RPG Diary

Final Fantasy III

Final Fantasy III is a game I've beaten before. I'm not talking about the DS remake either — I've beaten this specific version before. So how does it hold up on replay?

Title	Final Fantasy III
Year	1990
System	NES
Developer	Square
Publisher	Square

In my opinion, this game feels like the real sequel to the original game. The classic job system is back, but now you can change jobs freely throughout the game. In fact, several dungeons in the game will essentially force you to use certain jobs to advance. Although this can feel frustrating at first, it does encourage you to change jobs more often and try more things than you may have otherwise.

Like the first game, the party consists of generic create-a-characters so there is no personal drama or character growth. However, this time the game world is much more interesting and filled with some memorable NPCs. Overall, I think this game provides a great sense of adventure. It's a big shock when you leave the floating continent for the first time, and it's fun to go exploring again whenever the party receives a new vehicle.

This game also introduced many recurring Final Fantasy concepts such as summons (all iconic and well-known), stealing (although it's honestly not worth the effort), moogles, dragoons jumping, and airships with town features. This makes the game really feel like a Final Fantasy to me, despite the lack of interesting party members.

The biggest downside to the game is the sudden large difficulty spike in the final quarter of the game starting at the Cave of Darkness. While I was able to complete most of the game without any grinding, I spent a lot of time grinding at the final dungeon which left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.

I'll also admit that the story seems to be somehow kind of missing a primary antagonist. There are a couple characters revealed at the end who are apparently responsible for some of the game's events, but with such little interaction and exposure to them, they just feel like "yet another boss". Ironically, there are several minor antagonists along the way that are more memorable.

I have not played many NES RPGs yet so I don't have a lot to compare this to. However, I suspect this is very likely to be the best RPG available for the system. Although the endgame difficulty spike is frustrating, I have enjoyed this game every time I've played it. I would definitely consider playing it again.

After completing a game, I add it to my overall enjoyment ranking which orders the games I've completed from those I most enjoyed to those I least enjoyed. I think this game is superior on all aspects to the original, and the gameplay is more fun than the second game, so Final Fantasy III is going straight to the top of my list!