The Final Fantasy series of video games needs little introduction. It is what kept Squaresoft afloat. It spawned a legacy of devoted fans, cosplayers, rich worlds, and incredible contributions to the genre of video game music. My first Final Fantasy game was VII, on the original PlayStation, and I didn't really understand what an RPG game was at that point.
All I know is that it was phenomenally vast, ambitious and enormous. I wasn't aware of what had come before until much later in my life.
Now is a time that is much later in my life, and I've got some historical Final Fantasy III to play. This is obviously the PC version - but its a port of the DS Remake that refreshed the original title, released way back in 1997, before I even started going to school.
Final Fantasy III, unlike its predecessors, is more linear - and has a robust system of jobs for your characters to fulfill. You have complete flexibility to kit out any character however you see fit, and the charming thing about this is that all the little details change along the way - their costumes, what weapons they hold in hand in combat, and their effectiveness against certain types of foe.
FFIII introduces you to the world of crystals very early, which is an ongoing motif in a vast number of FF games. In FFIII, our main character, Luneth, quickly learns that he is one of the four warriors of light. Their task? To stop the spread of darkness throughout the world, and restore balance. Games later in the series would take this to another level, such as Crystal Chronicles.
With this knowledge in tow, an epic quest that spans quite literally the entire world map begins. You travel across it on foot, in an airship (yes, Final Fantasy tragics, Cid makes an appearence) - and even get to explore the underwater caves of the world, all along the way fighting various monsters, obtaining XP, getting more proficient at your job (your class) and getting gil to buy items, find armour upgrades, and enhance the potency of magic.
The difficulty curve of the game is such that some grinding is required, but the PC version has fast battles enabled, so you don't need to select each option in every single battle. There's one complaint about the game that I have - is that there's no save points in dungeons, or before boss fights, so if you have the unfortunate outcome of not being strong enough for a boss fight, and you were lucky enough to remember to save before the dungeon - then, well, you might have to do the dungeon again.
If you're unlucky, particulary towards the end of the game, where save points are sparse (and excursions to the world map are rarer) - then you may have to replay (and regrind) through hours of content, which is particularly frustrating for a game that promises around 30 hours of gameplay for the typical punter.
The story progresses at a reasonable pace, and it keeps you interested enough to keep playing - even though a lot of the playing is grinding so that you can keep up with the stronger and newer enemies that are thrown your way as you delve deeper into the various intruige along the way.
The remaster of the DS version is filled with charm - as is the whole game world. Final Fantasy III is an incredibly wholesome experience, and an excellent gateway drug into the Final Fantasy universe. Everything is here - magic, airships, crystals, chocobos, gil, and weapons that make repeated appearances in the game series later on.
The music is mastered rather well - but ultimately, its still just a midi-soundtrack with some more definition. Its definitely not as excellent as the amazing music of FF7 Remake, but the talent of Final Fantasy's composer is on display no matter what the scenario.
I'm excited to now move to the next game in the series (which has a new world each time round) - FFIV, and see how many more hours I can lose to that.