Final Fantasy III Review: The best job system of the mainline games (Retro Review)
8Final Fantasy III, a graceful product of its time, revolutionized the RPG genre with its groundbreaking job system. To this day, Final Fantasy III has some of my favorite gameplay in the entire series, and a lot of great moments that set this RPG apart from the rest of the Final Fantasy games. Today, I will dive into this nostalgic adventure, where your characters can be anything from brave knights to cunning mages, and talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly of this awesome RPG. One final thing to note is that this review will be covering both the PSP and Pixel Remaster versions of the game, but not the outdated NES version that was never released overseas. Now without further ado, RPG Ranked presents… a Final Fantasy III Review: The best job system of the mainline games.
Battle System - 6
The battles in Final Fantasy III are a mix of fun and spontaneity! Being able to change the fundamental roles of your characters in between battles is incredibly fun and adds a new layer of depth not seen in the original Final Fantasy. The enemies in this game are also a unique and crafty bunch, with enemies that split into two and enemies that challenge you while in a Mini-fied state. The best part about this battle system is its adaptability, each battle being able to be controlled to your whim by your job selection. However, even though the customization system is awesome and one of my favorite job systems of all time (albeit one of the most simple), this battle system has its flaws. First of all, the pacing of the battles have some flaws. The battles in the PSP version? Slow, with long and rather uninteresting animations. The 2D versions? Heaps upon heaps of enemies… but without much of a way to devastate them with multi-target magic until later on in the game, something both Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II did better. Also, lots of battles tend to be monotonous if you intend to level up your jobs, as you will find yourself repeating actions over and over just trying to increase your job level. On one hand, I really like the idea of the job levels and it works very well in terms of pacing out the job system and adding a layer of depth to “should I really upgrade my jobs?” On the other hand, it makes grinding even more of a slog than usual, which is never a good thing. Another issue found in the battle system of Final Fantasy III is the large amount of difficulty spikes, and on top of that, bosses that basically require the use of certain jobs (like the Garuda and Salamander bosses). The final complaint is only present in some versions of the game, but the penalty of changing jobs was an absolutely stupid idea. The fact the customization system is being locked behind a stupid mechanic? That was a little embarrassing. As much as I love the job system and its contributions to this great entry of the Final Fantasy series, the application of that system is much slower and uninteresting than it should be, and for that, I can’t score this category any higher than a 6.
Story - 5
While Final Fantasy III is critically acclaimed and loved for its awesome gameplay innovations and its great job system, it falls very short in terms of narrative depth. The characters lack any substantial character development (which I will cover later), which leads this game’s story to feel very generic and lacking in the emotional department. The linear and sparse plot leads to a rather uninteresting way of storytelling, as the story always feels like it is an almost needless backseat driver to the great gameplay of Final Fantasy III. Almost every plot point is articulated through brief dialogue segments, lacking intricate world-building or the narrative necessity of “show, don’t tell.” This is one of the more empty and less lore-based worlds in the Final Fantasy series, something that was luckily much improved in the next job-based entry, Final Fantasy V. The villain also does not really ground the story, as his desire for eternal life and his role in the story are so minimally explained that he is easily the worst villain in the Final Fantasy series. The villain is hardly present in the story, more of an entity that feels necessary to fuel the fire of the gameplay. However, there are a couple things that elevate this game from being above a 2 or a 3. First of all, we get a very solid mid-game plot twist that actually was one of the better ones in the series.
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Credits:
Presenter: Brighton Nelson
Editor: Brighton Nelson
Artist: Brighton Nelson
0:00 Intro
1:13 Battle System
3:46 Story
7:01 Music
8:33 Art & Graphics
9:55 Characters
12:57 Sidequests
15:40 Locations
17:53 Quality of Life
22:30 Customization
32:40 The Verdict
33:22 Outro
#finalfantasy #finalfantasy3 #finalfantasyiii
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