Final Fantasy III (3D Remake)

The ending of the game has no "continue" function to put you near the final boss to try again or any type of save locations and it's a never ending dungeon that takes a minimum of an hour to complete. This also involves a gauntlet of 6 back to back bosses with your progress being wiped which makes you start the dungeon over again. Oh and bosses and enemies will hit you multiple times instead of once like the original game or pixel remasters. This is throughout the entire game. It's not fun when a enemy can cast something like Thundaga on your entire team and physically attack 1-2 more times afterwards. This is artificially cheap to add a "challenge" and it makes all your fights a tedious slog. Your entire game plan shouldn't have to rely on a healing mage as a crutch. It runs its course really fast. These issues have left a nasty taste in my mouth and I put this at the bottom of Final Fantasy entries. The characters have no backstory at all and the story is very forgettable. The best job types are near the end of the game and Final Fantasy 5 did a way better with making them actually useful. To make a long story short, I instantly uninstalled after seeing "new game" and "load game" without "continue" being an option after being wiped by the final boss and i'm super salty lol. I have zero desire to ever give this game another shot and I totally understand the people who ranted about this same exact situation. Add me to the pile of complaints :)

buggy mess, literally cannot continue my play through because the game keeps crashing every time I try to obtain the water crystal in the Cave of Tides. Aria literally T-Poses, instead of her actually doing her normal animation in the cutscene, then the game just stops and doesnt respond

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This game is cute

Just as good as when i played it on DS as a kid. the Job System can make it worth playing multiple times once you know where to go ad what to do

Pretty good! I prefer these graphics over the Pixel Remasters. They add more charm to the game and some more story, too. Everything about the game is good. Great music, fun jobs, decent enough story, a sense of direction on where to go instead of wandering around aimlessly like the first 2 games mostly were. Squeenix added some QoL features that weren't there when the game first released on Steam (only added in 2020) like an auto battle/speed up system that makes grinding A LOT less tedious (although, still very)

I personally didn't experience any bugs that other people have said they had besides not being able to open the game (Steam doesn't download the vcredist needed for this game, for some reason. If the game isn't opening, go download the 2013 vcredist x86 from the Microsoft website) and one where music wasn't playing when I was onboard the ship (you need to turn off any enhancements you might have on for your headphones like Windows Sonic)

The only con I have is the job system itself. It feels like you're punished for changing jobs. HP carries over but no other stats do. So, if you want to change jobs, you're forced to grind up job levels every time you do to stay on par with the games difficulty. Thankfully, with the mentioned auto/speed system they have, grinding jobs only takes a couple button presses every 40 seconds. But still. Incredibly sucky. Discouraged me from experimenting with jobs. The only time I changed jobs was when the "powered up" versions became available. Then I spent a whole day grinding levels for them.

Besides the tedious grind, tho, the game was pretty good. Definitely recommend!

The story and characters are uninteresting and the combat is boring and repetitive.

I'll update the review more once I've had the chance to play further, but for now a huge thank you to "Justuค็็็็็็็s[FIN]" for telling me where the audio options are. :D


It looks like a fun game, the battle music initially thinks you're deaf. :(

To find the audio options do this:
while INGAME, press Tab, go to "Config", "Config 2" and you'll see sliders for both the music and sound effects.

I couldn't find it because I thought Tab would just bring up the map and it would make more sense to look for options before launching the game, if settings are so in your face before you launch the game.

A fun and charming remake of a famicom classic.

GRADE: B. Recently, when i decided id try to play through all the Final Fantasy games, i was faced with the choice of whether to play the 3-D remake or the 2-D Pixel remaster version of FF3. I had just played through the first 2 games (PR version) so it took me a minute to choose since i really didn't want to purchase or play through them twice. In the end i decided that the 3d version must be the superior version of the game based on which one "LOOKED" better. I was wrong and ill tell you why.


Final fantasy is a long running and much loved series so me telling you this game is a good rpg, or explaining old mechanics, that are still decent today is a waste of time. im going to assume you already knew what you were looking for when you searched for this game and instead im going to give you the information that i was looking for and that i think is the most Helpful. Which version you should buy and which one i think is better to play, the pixel remaster version or this 3D remake.

First of all let me address the most obvious thing, the graphics. All in all i really enjoyed all the 3d sprites and really think they did a good job with the remake of this game. At the very least its easy to see where the work was put in and they even tried to smooth out the story a little more to make the characters seem more unique, instead of the blank generic templates they originally were. And without belaboring it too much i can just say without a doubt these graphics are better, and if you've already played this game before and were attracted by the visual updates then FULL STOP, this is for you, and you will probably not be disappointed if you play it. As far as why i think the pixel remaster version is the better version to play through let me start with what i will call advanced quality of life features.

Final fantasy, as well as most early RPG games, were built with the idea of grinding a character to level it up. The "SIZE" of a game was limited by the available space on cartridges. so to make a grand scale fantasy RPG, game progress was usually gated by a large "BOSS" or "MidBOSS" that you would need to level up enough to defeat. this was a large percentage of the play time of the RPG genre in general. and sometime would be paired with limited save spots or Finite supplies so that if you ventured too far or did too much then you would party wipe and loose lots of game progress, Sometime everything up until the last point you saved which might have been an hour ago at the last town you visited. Playing the 3D remake i have already done that a few times and it is an unpleasant punishment that sometimes wrecks 2-3 hours of gameplay and usually causes me to put it down for a while until i feel like Replaying that section again. Also the 3D remake has a problem with its quicksave feature. it is designed so that once you load the quick save it DELETES THE QUICKSAVE FILE. for instance If you load a quicksave at the beginning of a fight and then loose in that fight you not only have to re fight that battle but you usually have to go through 1-2 hours of dungeon and dialog and stuff to get back to that spot. I think this is a game feature that has become outdated.

The 2D pixel remaster does not have this, or many other, issue. in addition to letting you keep several quicksave files it allows you to save in dungeons and does away with several other outdated time sinks. Another example of this is the JOB system in FF3. This was a neat feature of the time but they have done it much better since and essentially it a system that requires you to switch up your main characters into different classes several different times and then GRIND random encounters to level them up, Over and Over AGAIN. This just isint all that fun to me since im just grinding XP by one shoting the same goons in a small area. and this experience is still there in its pure form in the 3D remake but being forced to do it makes me wonder why they didn't streamline it more so that i don't end up endlessly walking in circles to kill a few more people to level up a JOB so that i can finally fight the next big battle that's been blocking game and story progress for the last several hours. This just doesn't seem that fun or interesting as far as gameplay so it feels a little archaic to have to pressed on you so often here.

The 2D remaster lets you change the many features like the JOB xp rate as well as gold drops and even character XP gain if you want. so that you can take some of the sting out of the Purposefully built in GRIND. This is an older game and its not really a challenge of your skill so much as its a sink of your time and maybe a nostalgic place to revisit. So really you should get to decide how much time you need to sink to get what you want from it. and in my opinion fighting and re fighting a small handful of monsters, when im ready to advance the story does not really add much thats positive to the overall GAMEPLAY experience. But if you disagree then you can play it however it pleases you. its a single player RPG so it really is up to you what you do with it and what it takes for you to get your moneys worth out of it.

Finally the music. The 2-d Remake has a fully orchestrated score and its frankly beautiful and an improvement in every way. I loved the original music but there is only so much depth you can get from chip-tunes, but the original score is still present, on the 2-d pixel remaster, and you can change back and forth at anytime if you prefer it. The 3D version does not have the remastered score but fortunately it is easy to grab a mod to add the remastered music to this version. and Speaking of mods there are a few that i think go along way to make this version better. one is the aforementioned Music swap mod but there is also a sound FX pack that fixes the airship sound being off and some other sound syncing issues. and another is for the expanded item descriptions so that you know what all the stuff you pick up does. originally you were supposed to find out by experimenting and keep notes, or maybe call Nintendo power hotline. these days you could just look it up real time while your playing so it makes sense for it to be built in.

Having said all that this game is not a bad version of FF3 and im enjoying the time i spend playing through it. I had never played this game before and i am Sure that playing the Pixel remaster version would have reduce my play time significantly, and in a positive way. by removing all the worst and most repetitive time wasting parts of the game. I would have missed out on all the Updated art but i think my actual play through would have been better and more fun and less redundant. so if your on the fence then i would suggest the 2d pixel remaster version as the better version but the 3D Remake is the better LOOKING version, and i could see how that might appeal more to someone whose already played this before. Especially since you can get the Mod for free for the updated musical score.

Final Fantasy III (3D Remake)

Pros:
- The Job System: The first FF game to introduce this. You can level up some of these jobs to be totally unstoppable by the end of the game.
- Speed/Auto-Battle: Nice quality of life update. You'll need it with all the grinding needed at the end (trust me).

Cons:
- The Story: The worst of the original three games. It has it's moments but is overall not very memorable.
- The Graphics/Art Style: Not a fan of this look. Cutscenes are cool, dialogue is fine, but they all look like they have beer guts and a bored look on their face.
- The End: Let's just say it is a DRAG to get through the end of this game. Just when you think it's over...it's not. And no time to take any breaks by saving or using a tent. A LOT of grinding levels and jobs needed.

Overall, you should consider playing the Pixel Remaster instead for the best experience. But this isn't a bad game, still very much an enjoyable RPG if you're a fan of the series and exploring it's roots.

It was fun getting most of the achievements however the last one that I did not do was the Jack of all trades because it will take me a long time grinding job levels. I will eventually get it but I wanted to leave this review because I think it's a good remake and people should play it.

The seemingly never ending grind for job levels eventually took all and any enjoyment I had. 80+ hours of grinding is simply to much, especially when the entire game takes 20 ish to finish… But of course that’s only a “problem” if you want all achievements. Otherwise it’s a charming game which I actually quite enjoyed.

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I fucking love this game

Still classic, excellent career change system

This game stinks! Cloud of Darkness? More like Ass Gas of Dontevenplaythisone

Cute game! My fav characters are Luneth and Ingus.

Even though I'm a big JRPG and Final Fantasy fan, I've never played FF1-3, so I'm glad I finally got around to trying one of them. From my understanding, this 3D remake is essentially the same game except with 3D graphics and some minor improvements, such as the option for faster battles and giving the characters minimal personality. Overall, I enjoyed it. It definitely gave me the nostalgia feeling of that era I was looking for. Great music. Personally, I like the 3D graphics. Combat is good for what it is (it was revolutionary at the time).

With that said, even though I enjoyed it, playing this game has caused me to no longer have a desire to play FF1 or FF2. The story in FF3 is almost non-existent (bad guy is bad and has four crystals) and from what I've heard, FF1 and FF2 are essentially the same. Also, the questing and knowing where to go is way too vague. I grew up in this era, so I knew it was going to be like that, but it was just too vague and random, IMO (again, something I've heard FF1 and FF2 share with FF3).

So I'm glad I was able to experience what the NES FFs were like, but I think I got my fill of it.

The DS remake itself, is perfectly fine!
...on the DS.

The Steam version introduces a new progression-breaking bug. If you continue from a quicksave then run from a battle, the job system will be greyed out and unusable for the rest of the save file. Chests can be reopened, and key items will be ignored. I got to Viking Cove before realizing this so it wasn't the worst timesink, but do not.

Don't use quicksave. This is a shame because the DS remake of FF3 is actually really neat, definitely a harder experience with some new twists (like each party member having an actual name and personality with them now instead of being blank slates.

Played mostly on steam deck

Had a save that was close to 100% completion, all cheevoes, jobs 99, beastiary etc. Wanted to play it on PC. Installed it, checked that saves were synced. Booted on PC. Found an ancient save that wasnt even 40% done.

Check steam deck, my massively progressed save was gone and replaced with the PC one.

Go fuck yourself. 80+ hours gone. Absolute fucking joke.

Final Fantasy III for the Nintendo DS was the first game in the series that I owned / played all the way through and I definitely have nostalgia for it. But I strongly recommend playing literally any other version of FF3 over this Steam port.

This Steam port is a catastrophe for two main reasons. Most importantly because the save system is fucked up but also because it (like the PSP version) is a port of the phone version which has shitty UI, radically worse music than the DS (the other versions might have uncompressed audio but the DS's OST had a deeper pitch and packed more of a punch) and treats the player like a three year old with the "!" marks telling you that you can open chests or that you're close enough to NPCs to talk to them.

I really appreciate the auto battle feature (which still doesn't stop job level grinding from being a chore) and the Mognet sidequests being available without online multiplayer but it's just not enough.

For some braindead reason when you boot up the game and get to the main menu the first option is "Continue" instead of "Load Game". I can only assume this is like a save state on an emulator because I accidentally pressed Continue when mashing the A button trying to get it to hurry up and skip past the logo and instantly my save file went back in time almost ten hours. There was no chance of just going back to the main menu and loading my real save because everything got overwritten.

That's unacceptable period but it's a million times worse for a game that is as ball numbingly tedious as the FF3 remake is.

See, the main problem with the 3D remake is that you're weak and useless if you don't spend forever grinding out Job Levels and Final Fantasy III regardless of the version is built around you constantly changing Jobs.

Also apparently this port has several other crazy bugs but I didn't see anything like that and I won't be playing any farther to see if I do.

Save yourself and play any other version of FF3, or even better play another game entirely. If you want a Final Fantasy with a job system then FF1 and especially FF5 are both better.

This company supports DEI.

Junk. NO clue what people see in this.

the game is cute and a nice upgrade from the original. very nicely done.

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great remake

As we in the West never got a pixel port of the original FF3 (Pixel Remaster is an easier version) this was a nice 3D take on the game. The original was an NES game so the story isn't too complex, almost every boss attacks twice per turn in this version so you will often feel even at the recommended level you may barely survive boss battles since HP scaling per level was changed in this version. I would recommend to not make your first playthrough a 100% bestiary run as you can easily overlevel as it can take awhile to find certain rare enemies. I did enjoy myself with this version of the game as I could never find the time to do so on the inferior DS version thanks to the auto save feature the game doesn't tell you about (pause and quit if something goes wrong, when you relaunch pick continue to be dropped right before the disastrous battle took place).

i think ff1 and ff2 are better, in this game they watered down the magic alot and the job system is annoying cus theres a lot of trap bait jobs that r rly bad and once u invest in them its also an investment 2 get out

I love the Final Fantasy Series (See profile lol)

Honestly, just buy and play the Pixel Remaster of III. This game feels like they just took the phone port and didn't work much on past that. You can notice text quality changes of text even in the title menu.

This version is alright at best, if you truly want to experience III, play the original or the remaster. :)

my save its gone please help

Meh. The game was super tedious and grind-y. Fight scenes were slow and boring. Not really that much fun. The whole "job" concept was surperfluous. it really slowed the games pacing. You spend all this time building characters then they want you to restart? No thanks. At one point they practically force you into new jobs and stop the supply of weapons and armor and its super hard to progress unless you indulge in this tangent. All this AND crappy graphics? Pass.

This is a great remake! It really retains the feel of the old NES game while adding more to the story and establishing some actual characters. If you like old school JRPGs this is a great one to pick up, but if you don't like them then this isn't going to be changing your mind.

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I'm trying to rediscover the older titles in this long standing timeless franchise (FF9) AND (FFX) ARE MY FAVORITES. And I'm really enjoying these classics. I hope they make more 3D remakes of the older titles. The Pixel remasters are cool! BUT! They don't beat the 3D remakes by any means. I'm just happy i can easily dive into these older titles :) Thank you Square!

long, 3D graphics,
little magic

fun asf. loving the gameplay + the whole story. genuine story so far!

One of the best remakes of a classic game. Thanks to all involved in making this game happen. Do NOT run in this game EVER! That should be first sentence in every guide for this game. A glitch that stacks the chance of "glitching" every time you run. That being said. This is still one of the best classic rpg's ever made. First intro to "jobs" in final fantasy. Good game mechanic's for an old school game. Great story telling. Like most FF games. This is one of the pillar's of the rpg games in general. Just my opinion. I highly recommend to anyone to play this game & achieve all of the achievements. It's a good challenge. Good luck!

I never played the FF games growing up and decided to play from the beginning. it was a struggle to navigate through the map and know where to go during certain quests because well... It was made a long time ago. It wasn't an issue as I just did a quick google search on where to go if I was really stuck.

Other than that, the gameplay was obviously good for it's time then, and it is definitely good now. I enjoyed the combat as there are different classes to choose from for your characters.

Good and grindy, But overall not that bad.

Pretty good. You're probably going to need a guide because you can easily get lost in the world and there is not really anything guiding you. Not much of a customization when it comes to your characters other than the jobs.

Decent Final Fantasy game, but 100%ing it made me hate the game. Play it if you want but please just use a 100% save file if you want all achievements, save yourself the agony.

This game is as pleasantly addictive as all of the other Final Fantasy games that I have played over the years!

good game, but suck saving system, but i cant blame old games tho.

An oldie but goodie and definitely recommended for FF fans and honestly im not sure what i dislike about it but overall i definitely love the game

fun

not worth half price on sale let alone full price.no save in dungeon.REFUNDED...

Bugged, My Boat would not go into airship.

I broadly recommend all Final Fantasy games.

Except 7 and 13.