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Final Fantasy III: Reviews

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Game Score: 10/10

The DS has had a decent number of good RPGs produced for it since it's release, but the debut of SquareEnix's flagship property on the platform has been on a lot of "most wanted" lists for the last little while. The excellent re-release of a number older FF properties on the GBA (specifically, Final Fantasy I, II, IV, V and coming soon, VI) has introduced the original Final Fanstasy games to a wider audience in general, and to a handheld audience in particular, so the promise of an updated version of one of the series' most talked-about games was sure to get attention. Always considered one of the series' better games, this is the first time that Final Fantasy III has been released outside of the Asian market, and SquareEnix could easily have simply ported the NES original with a new translation to the GBA and sold many, many copies. The fact that the company went the extra mile - completely updating the game graphically and adding new content for the DS release - is certainly commendable, and to any gamer who, like me, can (barely) remember stumbling through parts of an import Famicom FFIII, trying to figure out what was going on with a dogeared photocopy of a wretched fan translation that read like it was literally compiled from a Japanese/English dictionary, it seems more like an answered prayer. Finally we have the final Final Fantasy released in America and Europe, and it is undoubtably the best re-release to date!

The graphic and sound facelift that SquareEnix gave FFIII makes it one of the most impressive DS games produced to date. The character designs will be familiar to anyone who's played Final Fantasy Tactics, and though I prefer the more "super-deformed" look of the FFVII or FFIX character designs, there's no denying that this game looks very, very good. Environments are well realized and varied, and the map screens are attractive and functional. Of course, the menus for the various management options will bring a sense of deja-vu to anyone who's played a previous FF game. The music is a uniformly excellent reworking of the original soundtrack, and much of it is oh, so familiar! There are no surprises here, except perhaps in how much projection and depth the soundtrack manages to wring from the tiny DS speakers.

The gameplay is classic, old-school Final Fantasy, and those who pick up FFIII expecting the kind of hand-holding that the post-FFVII games offer are in for a shock, as there are a number of differences in the gameplay that make this game a good bit harder than you latter day Final Fantasies. First is the "pyramid" magic system - magic users only get a set number of casts for any specific spell level before they need to rest and recoup their magic points, and the higher the spell level, the fewer the the number of castings available to them. This adds a strategic element to the gameplay, as you can't buy Elixers anywhere in the game - you can only find them, and they are few and far between - so you don't want to be running around indescriminantly casting high-level spells if you are far from a sheltering Inn for fear you'll run out of your most powerful spells just when you need them most. And there will be times when you need them. Although the QuickSave feature lets you turn off the game at any point and restore from there, the QuickSave file is deleted on the restore, so you can only save your FFIII game on the overworld map. There are absolutely no save points in the dungeons, and some of the dungeons are quite long. Add to this the fact that a number of the bosses are very tough indeed, and the odds are good that you will find yourself pushing through an hour long dungeon only to have your butt handed to you by a very nasty end-boss, requiring that you restore from your last save point and do it all over again. This was a fairly common experience with the early FFs (at least it was for me), and some players weened on kinder, gentler console RPGs that offer you a save point every ten minutes and just before every boss fight might find this a bit frustrating, but personally, I loved it. It forces you to be more cautionsly strategic with team composition and encourages you to level up in the relative safety of the open world environments before committing to the next dungeon. Even so, my party was defeated three times during the game, and I had individual party memebers KO'd with disconcerting regularity throughout. Like Elixers, Pheonix Downs must be found as they cannot be purchased, so a death in combat is a painful thing...

The story is on the light side compared with contemporary FF games, but it suffices, and it was considered quite complex in its day. There are a number of optional side quests besides the main story line, and you can enjoy free roaming in search of the best weapons and Summons spells if you choose to. The world map is a good size and there's plenty to explore. I finished the game on my first run through in 44 hours, which is a healthy adventure, and I have yet to try any of the sidequests that can apparently be opened by using Mognet.

Over all, Final Fantasy III belongs in the top ranks of FF games, and is without a doubt the best RPG available on the DS to date. Excellent graphics and music combine with classic RPG goodness to offer a lengthy, sometimes difficult, and always compelling gaming experience. This game is so good that FF and classic RPG fans should buy a DS just to play it, and I can think of no higher recommendation than that. Highly recommended!