Final Fantasy III.

Original Release: Nintendo Entertainment System, 1990. Version Reviewed: Nintendo DS edition, 2006.


THE PLOT:

After a sudden earthquake sends young Luneth falling into a cavern, the young man finds the Wind Crystal - which speaks to him, telling him that he is one of four Warriors of Light tasked with restoring balance to the world. The crystal teleports Luneth back to his home village, where he reunites with his friend Arc. They befriend two more young adventurers: Refia, the adopted daughter of a smith; and Ingus, a soldier hopelessly in love with his kingdom's princess.

The four youths embark on a series of quests, first to save the floating continent that is their home, then to the surface below - where the sorcerer Xande has frozen time itself in a bid for eternal life, threatening the balance of light and dark for the first time in thousands of years...


CHARACTERS:

The DS remake expands the dialogue, allowing the four heroes some individual personality: Arc, a victim of bullying, is the most openly compassionate of the group, befriending a young prince during a late game subquest; Refia is impatient with the flirtatious nature of Desch, one of several temporary companions the group gains and loses along the way; Ingus is very serious; Luneth isn't above needling the others when they become too earnest. The temporary companions, a carryover from Final Fantasy II, are also an enjoyable mix of personality types, some amusing and some earnest. The DS version has a cartoonish artstyle, which is a good match for the overall tone, which is substantially lighter than its often grim predecessor.

Luneth and friends go shopping.

GAMEPLAY:

At first glance, the gameplay is almost identical to that of the original game: You explore, fight frequent random battles (all turn-based), and trigger brief bits of dialogue that lead you from one quest and setting to the next. However, there is a lot more depth. The game introduces a "job" system, wherein you can change your characters from one specialization to another, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Characters level up, but so do jobs - And higher job levels do additional damage in battle (among other benefits), which makes it important to find a good job balance for your party long enough before the endgame to get your party ready for the really tough battles.

The game also features some significant difficulty spikes, particularly in the game's later stages, making regular upgrades to armor and weaponry critical to success. Random encounters are far less frequent than in the earlier games... But that's a double-edged sword; this became the first Final Fantasy where I had to grind for a few hours to raise job levels in order to tackle the final dungeon successfully.

The Warriors of Light engage in battle.

THOUGHTS:

Final Fantasy III has many similarities to the first game. Once again, the story revolves around four Warriors of Light, who are tasked once again with saving the world. This world has noticeably more detail to it than in the original game, however - from the continent that floats above the larger world, to the entire concept of a balance between light and dark (in this game's backstory, Warriors of Dark had to battle long ago when an overabundance of Light threatened the world). It may sometimes amount to a more ambitious remount of the first game... But the ambition pays off in it feeling less expendable.

The music deserves special mention. The main theme is sprightly, reflecting a sense of fun that is well-suited to the experience of playing it. More intense themes are used for some of the harder dungeons, and a particularly strong one for the extended final dungeon... But at all points, the themes avoid being potentially dark or frightening. The focus is definitely on capturing a spirit of adventure - Usually upbeat, always trying to generate excitement. The opening cinematic created for this edition is also quite splendid; when booting the game up, I often found myself rewatching it rather than skipping straight to the menu.

The game has two major strikes against it.  First, it is simply too long for the thin story. I enjoyed playing every time I picked it up; but I never found myself feeling particularly compelled by it, and ended up taking a couple of extended breaks from it.

The second strike is the final dungeon, which is actually two dungeons. Both beautifully-designed and visually eye-catching, with some wonderful music in the background. Separated by a dramatic scene in which several previous companions are revisited to strong effect, before leading into a series of boss battles that are all enjoyably challenging.

So if everything about the final dungeons(s) is good, then what's the complaint?

NO SAVE POINTS! AT ALL! 

Once you enter Xande's Crystal Palace, you are approximately 3 hours from the end of the game. 3 hours that you will lose completely if you run into one bit of bad luck along the way. Given that this stretch really encompasses two dungeons, I have no idea why the developers didn't allow a save point between the two. As noted, all the elements are well-done, and the series of boss battles is actually enjoyable... But it's hard to fully enjoy it when you're worried that you're one rain of fire or particle beam sweep away from losing all your progress.

Overall, I didn't enjoy this as much as the Gameboy Advance version of Final Fantasy II, but I still liked it overall. The simplistic storytelling may not have engaged me as much as the story of II did, but the characters and art design were effortlessly likable, I loved the music, and the combat/job system was startlingly absorbing.


Overall Rating: 6/10.

Previous Main Series Game: Final Fantasy II

Next Main Series Game: Final Fantasy IV

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