Abandoned: Dec 22 2021
Time: 27ish Hours
Platform: DS (via 3DS)
Final Fantasy III is an interesting one. Following up Final Fantasy II’s strange leveling system (which I loved) and huge strides in storyline and emotional investment, this feels like a side-grade at best, and a downgrade more often than I’d like. FF3 feels like an attempt to course correct after FF2 (and as far as I can tell, it actually was! Even though FF2 was pretty well received, it seems like its systems weren’t liked internally at Square). On top of that, I played the DS remake of FF3, a mostly faithful remake which is infamous for being even less forgiving than the original NES game (balance tweaks and updated graphics being the main changes). Suffice to say, there’s no lack of things to talk about here.
Or is there? Honestly, this game didn’t leave a huge impression on me. I never got too invested, and more often than not was just looking up stats and strategies to min/max my team. As far as investment, I’ll easily blame the story there. FF3 is a return to FF1’s style of storytelling. The blank slate characters, the D&D-influenced “stumble around until the npc hints get you to figure out where you’re supposed to be” pacing, it all seems to draw a straight line to FF1. This wouldn’t be an issue for me if FF2 hadn’t been lightyears ahead in story? I don’t know why they decided to drop the more immediate stakes and less hint-reliant pacing style they’d done such a good job pioneering in the previous game, but I’m not happy with what’s here. Sure it’s much more straightforward than FF1 ever was, but at multiple points through the game you’ll need to go places just because some people in a town said it might be cool to see. The plot operates on rumors, and while that isn’t a bad idea in concept, you end up jetting from town to town, continent to continent, without any reasoning besides “it seems like the game wants me to go there next”.
So where’d all the dev time go? Well, FF3 is mechanically a brand new beast. At least, as far as FF games go. FF3 introduces the Job system, which allows you to switch your class anytime outside of battle. It’s a really cool system, encouraging players to change party configuration on the fly for whatever the situation might call for. In theory. While this system is robust as hell and definitely interesting to play around with, the way it interacts with the game’s other systems is… a bit rough, in my opinion. FF3, like its predecessors, only allows you to save outside of dungeons. That’s fine in 1 and 2, where your strategy for a boss fight only really has a couple permutations, so you’ll try only a few times before either busting through or deciding you need to grind a bit. Here though, there’s almost literally infinite strategies for each boss. Wanna take someone on as a team of four Scholars, relying on damage items and high intelligence to disintegrate an enemy by their weak point? Go ahead, most of the time there’s nothing stopping you. But say you hit a wall. Do you switch your strategy (to something besides four scholars dear god please) and try again, not knowing if you’ll need to do it all over again? What if I told you you’d need to head all the way back to town and buy new gear if you’ve sold whatever incredibly specific and very unmarked set of equipment your new classes can use? Granted, most of the game this isn’t a huge issue. You get an airship early on, and money is never too scarce. For the endgame though? Where you have to backtrack through a dungeon to even reach your airship? I felt stuck, stranded without a choice but to keep beating my head against the final dungeon. The party I had by this point was capable, and after a couple tries I got into a groove and started moving along. Got to the final boss aaaaaand
(SPOILERS)
well, if you know about this game, you might’ve heard about this. The final dungeon ends in a boss fight, which turns into another, which turns into four more, and then a true final boss. And the last time you’re able to save is before the dungeon starts. I managed to get a good deal into the final boss’s health supply before losing, and when I lost, I lost 3 hours of progress. If I knew exactly what I’d done wrong, I might’ve tried again, but the thing is I don’t. And I really, really, don’t want to go through that whole dungeon again, that whole boss rush again, just to lose again. Hence, why I abandoned it.
(END SPOILERS)
Now, as for the 3D remake’s changes, I’m a big fan. I love the art style, the game seems more balanced than the original version, and the biggest thing for me: The characters aren’t blank slates! Er well, not as much. They have canon names and backstories, and they’re not four identical orphans anymore. It’s cool! There’s overall a bit more direction to things too, which is much appreciated. That’s about it. I guess I had more I wanted to talk about than I thought haha. Basically, the job system is interesting, but much of the game’s grandfathered in mechanics don’t mesh well with it, and the story is somewhere between a small and a huge step back from FF2. Play it if you want, but if you do, I’d recommend emulating so you can use save states.
Time: 27ish Hours
Platform: DS (via 3DS)
Final Fantasy III is an interesting one. Following up Final Fantasy II’s strange leveling system (which I loved) and huge strides in storyline and emotional investment, this feels like a side-grade at best, and a downgrade more often than I’d like. FF3 feels like an attempt to course correct after FF2 (and as far as I can tell, it actually was! Even though FF2 was pretty well received, it seems like its systems weren’t liked internally at Square). On top of that, I played the DS remake of FF3, a mostly faithful remake which is infamous for being even less forgiving than the original NES game (balance tweaks and updated graphics being the main changes). Suffice to say, there’s no lack of things to talk about here.
Or is there? Honestly, this game didn’t leave a huge impression on me. I never got too invested, and more often than not was just looking up stats and strategies to min/max my team. As far as investment, I’ll easily blame the story there. FF3 is a return to FF1’s style of storytelling. The blank slate characters, the D&D-influenced “stumble around until the npc hints get you to figure out where you’re supposed to be” pacing, it all seems to draw a straight line to FF1. This wouldn’t be an issue for me if FF2 hadn’t been lightyears ahead in story? I don’t know why they decided to drop the more immediate stakes and less hint-reliant pacing style they’d done such a good job pioneering in the previous game, but I’m not happy with what’s here. Sure it’s much more straightforward than FF1 ever was, but at multiple points through the game you’ll need to go places just because some people in a town said it might be cool to see. The plot operates on rumors, and while that isn’t a bad idea in concept, you end up jetting from town to town, continent to continent, without any reasoning besides “it seems like the game wants me to go there next”.
So where’d all the dev time go? Well, FF3 is mechanically a brand new beast. At least, as far as FF games go. FF3 introduces the Job system, which allows you to switch your class anytime outside of battle. It’s a really cool system, encouraging players to change party configuration on the fly for whatever the situation might call for. In theory. While this system is robust as hell and definitely interesting to play around with, the way it interacts with the game’s other systems is… a bit rough, in my opinion. FF3, like its predecessors, only allows you to save outside of dungeons. That’s fine in 1 and 2, where your strategy for a boss fight only really has a couple permutations, so you’ll try only a few times before either busting through or deciding you need to grind a bit. Here though, there’s almost literally infinite strategies for each boss. Wanna take someone on as a team of four Scholars, relying on damage items and high intelligence to disintegrate an enemy by their weak point? Go ahead, most of the time there’s nothing stopping you. But say you hit a wall. Do you switch your strategy (to something besides four scholars dear god please) and try again, not knowing if you’ll need to do it all over again? What if I told you you’d need to head all the way back to town and buy new gear if you’ve sold whatever incredibly specific and very unmarked set of equipment your new classes can use? Granted, most of the game this isn’t a huge issue. You get an airship early on, and money is never too scarce. For the endgame though? Where you have to backtrack through a dungeon to even reach your airship? I felt stuck, stranded without a choice but to keep beating my head against the final dungeon. The party I had by this point was capable, and after a couple tries I got into a groove and started moving along. Got to the final boss aaaaaand
(SPOILERS)
well, if you know about this game, you might’ve heard about this. The final dungeon ends in a boss fight, which turns into another, which turns into four more, and then a true final boss. And the last time you’re able to save is before the dungeon starts. I managed to get a good deal into the final boss’s health supply before losing, and when I lost, I lost 3 hours of progress. If I knew exactly what I’d done wrong, I might’ve tried again, but the thing is I don’t. And I really, really, don’t want to go through that whole dungeon again, that whole boss rush again, just to lose again. Hence, why I abandoned it.
(END SPOILERS)
Now, as for the 3D remake’s changes, I’m a big fan. I love the art style, the game seems more balanced than the original version, and the biggest thing for me: The characters aren’t blank slates! Er well, not as much. They have canon names and backstories, and they’re not four identical orphans anymore. It’s cool! There’s overall a bit more direction to things too, which is much appreciated. That’s about it. I guess I had more I wanted to talk about than I thought haha. Basically, the job system is interesting, but much of the game’s grandfathered in mechanics don’t mesh well with it, and the story is somewhere between a small and a huge step back from FF2. Play it if you want, but if you do, I’d recommend emulating so you can use save states.