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.
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.