After the Final Fantasy II disaster, it seemed wise to return to a traditional level-up system with character classes like in the first game. Only this time FF3 cranks up the latter point to never before seen levels with its new "Job" system. The main selling point of this game, instead of choosing the classes your party will be throughout the entire game, the warriors of light can now freely change between any job the player has unlocked at will, allowing for a level of customization previously unseen.
This is novel and refreshing, especially when playing the series in order, but Final Fantasy III has a habit of shoehorning the player into a specific party makeup to tackle the next challenge. The party all has to become mini to enter this dungeon? Well, everyone has to be a magic class then. This boss can only be defeated realistically by 4 Dragoons? Well, looks like the entire party is now a Dragoon. This isn't the worst thing ever since the player can just do what the game wants and get it over with, but it does bring the freedom of customization to a screeching halt.
Some of these jobs unlocked throughout the game are pure upgrades over previous jobs, Summoner is just a better Evoker for example. The 'job points' earned alongside normal experience points don't feel very impactful at all either. These issues are both understandable considering this is a trailblazing Famicom game, but certainly noticeable when compared to a later game like Final Fantasy V that improves upon the whole system massively.
The true elephant in the room with this game, however, and the real factor dragging the star rating down to the gutter, in what would otherwise be a decent game: The Crystal Tower, of course. Everything about the last ~20% of this game is a nightmare. There's no nice way to say it, the last dungeon(s) are some of the worst I've ever seen in any video game. An absolute labyrinthian slog of mind-numbing random encounters and unremarkable HP-sponge boss battles, with not a single save point throughout.
Adding insult to injury, FF3 even pulls the ol' switcheroo after supposedly defeating the main villain atop the Crystal Tower, revealing the real bad guy evil entity that was actually in control all along! The player now has to traverse yet another dungeon (still no save point), defeating 4 unnecessary bosses in each corner of the world of darkness to finally face the final boss, the infamous Cloud of Darkness. As terrible a final boss as I've ever seen, she just spams one attack, the particle beam, which hits the entire party, over and over (she'll sometimes do a weaker physical attack if you're lucky but its not to be relied on). I wish I was making this up but its seriously just a glorified stat check to see if the player has enough HP and healing to survive.
There's two secret jobs, Ninja and Sage, that are the player's best bet for defeating the Cloud of Darkness, but they're found in a separate dungeon at the bottom of the Crystal Tower, which the player could just miss completely. Even with these, the experience is still miserable, there is nothing so discouraging as dying to particle beam spam on the final boss and having to do everything all over again.
It's frustrating how badly Final Fantasy III stumbles near the finish line, because the first 75% of the game is genuinely pretty fun, there's just no getting around the ending ruining the complete package. Final dungeons are supposed to be long, supposed to be challenging, but this is an extreme I'm glad we never reached again. If you want to experience this game for yourself, play any version with quicksaving. Play the Pixel Remaster or just emulate and use save states, anything to dull the pain of The Crystal Tower. In retrospect, FF2 and FF3 are so bad its a miracle we ever made it to 4.
1.5/5.0
This is novel and refreshing, especially when playing the series in order, but Final Fantasy III has a habit of shoehorning the player into a specific party makeup to tackle the next challenge. The party all has to become mini to enter this dungeon? Well, everyone has to be a magic class then. This boss can only be defeated realistically by 4 Dragoons? Well, looks like the entire party is now a Dragoon. This isn't the worst thing ever since the player can just do what the game wants and get it over with, but it does bring the freedom of customization to a screeching halt.
Some of these jobs unlocked throughout the game are pure upgrades over previous jobs, Summoner is just a better Evoker for example. The 'job points' earned alongside normal experience points don't feel very impactful at all either. These issues are both understandable considering this is a trailblazing Famicom game, but certainly noticeable when compared to a later game like Final Fantasy V that improves upon the whole system massively.
The true elephant in the room with this game, however, and the real factor dragging the star rating down to the gutter, in what would otherwise be a decent game: The Crystal Tower, of course. Everything about the last ~20% of this game is a nightmare. There's no nice way to say it, the last dungeon(s) are some of the worst I've ever seen in any video game. An absolute labyrinthian slog of mind-numbing random encounters and unremarkable HP-sponge boss battles, with not a single save point throughout.
Adding insult to injury, FF3 even pulls the ol' switcheroo after supposedly defeating the main villain atop the Crystal Tower, revealing the real bad guy evil entity that was actually in control all along! The player now has to traverse yet another dungeon (still no save point), defeating 4 unnecessary bosses in each corner of the world of darkness to finally face the final boss, the infamous Cloud of Darkness. As terrible a final boss as I've ever seen, she just spams one attack, the particle beam, which hits the entire party, over and over (she'll sometimes do a weaker physical attack if you're lucky but its not to be relied on). I wish I was making this up but its seriously just a glorified stat check to see if the player has enough HP and healing to survive.
There's two secret jobs, Ninja and Sage, that are the player's best bet for defeating the Cloud of Darkness, but they're found in a separate dungeon at the bottom of the Crystal Tower, which the player could just miss completely. Even with these, the experience is still miserable, there is nothing so discouraging as dying to particle beam spam on the final boss and having to do everything all over again.
It's frustrating how badly Final Fantasy III stumbles near the finish line, because the first 75% of the game is genuinely pretty fun, there's just no getting around the ending ruining the complete package. Final dungeons are supposed to be long, supposed to be challenging, but this is an extreme I'm glad we never reached again. If you want to experience this game for yourself, play any version with quicksaving. Play the Pixel Remaster or just emulate and use save states, anything to dull the pain of The Crystal Tower. In retrospect, FF2 and FF3 are so bad its a miracle we ever made it to 4.
1.5/5.0