Final Fantasy III Famicom

DISCLAIMER: The following is a copy-pasted review from my Backloggd account, transferred as-is so that this blog has some entries available

Since I had already went over some of the inner meat within Final Fantasy III in my DS review, a large portion of this log will instead be covering the various differences that had made in regards to the original, along with any other tidbits I never had a chance to cover before. As a result, I recommend reading that first before this one, especially since I’m referring to my Orphans Of Light team by their ‘new canon’ names Luneth, Arc, Refia, and Ignus like before. Oh, and since she was pretty much the main reason I started playing this to begin with, I’m also throwing a suggestion on Angel Arle’s review as well.

The immediate wrinkle between the two is how it starts: while Fami3 has the quartet already in tow as you excavate the Altar Cave, IIID instead starts with Luneth as you work your way through the prologue to get the band together, in which the Wind Crystal exposits its spiel and you get the cutscene with the Main Theme playing off. While the former’s quick thrust works, I do appreciate the added scale factor of the latter, to the point I actually prefer how it plays out. FF3 isn’t the most involved plot in the series, granted, but its culmination of the implicit, mechanical drawl of the first game and the (melo)dramatic gravatas of the second did help pave for the series going forward, and some of that has been bolstered thanks to the change of framing in the remake. It also makes for a funny quirk regarding the left-behind staring airship, since Princess Sara in the original transported you over to the Castle, while the Wind Crystal has summoned the team back into its lair. On that note, the treatment of the Guest party members has also been strengthened in the remake, now treated as actual people that can provide backup a la supporting or offensive means, instead of being a glorified Hint Machine at the press of a button - not that it matters too much given the reduced measure of the narrative’s involvement regarding these circulating VIPs, but at least they feel like something now more than ever. Still, there’s some framing changes that I find doesn’t coalesce as nicely in the remake. The Floating Continent exit is probably my big example of this: in there, it had a big extended cutscene about a tribulation the quartet was facing due to the harsh winds of the darkness. It sounds fine in theory, but a lot of the added dialog in it somewhat cuts into the tension by just… being there without much substance attached. Would’ve been just fine where, once the gang finally burst through the turbulence, it just played their dialog there as you stare across the land of nothingness. At least the muted color palette and voided ground are nice touches. The original made it a grand deal by hardcutting straight into it, as soon as you steered the Enterprise towards any of the edges on the map, presenting the surface as nothing but a vast ocean. It also contains the top of the Crystal Tower piercing the ocean floor, giving a foreboding and ominous stature of what had wrought the calamity state to begin with. A dichotomy between showing or telling, I suppose.

While I’m at it, effectively playing this twice did get me to iron out a lot of my interpretation regarding the scant writing available on offer. Namely, that of morality and the correlating essence of being. I swear most of what I’m about to say was from my own viewing, but I’ll admit there were a couple of sections from Andrew Bluett’s video retrospection he thankfully shared in the description, as well as other curious DuckDuckGo searches, that taught me more about the development than before - mainly, a sourced article where Sakaguchi had shared that his mother’s death in a house fire during development of the game, which in turn got him to think about life in the logistical and mathematical senses. This is a rather common theming ground the franchise explores within and outside his lineage (this is especially true since he noted it was at the forefront of FF7’s development), so it was rather surreal to learn that the crux of 3’s narrative not only served as the spark for future endeavors, but also highlights its incorporation into other facets: all of the Guests are within a specific point of a life’s turnover emboldens the ‘point’ of being - encapsulating with Aria, the sacrificial piety, being the first character to have a dedicated theme, and Prince Alus usurping the throne so soon after demise of his father due to Garuda’s dominating control; the numerous (minor) villains intaking their lust for power disparaging the common busybodies of the folks within a surrounding area, all stemming from Xande’s insecurity and brash misunderstanding from Great Sage Noah’s gift of mortality and subsidizing the world (and, in irony, his self-preservation) as a result; hell, the first instance of the Void was here, as Cloud Of Darkness says outright it wants to reduce the world into a state of nothingness. In metaphorical and mechanical implementations, it’s quite fitting the Onion Knight is the emblem of 3, since designer Koichi Ishii had stated that he gave the design an infantile look which director Hiromishi Tanaka pointed out that it “looked like an onion”, its introduction as the four Light Warriors’ Job reflecting their inception as orphans accustoming themselves to save the world, and the Job itself being weaponized as a dedication ordeal where it boasts the highest stats and best equipment should the player opt to take it there. It’s not a whole lot going on - doubly so for the remake since Tanaka had shared that his phoning for Sakaguchi made him and his team settle on not changing too much - but given that this was a late-release NES/Famicom title, there’s a lot of moving parts stylistically that undeniably helped carve a path for Square moving forward, something I think is largely undermentioned due to both this game’s scarcity until the 2006 remake, as well as Final Fantasy 4’s release in the West being given a stronger limelight.

As for the systems themselves, I’m not really sure there’s a whole lot I can go over. Majorly speaking, there’s rather minute differences between Jobs and dungeons (once again saving Crystal Tower for later…) that I don’t end up leaning one way or another in terms of preferences too strongly, if at all. Not to say they don’t exist at all, however, so this will mainly cover those in broad strokes. Capacity Points, this game’s way of handling Job changes, I do think does a better job of incentivizing experimentation without going overboard about it unlike the Adjustment Phase, largely thanks to how gradual the buildup of the points becomes after battle gets further on. This becomes more notable when seeing there’s still that ‘hidden compatibility’ layer for each one to either boost or reduce the cost, the max amount you can have in stock is 255, and there not being a “growth period” where your stats are halved until a set number of battles. As for which ones I ended up preferring in their initial incarnations, I’d say Ranger, Black Mages, and even the Dark Mystic Knights are more fulfilling to utilize here, since the former gets their usual good kit (albeit with only Elemental Arrows as ones to purchase until endgame) alongside LV1-3 White Magic, damaging spells are much more worthwhile and handy here than they become in the rework for the middle, and the latter also get White Magic to be more of an in-between of the offensive and defensive warrior types that you unlock with the Water Crystal. Speaking of, I uh, can see why they moved the Black Belt from it to Earth, cause making Ignus that the moment it became available meant he was not only the bulkiest member by a good bit physically, he was able to be much, much better in combat where others needed a bit of a leg to stand on thanks to their usual CQC habits becoming better the more (Job) levels that accrue. This also goes for the nerfing of Sages and Ninjas as well, since they outclass almost every predecessor alongside being able to wield their attire too, though even then doubling up on the two jobs is severely overkill regardless. Scholars, Red Mages, Thieves, and especially Bards, meanwhile, I ended up much preferring their overhauled forms. Scholars and Thieves are way too niche case here to be perma-stays, Red Mages’ jack of trades tendency is much too aggressive for my liking that I felt like I was limiting myself more than even the first game was doing, and the latter is less of a Swiss Army Knife of support tactility, and a mediocre liability that can only reliably give out ATK buffs a la Cheer than anything more. Much like before, there’s a lot of stuff going on under the hood thanks to JLVs and how you increase them, so I recommend instructrtrepe’s GameFAQs page to learn more about that - just know that, while still useful, they’re not as important to get a grasp of compared to the remake’s especially since I felt like I was gaining more of those naturally by comparison.

Dungeon layouts are nearly 1:1 until you reach Cave Of The Circle… which, even then, became more about simplifying or outright removing floors than anything else, to the point it only made one dungeon a lot better and another a lot worse. So, the deviations that occur until then are small stuff like extending the damage floor gimmick in Molten Cave from the waterfall to every flame-riddled tile, or removing that entirely in Temple Of Time’s waterfalls, or how Hein’s Castle is given a free HP/MP restoration spot in the remake. Really, the major discrepancy between the two until then are how battles are organized. I had mentioned in my review of the remake that you typically only fight 2-3 enemies there, with a single large enemy taking up the “space” for anyone else. While that single enemy thing is still true here, the amount of common mooks you can face are doubled, meaning that nasty hurdles such as the Pharaoh and Lamia’s Glares impeding turn and survivability becomes a lot tricker to manage when you face two of them now amongst other enemy types. I will admit, though, that this did end up pulling myself together and stop relying on tactics that worked in the remake, since… well, this one’s under a different operation for obvious reasons, lol. The Giant Rat, a comfortable yet nonetheless tricky foe in the remake, ended up putting me on edge, which certainly threw me for a loop; I had foolishly thought that Libra worked as it did here - that being, telling the HP and weakness - until I realized that no, I did end up needing the Scholar’s Study ability against Hein after all, unless I want to get super lucky with my physical fighters landing hits against his high Evasion; Garuda can still be bested without using a squad of Dragoons, but it was a process to keep everyone alive this time around, though I’ll admit it was rather vindicating to see someone do so with just great use of some WMs, a Bard, and a Black Belt. As for what the level differences are like, I want to say that, at an estimate, the remake “heightened” the check by a good 1.1-1.5x. I used Odin, who you need to beat at LV40 in the remake, as my basis, since I checked with Angel Arle who entered the Saronian Catacombs at LV26, while I finished it at LV30, and neither of us had too much trouble against him. After double checking and reminiscing each fight there thanks to Sir_Bahamut’s Boss/Monster FAQ, who recommended the 26-28 range, it feels as if I’m right on target. As I had mentioned, I didn’t sway to Fami3 or IIID too heavily, since both had their strengths and weaknesses that balanced each other pretty nicely… until I realized and spun my head around a detail so crucial, it single handedly became the deciding factor: boss design, or more specifically, the second half of it.

See, I never really went over the finer marks of IIID’s bosses, since there wasn’t really a lot that stuck out. I don’t mean that derogatorily, there were only a small handful that I thought was rather underwhelming with everyone else ranging from pretty good to great. Not so this time, since once you reach Medusa, boss quality starts to deteriorate slowly but surely. Medusa just constantly spams Break, a move that can’t even connect due to extremely low hit chances, so she becomes a massive pushover. Mind you, this was before the remake allowed bosses to do more than one attack per turn, so the chances of her breaking the cycle and bitchslapping you in return are so pitifully low that it might as well be nonexistent. In fact, rarely are there any bosses afterward who’s whole thing is just Throwing A Punch, so it makes guys like Goldor, Hecatoncheir, and Titan a breath of fresh air amidst the constant AOE Spell Wave Spam that makes up the following fights til then. I don’t necessarily mind when an RPG tends to favor one side of the (elemental) affinity pool for a particular stretch in their bosses, but when I’m kneedeep into it and I see yet another boss with a gimmick that my party makeup can do just fine like before, it starts to feel as if I’m watching someone repeat their shared belongings. In fact, I’m starting to believe this is the sole reason Crystal Tower even has the infamous reputation it has to begin with too. Like before, I set out to do every optional sidequest that’s available, alongside some extra prep work within and outside Eureka for Luneth’s Sage role after a botched first attempt, and I theorize starting it at LV43-45 is more than enough to handle the trek. I said you don’t need to do the 2 Sages and 2 Ninjas outline, and before I finished this for myself, user qlip had showed you don’t even need those jobs at all if you’re prepared and ready enough. Hell, even after buying some, I didn’t even end up using Shurikens for any of the final set of bosses! But, I can totally understand why people opt for the easy way, because when I tried it for myself, this is what ended up happening:

I face Xande, and see that he operates on a set pattern where he does an AOE move after Libra. I had my Devout and Sage cast Haste on my Black Belt and Ninja, then had them heal every turn, casting another Haste on any available downtime. I face Cerberus, and see that it does a Lightning AOE spam for pitiful damage, with some physicals here and there. I had my Devout and Sage cast Haste on my BB and Ninja, had the Devout heal every turn, and mostly had my Sage use Bahamut. I face Echidna, and see that it does AOE spam building up from moderate to huge damage. I had my Devout and Sage cast Haste on my BB and Ninja, then had them heal every turn, casting another Haste on any available downtime. So on for the 2-Headed Dragon (who I’ll concede in praising for doing SOMETHING other than AOE Spamming), so on for Ahriman, and so on for Cloud Of Darkness itself. I could’ve swapped Luneth back into a Dragoon and make things easier, since the Job’s Jump ability combined with Blood Lance meant that it could effectively tank its way to victory. I could’ve also given him Protect to soften up each damage, since Arc and Ignus already do decently enough at this point anyway. Whatever the case, this is what ended up happening, and it felt as if the game’s entire lock and key puzzle aspect deteriorated into only having One Way to beat it, unless you got either really lucky or committed too heavily to The Grind to try another solution. The only time my strategy became different was against Xande’s Clones, due to them being susceptible to status spells like Teleport, Warp, Shade, etc etc, which meant that I was instead doing this to them. I will admit, that is funny and refreshing. Oh, and the reason Crystal Tower is as it was? Well I was completely wrong about no save points being the intent - turns out, part-time debugger and still active Square worker Toshiaki Suzuki - or perhaps Hisashi Suzuki, both Tanaka and Sakaguchi gave different names regarding this - had complained about it being “too easy”, so Sakaguchi pretty much went “alright” and got rid of a mid-save point as a result. Early Final Fantasy titles have some of the most innocuous yet hilarious details about infamous aspects, I swear.

But, yea. Despite having some gripes with IIID’s boss design still, the alterations made both in behavior and even some added touches in their movepools made those fights a lot more exciting, while also not at all compromising the game’s core design too much and making sure any glove fits any solution. It’s also telling that, despite immediately writing up a review for that version the moment I had finished the credits, it took two whole days of pondering and procrastinating to actually sit down and write about this one. It blows how this game does so much right, even in ways that others either handwave or never notice, and stumbles severely right at the finish line that it stinks up the package in a way that’s hard to avoid. Still though, I’m at least glad I got to try this out. I don’t think any positives I’ve listed have gone away, and as I mentioned, this is the first big stepping stone for what the series ends up doing later down the line that makes it worth experiencing at least once. Hell, considering IIID is still somewhat controversial due to its skill barrier being something you have to grasp more strongly, I can understand opting for this version instead for a somber, quicker session plugger.

Additional Notes:

• The translation patch I used was Chaos Rush’s from 2019, due to its recency giving way for a more accurate telling of the tale. It went pretty well, but there’s some typos, some awkward ‘text crunch’ (as in, a word doesn’t carry over to the next line as a hyphen and is thus stopped entirely), and I experienced a few cases where empty text boxes showed up after completing dialog. Nothing too damaging, but just sorta perplexing it hasn’t been updated in so long despite the glares.
• I had thought about doing this, and luckily I found out there was a Job tiermaker for OG FF3 and Remake FF3. As a result, I ended up participating in sharing my thoughts about each!
• Nasir Gebelli is on top of his programming game here, without a doubt. I’m not quite as knowledgeable about the tech and inner workings of NES RPGs compared to later console releases, but even I can tell this is a beast of a release by the time it came out. Dude deserves so much stronger recognition in the gaming zeitgeist, especially since Square staff seem to love the dude to bits if they had to follow him to America when his visas had expired!