Final Fantasy III Reviews

• Complete the Final Fantasy Collection

  
  By A29BQ6B90Y1R5F on 2006-11-15
  After sixteen long years, Final Fantasy III finally sees an official release outside of Japan. However, unlike previous games, Final Fantasy III has been completely reworked. This is more than just a port with enhanced graphics. Final Fantasy III includes some new secrets and side quests in addition to its graphical overhaul. Final Fantasy III may be just about enough to please some hardcore fans, but was the wait really worth it? Well, yes, but the game isn't perfect.
  
  The storyline of Final Fantasy III is entirely too simple. The crystals are losing their powers and there are only four warriors that can come forth and save the world from falling into darkness. Sixteen years ago this was a pretty standard story, but when compared to your average RPG today, and current Final Fantasy games, the storyline to Final Fantasy III is a joke. There's nothing in this story that screams epic, and the characters involved aren't developed very well. Luckily, we can let it slide because its sixteen years old.
  
  Gameplay wise, Final Fantasy III is pretty similar to most RPGs of today. You'll go roaming through dungeons and towns getting into random battles. There are a few quirks to the game that the DS utilizes. You'll find moments where you'll have to zoom into certain objects for you to examine. It should also be noted that you can use the touch screen almost exclusively in the game. Using the stylus you can make your character run in the direction you want him to, by gliding it across the screen. Taping on things makes your character examine it, and ultimately this is how you open chests and talk to people. It works out, but it feels really clumbsy at times. If you're looking to get through a dungeon with little hassle, just stick to the directional buttons. To its credit, though, using the stylus makes menu navigation much faster, but for the most part, the stylus controls just feel tacked on.
  
  Combat is traditional turn based combat. There's no ATB gauge like in later Final Fantasy games. In each round you will choose all the commands for your characters to do, and then watch a round of battle take place. It's simple, but isn't always fun. Mainly because Final Fantasy III is a challenge. If you began with some of the later Final Fantasy games, then this installment may be a little too difficult. Sometimes combat is unforgiving, especially when faced with bosses that attack twice per turn, and have the power to take out a character in a single shot. Even worse, the encounter rate is pretty high and running away from battle is often a wasted effort because you'll fail so many times trying to do so. You'll probably get wiped out just trying to run from battle and failing so many times. There are several moments when you'll be forced to battle for hours just leveling up. This is fine for those used to old school RPGs, but many RPGs of today do not put so much emphasis on leveling up, and it may try your patience after a while. It's great for people looking for a challenge, at least, but for some it may be a bit too steep.
  
  The job system is interesting. As you go through the game you'll get crystal shards that allow your characters to use certain jobs. Each job has its own set of abilities that can be learned with it. For example, White mages specialize in the healing arts, black mages in attack magic and red mages can do a little bit of both. You've also got other classes like warriors who can take damage for other party members, thieves who can steal and much more. There are 23 jobs in all. The jobs you choose for your characters also have an impact on your stats. Mages, for example, don't have a lot of strength but they excel in magic. Also, as you gain levels, you'll also gain job levels. So it's not only important to make sure your characters are at a good level, but also at a good job level.
  
  There is a slight problem with the job system however. It isn't nearly as varied as it could be. As you go through the game you'll gain more and more jobs that ultimately replace the older ones. In the beginning you'll get a Blackmage; as you progress you'll get a Sage, who is capable of doing everything a Blackmage can do. Thus, later in the game, many job classes become obsolete. It's really hard to compliment the games variety when later on many job classes are more of the same thing. So while the job system is interesting, later games such as Final Fantasy V execute it much better and with more variety.
  
  The game looks absolutely stunning, at least for the Nintendo DS. It is by far one of the best looking out there. There are some moments where it looks pixilated, but you can't deny that the game just looks good regardless. The movie sequences are also really pretty to look at and they run surprisingly well. In battle is also fantastic. Your enemies sport some amazing detail and so do the backgrounds in battle. On the whole, the game just looks good. Perhaps the only fault of the graphics is how restricted the animation of characters and enemies are in combat. Your characters won't physically go up and strike an enemy. Rather they just step forward and swing. Very similar to how the Final Fantasy games of the NES worked. It's strange to see, but you'll quickly get used to it.
  
  Another thing that seems kind of strange, though, is that the top screen throughout most of the game remains blank. All the action takes place on the bottom screen. There are few moments when the top screen actually displays anything. You'll see the world map as you travel the overworld and while you're in towns. There are certain moments where the top screen has text, or shows an important story sequence, but that's usually about it. Other than that, when trumping through dungeons (as you do often) and in battle (as you also do often) the top screen remains blank. There's nothing wrong with it, but it feels very awkward to play a Nintendo DS game where the top screen is blank. They could've used it to display dungeon maps or enemy information or something. The top screen has no impact on gameplay whatsoever.
  
  The music in the game is pretty good, though. It's not as good as other games in the series, and there are some tunes that just aren't great, but the music is by no means bad. There's no voice acting in the game, really, but we can let that slide. Audio wise, the game is good.
  
  Final Fantasy III is a pretty satisfying experience for any Final Fantasy fan looking for a good challenge, and to see how far the series has come. However, it may also shed a little too much of its old school charm in some areas, particularly its unforgiving challenge. Still, it's worth it for Final Fantasy fans who want to see just how far the series has come.
  
  The Good
  
  +Finally a chance to play Final Fantasy III
  +Great visual look
  +Good music
  +The job system is interesting
  +It provides a good challenge
  +A fair amount of secrets and sidequests
  
  The Bad
  
  -The story is not all that great
  -For some the game might provide too much of a challenge, to the point of frustration
  -High random encounter rate
  -The job system is interesting, but there's not nearly as much vareity as one might expect from it
  -Throughout most of your adventure the top screen is just... blank... for a Nintendo DS game this just feels awkward
  
  

• Final Fantasy III.......Old School but well worth it.......

  
  By A3GKMQFL05Z79K on 2006-11-19
  I honestly don't see why Square Enix hasn't thought of doing this to all their older Final Fantasy games, really. It would definitely appeal to the newer Final Fantasy audiences who's grownup on all the 3-D games(all the while, giving them a good history lesson on the FF games) yet appeal to us older Final Fantasy fans with its' old school style. I liked it better when the stories were simpler to follow. That's not to say I dislike the newer Final Fantasy games, though. Things change through the years as do I and I love those games just as much.
  
  The game starts off with you(Luneth) assembling a team of heroes(Arc, Refia, and Ingus) to restore balance to the world. To do this, you must choose jobs(23 in all) to help aid you in your quest. Every battle you play through will add to each of the character's job level so you'll want to use thought in building not only your characters main level, but also their job proficiency as well. Although Final Fantasy III is a Very challenging game, it's also an entertaining one. I wish the Nintendo DS had more RPGs done in this style. I simply couldn't get enough of the game and kept on finding myself fighting one more battle & whatnot before putting it down. You'll explore the lands, man a boat, pilot an airship, ride a chocobo, find treasure, and more. Not only that but the game is simply beautiful. I agree, it's simply a better overall experience in 3-D.
  
  Maybe it's just me, though, but I get a distinct Final Fantasy VII feel with this game. Don't ask me how but I do. That's a good thing, though.
  
  All in all, you're looking at an RPG that clocks in around the 50/60 hour mark depending on how you play. With new side quests and moogle mail, you'll have a bit more to play.
  
  Final Fantasy III is a DS gem that shouldn't be missed.
  
  
  
  
  

• FOR THE FINAL FANTASY COMPLETIST ONLY

  
  By A2JLAEM497EEXL on 2007-01-03
  (Note: for the purposes of this review, US release FF titles use Arabic numbers (1, 2, 3), while Japanese versions use Roman numerals (I, II, III); the DS version of FF III - while a US release - uses "III" instead of "3" to keep it from being confused with the excellent SNES FF 3 title.)
  
  When I first heard the news this game was going coming to the DS - in a refurbished, graphically updated version, no less - I was ecstatic. As a lifelong FF fan who has played to completion every other entry in the series, I couldn't wait to get my hands on the only game not to have SOME version released in the US. Boy, was I disappointed.
  
  I might as well begin with the pros, since that will only take a second or two. The game has beautifully rendered, fully 3D cutscenes that are on a par with those in FFXII...but this only serves to point up how abysmal the in-game graphics are (more on this later). Oh, and you can change the spells your characters "know" (are able to cast in combat) on the fly, and you don't have to "erase" or permanently lose any spell to free up a space to learn a new one - spells in FF III are treated like items which you can equip and unequip via the menu screen.
  
  Now for the bad news. My biggest beef with this game is that there are NO SAVE POINTS IN THE DUNGEONS - NONE! Period. Which, in some cases, doesn't really have much impact on gameplay, and can even sometimes positively affect the experience, serving to heighten the adrenaline rush during boss fights and arouse a constant sense of anxiety while exploring. But when it takes FOUR HOURS of dungeon tramping just to get to the final boss of the game, only to have said boss wipe your party out in ten seconds if it performs a particular combination of attacks (which it usually does), I cannot even begin to express the complete outrage and frustration one feels with this game. You don't just want to whip your DS at the nearest wall, you want to hurl it into the nearest star and watch the damn thing go supernova, exploding with the white-hot savagery of a thousand suns until every last molecule of the cartridge has been vaporised into non-existence. I don't mind having to fight a particular enemy several times in order to figure out how to beat it, but I DO, in fact, mind intolerably when it takes four hours just to get to that enemy for one attempt at figuring it out.
  
  Another big problem I had with the game was its lack of balance. First of all, the game's too short: the actual amount of time you need to spend exploring and fighting key monsters to advance the story line (and the percentage of the game world real estate devoted to this) is very small. Subtracting the amount of time you'll spend level grinding, this game is about three to four hours long. However, just to be able to have a chance in hell of defeating some of these monsters, you'll need to literally spend a day or more just leveling up your characters (AND their jobs)...and you can't select many of the best jobs until the game's about 70% over, so you will be wasting a lot of time leveling up job classes you won't even want to use again!
  
  Second of all, the gameplay difficulty doesn't ramp well at all. It starts off much harder than it should - you wake up in a cave (read "dungeon" - and remember, "dungeon" means "NO SAVES"), by yourself, with no access to weapons, armor, or items, and you have to fight your way blind, against waves of up to three enemies, to the exit. If you're lucky, you'll find the pond that restores HP and MP (but does not cure status ailments - hmmmm), and you can even spend some time leveling up here, but if the enemies get lucky or you hit the wrong button (including the Power button), too bad, sucker, you just lost an hour or two of gameplay and have to start over from the beginning!
  
  Once you find the other three playable characters (no easy task in itself, as the game doesn't really guide you to finding them), the game gets a little easier to play, but then you're plagued by a host of other problems, like not being able to buy Phoenix Downs anywhere (you can only find them or win/steal them in battle) - and the game is half over by the time it gives you access to a Raise Ally spell - and the fact that there are no Ether potions at all in the game! Unbelievable! There is a cheat that basically lets you copy items in your inventory, but it can corrupt your saved files, and the game should be balanced without having to resort to cheats.
  
  Thirdly, there are just too many encounters to make this a balanced, fun game. FF 1 had an area where every step you took lead to another encounter, but this was an area only about 10X3 steps large, it was only in one dungeon, and you didn't have to go through it to complete the game. As much as you will need to retrace your steps in FF III's dungeons (because of the muddy graphics and lack of a top-down map) to make sure you've explored every nook and cranny, the frequency of encounters soon becomes incredibly aggravating. And, because you can't save in the dungeons, you may just have to wait until you've leveled up your characters quite a bit before taking a chance on being able to explore a dungeon fully, since the high number of random battles means a higher chance you won't make it to the end and back.
  
  Finally, when you get to the penultimate dungeon, just before you exit to the final boss dungeon you encounter a RANDOM enemy (the Red Dragon) that's ten times harder than any other BOSS you've fought so far, takes five to ten minutes to defeat, and like as not will wipe out your entire party (and since you're in a dungeon (say it with me now: "with NO SAVES!")), you've just lost three hours of your time!). My crew were all at level 50+ with job levels of 100, a full complement of healing potions, and the best weapons, armor, and spells available in the game to that point, and they still got wiped out half the time against the Red Dragon. This to me is just insufferable.
  
  Another problem I had with this game was how many features were poorly implemented. Now, I realize that a lot of these features were new and innovative at the time, but it's 2006, and many, many iterations of FF have passed since FF III first came out. I'm not saying Square-Enix should have incorporated all the newest and latest features of the series - that would not have been true to the spirit of FF III - but they could have adjusted some of the features they did include to make them less annoying. Take the jobs, for example; in FF V (also recently released, for the GBA), if you switch from a non-magic-using class to say a Mage or Summoner, you instantly become that class, AND you get all the spell points you're supposed to have. In FF III, however, you have to engage in up to 12 battles before the class switch takes effect, AND you don't get ANY spell points - you have to rest! Also, you don't learn any skills by leveling up your job class (as in FF V), you just get one new command in the battle menu. Which means you aren't able to carry any of those commands over to another job class as you can in FF V (allowing you, for example, to have a Monk who can Equip Swords, a Knight who can Steal, or a White Mage who can cast Black spells). And to make matters worse, there's no onscreen indication of how far along you are to advancing a job level as there is in FF V.
  
  Other problems with implementation include no auto equip feature for weapons and armor (even when you change jobs - very annoying!), no auto spell school switching (if you have a White Mage who only knows White spells and change his class to a Black Mage, you have to manually remove every single White spell and have the character "learn" (equip) whatever Black spells you want him/her to cast, since Black Mages can't cast White spells), and loss of items beyond the first 99 in your inventory (for example, if you have all your characters equip a Bow and 99 Iron Arrows each, then change the job class of all four characters, you will lose 297 (3X99) Iron Arrows, because the game automatically unequips all weapons and armor, and the menu can't keep track of more than 99 of any one item.).
  
  Oh, and the zoom feature is also annoying. At the start of the game, you're told you may need to "zoom in" to look for "sparkles" (a nearly invisible graphic that indicates that an object is actually a switch or pressure plate of some kind). OK, so you press the R button to zoom in to varying degrees up to a maximum amount; if you only zoom partway and let go of the R button, then press the R button again, you continue to zoom in and can't zoom out until you've zoomed all the way in, let go of the R button, and then press and hold it AGAIN. It would have been much more functional to have the camera snap back out 100% from any zoomed-in view.
  
  One final exasperating feature, more a matter of design than implementation, is the hidden objects. Other games in the series have been very intuitive (and sometimes downright clever) in the way they hid special objects in the environment (in FF 2, you even had to go through a fireplace to get to a secret area with some great items. Again, not obvious, but when every other fireplace in the game has a roaring, interactive ("Ouch!") fire that blocks your way, coming across an empty one sure makes you curious.). Usually, these objects are placed in barrels, jars, or books; of course, there's nothing obvious about clicking on a jar in hopes of getting a Gesahl Greens or 1000 Gil, but it's definitely compelling when you see a barrel sitting in the middle of nowhere to at least check it out...and then to check every other barrel you come across, since the one you just clicked on gave you a much-needed item. But not in FF III; in this game, objects are "hidden"...on the GROUND! No rhyme or reason, no clue, nothing to arouse your curiosity, these objects are just lying (invisibly, of course) willy-nilly anywhere you might walk. You basically wind up playing FF III by tapping constantly on the A button, hoping you'll stumble across something valuable...which turns the game into something akin to Minesweeper. I felt like I was at the beach being forced to scan every square inch of sand with a metal detector for a lousy quarter when all I really wanted was to jump in the ocean. To make matters worse, there are several suspicious, hard-to-get-to, partially hidden areas in the game that contain...absolutely NOTHING!
  
  Finally, the graphics and sound were just not compelling, and in some cases downright deplorable. The game uses true 3D models in a 3D world, but the DS is just not capable of displaying this with any justice. The characters look muddy and pixellated, especially in the zoomed-out view you're going to be playing in 98% of the time, and the environments, especially the foreground objects in the battle scenes, are terribly low-res and pixellated. The music is okay, with a few tracks that are enjoyable to listen to and that convey the atmosphere of the area they play in, but nothing spellbinding or even mildly enchanting. And the sound effects are for the most part merely adequate, with many of the battle noises sounding like heavily compressed MIDI files.
  
  Overall, FF III is a tedious, empty, artificially protracted game that had updates in all the unnecessary departments. Beautiful CGI cutscenes are great, but if I'm too frustrated with the gameplay to get very far, I'm not even going to see those cutscenes. In fact, FF III might not even be for the completist: I probably won't even bother to finish the game, since it isn't worth it to me to spend 24 hours trying to get to the final boss enough times to figure out how to beat it to watch a CGI movie I can probably download from YouTube anyway. I believe there's a reason this game never made it to the US before, and touching up the paint job and polishing the chrome doesn't change that. It was probably halfway decent for its time, but I much more highly recommend FF V for the GBA as a much better implementation of all the features (and then some) that FF III pioneered.
  
  

• Probably the best the DS has to offer!

  
  By A15TOT3W6JT0E7 on 2006-11-25
  Final Fantasy III, as most may know, was the only Final Fantasy game that failed to reach North America. Well now it haas been revived, and it's better than ever before!
  
  The "improved"
  
  1) Final fantasy has pushed the DS's graphics to the limit. Though the figures may not be crystal clear, and though it may seem slightly pixelish, it's probably the best you'll ever get for the Nintendo DS. FFIII is completely 3D, a step up from it's original, and the character changes appearence as you change his/her job!
  
  2) The job system is what solely drives this game. As some may have read, yes, there are 279841 different party combinations. Obviously, this opens up many doors and many strategy. FFIII incorperates these 23 jobs in a smart way as well. Don't be suprised when some job adjustments must be made to defeat a certain boss. Your party can be all fighting, or all magic, all range, or all skills, or a mix of any! Jobs are earned when crystals are discovered, and you will find a use for each of them.
  
  3) FFIII can be played entirely with the touch screen, or entirely with the buttons, so you can use either method whenever you want. FFIII complements the DS's touch screen capability quite nicely; being able to use it to select moves is much better than the buttons.
  
  4) FFIII is also Wi-Fi compatible. In it, players can send messages to other players global, using an internet port. It isn't much, but it's something!
  
  5) You may name all of your characters, and play as any or them, any time! I like that freedom.
  
  6) Dungeons actually offer a challenge. A step up from the boring 1 way dungeons, FFIII literally has a maze of many opening and secrets to be unlocked. Some dungeons even offer extra fun by adding in things such as lava, in which you take damage if you go to slow. It might be just me, but the exploration is very fun, and a great addition.
  
  The things that could be better...
  
  1) The story line is very redundant, and a copy of previous FF games. It isn't a big deal, but you'd think tthey'd get a bit more original!
  
  2) The command buttons during battle are very small, so using the touch screen often makes you mis-hit a command.
  
  3) This game requires lots of patience, because the battles are very tedious sometimes, and most gameplay is spent traing.
  
  4) Each job doesn't have a variety of skills, but rather only one. It gets very old once you maintain the same job for a long time.
  
  5) THe Wi_Fi isn't very creative, and there is no 2 player in FFIII.
  
  6) FIghts do not incorperate time bars. That is to say, you can take 5 years to make a move without an attack from an enemy.
  
  
  To make it short and sweet...
  
  Die hard FF fans must get this game, mainly to complete their FF colections, but also for a great time. Not a die hard fan? No worries. The RPG is the best you'll find on the DS or PSP. It's got plenty to do, and won't fail you at any time. Those who don't enjoy strategy games, however, or do not have the patience to grow their characters may want to stay away from this game.
  
  I loved it, but hey, it's just what I think.
  
  This review was brought to you by the son of Having Fun.
  
  

• Kind of like Final Fantasy in a very pure form

  
  By A3N4VTNFPMTHEF on 2007-02-08
  I had never played FF3 before on NES, so I was a little worried that I'd be put off by the simplistic storyline of collecting elemental crystals, but it turned out to be a very enjoyable game.
  
  The storyline is definitely simplistic, but SquareEnix gave the characters names and backstories to help update the game a little. The mail system to unlock certain secrets also gives the NPCs a little more depth. However, despite SquareEnix's effort, there just isn't enough character development to get us really attached to these characters. Although, that isn't to say that this is a bad game. There's just enough story to get you to move onto the next dungeon, which brings me to my next point.
  
  Money is scarce in this game, so you'll find yourself exploring and fighting a lot. It might seem like a dungeon crawl or level grind at first, but when you start to get different classes to play with, there's actually a fair amount of depth and customization that you can do with your party. You'll spend a lot of time leveling up a job to see if you like its abilities and if it works well with the other party members' job abilities.
  
  Also, the new camera system lets you zoom in to find hidden switches and treasures. This really helps keep your trips into dungeons interesting.
  
  Finding new weapons and armor is always a treat, and the game definitely delivers on that front. As you progress, you're given a pretty constant stream of decent "loot." The weapons and armor that you find will also help you decide which jobs you want in your party and force you to reconsider certain jobs.
  
  There's enough to do keep you busy for at least 30 hours, which is pretty impressive for a handheld game. Overall, I consider FF3 DS a good game and would recommend it to anyone who likes Final Fantasy.
  
  
• Final Fantasy III
  By on 2006-12-13
  If you're a longtime Final Fantasy player, then the first thing that probably comes to mind when you think of Final Fantasy III is the classic 1994 role-playing game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. However, it's now widely known that this was, in fact, the sixth game in the series; it was published at a time when developer Square was muddling up the numbering conventions between Japan and North America, since several Final Fantasy chapters that came out in Japan never made it stateside. Now there's finally a proper English-language version of the real Final Fantasy III, which was originally published for the Famicom in 1990, the very same year that the very first Final Fantasy game arrived in North America for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Of course, this is hardly just a straight port of the original game, thanks to a completely overhauled presentation. With its attractive new look, Final Fantasy III feels like a whole new game. Its gameplay and storyline may seem conventional by today's standards, but in another sense, a game like this goes to show how little role-playing games have evolved over the past 15 years or so.
  
  Those who've followed the Final Fantasy series will instantly recognize that this game's distinctive character design is a spitting image of 1999's excellent Final Fantasy Tactics, with the difference being that this game is fully 3D. The doll-like player characters of Final Fantasy III are terribly cute and sharply contrasted by the relatively realistic-looking variety of monsters they'll frequently encounter. This visual style, while very different from the pixelated 2D sprites from the 8-bit Nintendo days, still is faithful to the spirit of the early games in the series, which also pitted cute little warriors and magic users against nasty-looking enemies several times their size. More importantly, the game looks and sounds impressive on the Nintendo DS, between its detailed 3D graphics and its unmistakably Final Fantasy musical score.
  
  The presentation does have a couple of minor downsides, unfortunately. The game doesn't move as smoothly as its 2D counterparts, which hampers the pacing of combat as well as simple acts like bringing up the character menu screen. And Final Fantasy III all but completely neglects the DS's top screen, which is blank most of the time during play. You get a map while exploring the overworld, but you're on your own in the game's various dungeons. This isn't that big of a deal, but it seems awfully strange that you don't get so much as a pretty picture to look at up there.
  
  The Final Fantasy series is known for featuring completely new worlds, storylines, and characters from one installment to the next, with certain overarching themes and gameplay elements tying every game together. Final Fantasy III shows a lot of these common themes in their purest form. The plot is simple: An orphaned boy named Luneth discovers a magical crystal, which informs him that he's got an important, save-the-world type of job to do. Early on, he's joined by a shy friend named Arc, a spunky blacksmith's daughter named Refia, and a guardsman named Ingus. Together, they set off to discover the secrets of the four elemental crystals hidden around the world, and in so doing, they learn a few surprises about the world itself. They'll meet and travel with some supporting characters along the way. One of the differences between this version of Final Fantasy III and the original is that the main characters now have clearly defined personalities, and they're a likable lot. The game's dialogue is written well enough, and the simple story works to compel you to brave tougher and tougher challenges.
  
  Remember when role-playing games were all about random monster encounters, leveling up, finding new loot, and exploring different towns and dungeons? Oh, wait. In any case, Final Fantasy III originally helped make the mold in the first place. However, Final Fantasy fans will note a few key differences in this game's combat system. This is true turn-based combat, not the "active time battle" system of later Final Fantasies. So at the beginning of a battle, you get to give orders to each of your party members and then watch as those orders are resolved; statistics determine the order in which your characters and their opponents act. A combination of weapon attacks, damaging black magic spells, and restorative white magic spells, plus some items and special abilities, are the keys to success. Some foes will use status-altering effects to throw you off, or they may be particularly vulnerable to certain types of damage.
  
  You'll learn some of this the hard way through trial and error, because the game can be quite tough in a few spots. There aren't save points, either, as you're limited to permanently saving your progress on the world map; as a result, you're going to run into cases where you've fought all the way through a hard dungeon, only to get wiped out by the boss waiting for you at the end, and then having to start over from your last save. However, even those particularly difficult boss fights are nothing that typically can't be solved by an hour or two of random encounters and leveling up.
  
  What distinguishes Final Fantasy III's combat system and overall gameplay is the job system, which first appeared in this installment of the series and was later used by games like Final Fantasy V, Final Fantasy Tactics, and Final Fantasy XI. The job system in this particular game isn't quite as flexible or open-ended as in some of the later Final Fantasies, but it's still a lot of fun to play around with, especially since changing one of your character's jobs causes his or her outfit to completely change with it. There's something undeniably appealing about seeing one of your little party members go from wearing, say, the head-to-toe armor of a dragoon, to the pointy hat of a black mage, to the cloak and spectacles of a scholar.
  
  There are more than 20 different job types in all, and you gain access to more of them the further you get in the game. Some are inherently stronger than others, and you'll naturally want to balance out your party with a variety of jobs. But you're free to play around with the system as you wish. Final Fantasy III doesn't let you mix and match skills from different job types like some of the later games do, and it also forces you to slog through a few fights after changing jobs before you start gaining experience in that job, which is separate from your character's overall experience level. As a result, you might feel discouraged to change jobs unless it seems necessary. However, the job system still helps make the combat much more interesting than it would have been if you were stuck with the same basic characters throughout the whole experience.
  
  The combat has some other interesting points that are worth mentioning, which seem rooted in how Final Fantasy once drew influence from Dungeons & Dragons. For example, your characters gain an increasing number of melee attacks per turn as they gain experience, and you're free to equip weapons in each of their hands. It's not long before that monk of yours can be dishing out flurries of 10 or more punches in a single round. The magic system is a little different from later Final Fantasy games, as well. Every spell has a certain spell level, and your casters can use a certain number of spells from a given level, based on their overall experience. Having these types of nuances to the gameplay helps make Final Fantasy III feel different from other recent RPGs.
  
  This is a pretty long game that can last you a few dozen hours or more, as there are optional dungeons to explore and powerful foes to face, if you're still up for more and more battles and better gear after you're finished with the main quest. Final Fantasy III also includes rudimentary Wi-Fi support through a system that lets you exchange letters with other players, a process that eventually rewards you with some exclusive items. You can get letters from some of the in-game characters, as well.
  
  Final Fantasy III is a fine example of a video game remake done properly. Its presentation is top-notch for a Nintendo DS game, and the classic RPG combat is interesting and deep enough to still hold up well to today's standards. Final Fantasy fans should particularly enjoy tracing some of the roots of their favorite games from the series back to this installment, while taking in all of its new sights and sounds. But just about anyone looking for a traditional role-playing game to take with them on the go should find a lot to like in Final Fantasy III.
  
  By Greg Kasavin, GameSpot
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Possibly the best portable RPG, ever!!
  By A123WN3TAXKI5R on 2006-12-03
  Well, it's the best that I've played, anyway. This game was originally released in 1990 for the NES, but was never released outside Japan. Finally, after 16 years, this game has been unleashed upon the rest of the world, this time for the Nintendo DS. It's not just a simple port, it's a complete graphical update. While the core story remains the same as the original, a few changes were made to make the game a bit more interesting. Instead of starting off with a party of 4 brothers, who look exactly the same, except for a few differences in coloration, you start off with a young man named Luneth. Over the course of the first quest, to break a curse that has been put on a small villiage, and a castle, you gain the help of Luneth's friend, Arc, Refia, the blacksmiths daughter, and Ingus, a soldier of Sasune. Other new features include an updated soundtrack, a beautiful Full Motion Video, and an updated job system.
  
  
  The gameplay, while still fun, is quite primitive compared to today's standards. The battle system is the old school turn-based system, as appossed to the ATB, or the Active Time Battle, system. Also, the story is a bit week compared to more recent games.
  
  The graphics really take the DS to it's limit. Possibly the best graphics I've seen on the DS to date. Square-Enix really put a lot of effort in to making this game as good as a brand new entry to the series (well, it is brand new to gamers outside Japan), and it really surpasses my expectations for a portable RPG.
  
  It's a great choice for any Final Fantasy fan, or anyone who misses the old days of video gaming. It will provide hours of gameplay (I'm at 24 hours, and I have yet to complete the game), but will definitaly get slow at times. Definitaly not a game for a casual gamer, but for a more serious gamer, it's a great choice, even if you've never touched a Final Fantasy game in your life.
  
  
• Do Not Purchase!
  By A1PQ0N7CTQE8E8 on 2008-01-24
  I felt I had to write my own review, since every other review I've seen has been inexplicably positive. The game is, for the most part, an average, party-based rpg based on dungeon crawling/world exploring with no real story. Almost every game has a job system, but this one is noticeably sub-par; switching between two jobs makes you suffer through a transitional phase, and some boss battles require you to use certain jobs, reparteeing that you face some of the games hardest foes with characters in classes they've never used before. The games magic classes are particularly hard to use, since there's no way to replenish magic in the field. Your only choice is to head back to town and rest, which costs money btw. This is one of the flaws that turns an average game into a sub-par one; the save system, or lack thereof, makes the game flat-out unplayable. You can only save in the world overview map, meaning that you cannot save in town or in any dungeon, not even before a boss battle. Imagine slugging your way through a dungeon to face the local boss, and you lose. Guess what? You have the pleasure of slugging through it all over again, trying to conserve your magic, knowing that you'll have no way to replenish it before the big fight. Whether this was part of the original design doesn't matter; it's a ridiculously stupid oversight on the designer's part. Through in the fact that the game makes no use of the 2nd DS screen, the long loading time between menus, and the overall boring, cliched style of play, and you have a game that in no way deserves a fraction of the praise reviewers are piling on it. Your DS will run Golden Sun and Golden Sun 2, which are similar games with vastly superior execution. Play one of those instead, but whatever you do, don't waste your time or allowance on this shortsighted monstrosity.
  
  
• great game...
  By A2FOZVHA7922QG on 2006-11-17
  well i've played this for a few hours since it just came yesterday but i'm already very impressed. the graphics are incredible, i didn't think the ds was capable of such pretty 3-d with zoom graphics.
  there are 23 different job classes in the game (ex. white wizard, knight, sage, etc.), which fans of final fantasy tactics will recognize. being able to shift jobs and work towards more powerful ones melds the best of rpg and tactics. in other words, crazy awesome good.
  will probably be the handheld game of the year, and will probably be the biggest rpg of the christmas season.
  *****
  
  
• Good, but could have been better
  By AT9TMNPJ44WEF on 2006-11-24
  This is definitely the best rpg on the DS so far. Which really isn't saying too much. Different effects are better in other rpgs. I've been playing now for 23 hours game time and here are my impressions:
  
  graphics are very good. The dual screens, though, aren't used in obvious places. for example, when dungeon crawling the top screen is black. The attack effects were better in Golden Sun. i.e. Creatures summoned by evoker, for example, are not shown actually attacking.
  
  The much touted job system is limited and some job skills are not necessary until late game i.e. dragoon jumps one turn then strikes turn 2 when the enemies are mostly defeated in turn 1. In additon, for an rpg this size, addititional options and career paths would have been appropriate. Compared to the Fire Emblem series on the GBA, the job system is very limited and style of leveling up seems like a step back.
  
  In conclusion, this is an average rpg with some strong effects. But if you haven't played the Golden Sun series or the Fire Emblem series both on GBA, I recommend either of those over FF3.
  
  
• Final Fantasy Fantatic
  By A191ISK0XRFWPV on 2006-11-28
  This was one of the reasons why I bought the Nintendo DS. I have been a huge fan of Final Fantasy games. I just started playing it recently, but I was amazed how good it looks. To me it is still a great game.
  
  
• Old School Charm
  By A2901YDXL5PC35 on 2007-12-13
  Let's get one thing straight: Final Fantasy 3DS isn't for everyone. It's not even going to please a lot of Final Fantasy fans used to the story-driven gameplay of FF7 onwards. FF3 is plain and simple old-school RPG action freshly ported to the DS. And for those who like the traditional turn-based style of combat and leveling up, this game is pure heaven. I consider FF3 to be the best RPG available for the DS (though it doesn't yet have much competition).
  
  The backstory should be pretty familiar to you by now: Final Fantasy 3 is the only FF title that hadn't yet seen release in North America. Along with FF2 and FF5 it was not originally released outside of Japan, but unlike those other titles which were later ported on both the Game Boy Advance and PS1, FF3 had been sadly forgotten. While the game isn't exactly revolutionary, particularly to longtime fans that have experienced the greatness of FF4 and FF6 on the SNES, it is an icnredibly enjoyable romp through a large and interesting world.
  
  The graphical overhaul of the game cannot be downplayed. Instead of the original 8 bit graphics and pixelated sprites, we now get beautiful 3d character models and gorgeous backgrounds. The graphics are pretty much the equal of any PS1 Final Fantasy, though there is an irritating shortage of FMV cutscenes.
  
  The gameplay itself is also highly rewarding, showcasing the first use in any Final Fantasy of the job system. Each of your four characters starts out roughly the same as a Freelancer. Over the course of the game, you gain access to 23 different jobs for each character, allowing you to mold them into any role you see fit. The complexity of this job system, while nowhere near as deep as later FF inventions like materia and the sphere grid, is a refreshing addition to an otherwise linear and straightforward game.
  
  A lot has been made about the difficulty of FF3, but I think that it has been greatly exaggerated. Throughout the game you will be pummeled with constant random battles and ridiculously strong bosses. But as long as you take the time to level up your characters and don't rush through from dungeon to dungeon, you should be fine. The game also gives clear hints when you need to use a certain job class to advance through a particular dungeon. Gamers unacquainted with the somewhat monotonous practice of "grinding" and continually leveling up may be turned off by FF3's battle system. But the game deserves a lot of credit for trying to make things fresh with intricate spell animations and a huge variety of monsters to battle.
  
  All in all, Final Fantasy 3 is an amazing overahaul of a forgotten classic, and is a must-own for any die-hard RPG fan. And unlike the hotly-anticipated remake of FF4 for the DS, FF3 is not available to play in any other form unless you have the original Japan-only Famicom cartridge. Enjoy!
  
  
• Definitly needed to complete the collection.
  By on 2006-12-07
  I, personally, have played FF 3(on the DS, not the NES), FFIV (GBA), FFVII, FFVIII, and FFX. While I have to agree that the story and gameplay of FFIII is easily trumped by later Final Fantasys, I still found this one to be enjoyable, and a must have for owners of a DS. Many people the pros and cons here, so I will summarize: The gameplay can be frustrating at times (especially if you aren't very forgiving of old school RPG's), but is still entertaining and worthwhile.
  
  
• One of the best for the Nintendo DS!
  By A273N7S4UCVGAM on 2006-12-27
  I love this game. It is so much fun. the graphics are great, and so is the game play. It will keep you busy for a very long time, i have had it for more than a month and am still not finished. There is so much to explore. Especially since the game doesn't always tell you where to go, so you must follow tips the characters give you. This game is one of the best RPG's on the Nintendo DS, and is a game everyone should enjoy.
  
  
• Cool.
  By A13IJA7AVJMASS on 2007-02-07
  I got this for my boyfriend for his birthday in December and he still is playing it actively, it looks so cool. He has his characters and explained how changing your job title works and things like that, I love the FF series and this is a good title to go along with the rest of them.
  
  
• Stripped down fun with polygon warriors!
  By A180XX745S4DZY on 2007-06-08
  I am a long time Final Fantasy fan, and to date have completed every game in the series. It was not always so. For a long time there was a great void in my life. A completists nightmare. one two four five six seven....
  wait a minute!! where the heck is three?? Now I can finally live out my sordid fantasy...finally! The game is fun. It sports a similar stripped down old school system like one. The magic system is pretty much the same except for the fact that you can equip and unequip spells as needed. It was a great game to play through, and I would have given it five stars but for one thing. The DS did nothing for the game, and I cant say for sure, but it could have changed the whole dynamic of game play by making the thing 3d. Is it 3d? yeah it is. Isnt 3d a good thing? Well...let me remind you that the original starfox was 3d.... I think the game would have been better if it had been brushed up and released on the advance personally. What you get as is? a bunch of dumpy triangular warriors with massive expressionless heads! I think in this case things would have been better left to the imagination.
  
  problem 2: The DS added in a whole new mail feature where you could trade mail with your other friends who play rpgs....ok heres the thing...Ill say it. RPGS are an activity I do alone!! I dont want to network, I want to play a single player rpg... Perhaps if this had simply been an extra feature there would be no problem, but every one of the new side quests in the game revolves around sending a slew of emails back and forth to your other friends with gameboy advances who are also playing FF3. So essentially if you have no friends like myself...you will never be able to complete everything in the game...unless you buy another ds and cartridge. Not e-FF-ing fair!!
  
  
• Great game, many flaws.
  By A20CPRQK1XTZWJ on 2007-07-27
  Final Fantasy has been one of my favorite series to follow since they came out.
  
  I had very high hopes for this game, and they were met for the most part.
  
  Pros:
  
  Graphics:
  10/10
  No words can describe them
  
  Sound:
  9/10
  Can get repetitive
  
  Controls:
  10/10
  Buttons or stylus; your choice
  
  Cons:
  
  Online Play:
  1/10
  I have to give Nintendo SOME credit for trying at it, but it was not what it was hyped up to be.
  
  Basically you can send letters to others. Sounds fun, right?
  Well not really, since both sides need to have the code, and that isn't always easy to do.
  
  Side Quests:
  5/10
  I live for side quests. However, the only way to accomplish the side quests is to send letters. And I don't like how you can send one an hour. And I know you can change the time, but that will take longer than needed.
  
  Basically you cannot unlock anything without using this feature
  
  Overall:
  7.5/10
  
  Good difficulty
  Good plot
  Decent game
  
  
• It's all fun and games until the end
  By ABC1E8X0KP6P7 on 2007-09-16
  HAving never played one of the FF games with jobs, it took me a while to get into the feel of it. It's a fun system. The game is big enough to really enjoy for a while. I must caution you, without spoiling anything, the Crystal Tower at the end...there is no save point even after you spend about an hour in there. And the boss is about an hour further...be sure to level up a lot before going to the end or you'll end up flinging your DS acrosss the room when you get sent back several level and hours of work.
  
  
• Final Fantasy takes a spin on the DS
  By A2WWV0K7B2SRUY on 2008-02-03
  Ok, so if you are any kind of an RPG fan you've played Final Fantasy at some point. And up until now, you had no options on the DS unless you picked up the ones for the Game Boy Advance.
  
  Square Enix decided to bring FFIII (you may know this from the SNES but that is called FFVI here in the US), which was never released on any system previously, as the first DS entry. So how does it fair? Let's take a look:
  
  Presentation: 8/10
  The game is fairly straightforward but can get downright frustrating at times (forget to talk to 1 person, your forward progress will be stopped in its tracks). The menus are user friendly and the additional perks you can use through multiple DS's via the mail system definitely helps this game's cause.
  
  Graphics: 8/10
  Make no mistake, this game looks great on the DS, probably one of the best ones. The cinema's are quite amazing for a small system. Lots of detail in the towns and dungeons. Especially creepy (at first) is when you cross into the dark world with your airship the first time. Square (as with most FF's) has done a great job with the look of the game.
  
  Sound: 8.5/10
  Not as great a score as came with, say, FFVII, but when I have tunes from the game stuck in my head it means either I played it too much or they were really good. Keep in mind the DS speakers don't do any sound justice so if you have a great pair of headphones that will definitely help the experience out.
  
  Gameplay: 9.5/10
  Now this is where this game kicks some serious butt. The Job system in FFIII is awesome. Want 4 black mages? You got it. 4 warriors? Ditto. You get the selection of the original FF but the ability to have several different jobs leveled up on the 4 main characters. This adds pretty much an endless amount of ways to complete the main quest.
  
  Now, why doesn't this get a 10 out of 10? Well let's put it this way: If you are used to be coddled in other FF's (FF II for the SNES comes to mind) you are going to be in for a shock in this one. Go off on your own early on (even later on) and prepare for a quick Game Over. I saw more game overs in the first 2 hours I played this FF as I did in all of FFVII and FFIX put together. To put it mildly: You better level up or get smoked. Often.
  
  Replay Value: 6/10 (9/10 if your friends have game/DS)
  Hardcore FF's and RPG'ers will want to try many different job combinations and Low Level games to see how many different ways you can win. But for most 1 time through will be enough. The mail system will allow you to open weapons, spells, etc. that are not available to a single player/game and offers a better incentive then most games like this.
  
  Overall: 8.5/10
  This is definitely one of the best RPG's you have for the DS. Rumor has it that they are doing at FFVI remake (FFIII for you SNES types) that will be on the DS. If that is the case you might just see that become the best one as it is rumored to have extras on it not available with the GBA or the SNES.
  
  If you are FF fan, this is a must play. If you are an RPG fan, check it out. But be prepared to be taken to school if you think you are going to just rush through this one. Old school to be sure!
  
  
• Great Remake of a classic Final Fantasy RPG
  By AE2WWDWLR1B98 on 2008-02-08
  Pros- Great graphics, and great new feature of using the stylus for playing and going through your menus. I've had it for several weeks and it has been fun. I enjoy it alot. Battles are pretty quick and easy to control with the DS stylus feature.
  Cons- Leveling up is a bit slow and can get boring and tedious. Story line can leave you not completely sure where to go next.
  
  Overall I think it is a must have for any FF RPG fan.
  
  
• Possibly the worst in the Final Fantasy series, although not necessarily a bad game.
  By AFMOR53FVODLN on 2008-04-06
  This game confuses me. Its got a lot of potential for a great game, but it just doesn't come through. I tried really hard to like this game, it is Final Fantasy. I guess there had to be at least one disappointing game in the series. The sound effects are pretty decent, its typically what you would expect from a Final Fantasy game.The graphics are pretty good for a hand held game, and vastly improved from the original. It has some added cut scenes which are alright I guess. The combat is really boring and unbalanced. Granted, i usually love turn based combat, but this was just terrible. The difficulty curve is idiotic. You have to use potions to just to survive in the beginning area. Then, they tell you to go somewhere you figure that means you should be strong enough to handle. Well that's really not the case in this game. They tell me to go to the castle, so I go to the castle. I run into some creatures and try to fight them but low and behold they one shot me and all my party members! I was really looking forward to playing this game, and it had all the basics of what I expect from a Final Fantasy game, but it fell flat on its face after that.
  
  
• I cannot put this one down!
  By AELK0E5DK7LIZ on 2006-11-23
  The first thing that hits you is the video sequences. The introduction videos play in amazing detail on both screens.
  
  The game features the typical battle control that you would expect from Square. Additionally, I am pleased to report that all game functions can be controlled without the use of a stylus.
  
  If you need something to pass the time this holiday season and beyond, pick up this game.
  
  Note: After purchasing the game,I just wanted to post a quick review, backing up everyone else's opinion. Thanks Amazon!
  
  Pros:
  1) Soundtrack: A joy to listen to.
  2) Graphics: The most detailed graphics I have seen on the DS since
  release.
  3) Challenging: Forget about finishing this title in ten hours. If you move to fast through the game you will die.
  
  Cons:
  1) Challenging: Some may find this unfair.
  
  
• Just a "me-too" review. ;)
  By A1ZK84RMW8IARC on 2006-11-23
  I just grabbed a DS yesterday, and this is my first game for it.
  
  Square has really done an amazing job remaking the Famicom classic. For the first couple seconds I was put-off by the pixelated fmv opening scenes, but I was soon overtaken by the style with which they were executed.
  
  Aside from the obvious audio-visual updates, the gameplay has really been well adapted to the DS. To me, the game is actually far more fun to play with the stylus than with the d-pad.
  
  Others have mentioned that the game may be to challenging for some. However, it really isn't that bad. The keys are to fight with intuition and pay attention to what townspeople tell you.
  
  For instance, near the beginning of the game, you must venture into a cave filled with undead monsters. They will seriously whip your arse before you have 100 hp or so UNLESS you realize that you can cast cure on them, and they will all die in one round (a villager from a nearby area mentions this fact). Then you get a bunch of experience and gain several levels quickly, and the cave becomes quite easy to complete.
  
  This type of strategy helps keep the game moving smoothly. You just have to know that repeatedly pressing the A-button or tapping the screen during battles won't cut it the way it does with some RPGs.
  
  Happy gaming!! :)
  
  
  
• Welcome home
  By AJKWF4W7QD4NS on 2006-11-24
  The much hyped about Final Fantasy III for the DS is finally here, and DS owners and FF fans alike should be clicking their heels. Now, let me start off by saying that this is not the Final Fantasy III you played, loved, and worshipped on the Super Nintendo years ago; that game is being re-released as Final Fantasy VI Advance on the GBA eventually (hopefully). This instead is the real FF III which never made it here from overseas, and it has been remade and restructured to fit perfectly for Nintendo's smash hit handheld. The graphics have been given a big facelift, and that's saying it lightly. The character sprites have been replaced with full on 3-D effects that look great for a DS game, and the storyline has been tweaked as well. Everything else about FF III is an old school RPG gamer's dream come true, even if the touch screen features feel tacked on and unnecessary. Everything else about FF III though is a pure delight, and the Wi-Fi features are nice to say the least. All in all, DS owners looking for an excellent RPG to pass the time should look no further; their prayers have been answered.
  
  
• Excellent DS remake!
  By A3B1EL499HCU0O on 2007-01-09
  40+ hours of play...
  Final Fantasy....
  Some of best handheld graphics I've ever seen...
  
  If you want a pure RPG that sucks you in and doesn't let go until the very end, then this is the game for you. On the other hand, if you want a game that you can easily put down when you want to go to bed at night.... Well, you can guess the answer. FF3 is a remake of old, but it feels so refreshing and simple in the face of all the new, complex RPGs that have come out over the last few years. I love the storyline, I appreciated the simple and easy to understand combat system, and I enjoyed the obvious thought and art that went into making the graphics exceedingly impressive.
  
  Buy it!
  
  
• The best RPG on the DS.
  By A18MIR1HC1S085 on 2007-01-16
  This is the first Final Fantasy game I played.
  
  : The story will draw you in no matter what your age, and it is short and sweet so it won't bore you to death. The dungeons seem long the first time, but if if you go through it again, you will appreciate the level designer's skill.
  
  : Like any classic RPG, random battles are both a curse and a blessing. In dungeons, you don't want to fight because you will be weaker when you find the boss. On the world map, you love random battles because they let you increase both your overall level and your job level while gaining money. The boss battles are difficult (I fought each one at least two times) while being similar to each other.
  
  : The save system. It is pratically nonexistant in the dungeons. So every time a boss owns you or you get equipment, you have to go through the whole dungeon again, or leave the dungeon to save.
  
  
  
• Get a Job, and actually Work It!
  By A28LUMUIAUUCOC on 2007-02-16
  Whenever I play any Final Fantasy Game, any version, I always find myself measuring it to the original Final Fantasy for the NES; to me, its the standard because of its degree of difficult and surprise that matches its simply level building game product. Since that version of the game, the Final Fantasies have not lived up to it, not even close, and a lot of it is because Squaresoft is trying too hard.
  
  But most of us haven't play this, the real version of Final Fantasy III. Though it does not live up to the Standard!, FFIII is that game that links the first two FF's and the rest in more ways than just in title. It has the typical storyline, and some of the original FF characters you use to play the game are back in the form of Jobs, and that's just six out of the twenty-three other Jobs that come available as you progress through the game, which include their upgrades such as Warrior to Knight for example. However the game does allow you to challenge yourself with the other Job classes, which in turn can make the game very easy or very difficult. Of course as with the Game Levels you have to increase your Job Levels in order to make your charcters effective in their roles. This does two things, good and bad respectfully: it can give the game tons of replay value and challenge, but it requires a considerable amount of patience, more so than in the previous two versions of Final Fantasy.
  
  Which in that last view is the game's big weakness. It can take time to build up Game Levels because the search for enemy fights can be time consuming and daunting. Even on the world map it can take many steps and many minutes before you run into an enemy encounter, and after a while some of those enemies are so weak it forces you to go into dungeons next in the storyline to fight. That may be the intention of the game designers, but to some degree the enemies at some points are just far over level and can put a serious beat down on parties made up of new Job characters.
  
  The Job system can be a blessing or a curse. Not all the Jobs are available in the beginning, and in order to open the Jobs to strong Job Characters you have to make some late accomplishments in the game. Though it is motivation to play the game, it can get tedious, especially when special weapons and armor when you reach Job Level 99 become available for a weaker character just after you have unlocked a much stronger character who's at Job Level One. It would mean more hours to play the game in order to boast the Level Effectiveness of the said character. That require....well, work! They don't call it a Job for nothing. Then again, games are not supposed to be about work, but about fun. Because of that the game gets 3 Stars.
  
  Overall, if you ignore the caveats, Final Fantasy III does have descent game play. Graphically it could do better, but in a turn-based RPG graphics really don't sell the game. Though 3-D like, it can chunky at times and after a while boring to look at. The dungeon environments are very good with it's slightly looked down on look. Strategy is emphasized, made more by it's saving features than by the bosses themselves, but even then Job character comes into focus on the tasks at hand. You can work around that, such as buying magical keys to open locked doors instead of using a Theif to pick the locks, but in such cases it will cost you money.
  
  Barely it gets 4 stars overall, being hurt by the game's small fun factor.
  
  
• A Great Revision to a Classic RPG
  By A34GNDH7YDMVZ4 on 2007-03-11
  I haven't played the original FFIII, nor did I play the original FF I and II. But I have played the Final Fantasy origins remake of I and II. I can comfortably and easily say that this game is visually 10 times more impressive. The battle system is very fun because instead of having just one job class from start to finish you have up to 20 job classes to develop and use. Each of the four main characters have their character levels that increase with experience and job levels which I believe increase with each battle. The story line also has a great depth to it.
  
  Overall, the game brings a modern level of graphics and audio to a classic style game to a new great system.
  
  
• Great adaptation
  By A1586CFWVLVA4H on 2007-03-30
  Square-Enix did a very good job adapting the game from its NES version. The graphics and music are fantastic, and the gameplay is very nice. Right now is a must-have if you like RPGs and you have a Nintendo DS. You may aslo be interested in Children Of Mana, by the same (legendary) company, which is a much more easy going adventure for beginers.
  
  
• Despite the updated graphics, the gameplay shows its age.
  By A1YRS2JSQQ99IO on 2007-07-01
  Final Fantasy III for the DS is the remake of an old NES game that never (officially) made it to the US. It features updated graphics, from 2d to 3d.
  
  GRAPHICS / SOUND
  The visuals and the audio are decent for the DS. The Cinematics are actually quite good looking.
  
  GAMEPLAY
  This is an NES game, and it shows (not a compliment). Little explanation is given to how things interact in the world (ie ice is better against fire-based monsters), so if you're not a JRPG or Final Fantasy veteran, this game is going to have a very steep learning curve.
  
  The first 5-6 hours of the game breezes by fairly quickly, but after that, some aspects start to become annoying. Status effects (and KO) linger with you after battles, and creatures start using more and more of these effects, which can deplete your resources very quickly. KO is particularly problematic, since as far as I can tell, there is no way to purchase phoenix downs (removes KO status); you are at the mercy of the finite suppply given to you in chests. Even resting at an inn won't remove this effect.
  
  Bosses can be extremely random affairs. The same boss can sometimes be breezed by without a hitch, and sometimes impossible to defeat depending on your luck (ie it'll do its super move three times in a row, something you can't possibly hope to survive).
  
  This is compounded by the fact that there are no mid-dungeon saves. This is suprising since I think every other Final Fantasy usually has at least a save right before the dungeon bosses.
  
  The much lauded JOB CLASS SYSTEM is also unexpectedly...lame. This is even considering that this was the birth of said system. There is absolutely no interplay between the different jobs. If you level one up to 99 and then switch to another job, your previous accomplishment is non-existant. I was expecting something more like FFV or FF Tactics where you could use an ability from another job with your current job or something. No such luck. With increasing job level, it just gets more powerful (melee attacks hit more times and spellcasters get more spells/day and spells are more powerful).
  
  PLOT/CHARACTERS
  I wasn't expecting much in this department, and my expectations were dead on. The characters have a personalty that can be summed up in about 1 sentence for each (Arc is Bookish, etc). I suppose it deserves some slack though; for its time, it was great.
  
  WITH RESPECT TO THE DS
  The mognet addition is more gimmick than feature. You can email NPCs (and get lame responses) or email other friends that have FFIII for the DS. In fact, the latter is *required* in order to get the best class in the game.
  
  The one really good thing that this game has going for it (and the reason it gets 3 stars instead of two) is that its pacing is great for a handheld. You can pick it up and play in small bits and it doesn't diminish the game at all. There is even a save-state like function to save mid dungeon (though on loading that save deletes it so you can't use it as a permanent save in case you die).
  
  Its uncomplicated plot and unrobust job system are probably part of the reason for that as well.
  
  Bottom Line: Final Fantasy Enthusiasts are probably going to pick it up no matter what I say =). For people like us, the game is ok, but nothing great. Being its first appearance in the US, it doesn't even have a nostalgia factor going for it with me. For those who aren't familiar with Final Fantasy, this is not the introduction to the series that you want. Stay away.
  
  

• FINAL FANTASY(r) III Official Strategy Guide (Official Strategy Guides (Bradygames))
• Electronic Gaming Monthly
• Play
• Final Fantasy, Vol. 3

• FINAL FANTASY(r) III Official Strategy Guide (Official Strategy Guides (Bradygames))
• Final Fantasy V Advance
• The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
• New Super Mario Bros.
• Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings