[Review] Final Fantasy III DS

So I finally got around to beating this game, and I have to say it was... interesting.

Boss fights were definitely stressful, possibly because they were significantly more difficult than the enemies leading up to them. The game does not do a great job warning you about impending doom, and the last dungeon is especially guilty of this. Near the end of the game, regular encounters started feeling like boss fights, though, so I guess it leveled out in the end.


I wasn't very attached to the characters, to the point where I can barely remember their personalities. It seemed like each time we got a friend to tag along the plot was supposed to focus on one of our party, but other than a few reaction shots--literally, there was very little protagonist dialogue--there was little indication of this until the very end when Doga ran around saying "So and So! Party Member X needs your help!"


The villain's premise was interesting (three apprentices of a mighty wizard and the immortal one inherits... mortality? I'd be pissed too!), but when we finally got to encounter him it turned into "BLARGH! I AM A PUPPET OF THE CLOUD OF DARKNESS!", which was disappointing. I'd rather Xande had been the mastermind and the cloud HIS puppet, honestly.



Other than that, well, it was about an average Final Fantasy experience. The combat was much more interesting than the story for this one, which sort of places it near FFV in my rankings.

I liked the translation of the Famicom version of this game a good deal better than the DS version. The DS version seemed to try to make it something it wasn't. The characters had unnecessary default names and differing looks. The original game felt like a game you just played for the sake of playing it. No need for all the bells and whistles. I can't make too many comparisons as I didn't beat the DS version, but the Famicom version just feels right.

The job system felt somewhat unbalanced to me, probably because some jobs were completely useless, like the Thief. I didn't mind the mediocre story as much, though; I went into the game with low expectations.

The one thing that ticked me off the most were the insta-deaths about halfway through the game (

Spoiler: show

when the Enterprise is locked up by Goldor

). That made me quit playing for several months before I finally went back to finish it.

I've never played any of the 3D remakes, but played the - I think - Demiforce translation of the Famicom game. I loved it; it's my favorite entry of the first three. I plan on getting it on Steam in the near future, now that it's available there. From what I understand, it's the same as the DS version, sans Mognet and with negligibly better visuals.

EDIT

Nope, sorry, it wasn't Demiforce. It was Alex W. Jackson, Neill Corlett, and SoM2Freak.