesn't have a map unless you have "MidgetBread" in hand, finding a town you know you need to go to can still be annoying.

The developers did a good job, mostly, of planning out dungeons in a way that lets you go through them without having your Magic Points run out, which would make completing it otherwise pretty much impossible. However, some dungeons require you to use a specific item/spell or some require you to change jobs, so it can happen pretty quickly that you are out of that item, magic points or CP and therefore stuck. In this regard, planning done by the devs was suboptimal at best.

Finally, the final dungeon, which I didn't get to play but have heard more than enough about, obviously sucks. It's a 2/3 hour dungeon with no way to save and multiple boss fights, some of which don't let you heal up in between. Emulators luckily let you do save states, but if you're playing without the ability of saving, there is a very good chance that you will run out of patience to beat this final dungeon.

It also doesn't help that the job system was implemented poorly here in that only a few specific jobs will help you beat this game and in that it requires a ton of grinding to be strong enough to win.

On a final note, most areas offer "secret routes" to chests that offer some incentive to explore. Some of these locations also aren't arbitrary and are actually very slightly marked, though you're more likely to notice after you found it than before on many occasions.

CONCEPT/INNOVATION

The job system of course was here to stay following its implementation into Final Fantasy 3. That alone means this game rates highly in that regard, however the implementation in FF3 itself is not great. Apart from offering a great variety, it's not like most of the jobs are viable for the end game. Actually, less than a handful are. On top of that, making some of these necessary for specific parts where they can be under leveled, or having you unable to switch due to a lack of CP (which admittedly will rarely be an issue) are other negative points worth mentioning.

In addition, the game focused a good amount of resources on the job & battle systems in favor of adding anything unique to the story.

REPLAYABILITY

This is a tough one to judge. On the one hand, there are a lot of jobs here that you'd think there is a lot more strategy to them that makes multiple playthroughs viable. On the other hand, it's unlikely you'll find much end-game success with more than a few of those jobs. Plus, you'll still be auto-attacking through multiple long grinding sessions.

PLAYABILITY

The game worked fine at all times.

OVERALL

When you're playing this, it's clear that this game is higher in quality than most of its competitors at the time. While the job system is rather simple now, it obviously was a much bigger deal at the time and if I had to guess, I would assume that grinding wasn't seen as nearly as big of an issue as I make it out to be. If anything, it added hours to the playing time and increased the value of the cartridge. Today, I'd say the games faults do stand out and later entries that still have the old school charm are also much improved in pretty much all aspects, so I'd recommend playing Final Fantasy 3 only if you're looking to experience all games in this series or want to get the internet points that come with beating that final dungeon.

WHAT THEY SAID AT THE TIME

Japan only release, no magazine reviews for this one.

I've been playing through all the Pixel Remasters on my phone, and I've been absolutely loving them. I never hear anything about III, other than the fact that it introduced a bunch of job classes and summons, so I had no idea what to expect with this entry. It was great!

@Ryker gave a nice review in a status update a few months ago, and I echo pretty much everything they said, though I can't figure out how to link to the update. I'm sure you can see if if you scroll down if you're reading this on the Final Fantasy III page.

Sure, the overall story is pretty lame—go find four crystals to stop darkness from destroying the world!—but, much like Final Fantasy II, the individual story beats are actually really fun. You shrink down to explore tiny worlds akin to Zelda's Minish Cap; encounter a giant leviathan that will absolutely destroy you if you don't commandeer a dragon's eye from a giant rat; fly off the face of the earth, only to find that there's an entire planet underneath the floating island on which you grew up; subsequently raise that planet's land mass from the bottom of the ocean; have your airship gunned down by an army and then participate in a civil war in order to leave the territory; and so much more! Doesn't that sound fun??

Combat is essentially the same as Final Fantasy I, having reverted back from some of the changes that made Final Fantasy II unique. However, now there's the allure of a whole bunch of shiny new job classes to vary up your playstyle! What's more is you can change these jobs at will, which is sometimes almost necessary to progress through the story. This creates a whole new strategy element: not only do you have to pick a fighting style for each of your characters, but you have to decide if and when to switch them up. My Red Mage was packing a decent punch and had a pretty high job level, but the enemies I encountered in one dungeon made me switch him to a Dragoon, suffering a slight setback in job levels, but ultimately making him more powerful once I levelled him up a bit. You have to keep making these decisions throughout the game as more jobs become available.

I loved how the encounters in the game forced you to vary your strategy. For example, there are a few instances where progression requires your party to be Mini, and thus unable to deal physical damage. This forces you to utilize some of the magic-using jobs. Admittedly, this can be a little frustrating if you haven't levelled these jobs, but I never found that any situation required too much grinding to get back to speed. I just liked that I had to change up my strategy throughout the game instead of just hitting attack over and over again.

My one complaint in the game is how you're sucked into the point of no return without warning. After my last save point, I played for another 4 hours and gained 8 levels. I also entered the point of no return with no Hi-Potions or Phoenix Downs (though some were given back to me as prizes from enemy drops). A death in that final dungeon would have been very frustrating in the original game, I'm sure. However, the Pixel Remaster has Quick Saves and Auto Saves, so thankfully it really wasn't a problem. I was a little under-levelled for the final boss, but all it took was a bit of grinding in that final area and I was good to go.

Overall, I had a blast with this game, and I'm excited to continue playing to find the secrets (an NPC's dialogue made me believe that there are a few secret bosses, which would be another first in the series at this point). I definitely recommend Final Fantasy III if you're into the classic Final Fantasies and haven't give it a go yet!

Here's a screenshot of my crew obliterating the final boss.

I had a hard time deciding which version of this game to review, this one or the DS version. I decided to go with the NES version because in all fairness, Square(Enix) didn't just re-release Final Fantasy III, they did an entire overhaul of the game; adding in extra features and reworking the story to give the originally void characters personality. The job system, (which is the star of the game), was redesigned, not to mention the graphics and music updated. Even though all these things were improved upon... This game is still Final Fantasy III. If you don't enjoy old school RPG's, chances are, no many how many fresh coats of paint are thrown on, unless you change the complete structure of the game - it will still be an NES game at heart. That's not a bad thing, and to be honest I hope they keep doing this kind of remake. For one it proves that there are still players interested in the genre (Bravely Default anyone?), and two it introduces new players to games they might have otherwise passed up. However, by the time the DS remake was released in 2006, SquareEnix had released several titles in the franchise and knew the games strengths and weaknesses already. And considering my reviews on the first two games, it just didn't seem fair to go with the DS version.

The game, thankfully, returns to the experience leveling system of the first game. Battles are still turn based, giving you ample time to decide your moves before the enemy's next attack. But the new improvements, while small, make a huge difference! For one, if more than one character targets an enemy and that enemy flees or dies before the second character's attack, instead of the attack being ineffective, the game just auto selects another enemy. This makes battles seem to fly by compared to the previous two titles. Unfortunately, it only works for physical attacks, so you'll still have to be careful with your spells, but I appreciate the effort. Speaking of spells, it is a little disappointing that magic charges made a return over MP, although the developers did increase the amount of charges per spell so it is a little more balanced than before. As I mentioned before, this games main feature is really the job system. In essence, it's really an amalgamation of the previous two games. In the first game, you were locked into whichever classes you chose at the start of the game, while in the second there were no character classes - instead you developed your characters how you chose via the stat system. In the third installment the classes return, but you are no longer locked in once a class has been chosen, giving the player the freedom to experiment and change classes at will. Although it will cost you capacity points to do so, which are earned in battle. There are 22 classes available each with their own set of strengths and weaknesses, some with extra perks for maneuvering outside of battle. It should also be said that the random encounter rate is still on the high end.

Unfortunately, the story isn't as impressive as Final Fantasy II was, but with space limitations for the NES as they were and the massive amount of content squeezed onto the cartridge, I can't be too disappointed. They did an amazing job with what they were able. And while certain plot points are cliche (aren't all NES RPG's?) There are clever moments as well. The crystals also make a return in Final Fantasy III. At the start of the game, your party accidentally stumbles upon one, and from there the crystal grants you its power and instructs you to "restore balance" to the world, whatever that means. Your party, while at first, unsure how, decide to do just that. The DS remake definitely is stronger in the story department. In the original NES version your characters are essentially blank slates. No names or personality to speak of.

Graphics are about the same as the you'd expect from a late NES title. Clear and sharp for the platform, but show their age when compared next to newer versions. Music is once again amazing (does Nobuo Uematsu ever disappoint?). In this entry of the franchise especially, I truly believe if it weren't for such a strong soundtrack, the narrative might have fallen flat. The 8-bit sound is good, the updated versions are better.

All in all I really liked it. And seeing as how I played this right after the previous two entries, it was fun to see the evolution of the franchise; to see how Square took note of what their fans liked, (or didn't like), from the first two games and either incorporating it into the third game or omitting it. Or blurring the lines altogether, giving the players a new experience while still keeping things recognizable. Once again, if you aren't a die-hard retro fan, I would recommend playing one of the remakes. They include bonus content, the removal of capacity points and an improved story.