Famicom · Classic Vidya Review
Final Fantasy III
Completed 28 Jan 2026
Cover Art
Ending Screen
- 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.