Super Nintendo Entertainment System Final Fantasy III (USA) (Rev 1)
0Final Fantasy III (ファイナルファンタジーIII, Fainaru Fantajī Surī?) is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square in 1990 for the Family Computer as the third installment in the Final Fantasy series. It is the first numbered Final Fantasy game to feature the job-change system.
The story revolves around four orphaned youths drawn to a crystal of light. The crystal grants them some of its power, and instructs them to go forth and restore balance to the world. Not knowing what to make of the crystal's pronouncements, but nonetheless recognizing the importance of its words, the four inform their adoptive families of their mission and set out to explore and bring back balance to the world.
The game was released in Japan on April 27, 1990. It had never been released outside of Japan until a remake was released on the Nintendo DS on August 24, 2006. At that time, it was the only Final Fantasy game not previously released in North America or Europe.[15] There had been earlier plans to remake the game for Bandai's WonderSwan Color handheld, as had been done with the first, second, and fourth installments of the series, but the game faced several delays and was eventually canceled after the premature cancellation of the platform. The Nintendo DS version of the game was positively received internationally, selling over one million copies in Japan. The Famicom version of the game was released on the Virtual Console service in Japan on July 21, 2009. An iOS port of the Nintendo DS remake was released on March 24, 2011. An Android version was released on March 12, 2012. A PlayStation Portable version was released on September 20, 2012. The game is set to be released on the new Android-based Ouya console.
The battle screen, showing the party battling three monsters. Like earlier games in the series, Final Fantasy III displays battle messages in text windows, such as the "Miss" displayed in the central box. Like later games in the series, animated messages or symbols are also shown on the character in question.The gameplay of Final Fantasy III combines elements of the first two Final Fantasy games with new features. The turn-based combat system remains in place from the first two games, but hit points are now shown above the target following attacks or healing actions, rather than captioned as in the previous two games. Auto-targeting for physical attacks after a friendly or enemy unit is killed is also featured for the first time. Unlike subsequent games in the series, magical attacks are not auto-targeted in the same fashion.[16]
The experience point system featured in Final Fantasy makes a return following its absence from Final Fantasy II. The character class system featured in the first game also reappears, with some modifications. Whereas in the original game the player chooses each character's class alignment at the start of the game and is then locked into that class for the duration of the game, Final Fantasy III introduces the "job system" for which the series would later become famous. Jobs are presented as interchangeable classes: in the Famicom version of the game, all four characters begin as "Onion Knights", with a variety of additional jobs becoming available as the game progresses. Any playable character has access to every currently available job and can change from job to job at will.[17] Switching jobs consumes "capacity points" which are awarded to the entire party following every battle, much like gil. Different weapons, armor and accessories, and magic spells are utilized by each job. A character's level of proficiency at a particular job increases the longer the character remains with that job. Higher job levels increase the battle statistics of the character and reduce the cost in capacity points to switch to that job.[16]
Final Fantasy III is the first game in the series to feature special battle commands such as "Steal" or "Jump", each of which is associated with a particular job ("Steal" is the Thief's specialty, whilst "Jump" is the Dragoon's forte). Certain jobs also feature innate, non-battle abilities, such as the Thief's ability to open passages that would otherwise require a special key item.[18] Final Fantasy III is also the first game in the series to feature summoned creatures, which are called forth with the "Summon" skill.[17]