9 / 10
26 Jul 2007 at 11:21
Review by: akoy
A taste of nostalgia with touches of modernism, Final Fantasy III DS is one of my favourite games on Nintendo's handheld. If you are looking for a exceptionally well presented "old school" Japanese RPG, look no further.
In my opinion, this is where the Final Fantasy series started to really take off and create the makings of a legend. The story follows a party of adventurers destiny-bound to save the world from an ancient evil. Admittedly, original and deep the plot is not, but bear in mind the game was released during the early Nineties. Nonetheless the story is easy to follow and emotive enough to form a sense of attachment between player and the main characters. What is slightly disappointing is that the dialogue seems a bit 'flat' in places, however for me the visually arresting presentation of it on the DS makes up for this.
The game's success lies in its job system. Jobs are made available at staggered stages in the game, namely when you obtain powers of various Crystal entities.
All main characters can be assigned jobs as and when made available. This allows for significant customisation of individual characters, different team synergies in battle and ultimately replay value. Basically, the longer the time spent in a job, the more effective your character will be at that job (i.e. generally equates to more damage dealt in combat, stronger magic).
For the most part, jobs available later on are innately more powerful than the ones preceding them. However, there is a compromise of sorts when you change jobs. Firstly, for a set amount of battles after your switch, your stats and effectiveness are handicapped - think of it as the de-learn/re-learning phase. Secondly, your character may have have been very effective at the old job, but a relative novice at the new job: in this case, you will witness a drop in overall performance. This aspect is one which the player will either applaud or criticise. For me, I think that it adds a level of challenge to the game in that I now care when and how often I change jobs as well as how many jobs to specialise in. For others, this may discourage experimentation and these people would have preferred the on-the-go approach of Final Fantasy V.
For Final Fantasy fans, most of these jobs are familiar at least in name. However, my general impression is that the jobs are more balanced overall. This encourages players to try out different party combinations. True, some combinations will be agreed as the most powerful or most effective. But what Square has done is to remove disincentives to try out the 'lesser' jobs. This is a good thng. Some of you may recall Edward the Bard from Final Fantasy 4 - a real wimp that was made more useful in the GBA version (largely due to the Apollo harp). In this game, the Bard is a worthwhile investment due to the effectiveness and timing of the Sing ability in combat. Geomancers are also seemingly more effective at higher levels. The Scholar can in certain circumstances be very powerful, even though on paper it sounds like a handicapped Red Mage with a scanning ability.
The Battle System is one other area that either makes or breaks this kind of game. This is because you will spend a significant amount of time (certainly early to midway in the game) fighting. Welcome to the world of random encounters. Players will either hate this or not mind this aspect of the game. I myself don't mind it. Also, unlike later Final Fantasy games, there is no active time battle system. Battles are split into rounds where the player chooses commands for each character and then watches the round play itself out. However, timing is important: the order in which battle events unfold in a single round is neither random nor static. It seems to me that a character's agility contributes to he or she being able to act first or before others (with lower agility). For example, Thieves generally have the highest agility stat and consistent act first in battle, compensating for their otherwise weaker proficiency in battle and lack of magic. Rangers are the archers in the game. While Rangers can't wield some of the more powerful weapons that later on, their speed makes them very useful and sometime preferable to say a Knight.
Later on in the game, battle times can be kept relatively short: your party will have sufficient (albeit not necessary limitless) power to dispense with most foes in a short space of time. That is not to say that the game is a push-over. No, but neither is it bonecrushingly hard as say Final Fantasy V - the original version of that game would often surprise you and kill you quick time. A few things keep the challenge in this game up above average up to the mid-game. Firstly, there are no save points dotted around so you need to ration what critical supplies you do have and not take too many uncalculated risks. Secondly, protective spells and those that raise your characters from the dead come into play much later on. This means that in the early game, you need to think about conserving potions and phoenix downs (resurrect items) as this is the time that your players are most vulnerable. Only problem is that you cannot buy phoenix downs in the shops to compensate for the above and generally you only get them from treasure chests.
To summarise, the game features the core gameplay from the classic Final Fantasy I only improved in almost every single way possible without really changing it. It's great for fans and newcomers to the genre who fancy their RPG with some decent challenge. So why would I not rate this game a full 10? Quite simply it's not my favourite Final Fantasy title, never was even back in the Nineties. Also, it could have been made even better with better dialogue. But it is one of my favourite DS games and is one of the best remakes around.
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