Final Fantasy III

Welcome back to another review of a Final Fantasy game, this time with the third installment of the series... Or so I believed. I never played Final Fantasy III until it was remade simply because it was never released outside of Japan. Originally released in 1990 and confused with Final Fantasy VI where it was released in the US under the third title's name and the actual third Final Fantasy never came out until it was remade for the Nintendo DS on 2004. If you are already confused, don't fret because I was frustrated as you are. It was also the first Final Fantasy remake so fans of the other games got excited and wanted other titles of the series to get remade as well so you can imagine the hype. Sadly, not for me and I can easily say Final Fantasy III is the least interesting title for me in the series and it also gets the title of the most difficult game in the series as well (Mostly because I may have rushed it without grinding due to my disinterest).

Because Final Fantasy III was a forgettable experience for me, I had to actually look up the story again and remember what I went through when it first came out. The only thing I actually remember were the difficult battles and nearly impossible bosses. In both design and writing, Final Fantasy III combines both previous entries and creates characters with personalities that symbolize the warriors of light. Another typical story in your very typical RPG starts with villagers getting their home destroyed by a dark entity called the Cloud of Darkness that manipulates other characters to control cities and pillage civilians. All four friends start out their journey and seek out their light powers to rid the world of darkness and restore balance to the world. Right, I get it. As benevolent and beautiful it might seem, I can't lie that I'm kind of getting sick of this, hence my disinterest.

Here comes the interesting part, though. Final Fantasy III reintroduces the experience points system (thankfully it was only absent from Final Fantasy II) and starts the job system which was complex and confusing for the most part in this game. Each character can level up their own job (Either as a black mage, thief, red mage or even dragoon) and each job has a special skill that is exclusive to its own. Only when your character levels up a job high enough can your skills carry over to your original "job" as a freelancer where all your skills apply there. Not only are your characters gaining their own experience but their jobs are also evolving. The only downside to it is if you level up the wrong job later in the game you would have to force yourself to grind another job if you are stuck at a boss, which comes at a great cost of time. One has to know at least a few good strategies and combinations on how their parties work with each other to counter different defenses, so on and so forth. Exclusive skills for jobs vary from offensive, supportive to utility skills (Thief for steal, White mage to heal, and black mage to cast offensive spells). The spell system from the first Final Fantasy is reintroduced here so you know what I mean when it is a combination of both previous games.

As I mentioned before that the spell system is back here, your variety of dungeons and towns are fair but are unfair if you are not grinding enough, so in towns you can still see a lot of spells that seem unreachable initially if you aren't fighting enough. Speaking of which, I recall fights were really tough up to the point where I had to escape from some only to return to town to replenish my items. It is not as simple as a typical Role playing mentality that I approached with where I'd spam attack until I encounter a boss and then I'd have to use some form of strategy to beat them. Dungeons were also as exciting, filled with hidden passages and weapons or armor you can't find in shops until later on. It is practically your traditional take on a role-playing game that would take you at least 20 hours to finish. Don't say I didn't warn you about it's difficulty and I stress on that because it is one of the fewer Final Fantasies that I beat once. 

It is kind of weird how time caught up with me and sooner or later I will find the whole series on all platforms available for download. I mention how funny that was for me because I had to buy newer handheld consoles for specific games where nowadays one can try Final Fantasy III on their smartphones or on Steam. I can't say much about the music of Final Fantasy III mostly because, again it was a forgettable experience but any music from Nobuo Uematsu is guaranteed to engage players. I can't help but be downright opinionated about this title but I know a lot of fans will find it an engaging game. Here is to another review in the series and I hope to catch up with more.