Final Fantasy III (2021)

This game definitely has it's charms, and I appreciate that it added a variety of silly elements, but ultimately it feels like a downgrade from the second FF.

Gameplay was mostly fun, but felt somewhat limited after the total freedom of FF2. A great job system in a FF game should feel highly customizable and freeing, but in this it felt limiting. I never felt like I was building up a great character or that I had to strategize my builds all that much. As tedious as II's skills could be to level up, I felt like I could build my characters how I liked. With all that in mind, I'm excited to see how V's take on the job system feels in comparison.

The music was generally good, though again a notable downgrade from II. And the plot! Yet another downgrade. Even though the setting, variety, and backgrounds were a general improvement, this game's vibe simply isn't as piercing as II's.

It was neat to play the third game, but most everything about it felt like a stepping stone to greater games while simultaneously a downgrade from many of II's accomplishments. Oh well, onto the next one!

Thirteenth game finished this year: Final Fantasy III Pixel Remaster

I really liked FF II and thought it was a great sequel, bringing everything forward from FF I. FF III took some steps forward from II in some ways, and some steps backward in others. I enjoyed the larger, more elaborate world and story, and the job system was neat, but could have been handled a little better, with less grinding, and the dungeons were pretty simple. All-in-all I liked Final Fantasy III, but I wasn't blown away.

Final Fantasy III took a couple steps forward on things and a couple steps back on some things, compared to II.

The world is huge and was very surprising to me that it has multiple maps, including underwater. The Job class system, which is more structured than two but still very open-ended, has good parts to its diversity, but the jobs having levels separate from your character level makes it very grindy and irritating how you go along and you'll get a new job and it's level 1.

It's also unclear when a job will do "something else" in the world (like a thief doing lock picking on doors). It's also unclear when a Job will have a special move in combat. (Older games really had clarity problems a lot of the time, didn't they?) It's annoying how you'll switch someone to thief to unlock the door then want to switch them back, but you incur some slight penalties for changing like that. Just unnecessary.

Speaking of unnecessary, the Pixel Remaster version of the game eliminates inventory caps, mercifully, but that makes the Fat Chocobo "bank" which was introduced in this game totally pointless. This seemed like the first thing in the Pixel Remaster series where modernizing it ruined a gameplay element.

The dungeon design seems simpler this time around, too. Granted Final Fantasy II was somewhat labyrinthian so I can see how they were probably adjusting to criticism, but they may have overcorrected because I definitely noticed. The world and story being larger and more elaborate does make up for this some.

I decided that I wasn't satisfied with having only played the DS remake of Final Fantasy III (especially considering the defunct wifi service locked me out of certain features) and wanted to play the modern equivalent of the original game to compare. So this review is for the Pixel Remaster version on the Switch in particular. If you're interested but don't feel I cover something enough here, try checking out my review for the version I played first here, because much of what I said there applies to both versions.

My experience wasn't all too different from the 3D remake, which is a testament to how faithful they were when recreating the game world for that version. The main characters have virtually no development here though and are typically silent outside of a few scenes, which is actually kind of a side-grade imo. I prefer the fleshed out protagonists in the 3D remake but I also think their silence in this version lends itself to the simplicity of this entry, in a good way. It's a great JRPG to sit down with and bang out a few dungeons without getting too bogged down in story and dialogue.

Speaking of the story, what really struck me was how much more concise this version is. It's odd because I don't think the DS game really added any significant story beats after the introduction of the main cast but it somehow took me around half as long to play through the Pixel Remaster than it took me in that game. I'd chalk it up to my familiarity with the story and where to go, but play data I've looked at indicates this is a normal experience. Could be that the 3D world navigation and cutscenes just add enough bloat to double the playtime. That alone makes Pixel Remaster the vastly superior version for me, alongside my preference for the pretty pixel art.

I'm still a big fan of the final stretch of this game. The gang of tough bosses and maze-like dungeon make you grind for it but help it feel all the more spectacular to overcome. I am a bit disappointed that by the time you get to the endgame few of the jobs from early on are viable. They mostly get outclassed by powered up versions or pushed out because the game stops giving you new equipment for them. For some reason the Knight job gets by far the most (and arguably some of the best) gear overall. It was clearly a favorite of the devs for some reason, but makes for frustrating game balance. My final main party was Knight, Bard, Black Belt, and Devout. Ninja is cool as well but I wanted to avoid using it this time around because it's so strong.

And there you have it. Regardless of version, Final Fantasy III is a simple early JRPG with a light job system to dig your teeth into. I don't feel it excels at much of anything beyond that very simplicity that defines it, but it's a fun play anyway as long as you're not here for a deep story.