Final Fantasy 3 – When the magic disappeared forever

Sports

Long ago, evil beings created powerful creatures called Espers and unleashed them on each other. The resulting battles left their world a smoking rubble. Legend has it that the Espers destroyed themselves and most of humanity. The magic was gone forever.

Centuries have passed and a rational world now exists with Espers living only in myth, until a solid one frozen from ancient wars is unearthed. Suddenly, there are reports of magical attacks on civilians. Imperial commandos launch raids using magical MagiTek weapons. Magic is obviously alive and the world is in danger again. Who or what is behind the rediscovery and redeployment of this legendary power? What chaotic plans exist that will wreak havoc on this orderly world?

Final Fantasy III is one of those that many consider the classics of the games of the RPG genre. Released as Final Fantasy III for the SNES in 1994, it is actually the sixth installment in the immensely popular Final Fantasy series produced by Squaresoft. The game takes place about 1,000 years after the end of a great war called “The War of Wizards” that wiped magic from the face of the world.

It is a typical turn-based RPG where the player is in control of over 15 playable characters, each with their own strengths and weaknesses and different fighting styles and stories to tell. The main character is a young half-human, half-esper who is trying to find her place in a war-torn world. The main villain of the story is one of the most colorful villains in the Final Fantasy series, a rather funny clown named Kefka.

Joining forces with him are a few other military-style villains with minor roles and even some NPCs who get involved. There are many plot twists including cut scenes involving characters that allow the player to get a “real time” feel to the story. Characters have “expressions” that, while very basic, convey the overall theme of each scene to the player. In my opinion, this game is perfect for the player who wants to see some of the best that the SNES had to offer in terms of role-playing games.

How to Play:

As for SNES games, there are only 1 or 2 games more fascinating than Final Fantasy III. All the elements that make the other games in the series fun are here. The player can rename all characters in the game, including ever-present summons (called Espers in FFIII).

There are a multitude of side quests in the game that range in difficulty from easy to hard in terms of time and involvement to complete, and the level of commitment required to complete the game can range anywhere from 25 hours. To finish the core story of the game, it can take up to 100 hours or so. This is if you want to get what’s called a “full” gaming experience, which means gathering all the most powerful weapons, armor, and magic, and also leveling up characters to max levels.

The only reason the game doesn’t get a 10 rating in this department is the fact that while leveling up characters isn’t a problem early and mid-game, once a character reaches higher levels (above 60) becomes a very tedious and time consuming process to level up the character that sometimes takes hours and hours to level up a character just one level. This I would say is the main common problem with RPGs of this era. But, if that kind of monotony doesn’t bother you, this game is for you.

Final Fantasy 3 characters offer a number of clever individual attacks. Each character has their own special talents and the player can choose to use each character’s talents or simply ignore them. An essential part of every Final Fantasy is magic, and this game is no exception. There are a multitude of magics available for the player to use, each learned by equipping certain espers.

The longer an esper is equipped, the more magic is gained from the esper and once the esper’s learning curve reaches 100%, all available magic is learned from that esper. Some magic can be learned from two to four Espers, while other magic can only be learned from a specific Esper. This causes Esper to use a conscious thought process. The player must plan their use of espers to learn the necessary spells.

Graphics:

Again, I’m comparing this to other SNES games. This game is 2-D. Plain and simple. It features a 3/4 bird’s-eye view 90% of the time and also features an overworld that has since been all but eliminated from most RPGs. The graphics were considered state-of-the-art back in 1994 when this game was released. There are rich color textures and very good use of the SNES Mode 7’s graphical capabilities in both scaling and rotation, especially showing when the characters use the airship for transportation.

As far as actual graphical representations go, the game is 2-D, so if you’re hoping to see walking, talking, fully rendered 3-D, you’re out of luck. In scenes where the graphics are made to inflate or close, they pixelate as they get larger. These issues aside, the graphics of its day, compared to other games at the time, were considered very advanced.

Sound quality:

This is where the game shines. The score is huge! Created by the world famous Nobuo Uematsu, there are at least 100 different songs in the game (including renditions of the theme song) and also includes a cutscene featuring one of the earliest examples of “singing” with voice in video games. The songs feature 128-note polyphony and a beautifully detailed musical story. Because the game’s dialogue is text-based, the music allows the player to engage on a more emotional level with this game and the characters than many other games at the time.

There is a great combination of deep basses, singing strings, and synth keyboards to keep the listener captivated and engaged throughout the game. There are very few songs that are less than five minutes long without repeating, so the player never gets the monotonous and boring feeling that usually accompanies SNES games.

Repeat value:

There are very few games that can sit on a shelf for years and then be picked up and played again with the same level of engagement and fun as Final Fantasy III. The game is just as much fun every other time as it was the first time. In fact, with all the side quests and obtainable items, weapons, armor, and magic, the game might be one of the most difficult RPGs made for the SNES to get “perfect” or 100 percent complete gameplay. There are always ways to increase the difficulty of the game and make each play a unique experience.

Concept:

Not exactly the most cutting-edge game, this game has the very familiar theme of “fight monsters and win levels before you fight the final boss and save the world.” While the action RPG player will find this game very repetitive, the turn based style RPG player will love it.

Having a female as the main character in the game is a concept that was not used much before Final Fantasy III. This seemed like a risky idea, but Square pulled it off without a hitch. Also, with all the other characters in the game, the stories unfold quite well for each character. This adds to the depth of the game as well as the concept of entertainment.

General:

If you are a fan of the Final Fantasy series, a collector of old games, or a person who is interested in getting involved in the series but is worried about the complexity of the newer Final Fantasy titles, this game is for you. Final Fantasy III is great for both the “old school” gamer and the “newbie”. It has a great story, a great sound and will take over your life for a few days if you let it. The characters are original, they have a lot of different abilities to use and they have emotions that make this game really cool to play.

The NPCs seem to have more of an impact on this game than most and the main characters are some of the most imaginative I’ve ever met. The cities are sprawling, the graphics are engaging, and the sound is rich and vibrant. The story unfolds well, and from the opening cutscene, most players are hooked. The enemies are varied and numerous and the bosses difficult but not impossible. I highly recommend this game to anyone who owns a SNES.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *