Final Fantasy III

December 25,2006 -

The Final Fantasy series is synonymous with the role-playing genre, but lately there just haven’t been any games that truly revolutionized the gameplay. And with the Nintendo DS, it’s just been the same way. Square Enix released a subpar Children of Mana, and Nintendo’s Magical Starsign barely has enough charm to be called decent. Now Square Enix is reviving Final Fantasy III—the real Final Fantasy III. The game’s never been released stateside, and it’s gotten its share of popularity away from the U.S. shores, but is this really enough to satisfy the dying role-playing gamer’s needs?

For starters, the game begins unlike most other RPG’s. The main character, Luneth, is stranded in a cavern and eventually runs into some bad guys. This encounter allows the player to quickly get involved with the battle system. Eventually, when he finds his way out of the cavern, the magic crystal will talk to him and call him “chosen one.” Honestly, if you’ve played an RPG before, this is all just expected. From there, you’ll meet people in different towns, they’ll join your cause, you’re all chosen ones—and voila, sooner or later you’ll save the world. It’s nothing new.

The battle system remains roughly unchanged if you’re used to all the remakes that came out on the GBA. If you’re unfamiliar with Final Fantasy, the game basically makes use a turn-based system that gives you your arsenal of standard commands—from attacking, to using magic and items, to defending, and whatnot.

This is where things get a little more interesting. The entire game can be played using the touch screen, and it’s probably the most comfortable way to spend all your hours playing—especially on a flat surface like a table. Away from combat, all you have to do is point at a direction and your character will follow the stylus. You can also access your menus by tapping on the appropriate item on the touch screen. In battle, to get things over a lot quicker, you can just tap an enemy numerous times to continuously attack it. Or, if you’d rather use magic or something, you just have to point at that option. The fact that the entire game can be played with the touch screen is a really great gimmick, but if you’d much rather prefer to use the buttons—it’s just as easy; it’s your choice.

The game’s camera, while not used much, is a pretty nifty tool. You can activate it by holding L or pointing on the icon to zoom in and out. It can be first judged as useless just simply based on the fact that the only use for it is to look closer at your surroundings, and you’ll see all the nasty pixilation, but it’s actually quite useful. As anybody who played a 2D Final Fantasy is well aware of, there are all sorts of “black secrets” in the game. Black secrets are secret passageways that you can access like any other room, but they take a whole lot more effort to get into. They’re called “black” secrets because when you’re at a building, the perimeter of the edifice will be a black area on the screen. But in plenty of places, that black part of the screen is just an illusion and you can actually walk in them and they’ll lead to rooms filled with treasure. So it’s a useful tool to use the camera each time you seem stuck at a dungeon or a building—if you see a sparkling light, you can head to that place to find a secret, and the result is rewarding every single time.

The true killer factor, aside from the fact that this game has never been released in North America, is the fact that there are numerous jobs your characters can have. Each member of your party will start off as a Freelancer; they can pretty much do anything. But as you progress, the freelancers become more and more useless, forcing you to switch classes. When you get to a certain part of the game, you’ll be allowed to switch classes, and from there you’ll have all new strengths, weaknesses, and have all sorts of new abilities. For example, White Mages can only use light magic—and with that, they’re the only class that can make use of the move Mini; Warriors are all about brute strength, and in battle you have a new option called Advance, which allows you to have a higher percentage at a critical hit in battle. With all the different classes, there are thousands of combinations with possibilities you can’t even imagine, and that’s definitely the coolest thing about the game.

This is a true remake with 3D graphics that rival that of PSOne and Nintendo 64. They polygons and sprites are pretty spot-on, and the spells are pretty well done. The game also has amazing opening cutscenes that are so great that if you’re watching them away from home, it’s possible that somebody would think you’re using a miniature portable DVD player. All in all, the game looks great, but the actual gameplay visuals could use a little more polish.

Final Fantasy enthusiasts should be familiar with the soundtrack as most of it is recycled. That tune when you win a battle is the same, the world map is the same, the title screen is the same—most of everything is the same. But that’s absolutely fine; it doesn’t necessarily hurt the gameplay because while it’s all the same, it definitely wasn’t bad. So why should this be bad?

While Final Fantasy III is an old game revived, it has a relatively fresh feeling to it. The story is what you’d expect, but elements such as the graphics and sound are nothing to complain about. The fact that you can play the game using just the stylus and touch screen just adds to the new feeling, and after playing this way—it’s hard to think that eventually someday players would have to go back to pressing buttons when playing RPG’s. At that, Final Fantasy III is still the most expensive game on the DS, but is it worth it? Definitely, especially if you've never experienced this title.

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