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 . 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 (...

Fire Emblem, one of the oldest tactical role-playing series, debuted in Japan in the spring of 1990. The series didn't come to the U.S. until 2003. Five years ago, Nintendo belatedly translated into English the first Famicom game, subtitled Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, and released it on the Switch to celebrate its 30th anniversary (though it was soon removed from the eShop). Now it celebrates its 35th anniversary! A tactical RPG is defined as an RPG that uses either grid- or hex-based combat after the style of tabletop wargames like Warhammer, Stratego, or chess. Instead of controlling a party of adventurers exploring dungeons and fighting monsters (a la Dungeons & Dragons), in tactical RPGs you control an army confronting other armies on a battlefield. You array your units strategically based on the terrain and enemy positions. You can't just select "fight" from a menu and then pick a target. Many factors must be accounted for, such as bottlenecks on b...