Final Fantasy III (DS)

Game: Final Fantasy III (Nintendo DS port)
Developer: Square Enix
Platform: Nintendo DS
Release Year: 2006
Stephen's Rating: 4/10

I am reviewing the remake of Final Fantasy III which was ported to both Nintendo DS and iOS. The port has some mechanical differences to the original.

Basic Plot

The story revolves around four orphans who are called and given powers by four crystals of light. Each of the crystals empower the four with the ability to learn new "jobs" which are simply character classes.

The four orphans discover that the floating island they live on is only a small speck in a much larger world. The story revolves around the warlock Xande who is trying to manipulate the crystals to cause chaos and destruction. The four orphans overcome the Cloud of Darkness and save the world.

Overworld view, for travelling between locations.

Gameplay

Final Fantasy III is a top down role playing game with turn based combat. The game is similar to others from the Final Fantasy series.

Players take control of a party of four characters. Each character gains levels throughout the game by completing quests and beating enemies. Each character is also able to hold one "job" (character class) at a time. Each job has different abilities which gain in strength over time by increasing the "job level" for this job. This separation of character level and job level is an important part of the game mechanics.

The available jobs in the game include:

• Freelancer
• Warrior
• Monk
• White Mage
• Black Mage
• Red Mage
• Thief
• Ranger
• Knight
• Scholar
• Geomancer
• Viking
• Dragoon
• Dark Knight
• Evoker
• Bard
• Black Belt
• Magus
• Devout
• Summoner
• Sage
• Ninga
• Onion Knight

... an extensive list.

Combat is turn based and is affected by abilities and character stats.

Combat.

Positives

Intricate and long story, decent combat mechanics. Well suited to the Nintendo DS. Great graphics for the platform.

Negatives

I like the idea of the game but the actuality of playing it is unbearable for two main reasons. Firstly, pretty much every place you ever go to in the game except towns and cities has enemies who will randomly spawn and attack you after a random number of steps. This is extremely frustrating as you often just want to get somewhere but instead have to fight the same mob of monsters 40 times before you can get there. It's obviously designed to make the game world and the game seem bigger than it really is, and it does, but it makes it into a grueling experience to say the least. Secondly, there is never a sense of a "home base" which means as a player you never really have a "rock" to centre your playing experience from. Instead you are swiftly rushed from place to place, quest to quest, and there is no breathing space for taking in your previous achievements or perhaps taking a break just to explore. The story progression is relentless to the point which it feels like you're being bullied. Because of these two issues I've rated this game quite low, because in my opinion, it is unplayable. Thank goodness for Final Fantasy Tactics A2 which addresses a lot of my concerns.

Memorable Moments

I played this on the train on the way to work in 2012 but gave up in preference of Final Fantasy Tactics A2.