[DS] Final Fantasy III - Katie's Review

Console: In Japan, it was on the Famicom. In the US? Only the remake was available, which is on the Nintendo DS, but the original is available on VC. (I played the DS version).
Developed by: Square, Matrix Software (DS version).
Published by: Square, Square Enix (DS version and VC).

*FFIII was the only Final Fantasy game not released in the US or Europe until the remake was released for the Nintendo DS in 2006. Most of you probably know this, but what we know as FFVII was released as FFIII in the US originally.*

Graphics: 7/10
Storyline: 7.5/10
Characters: 8/10
Controls: 8/10
Music: 8.5/10
Overall: 7.5/10

FFIII is a solid, enjoyable game. Unlike the time-based battles of other Final Fantasy titles, you issue your commands at the start of each turn and then witness your own attacks plus that of the enemy, where you're helpless until the next turn. The storyline was fairly straightforward: their are four Warriors of the Light that have to bring darkness and light back into balance. You meet many other characters that help you along the way in a world that's pretty much open to exploration. So, it's a standard turn-based RPG.

The graphics are solid, especially for a handheld. The characters are cute and look like dolls, and the world is very colorful. In contrast, the enemies are very realistic. Each enemy is unique, and I only remember thinking 'That thing looks stupid' once or twice. However, the graphics are jagged in certain places, and the stomachs of the characters never stop moving, which I found a bit strange. My favorite aspect of the graphics might be the magical attacks that you can use. You can do anything from unleashing a lightning storm to summoning a hord of chocobos to take down an enemy. I liked using some attacks just because they looked pretty.

As I said, the storyline is straightforward, but it was interesting all the same. Information about your quest was only given out a little bit at a time, so I didn't know exactly where the plot was going until I got there. Some parts were definitely cheesy, with messages about hope being the only defense against the Void, but I enjoyed it anyway.

There are four main characters: Luneth, Arc, Refia, and Ingus. They're all orphans, and they were chosen by the Crystals to bring light and dark into balance. I really liked all four of them; there wasn't a lot of depth to them, but they could make me smile. There were four or five other characters that influenced the storyline, and several others that didn't matter. Every character was fairly likeable, but there were none that you had a chance to form an attachment to, which is why it gets good instead of great.

The controls were fine, nothing exceptionally good or bad. You could use the stylus or the d-pad to move the characters around, and the other buttons opened the menu, triggered actions, etc.

The music was really good, it had a techno feel that I really liked. The only problem was it was repeated over and over and over. The dungeon music, the map music, the battle music, none of it changed. I got really tired of listening to the same music over and over again. It's a good thing the music was likeable, otherwise I would have had to turn the sound off.

The highlights: likeable characters, colorful graphics, riding around on chocobos and airships, and messing around with different jobs. There are four main jobs: Warrior, Red Mage, White Mage, and Black Mage. Warriors are weapon specialists that can't use magic, Red Mages can use most weapons and can perform low level white and black magic spells, White Mages could use only certain weapons and perform white magic spells (mostly healing, teleporting, etc.) and Black Mages could only use certain weapons and could perform black magic spells (mostly spells that damaged enemies). There were several other jobs like Thief, Dragoon, and Scholar, each with their own special abilities. Unfortunately, I stuck with the main four jobs. All jobs weren't available to you automatically and it took too much time and effort to level up a person that had their job changed. You have to assign each person their job and focus solely on that job for them to be of any use to you.

The lowlights (besides the job change problem): Repetitive music, amount of time it takes to level characters up, and bringing people back to life. Once someone in your party died, the only way to bring them back was to use phoenix down, an extremely limited item, or bring them back with a white magic spell, which required a high-level Red or White Mage.

So, in short, FFIII is definitely worth the twenty bucks I spent on it. If you're a fan of other Final Fantasy titles, I highly doubt FFIII will fail to deliver.