Final Fantasy III, released in Japan in 1990, didn't get a Western NES version. A complete prototype for FF2 was created but scrapped due to the release of the SNES. FF3 never even had a chance, which is a shame, because it's the best of the 8-bit Final Fantasy games! The Japanese Famicom Classic rightfully came with FF3 instead of our NES Classic's FF1.
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| Famicom cartridge |
Final Fantasy II changed the formula by scrapping XP and levels in favor of a skill-based system. It didn't work very well, so with Final Fantasy III, Square went back to the source. As in both prior games, four heroes go on various quests, explore sundry dungeons, and interact with diverse NPCs, some of whom even briefly follow the party. The big innovation of FF3 is that, instead of choosing a party of four heroes at the beginning, each of the four elemental crystals bestows new classes! You can switch any hero's class whenever you want by spending "capacity points" earned in battle (these were removed for the Pixel Remaster). There are a total of 22 classes, including the default onion knight (who can equip the ultra-rare onion equipment) and the overpowered ultimate classes, sage and ninja.
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| The Crystal's Chosen © Kotetsu Kinoshita & Wizards of the Coast |
This is the only FF game for which the Pixel Remaster makes big changes. Many of the classes have been improved and given new abilities. In the original, several classes were of limited use, to the point that the knight, black belt, white mage, and black mage were generally best for most of the game (although the dragoon and dark knight are also reasonable fighters).
FF3 introduced the beloved fat chocobo. Fans of the American Final Fantasy II (that is, FF4) may remember sometimes "smelling chocobo in the air," then using a "carrot" (= Gysahl greens) to make him appear. Fat chocobo stores extra items in his enormous stomach. At the time, this feature was desperately needed, as FF2 had a tiny inventory. The party's inventory is unlimited in the Pixel Remasters, but fat chocobo has been kept around for fun.
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| The Wind Crystal © Minoru & Wizards of the Coast |
Wind Crystal
When the game begins, a portentous earthquake causes four orphans to fall into a cave, where they encounter the Wind Crystal. It calls them the Warriors of Light and, lending them the strength of its light, it gives them access to five classes ("jobs"): warrior (which in FF1 was originally translated "fighter"), black mage, white mage, red mage, and monk (originally called "black belt"). All of these classes work the same as in the original Final Fantasy.
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| The Fire Crystal © TSUKKU & Wizards of the Coast |
Fire Crystal
After some initial shenanigans with a djinn, the Warriors of Light enter an underground dwarf town (lali-ho!), and a thief steals their horn of ice, which he plans to use to obtain the power of the Fire Crystal. Upon defeating him, said crystal blesses the orphans with the thief, knight, ranger, and scholar classes.
Unlike the thief in FF1, this thief can steal potions and hi-potions from enemies! The thief also has the escape command, which always lets the party flee non-boss fights. FF1's thief was supposed to help flee battles, but the ability was glitched. Lastly, thieves can unlock locked doors without using keys. Unlike any other FF game, FF3 has purchasable keys a la Dragon Warrior.
The knight was the upgraded form of the warrior in FF1, which also holds here. However, instead of being able to cast low-level white magic, he has the cover ability, which lets him block attacks made against allies. FF4 fans will recognize this as the innate ability of the paladin form of Cecil. The knight is very strong.
The ranger (or "hunter" in Japanese) looks like Robin Hood, complete with bow and arrow. On the Famicom, they could cast low-level white magic (like FF1's knight). The Pixel Remaster replaces this with the barrage command from FF5: four arrows are shot at random targets, each dealing half damage. This is strong, and the ranger has the advantage of being in the back row (receiving half damage), so they are not a bad option.
The scholar equips books that, strangely, they use to physically hit the enemy! If the enemy is weak to that book's element, it does a lot of damage. Scholars can also scan enemies, identifying their elemental weakness. This is helpful for defeating the boss Hein, who keeps changing his "barrier." (It's also the origin of FF4 Cid's study [aka peep] ability.) In the original game, scan was split into two abilities: "scan" revealed the weakness while "study" revealed remaining HP. To buff the scholar, the Pixel Remaster also doubles how much HP is recovered whenever they use a potion or hi-potion (an ability taken from FF5's chemist).
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| The Water Crystal © Makura Tami & Wizards of the Coast |
Water Crystal
Eventually the party uses Cid's airship to leave their land, which, it turns out, is a flying continent created by ancient technology based on the Wind Crystal. The world below is almost completely flooded due to the earthquake messing up the Water Crystal. The party undoes the flood (somehow everyone was kept alive in a frozen state) by defeating Kraken (the water fiend from FF1!). The crystal then bestows a whole mess of new jobs: dragoon, black belt, viking, evoker, bard, geomancer, and dark knight.
For us Americans, the first dragoon was Kain, whereas for the Japanese it was Ricard from FF2. But in FF3 for the first time the dragoon has its signature jump ability. By soaring into the air for a turn, the dragoon is safe from attacks. They land the next turn, dealing double damage. Dragoon use spears and special dragon armor. The Pixel Remaster adds the thunder spear for sale in Amur, so you can begin using a dragoon immediately!
The English name "black belt" is taken from FF1's localization of "monk," which was dictated by Nintendo of America's censorship policy. At the time they feared religious terms and imagery could cause controversy, a result of the 1980's "Satanic panic" over D&D. Nevertheless, the black belt class (karateka in Japanese) is unique to FF3. It's an upgraded monk (similar to the upgraded "master" of FF1), but they can also equip a claw weapon on each fist. In addition, black belts have the boost command, which stores up power for their next attack. If you use boost three times in a row, however, it backfires, causing self-damage. I've done this several times due to inattention! Boost is useful in the Cave of Shadows, because the enemies there divide in two whenever they survive a hit. In FF4, Yang has the boost ability (though it was removed from the American version). The Pixel Remaster even gives black belts Yang's kick ability, making a powerful job even stronger. I highly recommend making one of your Warriors of Light a black belt.
The viking is also unique to FF3. Vikings have high stamina, so they take little damage from physical attacks. They wield lightning axes (a reference to Thor). The problem is that the best defense is a good offense: you were better off using the knight and/or black belt because they are better fighters. This is why the Pixel Remaster buffs the viking with the draw attacks command. When it succeeds, it forces enemies to attack the viking. You can even put the viking in the back row and/or equip him with two shields! Thor's Hammer can be used to cast Thundara, enabling the viking to deal damage in such a setup. This is an effective strategy for the Pixel Remaster, especially if you play the game at 0.5x boost (like I did), which makes random encounters more dangerous and deadly.
FF3 introduces summoning, which has become a signature of the franchise. The evoker is the base version; the Earth Crystal bestows the upgraded summoner. You buy summon spells in a magic shop in Replito. Each spell has two possible effects (50%-50%). Escape summons a chocobo, who either removes the party from battle or misses a kick attack. Icen summons Shiva, who either puts the enemies to sleep or deals ice damage to one enemy. Spark summons Ramuh, who paralyzes the enemies or inflicts lightning damage. Heatra summons Ifrit, who either heals the whole party or does fire damage. Hyper summons Titan, who either deals earth damage to or kicks one enemy.
The bard also joins the series with FF3. In the Famicom version, the bard was bad. Although they have the sing command, it's just a renamed fight; there are no actual songs. To make matters worse, the game had only three harps (and Amur didn't even sell the Madhura harp, so switching to a bard right away was pointless). Further, the lamia harp was glitched, having 0 power and not inflicting the confused status effect. The bard's sole boast was a unique ability, odokasu (threaten or menace): it could make low-level enemies flee (like the fear spell from FF1 and FF2). To make the bard not terrible, the Pixel Remaster removes this ability and gives the bard four songs to learn at certain job levels: paeon, minuet, elegy, and requiem. (These are borrowed from the 2006 3D Remake for the DS, although in that game they were tied to certain harps.) Paeon heals all allies, so the bard can be useful now.
The geomancer is a fun alternative to a black mage. They fight using bells, but there's no reason ever to do this—not just because a bell isn't an effective weapon but because they have the terrain command. This doesn't use spell slots, so you can use it every turn. It causes a magical attack against a random enemy, based on the background type, e.g., in a cave it's an earthquake, in a forest it's "air blade," in a swamp it's a sinkhole. In the original game, terrain sometimes backfires, causing self-damage, but this downside was removed from the Pixel Remaster. The geomancer is a fine choice until the last crystal.
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| Dividing enemies can be deadly, especially when you get attacked from behind! |
Finally, the dark knight has been heavily altered for the Pixel Remaster. In the Famicom version, it wasn't even a dark knight: it was a makenshi: "magic swordsman." Like knights in FF1, they could cast low-level white (!) magic. What made them "dark" was their ability to wield "the dark blade," including the legendary Masamune. Dark blades prevent enemies from dividing. The Cave of Shadows is full of dividing foes, making dark knights an excellent choice. Cecil of FF4 looks like the dark knights here, and both wielded dark blades (though the FF3 dark swords actually became Edge's ninja weapons). The Pixel Remaster makes the class conform to Cecil by giving it his darkness attack, though under the name "bladeblitz" (or "full slash" in Japanese).
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| The Earth Crystal © Kei Satsuki & Wizards of the Coast |
Earth Crystal
Cid's airship is chained up in the port of Amur by Goldor, a man obsessed with gold who supposedly has the Earth Crystal. His castle contains a number of gold swords, which should be sold to raise a lot of gil. Upon defeat, Goldor destroys his crystal! But it turns out to be a fake. Almost as soon as the airship is liberated, it gets blown up while flying over the metropolis of Saronia! Saronia is so big that it's split into four separate towns. A small tower contains equipment to outfit four dragoons. This is fortunate since they are essential to defeating the bird Garuda. He has taken a human form to mind-control Saronia's king.
The king rewards the Warriors of Light with a submarine. With this you can find the sage Doga, who explains that the world's troubles are caused by Xande, a fellow sage who wants revenge for having received the gift of mortality. The party must find Noah's lute to wake the third mage, Unei, who has the gift of dreams. Doga helps you unearth a humongous ancient airship, the Invincible, which contains a bed, vending machines (spells, items, weapons, and armor), and fat chocobo. With this ship, you can cross mountains, enabling you to access the town of Falgabard, where you can finally get gear for dark knights.
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| Xande, Dark Mage © Joseph Weston & Wizards of the Coast |
With the Invincible, the party can obtain the last of the elemental horns and thus bypass four ancient guardian-statues to reach the final dungeons. Incidentally, if you try to walk past a guardian-statue without the requisite horn, you get an instant Game Over! After navigating the Ancient Maze, you enter the Crystal Tower, where you can immediately challenge Titan. This allows the real Earth Crystal to bless you with the three upgraded magic-using jobs: devout (equivalent to what FF1 called "white wizard"), magus (FF1's "black wizard"), and summoner is the upgraded evoker. These jobs have far more spell slots (the game uses the same "Vancian" spell-slot system as D&D and FF1), including eventually level-8 spells like Holy, Arise, Flare, Meteor, and Bahamut. The most powerful summon spells, Leviathan, Odin, and Bahamut, are learned by finding and defeating that summon.
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| The Darkness Crystal © Kei Satsuki & Wizards of the Coast |
Crystals of Darkness
The final sequence of dungeons in FF3 is infamously difficult. Once you beat Xande and enter the World of Darkness, you can't exit by any means. Even if you retreat before confronting Xande, the party must trudge all the way back down the tower, then backtrack through the maze back to the airship!
Before attempting the World of Darkness, it's imperative to enter the "optional" Eureka zone, where the world's most powerful weapons are sealed away. Each is guarded by a boss. The moonring blade is a powerful boomerang, which only ninjas (see below) can wield. The omnirod is for magi and summoners: it ups intelligence by 10. The best dark blade, Masamune, grants +10 agility. Equally powerful is Excalibur, which knights and red mages can wield, giving +5 to all stats. The elder staff is for devouts, increasing mind by 6 points and casting Cura when used as an item. Finally, Ragnarok joins the series for the first time, surpassing the classic Excalibur and Masamune. It also gives a 5-point bonus to all stats and can be equipped by both knights and dark knights. The game doesn't expect the player to continue using vikings, bards, geomancers, or black belts, who don't receive ultimate weapons.
When you defeat the boss Scylla, in addition to the elder staff, you receive two last jobs: sage and ninja. Ninja is the ultimate fighting-man, superior to all others. The sage likewise is superior to magi, devouts, and summoners, able to use any magic. I kind of like how these classes replace all others at the end: it feels powerful and consistent with how games were designed in the 80's. The 3D Remake nerfs both classes and puts them with the Earth Crystal classes. However, I'm glad the Pixel Remaster, even with its extensive adjustments, kept the sage and ninja unchanged. Actually, they did make one change to the ninja: instead of equipping and attacking with the shuriken (which then is expended), ninjas were given a throw command. You can buy additional shurikens (a few are found in chests) for 65,500 gil each at the bottom of Eureka. I recommend having at least eight, for two ninjas to chuck at the Cloud of Darkness. You can also buy level-8 spells as well as additional copies of the Odin, Leviathan, and Bahamut summons.
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| Cloud of Darkness © Fariba Khamseh & Wizards of the Coast |
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| Phoenix Down © John Severin Brassell & Wizards of the Coast |
There's another big concession some players may not appreciate: in the original game (and the 3D Remake!), shops don't sell phoenix downs. They are only in treasure chests, making each precious. I find this surprising, as they are sold even in the original FF2 (albeit for 5000 gil). As tough as FF2 was, Square apparently wanted to make FF3 even deadlier. In its original form, it's easily the hardest FF game. In the Pixel Remaster, phoenix downs can be bought at any shop for a mere 1000 gil. The cost of hi-potions was also cut in half to 600 gil. Surprisingly, the Pixel Remaster doesn't add ethers, even though the FF1 Remaster does (restoring a certain number of spells)!
Conclusion
Final Fantasy III is the best of the 8-bit Final Fantasy games. It's similar to FF1, with the job system and the crystals, but much more robust. It's about the same length (15-20 hours). The graphics are great, and the soundtrack by Nobuo Uematsu is, as always, top-notch. The Pixel Remaster is the definitive way to play FF3, especially with the job improvements. (A fan translation of the Famicom game has been available since 1999, which I've also played). The 3D Remake is great, too. It makes many more updates to the game: for example, each Warrior of Light has their own name and personality, and the tag-along NPCs sometimes act in battle. I beat it a couple times on my DS, though I prefer the Pixel Remaster now for its nostalgic feel.
It's taken me almost four years (when the Pixel Remasters appeared), but I have now reviewed all six classic Final Fantasy games, plus Final Fantasy Adventure. Soon I would like to tackle the Final Fantasy Legend trilogy on Game Boy!
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| Grade: A |
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| Famicom title screen |
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