Final Fantasy III: Half Assing Things Isn’t Just for Work Anymore

Final Fantasy III, which wasn’t released in the US went completely unknown to me until one fateful day… the day I got my Ouya (yeah, I know, shut up).

I was pretty excited to play a Final Fantasy game that, up until then, I had no idea even existed (I mean, it obviously did, I just knew less than nothing about it).  It played like shit.

Like seriously bad.  For all the promises that came with the Ouya, it was fucking terrible.  What’s worse, I put the game down for a few weeks, and when I returned, I had no idea what the fuck was going on, so I didn’t finish it.

So, here’s the issue… I can’t play it on its original hardware and playing it on my Ouya isn’t an option (it wouldn’t work anyway, since the service was taken down), I was left to fend for myself to find a playable version.  I found a copy that I could play on a phone, not ideal, but it was a true copy of the original game, with a fan made translation.

Or so I thought.

Turns out, I was running an illegal copy of it, and the changes they made to the game went far beyond just the translation.  This will come back a bit later.

So, to ensure that I was getting the closest possible experience, I chose to play the pixel remaster.

Never Have I Ever Been So Excited to Do Anything Related to Work

Let’s start by addressing the Calvinist/Protestant work ethic loving elephant in the room: The job system.

Over the course of the game you end up having access to 22 different job classes, with the ability to gain levels in your selected job.  It’s pretty fantastic.  Switching between jobs to help through tough bosses, customizing your party to create an indestructible force to not be fucked with.  It is my favorite aspect in the entire game.

But…

I had a thought early on… why am I leveling up these jobs?  I mean, it seemed to be doing something; what it was doing, however, I have no idea.

A guide I found suggested that it can increase damage, it sometimes will cause the job specific abilities to work faster, it might increase the effects of magic, but that the real point of leveling up was that it increases job proficiency.

Job proficiency?  What the fuck is that? 

Well, it didn’t explain.  Off to Reddit I went.  Turns out, I wasn’t the only one who was confused by what the point of leveling up the jobs did.  Ultimately, my takeaway was that leveling up was great to a certain point, you don’t need to max out the level, and really there’s no point in leveling up the early jobs, as they are replaced with far better jobs at the kickoff of act 2.

This gave me some serious FFII vibes. 

Particularly, the weapon/magic proficiency of FFII, and the confusing implementation is exactly what was happening with FFIII.  The primary difference is that I don’t really need to know the ins and outs of the job system in FFIII, I have to know just enough of how it works in order to play the game.

I want to restress; I really liked the job system in FFIII.  I think it’s clever and adds a level of customizability that wasn’t really seen in other games that came out around the same time.

If You Like It So Much, Why Do You Shit on It?

I have a complaint with a lot of older games, and it tends to be a very unpopular opinion.  You know how nowadays games have tutorials that hold your hand a bit, especially if it’s something that is novel to the genre?  The point of it is to ensure that you fully understand the new feature.  Yeah, it can be a bit of a helicopter parent at times, but at least they take a moment to ensure that you understand it.  At least understand it enough that you can answer “what the fuck is the point of leveling up” without going to Reddit to get an ELI5 from some basement dwelling gamer who thinks they are better than you because you don’t understand the intricacies and nuance of the gameplay, fucking plebs.

I shit on it, because I wish that I understood how it worked when I played through, rather than understanding it after I wrapped up playing it.  What is frustrating is the fact that the FF games all have a classroom, or tutorial room that will answer all your burning questions.  It’s just that both FFII and FFIII really fucking dropped the ball when it comes to explaining this in a way that is digestible, especially considering it was such a novel idea.

Wait, I’ve Seen This One Before

Going back to my accidental illegal copy with fan translation.

I wanted a copy that I could play on my Chromebook, and the one I found was an app with a fan created translation from the original Japanese. 

The story was pretty intense.  Powerful families battling each other, the children of nobility being shunned, and an underground movement to embrace technology while letting go the ways of the past.

It was fucking awesome.

It also wasn’t the actual story. 

It turns out the fan translation actually changed the story altogether.  But it was so gripping.  I could only imagine that the actual translation would be at least ten times better, right?  A team of professional game writers, versus one kid huddled in their room.  It has to be better.  It just fucking has to be… right?!?

It wasn’t.

In fact, I was disappointed that the story felt like a more fleshed out version of FFI.  After three games, I was getting pretty sick of the warriors of light.

What frustrated me the most was knowing that it was a more advanced version of the original story, it still felt very bare.  I felt like I had already played this, and as a result, I felt compelled to play through it as quickly as possible.  Which meant that I probably missed out on quite a bit that would have made the world feel fuller.

I’m also five days out from finishing the game and I’m struggling to think of anything that really stands out. 

While writing this, I can’t help but think of Dragon Warrior and the fan translation.  Both of which featured interesting relationships between characters.  Yeah, they were very superficial relationships, but there were relationships.  And that dynamic made the story feel complex and interesting.  It gave you a foothold to grab on to the story.  These were just some fucking orphans with sticks. 

If I wanted to see an orphan kick the ass of some bad people in a brightly colored but incredibly dated world, I’d watch the Joel Schumacher Batman movies.

The Play is the Thing

My annoyance with the story, and the feeling that Square had taken a huge step backwards in terms of integrating story definitely tainted my view of the game.  That being said, I love the gameplay.

The job system was such an interesting dynamic, and if I liked the game more, I probably would test myself with various challenges surrounding the jobs.  Can I beat the game with nothing but white wizards??  No, the answer is no.

FFIII was also pretty forgiving when it came to gameplay.  The challenge was always a level where it felt achievable.  I never felt outclassed or under-leveled. This is a big deal, especially when looking at the two previous games.  It meant that I never thought, shit, I guess I’m going to have to grind for the next six hours so I can take on this boss.  Yes, there was some grinding, but it didn’t feel like it was a fundamental part of the game.  In fact, most of my grinding was done so that I could get all of the jobs, which offered a great distraction from any level gap that might have existed.

Final Thoughts

I’ve been staring at this section now for about an hour.  My question to myself is, would I recommend this game to others.  I’m inclined to say no, unless you are an FF superfan.  I’m also inclined to say yes, because the job mechanic is really interesting, and it’s an early version of it, so it’s good to see where it came from and how far it has come when comparing it to other games with a job system.

But, I also feel that there are other games in the series that do the job system better.  FFV, FFX-2, and FFXII just to name a few.  But there are also games like False Skies, Etrian Odyssey, Dragon Quest 7, and Crystal Project (a game that I feel out FFIII-s FFIII).

The biggest thing that I’m stuck with is the game isn’t bad.  It’s just needing… it’s lacking… it’s… I don’t know what.  I’m not really disappointed, I do feel it was better than the previous two games, but it did leave me wanting a bit more, and that, more than anything else, is what bothers me about the game.

Current Standings:

1.      Final Fantasy III

2.      Final Fantasy II

3.      Final Fantasy I