Final Fantasy 3: O Retorno de Final Fantasy 1.
Talvez devido à recepção de Final Fantasy 2, este jogo pegou a premissa do primeiro título da franquia e a renovou com um mundo mais interessante e um conjunto imenso de classes chamadas de Jobs para expandir as opções dos jogadores e é divertido, porém, é inegável que ocorre uma manipulação da party do jogador por meio da distribuição de equipamentos durante o desenvolvimento do enredo e isso é algo um tanto quanto desestimulante. Ademais, as novas pixel arts, animações e trilhas sonoras estão excelentes.

And here, we are finally done with the NES Final Fantasy games. This one goes back to the original game for a lot of its influences (Return of 1's magic charges, level progression and simple story) and expands with a pretty fun job system that allows you to switch between them. And of course, this game also adds its own set of series favorites like Moogles!

But man, these NES Final Fantasy seem to have wack pacing towards the end of the game. I didn't know that the final dungeon in this game was particularly known for being excruciating and if this version didn't allow for a way to get your HP/MP back after each boss, I probably never would have finished it. But luckily the DS version fixed that AND I became so overleveled that the final boss was pretty straightforward. I will definitely say that the PR version of this game seem to be a good balance between getting the original experience but with some of the edges smoothened out.

I also didn't care for "gimmick" bosses and dungeons that required you to use specific jobs and spells (Like Mini and Toad) to enter and navigate. Which makes FFIII overall...kind of a mixed bag. But I definitely enjoyed the new job system and look forward to getting it back in FFV.

Final Fantasy III presents itself as a title that takes a step forward in some aspects but simultaneously takes some steps backwards in others. The storyline, for instance, falls into the generic "Four Chosen Heroes" trope again, starting off rather loosely. However, as the game progresses, it manages to weave together a more cohesive narrative with the introduction of a shallow villain. The dungeons are visually appealing, but they still consist of convoluted corridors that lead to a boss, an item, or both. Fortunately, the irritating empty rooms from FF2 are gone, streamlining the gameplay. Instead, players are rewarded with hidden passages that typically contain 2-3 chests. An annoyance in the dungeons is that there are a few where players can only access them by casting Mini or Toad status onto them, squeezing through small openings or swimming through underwater passages. While it's a cool idea, it puts players at a significant disadvantage during subsequent battles, as the Mini or Toad status reduces damage output. Those who haven't levelled up and selected Black Mages, Red Mages, and Co. in advance may face some difficulties here.

The combat system remains relatively straightforward, much like in its direct predecessors. Players attack the enemy while healing themselves until the opponent is defeated. Once again, the Autobattle function proves to be a reliable ally. Levelling up has returned from the traditional style of the first Final Fantasy, discarding the weapon and spell levels seen in Final Fantasy II. Instead, players can now switch the jobs of their four heroes at any time, allowing for experimentation to find the best team composition. Through this it doesn't only change what spells the characters can use but which weapons to wield too. From powerful Warriors and tanky Vikings to the typical White and Black Mages, as well as the new Bard the game introduces also the Summoner and with that Final Fantasy III brings in those famous summons like Shiva, Ramuh, Bahamut, and more into the franchise. Some battles require specific job classes to prevent enemy abilities or deal stronger damage. Many jobs also receive extra actions, such as the Dragoon's Jump or the Viking's Provoke. In most cases, the game communicates the necessary jobs fairly well, but occasionally, players may be caught off guard by the sudden increase in difficulty when they aren't aware of the desired class.

Another delightful addition in the third instalment of the series is the introduction of the wonderful Chocobos, allowing players to ride through the open game world. Fat Chocobo also makes its first appearance here. The characters are endearing and full of charm, with Cid and his wife being particularly adorable. Throughout the journey, players are accompanied by a character who doesn't engage in battles like in Final Fantasy 2 but briefly indicates the target with a button press. The world itself is fantastical, with its floating island and a true surprise that left me astonished. Overall, traversing the world, engaging in conversations, and most battles were enjoyable, even though the direct predecessor's war and intrigue-focused story was more captivating (despite being tropey as well). But why only most battles? The development team around Sakaguchi once again failed to create endgame bosses that offer more than just being "bullet sponges." The final five bosses of the game are pure endurance tests, with enormous health pools requiring players to attack and heal round after round, minute after minute. There's little depth in strategy. The final boss, in particular, relies almost solely on its Particle Beam attack, inflicting massive damage on the entire team. The player must spam their strongest attacks, have at least one healer constantly casting Curaja or something similar, and hope the boss doesn't use Particle Beam twice in a row. This mindless repetition lasts for several minutes. Despite this flaw, Final Fantasy III's journey is filled with engaging stories, encounters with friendly characters, and travels across land and sky. One can't be too critical, considering that, at this point, the franchise was still in its infancy and on the path to becoming the grand JRPG series it is known for today.

Honestly way better than I remembered from when I first tried this out a few years back, it’s still a Famicom game at heart so it’s nothing too crazy but this is a massive improvement from the first two. Everything is filled with so much more personality than we ever got before, so even though the story is basic it’s so much more entertaining than previous installments. The job system is pretty cool, takes what worked with the party formation system in the first game and expands on it a ton. Makes for some fun customization opportunities as well as cool puzzle solving that feels good most of the time. Final dungeon is unfortunately a pretty huge difficulty spike and it’s ridiculously long for no good reason, but thanks to the QoL improvements from the pixel remaster it’s nowhere near as egregious as it could’ve been. This was a big leap forward for the series in every way and I regret putting it off for so long

A very, very mid Final Fantasy.

This has been my only exposure to FFIII, skipping over the DS and PSP versions, and part of me wonders if those versions were better.

The story is essentially Final Fantasy 1... again. That being said, the concept of the Wrath of Light and the warriors of Darkness was quite interesting and I wish they played more into that; FFI honestly felt more coherent in this regard.

The jobs don't necessarily serve as a cool way to customize your party, but more as puzzle elements to progress the story; changing classes mid-game also isn't really viable without grinding.

On top of this, the entire last part of the game is an entire Gauntlet of very difficult enemies, which, apparently in some other versions includes NO resting/healing, which this version does have. I cannot imagine how exhausting going through Crystal Tower/World of Darkness without any rests. Thanks, but i'd rather not.

Final Fantasy goes on to Final Fantasy IV, which is my personal favourite Final Fantasy, and much, much better than III.

FINAL FANTASY MARATHON RANKED:
https://www.backloggd.com/u/fragilant/list/final-fantasy-marathon-ranked/

Thus ends the famicom trilogy, and my suffering.

I tried to love this game so much, and 50% of it I was having a great time.
The personality is through the roof here. NPCs are dancing everywhere, there's 4 bald warriors of light uncles, you end the game with the princess you met for 2 seconds becoming your girlfriend basically, it's all there.
But I would be fucking lying if the other 50% wasn't god damn miserable.

FF3 keeps forcing you away from playing the game like you want to.
Early game you have to cast Mini on yourself, meaning your physical attackers are rendered useless.
This was annoying, but I kept pulling through thinking that this is only happens once, but no... so much of the game is it forcing you to go jobs you don't want to go because of stupid boss/dungeon mechanics.
The scholar and Dark Knight especially are not fun jobs, but you're forced to use them because otherwise you'll get your shit rocked.
Cave of Shadows and Dark Knight is the worst example by far.
In this dungeon the difficulty suddenly shoots through the fucking roof, and it's yet another place where your physical attackers that aren't Dark Knight are rendered useless because every enemy in here clones itself upon being hit.
In a game where there are no Ethers... why the fuck am I being forced so much to use mages?
And then at the end of the long ass dungeon where you're forced to use magic up the ass with no Ethers, there's a difficult boss that doesn't teleport you outside or heal your party, so me not having any MP on my white mage couldn't teleport out and was basically softlocked as I didn't have any Potions either.
My balls fucking exploded.

Also, my main issue with II's story is pulled to an even dumber level, where some random NPC will join your party for no reason and just die or leave at the end of the dungeon.
In this game it's even more comical because they all come back at the end and I couldn't remember half of them.

All of this frustration had my ass shaking for when I would enter the infamous Crystal Tower, so I did a ton of grinding and prepping so I wouldn't get softlocked again, and somehow this dungeon was my favourite part of the game and kind of saved the experience for me.
It is very long and there's way too many bosses, but the level design is pretty cool and the amount of strategizing I had to do with my jobs felt like such a breath of fresh air after all the times I couldn't decide on anything myself.
It's still the most optimal to basically just do 2 ninjas and 2 sages but I had a Dragoon in there and pulled through just fine.

I wish I liked this game more, and it kept getting close to winning me over, only to pull some dumb NES bullshit again so it was probably the biggest rollercoaster of emotions I've ever felt playing a video game.
I will probably never play this again, but it is beyond charming, and what it does with the world map is so impressive for its time (despite the invincible being slow as shit), so I will definitely remember it semi-fondly despite my many grievances.

Also, 2 is better.

The world of light and the world of dark will one day return to the void, but if we lose hope, if we refrain from the struggle to survive, we're as good as gone already. At base, this hero's journey is a quest to overcome despair about the true contingency of the human condition, doomed to continue living in the shadow of certain mortality.

All stories are really about embracing or rejecting Instrumentality, when you think about it.

Either that, or I'm the product of a culture which has addressed most of my physical needs while creating a psychic and cultural starvation diet, incapable of seeing anything but my own need for meaning endlessly reflected back at me through popular media, the only remaining form of social congress left: realer than reality, better than life.

The first entry in the series you could confidently expect modern RPG players to immediately be able to enjoy, FF3 is a fun way to whittle down the endless hours before oblivion.

Final Fantasy 3 introduces the job system... more like I would rather be working at my job system.

In what is apparently my latest hot take, I think this game is worse than FF2 actually.

The job system is kinda interesting and of course is the foundation of more to come, but for a game that is trying to have more of an expanded story its funny how it doesn't have as impactful moments as either of its predecessors.

Also the music is worse. (Town of Amur is great though).

The game trapped me in the in game dungeon just to make me suffer and I won't forgive or forget.

Kinda cool how you can walk around the big ship. And now that I think about it, the numerous airships and surprisingly expanding world map give FF3 more character than I was thinking to admit when starting to type this review.

Can't wait to play FF4! How far will I get into the series this year? Stay tuned.

No way, Final Fantasy 1 but better?!

This is one great traditional turn-based JRPG, hell I'd even say it's the ultimate basic JRPG and I think it's the best of the 3 NES game.

This game is pretty much a retelling on the original Final Fantasy but this time they made it a whole lot more complete. This game have a full on story with characters unlike the original which barely had dialogue or a story at all, the combat is much deeper with more spells and the key feature of this title being the job system which helped the franchise go to what it is today.
The difficulty was increased for the better but it's still not really tough, I barely had to grind at all.
And for the soundtrack it's still a phenomenal rendition in the Pixel Remasters.

My main issue with the game was the annoying use of the gimmick spells like frog or mini, it doesn't make the game harder or anything because you usually do the spell then go through the blocked passage and unspell it, it's just a waste of time y'know.

I feel like all of my reviews for the Pixel Remasters games pretty much always say the same thing but it's because these are such high quality remasters and I'm glad they made them to give the original NES trilogy a way to step next to the other Final Fantasy games.

Pros:
- A classic game with great influence on the series as a whole
- Lovingly recreated in the Pixel Remaster versions with great soundtrack and visuals (except for the font and weird screen tearing)
- A map and autosave function that will eliminate most of the frustration
- Shorter, more interesting dungeons and a managable encounter rate
- A new job system that is unique and implemented best here out of all the versions of FFIII
- Secret summons and side quests that make the world feel alive and reward players' curiosity
- An actual open world with many distinct ways of traversal

Cons:
- A convoluted, forgettable story with bland characters and easy solutions (which is a step back compared to the dramatic quality of FFII)
- Opague damage rolls and an apparently random turn order render strategic battles impossible
- An unbalanced job system that is rarely relevant to the game at large
- An incredibly high difficulty throughout the game, in particular towards the final dungeons. Be prepared to grind!

Magic Moment: When you realize how large the world map actually is. Oh, and the Fat Chocobo theme.

Verdict: The job system and manifold secrets make this one worth playing, even though this is probably the toughest and longest FF from the 8-Bit generation. Fans should take a look at this one, but one playthrough is enough.

I don't think I'm saying anything people familiar with the series don't already know, but 3 is a return to 1 spiritually in many ways. Job system is back although this time it actually earns the right to be called a job system instead of just sketching a basic template for your character creation foundation. (I don't hold this against 1 as it's obviously a more loose beginning, just clarifying that this truly is one this time) DND spells per rest is back/mp is gone. Traditional leveling with all stats attached to each level up and generic experience is back. (alongside new job levels that, tbh, I still don't particularly understand) And, the more basic warriors of light setting out to defeat darkness/a vaguely defined evil is back over the more complicated war/politics driven FF2 storyline.

But while I gave 2 the edge over 1 for that teensy bit of character building you could control with its leveling system, the jobs here and swapping characters to and from is easily the best of the 3 thus far. And unlike say a lot of modern games with selectable classes or roles for characters, this is a game that embraces the player capability to switch jobs with particular enemies or dungeon gimmicks that ask you to reconsider your setup rather than just settling into 4 jobs and never touching the menu again. This has the side benefit of rendering a lot of what was extraneous dungeon loot in prior games more valuable than just another form of gil- having a few different types of sets of armor/weapons on hand makes swapping in and out of classes supported and the thorough dungeon explorer will find they frequently have this even if they haven't grinded the gil to buy it all naturally.

The only real drawbacks here I noted were a) that there really is seemingly a desire from the game to have you leave some jobs behind permanently as you go on, as earlier jobs may not be quite as potent as later ones even with higher job levels at the time you get the newer fancier models and b) specifically the thief job. The big draw of the thief, as far as i can tell, is its ability to lockpick enchanted locks. Well, you can swap to a thief in front of a locked door, unlock any of them even at job lvl 1 as a thief, then swap back without ever having to actually take a step or fight a battle in the job lol.

The basic story, while drawing from the same well as 1, does sketch in more detail in each place you go than its predecessor. It functions a more episodic fashion I'd say than 1, where learning about the various troubles in the latest town you've popped into is as much or more a focus in the script as the connecting tissue of pursuing the 4 crystals. (the counterpart to 1's four fiends hunt) But this isn't really the reason I prefer its narrative over 1- no the primary advantage it has here is that this is really the first ff where we see them start to really embrace the comedic expressiveness of moving their sprites all around. There are quite a few skits and bits scattered throughout the story and while the core narrative surrounding them isn't anything incredible, they're more amusing than anything in 1 or the rest of 3. (I'd still give the nod to 2's more focused narrative overall though if including all 3 in the comparison)

The episodic/more loose nature of your quest at times though, can lead to more moments of directionless wandering than either of the 2 prior games. This is a big world and you get access to a lot of it fairly early on. It's not a strict downside though as it can be fun to find entirely optional dungeons, particularly towards the end of the game where the series first summons can be had as rewards for completing them. I will say the constant airship juggling is a bit tedious though- even if i ignore the hilarity of airships that can't fly that high despite being picture well above the mountain ranges or the "jumping" upgrade you get later to traverse mountains but only in short bursts, having to swap airships (which entails traveling across the entire map to where you left the prior one) to pick between going underwater or mountain hopping feels incredibly inconvenient in a series thats otherwise felt like its had these sort of edges sanded off in the transition to pixel remaster.

The dungeon design, on the other hand, is all welcome news. The dead ends and trap rooms of ff1 and 2 are now entirely gone. The paths you can go on always go somewhere. And while this does lead to more linear feeling exploration than before, some of that has been made up for with the series' new fascination with obscured paths in certain tiles/between entrances. Loot is frequently hid off the main path now and feeling around every corner will be rewarded.

I dont really know how to critique music so i may just start making lists of my favorite tracks from each game as i go through them lol. I missed FF2's battle theme here (and agree that the pixel remaster version of it is not to my taste) but plenty of other tracks came through great. Eternal Wind, Dark Crystals, The Forbidden Land Eureka, The Crystal Tower, The Invinceable, and Doga and Unei's theme were all varying levels of hits to me.

Lastly, what i didnt miss from ff2 was the random encounter rate. FF3 thankfully pulls back on that quite a bit. These remasters in general are on the easier side, but FF3 does steadily ramp up its difficulty towards the end, even if more of that comes primarily from boss hp just skyrocketing relative to player damage than it probably should.

A lot of this game is essentially FFI but improved with the best parts of FFII. Unfortunately I found the overall story to be pretty forgettable and the cast here is arguably the worst and blandest of the franchise thus far.
I like the new Job feature but I wasn't the biggest fan of how exploitable it was. Like how there was no downside to making someone a thief just to unlock a door and then immediately changing back. They gave me so many options, but you have easy access to every job anytime after you get them, so it was never felt like I was making any solid choices when building a team.

Inolvidable. Es demencial imaginar todo lo que supuso este videojuego en su época, y como se las apañaron para meter esta barbaridad en una NES, sencillamente colosal en todos y cada uno de sus aspectos. La banda sonora, es un auténtico logro y emociona a cualquier persona que sienta pasión por este arte.

Y además, cierra la historia con una narrativa muy adelantada a su era. No es difícil saber por qué este juego es legendario, y lo querré mucho siempre.

Top tier track: Eternal Wind

Olha as coisas começando a melhorar ⚔

Um enorme salto de qualidade em comparação aos 2 primeiros jogos da franquia. A narrativa é curta e encantadora, com personagens memoráveis, mapas enormes para explorar e um excelente design de inimigos, com destaque para o chefe final.

Dito isso, gostei principalmente da inclusão do sistema de profissões, no qual você vai desbloqueando diversas classes ao decorrer do jogo (cavaleiro, mago negro, invocador, monge, entre muitas outras) e evoluindo as suas preferidas.

5★ - I love the game.

My first experience with FF3 was the DS remake and ever since then its held a special place in my gaming heart. So the pixel remaster was such a good time even with a sort of self-imposed challenge on my run.

Due to the non-DS version characters being nameless, it consisted of me and my friends and as a challenge I had my friends pick what classes they would be with the only control I had being my character. This may have made some of the bosses more difficult but it was actually nice to have a nice challenge after the first two Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster games were so easy to play.

The music is so whimsical and the world really felt like it was lived in compared to the first game where it felt like a wild world with a couple of towns that were separated from each other.

I don't have much to say other than this is a solid Classic Final Fantasy that if you were to choose one NES FF to play I would recommend this one. It feels like its what they wanted the original to be.

Definitely the comfiest way to play this game, with its plethora of QoL and boosters. Playing this actually made me think if I have it in me to beat the 3D remake nowadays. I'm curious to revisit it one day and check if I'm filtered these days.

The job system is a lot more primitive and raw that I remembered, with jobs serving more as puzzles than builds. The most infamous example being the Garuda boss fight, which pretty much requires a party of 4 dragoons, but there's also the Mini dungeons, the dividing enemies that require Dark Knight, one of the last bosses pretty much requires one Viking, etc etc...

Which makes the 3D version's mechanic of giving characters a buffer/cooldown for switching jobs much more stupid in hindsight.

And even in this version, with quick saves and stuff, the final dungeon gets exhausting. I can't believe I actually finished the 3D remake and its absolutely gauntlet of a final dungeon.

While the 3D version still holds a special place in my eyes, this pixel remaster offers a faster-paced alternative for those looking to revisit FF3. However, I did miss the depth of characterization and uniqueness present in the 3D version, and it's a shame these aspects weren't integrated here. Nonetheless, having essentially a SNES version of FF3 is a plus, and the quality-of-life improvements make a significant difference. The option to save anywhere is a welcome addition, and the newly arranged OST is excellent.

It's worth noting that FF3 still feels like it is pretty much a DQ game, not having a identity of its own until FF4.

Interesting to return to Final Fantasy III now, as it’s one of only a handful of Final Fantasy games that I have prior experience with. I got the DS remake back in my teens and had a decent time with it up to the water temple, where the difficulty seemed to spike dramatically. The prospect of doing a lot of grinding was partially what put me off playing many JRPGs going forward; kind of a funny outcome, given that it probably wouldn’t have been That taxing.

Anyway, approaching the pixel remaster version now I was primarily struck by the surprisingly large scale of FF3. “Scale” seems to be the primary focus everywhere: the game features a huge 44 song soundtrack, numerous modes of transport, a robust job system, and even some honest-to-god optional content! Even the story, which in many ways is the most stock and underwhelming of these NES games, feels at least filled with a fair amount of incident and rotating locales. I can only imagine what it must have been like to have played this when it first came out in Japan and gotten the revelation that the world you’re playing in is only one (floating) continent in a much larger land! I like that this scale also extends toward making the world feel more alive with detail; being able to shrink yourself to explore certain dungeons gives the impression that all of these spaces have whole secret worlds within them, while existing in others where they are but one small component. The game’s light “hidden paths” mechanic (brilliantly tied into your party characters’ sole detail, that they are kids that enjoy exploring) also helps this feeling.

For all this ambition FF3 still remains breezy, taking me less time to complete than FF2 while feeling a lot “bigger” than it. There are more dungeons, but they tend to be shorter and more realistic in scale as opposed to FF2’s massive labyrinths. The game is well balanced; with only a couple instances that required some brief grinding, it managed the trick of making my party feel powerful While being challenged by powerful enemies (especially at the end game). The expansive job system allows for the kind of customization that FF2 aspired to provide, but there’s also an occasional puzzle component to it that I found enjoyable. The only thing really holding back FF3 for me is that the narrative is, again, Very stock. There’s not a ton of satisfaction inherent in “balancing light and dark,” as compared to the vastly more exciting implications of FF1 or some of FF2’s more enjoyable plot maneuvers. But it’s at least a passionately made object, so clearly designed to push a budding development team’s ambitions to the furthest extent they could on the hardware they were working with.

Final Fantasy 'Marathon' Part 2
Final Fantasy III
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Huh, weird how they seemed to skip a number between Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy III, wonder what that's all about. Anyways...

Final Fantasy III sits in a strange place in Final Fantasy's history, as unlike its predecessors and its successors (for the most part) the game sits largely uncelebrated by both Square Enix and the Final Fantasy fanbase at large, at least here in the west.

//History
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The history of this game is pretty well known by now so I'll try to keep it brief. Final Fantasy III for the Famicom was never released, and still has never been released, in any territories outside of Japan. Despite its introduction of the job sytem as we know it and its largely positive critical reception, even in Japan the game never saw enhanced ports to any platforms despite every other game of the first six receiving multiple (read, Origins, Anthology, Dawn of Souls, etc).

The west would not see a proper release of Final Fantasy III until the fully 3D Nintendo DS remake in 2006, 16 years after its original release. While a great remake in its own right (with its own version specific flaws, as well), the game received pretty heavy alterations in terms of difficuly, story, and pacing. It would not be until as recent as 2021 with the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster series before an official iteration based on the original version would see a release outside of Japan. Though this is the version I am reviewing I should clarify that I have played and beaten this game on both the original Famicom release and the NDS/PSP versions.

//Review
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I will be blunt and simply say that I think this game is incredibly underrated, and should be considered as one of the better Final Fantasy installments, as well as one of the best games, RPG or otherwise, on the Famicom.

The game serves as a culmination of all of the lessons in both game design and hardware knowledge the development team learned through their experiences creating the previous game and void where a potential first sequel to Final Fantasy I would be. While I think that this game, as well as the Pixel Remaster of the first, have some very ugly character sprites that both try to remain too faithful to the original spritework without retaining the simplicity that made those Famicom sprites work in the first place. Luckily the post Final Fantasy III games in the Pixel Remaster series appear to improve the character art substantially, particularly Final Fantasy V (at the time of writing the FFVIPR has not been released).

While the character sprites may be a weakness, I feel that it is made up for in the preservation and evolution of the enemy and boss artwork, as well as the environmental art and battle backgrounds, so it all shakes out I suppose. I particularly like the shaders used for water and the new particle effects for spells and skills, as it really helps sell that "classic game with modern flourishes" idea that the remasters are predicated on.

The story is basic and honestly nothing to write home about, full of unconvincing melodrama fashioned to push the plot along. For the record, this is a JRPG that places its gameplay systems and the player's relationship with the world and its locales above its attempts to deliver any sort of deep, thought provoking narrative. Even if the impression the overarching storyline leaves on the player is overall lackluster, where the experience of following the story through to the end succeeds is through the little moments. Things like the protagonists getting giddy to sleep in a princess' bed while she's away, or the four goofy old men who believe they are the four warriors of light and so try to clear a mini-dungeon before you do. Similarly, the game's story has some really cool ideas that unfortunately don't get as fleshed out as they ideally would in a more narrative-focused game. Things such as the first world map you explore being a floating continent that opens up to a much larger (but comparatively barren) world map. Or building off of that, said larger world map has been completely flooded, with the world underwater being completely frozen in time. One idea, that being the existence of dark crystal with respective warriors of darkness that rise to combat an overabundance of light in order to preserve the balance between the two worlds, has also been apparently adapted into Final Fantasy XIV (though I never played far enough into the main story, or payed enough attention to what I did play, to notice). Unfortunately, in FFIII, these are all elaborated on in about one to two text boxes and don't carry much more plot relevance than a provocation to go through another dungeon or fight some extra bosses.

With that being said, however, when the final boss is finally conquered and the balance of the worlds is returned to normal, the flight home reflecting on the jouney up to its conclusion and the people and places you've come to know and.... like(?) still pulled at my heartstrings a bit and made me feel nostalgic for the sheer sense of adventure the game has, both for its time and for now.

Said sense of adventure is mostly carried by the game's excellent soundtrack, made even better by the phenomenal reorchestrations of the Pixel Remaster. Every moment is punctuated by a score that has a surprising amount of range and depth for its time. The world map has a somber tune that really captures the idea of a world on the edge of collapse, and battle tunes are memorable and punchy. Shoutout in particular to the theme of the World of Shadows and the theme of the fight against the Cloud of Darkness, they do a lot to get you hyped for the final stretch and persevere through the heightened challenge to see the adventure through to its conclusion. In a game where the plot is closer on a sliding scale to "Outline" than "Epic," the soundtrack serves as a means to suggest that this world has more depth and that the story holds more gravitas than it perhaps would otherwise.

As alluded to before, the place in which Final Fantasy III excels is in its gameplay. This, however, seems to be a bit of a controversial opinion as in the years following the game's release in the West and with more people playing it than just those dedicated enough to apply the fan-patch, many seem to echo the sentiment that the game is too grindy, overly-difficult, or that the way the Job System is handled stifles creative party combinations. I strongly disagree with these statements, but can understand where these frustrations come from.

In regards to the idea that the game is too grindy- I implore you to play any other NES/Famicom JRPG besides maybe Dragon Quest III (and even then, just barely) and you will find that the comparative grind in Final Fantasy III is minimal. Even in its own regard, I rarely, if ever found the need to grind in FF III at any point besides before the final boss. As long as you fight most of the enemies that come your way I promise you will be fine. Most encounters that are difficult can be circumvented by means of smart party composition and strategy. Victory is not a certainty, it must be earned in Final Fantasy III.

With that, I feel this is an appropriate segue into the way that Final Fantasy III implements its job system is often criticized for railroading you into requiring specific party compositions for success, and unless you're attempting a challenge of one specific job or something similar it just is not true. The game features a few dungeons where you are required to shrink down with the Mini spell in order to proceed, wherein your physical attacks can only do 1 damage and you sustain significantly higher physical damage from enemies. The obvious counteraction to this situation is to lean on your mages to act as primary damage dealers and support. Never once over my accumulated four complete playthroughs of this game have I needed to reconfigure my party for these dungeons. Simply put, if you come into combat with a bad party combination, you are likely going to fail, and that's not the game's fault. Likewise, for the final boss, if you do not use the ultimate Sage and Ninja job classes, you can still absolutely win, as long as you have given consideration to your party composition and prepare yourself accordingly to the challenge given.

The roster of 22(?) Jobs that are available in the game provide plenty of room for creative party compositions as long as you're willing to cover the Job's weaknesses with another Job that compliments it. I understand the desire to build a party of four Dragoons because they're cool but also wish the appeal of a game that asks you to meet it on its own terms could be more appreciated (this is also reflected in how I feel about the mainline Shin Megami Tensei games, but that's a rabbithole for another time). I also believe it's worth noting that every single time, and I do mean every time that the game "forces" you to use a certain Job to progress (it doesn't), the dungeon or surrounding area is littered with equipment for the path of least resistance. Similarly, the penalty for switching Jobs, which has been completely removed in the Pixel Remaster, is often so far outweighed by the benefits of using the Job that is recommended for the situation that it hardly matters. The boss many people point to as the largest culprit of this has a particular weakness to Dragoons, and their Jump command deals such an obscene amount of damage that having even just one practically trivializes the fight.

To close out my thoughts, I would just like to take a second to appreciate design mentalities that seem to have all but died out in the modern day. Games like Final Fantasy III place their trust in the player to take initiative and meet it half-way. The game expects you to gain levels by exploring areas thoroughly; expects you to talk to townspeople to know where to go next and about secrets to find. The game expects you to see the sticky situation given to you and find out how to use the tools at your disposal to properly overcome it.

I would never make a claim as blatantly incorrect and ignorant as to say that modern games are stupid or that we should revert to having to draw dungeon maps on graph paper, but I will say that I have noticed a consistently furthering lack of faith in the player to be willing to forego convenience for the sake of an experience that gives intrinsic satisfaction as opposed to the extrinsic motivators of near constant gratification. Always knowing where to go because of endless waypoints, always offered to tune down the difficulty when the going gets tough, always encouraged to be able to play the game "your way" above all else, even if "your way" might end up harming your overall engagement and/or enjoyment in the long run.

...That being said the Pixel Remaster is far and away the easiest version of this game up until a semi-moderate spike in the late game. So if the difficulty is a big hang up for you it certainly is the most appealing option. Personally even though I appreciate a lot of the changes the game made for the sake of minimizing frustration, my heart will always go out to the original, and even its remake, for trying to break out of its shadow and be its own thing, while still staying faithful.

Simply put: Final Fantasy III is satisfying. It feels good to play and it feels good to come back to. Perhaps it's not the apex of video game design and storytelling, but it holds a special place in my heart for being one of the first games to really make me work smarter, not harder to see the credits.

Tune in next time for my review of Final Fantasy IV, before I completely forget about my playthrough that just happened.

XOXO
Golden Girls

-John Barry.

Final Fantasy finally starting to take its shape with the 3rd game.
Overall it's an enjoyable experience, although the last dungeons started to wear me off.

The story is ok, if nothing special. It's nice to have some level of characterization to your party leader and NPCs, but it's still very rudimentary.

Even though the job system is very basic and lacks depth, it does break up the monotony a little, making the game more fun. Also liked the world in FF3 much more compared to the 1st game. It was very nice revelation to see how the map is larger than it initially appeared to be.

Déjà vu.
Essa é a sensação que tenho ao jogar Final Fantasy 3.

4 Guerreiros da Luz, 4 cristais e mais uma jornada para reconquistar a paz.
Eu sinceramente não posso dizer que tive vontade de prestar atenção à história após perceber que grande parte dela é uma releitura do primeiro Final Fantasy, só que com os dois pés no chão.
Enfiados com violência no chão e acimentados com concreto, mais especificamente.
Devo dar crédito ao jogo por, em alguma medida, ser capaz de nos levar entre pontos da história sem interpolar segmentos de grind quase obrigatórios entre eles, embora para chegar nesse ponto seja necessário que o jogador dance conforme o jogo manda ou então sofra.

Aqui nos livramos do sistema de progressão de FF2 que, embora interessante, tornava a experiência em um crescendo desagradável de grinding punitivo.
Agora, voltamos ao sistema visto em FF1, em que nossa classe dita o crescimento de nossos atributos, porém, com a diferença de que em FF3 podemos mudar nossa classe a qualquer momento e nossos atributos irão variar de acordo com elas.
Enquanto em princípio isso signifique que o jogador terá muito mais liberdade para definir como seus guerreiros irão crescer, a maneira como isso é executado empurra o jogador, mais uma vez, em direção a um planejamento consciente da equipe que desejamos ter ao final do game, do contrário, teremos um desbalanço que tornará o meio de jogo em uma bagunça errática com muitos saltos de dificuldade.
Particular à versão Pixel Remaster, a troca de classe não é mais acompanhada de uma barganha que penaliza o jogador de alguma forma, podendo ocorrer a qualquer momento.

Em Final Fantasy 3 reina uma absoluta linearidade, tanto em história quanto em level design.
Enquanto em FF2 tínhamos locais entupidos de becos sem saída e salas armadilha, aqui, praticamente todos os locais têm apenas um caminho a ser percorrido e todos os desvios são curtos e, também diferente do antecessor, tendem a guardar itens.
É um tanto cômico pensar que esta versão em particular mostra um minimapa (opcional) no canto da tela e que quase todas as salas no jogo cabem quase perfeitamente naquele espaço, mostrando baús, becos e ocasionais passagens secretas.
Com cenários tão pequenos e lineares, a exploração limitada a caminhar entre os pontos de um local se torna irrelevante. Não à toa existem muitos segmentos em que o jogo nos força a explorar o sistema de status permanentes para explorar, muitas vezes se resumindo a diminuir nosso tamanho.

Com tudo isso dito, posso retomar ao que quis dizer com "devemos dançar conforme o jogo manda ou sofremos as consequências".
Veja, Final Fantasy 3, talvez mais que a maioria dos jogos da série, parece fazer das recompensas encontradas em baús uma dica (nem sempre sutil) de que algo que eles contém é particularmente útil naquele cenário em que os encontramos. O mesmo parece se estender às lojas em que podemos passar em um determinado momento.
Os baús, quando contém um item consumível, tendem a ser itens que exploram uma fraqueza elemental (ou pelo menos um elemento que parece mais danoso) de um chefe; quando contém um equipamento, este ora serve para explorar as fraquezas dos inimigos da região, ora serve para "incentivar" o jogador a trocar de classe ou fortalecer uma que pode estar em uso.
De uma maneira similar vão funcionar as lojas, que tendem a ter um estoque que limita muito o quanto de tempo o jogador pode permanecer com uma classe de personagem sem que os inimigos comecem a surrar o jogador por estar usando um equipamento que não confere muita resistência ou dano.

No início do jogo, isso funciona muito bem como um tutorial inteligente e silencioso, mas, a medida que o jogo avança, a progressão e sobrevivência passa a ser uma função dessas "dicas" e limitações que o jogo traz. Por causa disso, em muitos momentos em me vi forçado a fazer meus magos trocarem de classe para uma mais fraca, sem maestria e sem acesso à magia, porém com equipamentos melhores, apenas para evitar que qualquer golpe dado neles significasse morte instantânea.

Um efeito colateral dessa necessidade de estar sempre reciclando o inventário é que a necessidade de estar fazendo grind por dinheiro aumenta e é natural que em algum momento comecemos a estocar itens apenas para garantir que teremos algo para equipar ou usar dentro e fora de combate.

Eventualmente, podemos perceber que a liberdade que o jogo nos dá não é exatamente real e que se quisermos escolher nosso próprio caminho, precisamos estar preparados para sermos punidos por sair dos trilhos do jogo.

Quando disse no início que este jogo me causa déjà vu, meu pensamento me levava a considerar todas a semelhanças que este jogo compartilha com os pontos que amargaram minha experiência com os dois jogos anteriores.
Apesar de tudo isso, Final Fantasy 3 ainda é um jogo com qualidades que, quando não são desvirtuadas para gerar os defeitos que descrevi, funcionam bem para gerar uma experiência relativamente agradável.