Final Fantasy III -- Final Opinion.

Was Final Fantasy III worth the wait? Sort of. The story itself is the game's biggest flaw. It's just so very by the numbers and predictable. And yes, I am taking into account when it was originally written. We had already seen Phantasy Star II by that point. There were bold and original stories being told. Final Fantasy III follows the four Warriors of Light in their quest to save the world. You know the story, chosen ones and their destiny and all that jazz. It never strays off that very well-worn path. The characters have next to no actual character. They're almost indistinguishable from each other. The villain does nothing original and is entirely paint-by-numbers. The bosses are entirely forgettable. Graphically the game is a mixed bag. It's at times both pretty and ugly. Some of the overworld and towns and dungeons look nice. The battles and creatures are pretty damn ugly in my opinion. I know it's supposed to be impressive that we're getting a 3D Final Fantasy on the Nintendo DS, but it's hard to get excited over sub-PSX level 3D. The textures are sparse and uninspired and muddy. The battle animations for the creatures are decent. There are an awful lot of palette swapped monsters. There are some nice graphic touches in how the characters change their looks based on their jobs and every weapon has its own graphic on your character. The music and sound effects are actually very well done. Uematsu's original Final Fantasy 3 score has been updated with the sound capabilities of the Nintendo DS and it sounds great. I would say Final Fantasy III is probably Uematsu's second best Final Fantasy score, behind Final Fantasy VI. All the sounds are classic Final Fantasy. So the story's not so hot, and the graphics are a mixed bag, and it sounds great, but the gameplay is worth it, right? Unfortunately the gameplay is another hit and miss affair. The job system is cool, but it's rather a grind. You will be grinding every single level. The job system allows you to change the jobs of your four characters. New jobs are made available when you reach one of the four crystals in the game you're seeking. So essentially, once you reach a certain point in the game more jobs are made available. That's a tad disappointing. Of course that was fixed in the Final Fantasy V iteration of the job system. The jobs themselves do add some variety to things. Most of them are entirely forgettable although none of them are outright useless. You can get through the game with any combination of them. It just might not be easy. But it's entirely possible. And that's the core of what's wrong with Final Fantasy 3. It just shows its age. We've already played the superior job system in Final Fantasy V. Final Fantasy III was a critical step in the evolution of the Final Fantasy series. One we weren't originally witness to. We have however already witnessed the next few steps in the evolution. It's very hard to go back. Those keen to video game history will be able to appreciate Final Fantasy III for what it was, but almost everyone else outside the Final Faithful will be hard pressed to be impressed. Final Fantasy III is a game for people looking to add the missing piece to the puzzle and not for the casual RPG fan. I'm giving Final Fantasy III a 7.