Final Fantasy III: Pixel Remaster is a beautiful love letter to the era just before Square Enix broke into the JRPG sphere as the golden standard, just before Final Fantasy became a worldwide phenomenon and before making the most critically and commerically lauded games of all time.
It plays like an old game with standard turn based combat and world traversal barriered by story progression with all of the charm and nostalgia that games of that era bring. What the Remaster does so successfully is touch up all the visual and audio elements to make playing it just as joyful in modern times. I loved running through new zones and dungeons on my computer that were full of luscious pixel color and a fully orchestrated soundtrack that gave each and every little area its own unique style. Characters, monsters, and cities all have a new breath of life thanks to this, and it makes the 20 something hour experience all the merrier.
Storywise Final Fantasy III is nothing special, it's more of the early Final Fantasy "four heroes must collect crystals and save the world from darkness," which has a benefit of not being overbearing or confusing, but not being too special either. The characters you meet and villains you fight along the way don't have too much personality to them but... that's okay? Given the time of this games release it makes sense, and playing it now for the first time I never felt like the game's lack of compelling story was a real detriment, but moreso perfect for what the game wants to achieve.
The only knocks I could give FFIII that I thought genuinely took away from the game are the excessively high random encounter rate (which seemed to trigger every three to five steps in dungeons) and the lack of direction in the second part of the game. These are two gameplay elements that were normal at the time so it makes sense, but they do take away from a modern gaming experience.
It plays like an old game with standard turn based combat and world traversal barriered by story progression with all of the charm and nostalgia that games of that era bring. What the Remaster does so successfully is touch up all the visual and audio elements to make playing it just as joyful in modern times. I loved running through new zones and dungeons on my computer that were full of luscious pixel color and a fully orchestrated soundtrack that gave each and every little area its own unique style. Characters, monsters, and cities all have a new breath of life thanks to this, and it makes the 20 something hour experience all the merrier.
Storywise Final Fantasy III is nothing special, it's more of the early Final Fantasy "four heroes must collect crystals and save the world from darkness," which has a benefit of not being overbearing or confusing, but not being too special either. The characters you meet and villains you fight along the way don't have too much personality to them but... that's okay? Given the time of this games release it makes sense, and playing it now for the first time I never felt like the game's lack of compelling story was a real detriment, but moreso perfect for what the game wants to achieve.
The only knocks I could give FFIII that I thought genuinely took away from the game are the excessively high random encounter rate (which seemed to trigger every three to five steps in dungeons) and the lack of direction in the second part of the game. These are two gameplay elements that were normal at the time so it makes sense, but they do take away from a modern gaming experience.