Final Fantasy III
(Completed on 28 Jan 2026)

This is an English-patched version of the Famicom original. The patch I used was the Alex W. Jackson, Neill Corlett, SoM2Freak one from 1999
I did not try enough different english patches to have an opinion on which one is “best,” but every guide you find for this game is written based on this one. Also, lots of item names and job titles are translated more literally rather than using Square-Enix terminology.
In this era, Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy seemed to be locked into this war with each other, sorta like Mercedes and BMW used to be, where they keep copying each others features and trying to outdo each other in certain ways. The big gimmick on this one is getting 40% of the way through the game, and finding out the world is much MUCH bigger than you thought (which DW also did at one point, not sure if it was before or after)
All that being said, I think squenix was running out of steam by the time this release came together. The job system is fine, but you run into a flavor of that Suikoden problem where they want to make it so any party is viable, which drops the challenge level by a lot.
This is especially grating by the end of the game, where actually it turns out there are 2 ultra awesome jobs that are purposely a head and shoulders above all else (1 magic job and 1 weapons job). The whole first 99% of the game is “have whatever party you want, you can do anything” then the last 1% is “lol kidding only 1 party works”
Obviously you can change all that if you just grind levels but clearly there’s a “right way” you’re intended to play the game
One of the knock-on effects of this is you never ever get that feeling of tension when you fight your way deep into a dungeon, beat the boss, get something awesome, then have to fight your way back out and have every step and every random encounter be dangerous. I and II could make you feel on the edge of your seat that way. III never does this, it’s a very chill and relaxing run. 0 stress until the final dungeon of the game.
For all my complaining, I can’t honestly sit and say the game is “bad.” There is a floor of quality you’re getting with FF games, and it’s not like III is even close to the worst. You know you’re getting awesome music, you know you’re getting a really cool world to go explore, and you know exactly what game mechanics you’re getting and whether you like it.

∞ Posted on 29 Jan 2026

サーフィン CLASSIC VIDYA REVIEW

Dino Crisis
(Completed on 7 Jan 2026)

As a Resident Evil game, Dino Crisis is better than a lot of Resident Evils that have come along over the years.
The setting and the enemies are not quite as varied and dynamic as even RE1, but most of the rest of the game is nothing but improvements on the formula
On Normal mode, Dino Crisis is also way WAY easier than RE, so maybe a good option for getting into this kind of game.
It would have been nice if there was some kind of mode or system where you can dial back some of the baby stuff. The massive inventory and unlimited save slots really do blunt a lot of moments that otherwise would have been suspenseful and nerve-wracking
There are also some great new “real-ass horror” moments, which I will not spoil, but they are for sure classics on the level of the dogs jumping through the window in RE1.
FWIW, those 5 “Continues” I blew were all on the same T-Rex encounter and if you’ve played this game you know exactly which one I’m talking about. That is a great little “puzzle fight.”
The pacing and puzzle density is the standout feature of Dino Crisis; there is very little backtracking, very little wondering where to go (you just have to survive the trip there! it’s still asking you to execute!), and you can essentially hold the entire map in your head
Overall, highly recommend this, especially if you picked up a RE game and thought it was too hard. It might even be better to play this first, then do the classic RE’s.

∞ Posted on 8 Jan 2026

画廊 IMAGE STREAM

∞ Posted on 6 Jan 2026

サーフィン CLASSIC VIDYA REVIEW

Magical Quest 3 Starring Mickey & Donald
(Completed on 31 Dec 2025)

In the third and final installment, the character you choose does slightly affect what powers you get - the costumes are not identical. This adds the smallest bit of replay value, but for this run I went with Donald.
Of the suit powers you get, I’d rank this group about the same as Magical Quest 1. Still not as good as MQ2 but they do some interesting things (especially the Knight)
If you are thinking of playing these games, this is the one that is by far and away hurt the most by the GBA screen area. Tons of levels are very vertical, and there are moments (especially in the final level) where you have absolutely no idea where it’s even possible to jump, because the next plaform is not visible on the screen. For this reason, this game is the ‘hardest’ of the three, but obviously not because of anything intentional in the design.
This doesn’t really matter but once again Capcom did cut down the game system to make this even easier. Now, when you lose a life, you don’t just respawn in place, you get a balloon that you can use to place yourself anywhere on screen.
Weirdly though, they made the respawn distance of enemies really short? As in, you walk 1 single millimeter away from where you killed an enemy, go back that direction, and it has respawned instantly. All 3 of these games do this, but this is the shortest-distance spawn by far. It’s like NES Ninja Gaiden level.
This one also has the coolest boss fights of the trilogy; there is way more to do than just memorize the pattern and jump on their heads. The suits do different things to them, some have multiple winning strategies, and as a result there can be a lot more player creativity in how you face them. Though again it would be nice not to feel like you have infinity health.
Overall none of these are really bad other than being too easy. Playing all 3 of them as though they’re one continuous game is fun since they are pretty short. It also doesn’t matter if you don’t do that; they don’t have plots that depend on one another.

∞ Posted on 2 Jan 2026

サーフィン CLASSIC VIDYA REVIEW

Magical Quest 2 Starring Mickey & Minnie
(Completed on 29 Dec 2025)

This one feels even shorter & easier than the first one, but the mechanics are not exactly the same
- There is no more “infinite coins” trick, because coin count is reset when you game over
- But, when you lose a life, you are reset in-place, you don’t even start the level over. So your health meter in total is however many hearts you have x how many lives you have. You never have to git gud, you can always tank everything that gets in your way.
Like the first game, you get 3 different suits which give 3 different powers. The suit powers are much more interesting than in the first game IMO
The level design, however, is not so interesting; somehow it feels like you are rewarded less for exploring, which doesn’t make any sense because they removed the timer. If levels have unlimited time now, then why not hide secrets all over the place? What else is even the point of removing the timer?
I didn’t check who composed this, but the music is still incredible; maybe even more memorable tracks in 2 than there is in 1.
Little variation in boss fights - they all feel about equal in difficulty to the very first boss

∞ Posted on 31 Dec 2025

サーフィン WEB SURFIN

The polygons of DOOM: PSX →

∞ Posted on 29 Dec 2025

サーフィン CLASSIC VIDYA REVIEW

Magical Quest Starring Mickey & Minnie
(Completed on 28 Dec 2025)

I’ve decided that for a Christmas Break Challenge 2025, I’m going to play through all 3 of the Magical Quest games on GBA.
1 game in, this is a very chilled out experience. There aren’t that many “ARRGGHHH EAT SHIT CAPCOM” moments in the level design, the music is A+, and it feels good to control
People say these games are too easy, which is kinda true, and honestly I think that’s all because of the lives/continue system. There is almost 0 penalty at all for dying in this game. You even keep all your coins between Game Overs, which means it’s extremely easy to go in a level with a bunch of coins at the beginning, grab them, die, rinse & repeat, then be ultra mega rich next time you get to a shop
But, even if you do this, it doesn’t matter if you’re ultra mega rich next time you hit a shop, because there aren’t any items that make the game considerably easier. We’re already sort of on the floor
Like other ports on the GBA, some level designs suffer really badly from the chopped-down screen area. To put this in perspective, the SNES versions ‘feel easier’ because there are 0 memorization checks; every single thing is reactable. On the GBA, you will hit a memorization check or 2 just because you had no way of seeing part of the level that was off-screen when something came flying at you. Usually this doesn’t lead to a death, because you get so many additional hearts from exploring.
Obviously you don’t need this if you’re emulating, but the GBA versions let you Save 👍
I tried to look up the answer to this and could not find it so I’ll post it here to maybe get the Google juice: There are items in the shops where the description says something like ‘Figure it out for yourself.’ All these do is unlock stuff in Magical Mirror Starring Mickey Mouse on GameCube, if you have the GBA link cable. If you aren’t playing Magical Mirror alongside this, those items are useless.
Overall enjoyable but too easy/short. Looking forward to playing the rest of this trilogy