Final Fantasy III

Where have you been all my life???

Yep, this is another one of the games that originally was Japan-only. In fact, when Square released several of the games for the PS1, it slipped through the American market again. What??? No GBA version either. It took some 13 years from its original release on the Super Famcom in Japan to arrive in America. What did we get? One of the greatest things next to slice bread, that's what.

The game got a 3D makeover with high quality CGI graphics and many new upgrades in the story, gameplay and everything else under the sun. You play as four warriors who have been brought together by chance. As the game goes along, your characters learn about the balance between Light and Darkness. Too much Light in the world and the Darkness must correct the balance. Vice versa for too much Darkness, which is happening in the world during this story. The four main characters are joined by non-playable friends that will lend a hand every-so-often. Each of these non-playable characters have their own seperate story that must be fulfilled to continue the story. The warriors come to a conclusion that there is something in the universe that is constantly off-setting the balance and plan to permamently fix the problen rather than giving it a temporary solution. The team meat the Warriors of Darkness and face off with them. After defeating all four, they enlist their cooperation in the hopes implementing their goals.

Though this is a visually great game with good story, it is perhaps the hardest of the FF franchise. You have to ration out your Phoenix Downs, lack of saving anywhere makes this game difficult on later levels of the game, and the friends that join the team, you mostly forget that they are there unless they decide to show up during the battle. I love the Job system implemented in this game, though you the task for getting the Onion Knight was stupid. The game lacked a bonus stage and you could only access the bestiary from one person in the game rather than the Configure screen as is the case in the GBA games. Once you entered into the Crystal Castle, there were no more save points to access and had to rely on a quick save to hold you place if you had to quit for any reason.

If you are looking for a challenge in difficulty, this is a sure bet. The battles differ depending on which character is assigned which job; the combinations are endless, and every character has their own unique spin to the job's costume (one red mage does not look like the other red mages). If you haven't played this game, you should pick this one up, because who knows when there will be another American release of this game.

Pretty good!

A mix of hilarious dialogue and battle scenes makes this game great! I have nothing to complain to you about, except watch out for the Scylla.

Hit or Miss?

It took nearly sixteen years, but it finally hit U.S. shores. Final Fantasy III, as you can read is the 3rd installment of the long standing Final Fantasy series. It also was the only main Final Fantasy title, to not make it to the U.S. But! Now its here. If familure to the general scheme of FF games, you'll be right at home here. The story, as with most FFs, starts off with the main protaginast finding a crystal, and begins to tell him that he needs to save the world... and so you begin! As with the original 2 FFs you must obtain the power of the 4 elemental crystals, to gain Jobs, and stop the major bad guys. There is also a few new things that the original didnt have such as the MogNet, which alows players to converse with one another and NPCs through moogle mail. The default job of Onion Knight, has been changed to Freelancer, and some of the other jobs have been rebalanced, such as the Sage and Ninja. Also, the battle system has had a very nice upgrade, alowing the bosses and enemies to have descent AI. But the real verdict? Can it stand the test of time, as other FF titles did? The game in general, is good for RPG fans, old or new. Those new to the series might be a little "lost at sea" in the begining but will soon catch on. The battle system is the classic turn based type, not the ATB similar to the FF titles afterwards. The story is a bit repetitive to other FF titles, and can easily be predicted. But what really makes this baby shine, is the graphics. For a DS game, this looks amazing, surpassing even PSone graphics, yes i said it, this game is better looking, graphically, than FFVII. The audio is also very amazing. Uematsu him self redid all of the musical scores for this game, including the final battle music, with his band, The Black Mages. Another new additon that adds to the mix of having it on the DS is the touch screen! You dont even have to touch a button playing this game. You can use the stylius for everything, sure it takes a bit to get used to it, but its still handy. The only problem was using the stylius during battles, the menus were so cramped together, it was very easy to choose the wrong option. Which wasn't much of a problem beacause you could just cancel the action, but if you chose wrong on the last character, you were screwed. Also new, the ability to Zoom. You must use this feature in order to find hidden treasure, as well as secret passages. The bread and butter of this title has to be the job system. This allows the player to choose over 20 different jobs. This allows players some much deserved replay value. But also new with the DS version is the Job Transition Phase. This is basically the number of battles you have to fight until your stats are unhindered between switching jobs. Just like in real life, you cant be good at something without a little practice. The worst thing one could say about this title would have to be the new additon of MogNet. As its not neccesary to even use this to beat the game, but it makes maxing jobs useless, unless you have a friend with a copy, or a wifi connection. The catch? You can only send one letter to one NPC, and one friend, per hour... yea... and to get the most of the game to finish the bigger side quests, you need to send 7 letters to your friends, not NPCs. But overall this game will stand the time of FF. As its not as ground breaking as some of the other previous FF titles, its still worthy of at least one play-through, or an additon to your current FF colection.

I love it

This game is awesome. I wonder why Squaresoft didn't release it in 1990. Anyway, the remake of this game is amazing. I do wish that there was an NES version in America just to see what it was like, but that is not a big deal. The job system is executed flawlessly (has depth but is still easy to use). Graphics are pretty good. The sound is remade with current technology well enough to not sound like an NES game, but it is still simple enough to remind you of those games. Overall, a very good game.

The handheld Juggernaut

This is the best RPG hands down for the DS. It has a great story plus it's the first time it has hit U.S shores. The game has awesome gameplay like all of the original Final Fantasies. The story is basically like all of the other crystal bearers stories. The game also lets you name your four main party members. (Unlike the more recent Final Fantasies)! The gameplay is turn-based and easy to follow! Now to talk about the job system. You have four characters 23 jobs, thousands of configurations. You can have so many different parties you could go insane trying to max out your character's job levels. unlike some of the recent Final Fantasies where they make skill building the biggest pain you just level up in this one! You also get a job level. The higher that job level is the better your character will perform in that certain Job. Overall the game has a great story, awesome character customization, and awesome gameplay! One of the best Final Fantasies ever!