This review contains spoilers
After the dumpster fire that was FF2, FF3 thankfully decides to bring the formula back to the basics and it mostly pays off.
The only place where it doesn't pay off though, is in the story. It's just FF1 all over again, the core story can be summed up as "There's an imbalance of darkness and light, the 4 Warriors of Light must fix it". Everything else you do feels like filler until Xande becomes relevant in the last quarter of the game. There are some cool bits, like when you leave the floating continent only to see the world is shrouded in darkness and time has stopped flowing or when Unei and Doga sacrifice themselves. Overall though, I'd say the story takes a step back from what was present in FF2.
In terms of gameplay, FF3 ditches the Nature vs Nurture system of FF2 in favour of the Job System. The Job System feels like an evolution of the class selection that was in FF1 by having all the classes from that game present in this one, while also adding a ton more. A lot of my favourite classes got their start here like Dragoons, Dark Knights, Black Belts, Summoners, Ninjas etc. You can swap between what jobs you're using at any time and it creates a lot of customization in what setup you want to tackle the game with. This customization is pretty necessary since FF3 (atleast the DS version) is probably the hardest mainline entry I've played so far and it has some really bad difficulty spikes at some points like when you fight Garuda who seems borderline impossible to beat without a Dragoon. The variety of jobs you have at your disposal is definitely the highlight of the game but it's not without flaws. First of all, while I do like how many options you're given with choosing what classes you want to use, that choice only really opens up once you get the 3rd crystal since I find the jobs acquired from the 2nd crystal to be relatively useless (Scholar) or not reliable (Geomancer). I also dislike how some jobs become completely obsolete once you get better versions, for example, there is 0 reason to use a Black Mage over a Summoner or Magus. Another gripe I have is the adjustment phase that occurs for a set amount of battles when you swap to a different job, during this phase your stats are lowered for up to 10 battles and it's a weird thing to have when it discourages experimenting with the jobs when that's the best part of the game. None of these things are dealbreakers though and the Job System is still really fun.
Temporary party members are also handled way better here than in FF2. Instead of awkwardly taking up a spot in your party while being really underpowered, here they don't take up a spot in your party, and can randomly cast various offensive and defensive spells to help you out ranging from Cure to Holy.
Another area in which FF3 shines is in the dungeons. They're all only about 4 floors long and the encounter rate is pretty fair. There are no dead-ends since most optional paths have a treasure chest lying around at the end of them and overall the dungeons are paced very nicely. It's just a shame that all these positive aspects get thrown out the window in the Crystal Tower. The Crystal Tower feels like it's atleast double the length of other dungeons, and it gets extended by atleast an hour once you enter the World of Darkness. It's a tedious slog that completely obliterates the great pacing the game had up until that point. It's also made worse by how all the characters are constantly spouting nonsense about darkness and light nonstop and it makes the worst parts of Kingdom Hearts games seem almost Shakespearean. Also, Cloud of Darkness has got to be the lamest villain in the mainline series.
In conclusion, I like the job system and this is definitely the most polished entry in the NES Trilogy but ultimately I just don't find this game very memorable outside of having some cool ships and being the beginning of Summons in the series. A large reason for that is the story not standing out in any way.
The only place where it doesn't pay off though, is in the story. It's just FF1 all over again, the core story can be summed up as "There's an imbalance of darkness and light, the 4 Warriors of Light must fix it". Everything else you do feels like filler until Xande becomes relevant in the last quarter of the game. There are some cool bits, like when you leave the floating continent only to see the world is shrouded in darkness and time has stopped flowing or when Unei and Doga sacrifice themselves. Overall though, I'd say the story takes a step back from what was present in FF2.
In terms of gameplay, FF3 ditches the Nature vs Nurture system of FF2 in favour of the Job System. The Job System feels like an evolution of the class selection that was in FF1 by having all the classes from that game present in this one, while also adding a ton more. A lot of my favourite classes got their start here like Dragoons, Dark Knights, Black Belts, Summoners, Ninjas etc. You can swap between what jobs you're using at any time and it creates a lot of customization in what setup you want to tackle the game with. This customization is pretty necessary since FF3 (atleast the DS version) is probably the hardest mainline entry I've played so far and it has some really bad difficulty spikes at some points like when you fight Garuda who seems borderline impossible to beat without a Dragoon. The variety of jobs you have at your disposal is definitely the highlight of the game but it's not without flaws. First of all, while I do like how many options you're given with choosing what classes you want to use, that choice only really opens up once you get the 3rd crystal since I find the jobs acquired from the 2nd crystal to be relatively useless (Scholar) or not reliable (Geomancer). I also dislike how some jobs become completely obsolete once you get better versions, for example, there is 0 reason to use a Black Mage over a Summoner or Magus. Another gripe I have is the adjustment phase that occurs for a set amount of battles when you swap to a different job, during this phase your stats are lowered for up to 10 battles and it's a weird thing to have when it discourages experimenting with the jobs when that's the best part of the game. None of these things are dealbreakers though and the Job System is still really fun.
Temporary party members are also handled way better here than in FF2. Instead of awkwardly taking up a spot in your party while being really underpowered, here they don't take up a spot in your party, and can randomly cast various offensive and defensive spells to help you out ranging from Cure to Holy.
Another area in which FF3 shines is in the dungeons. They're all only about 4 floors long and the encounter rate is pretty fair. There are no dead-ends since most optional paths have a treasure chest lying around at the end of them and overall the dungeons are paced very nicely. It's just a shame that all these positive aspects get thrown out the window in the Crystal Tower. The Crystal Tower feels like it's atleast double the length of other dungeons, and it gets extended by atleast an hour once you enter the World of Darkness. It's a tedious slog that completely obliterates the great pacing the game had up until that point. It's also made worse by how all the characters are constantly spouting nonsense about darkness and light nonstop and it makes the worst parts of Kingdom Hearts games seem almost Shakespearean. Also, Cloud of Darkness has got to be the lamest villain in the mainline series.
In conclusion, I like the job system and this is definitely the most polished entry in the NES Trilogy but ultimately I just don't find this game very memorable outside of having some cool ships and being the beginning of Summons in the series. A large reason for that is the story not standing out in any way.
2 Comments
I'd say it's definitely more important than FF2 but I don't think I'd go so far as to say it's more important than the game that started it all
Maurith
1 year ago