I don't know why I like it, but I do.

Author's Rating:

Pros: fun, graphics

Cons: characters are sort of lame

The Bottom Line: 
good game

Author's Review
Well, you probably know that this Final Fantasy never came out in North America before. FFIII was one of the reasons I got a DS (the other reason was its $130 price tag), and while it starts off slow, it's a pretty good game.

All of the old Final Fantasy games seem to have the same lame story: something about crystals, Warriors of the Light, a kingdom in trouble, and something about fire, ice, thunder, and stuff. FF3 is no different, but the details of the story make it a little bit more than a tack-on but just a little bit. Like the people in one town being turned into ghosts, or the Vikings not being about to use their ship because of a sea dragon lurking about, etc. The story is very simple, but has a little something extra to make it interesting. You don't really learn about much of your characters, who don't have much depth. You can describe them in one word, Arc is wimpy, Refia is girly, Luneth is bland, and Ingus is also bland. That's usually not a good sign, but at least the game knows that it doesn't have the best plot or characters. It's unpretentious and keeps that stuff in the background. There's nothing worse than a game with a crap plot that has cutscene after cutscene and makes the plot a big deal.

The gameplay is also simple, which consists of a lot of going into dungeons and having random battles with turn-based gameplay. No fancy shmancy time bars or anything here. The magic system is a little weird...instead of having MP per se, you are allowed to cast a certain amount of Level 1 spells, and a lesser amount of Level 2 spells, etc. As you level up, you are allowed to cast more. The interesting thing about the gameplay here is the job system. You level up normally and also increase job levels by experience, which allow you to learn more advanced spells for example. They also affect your attributes and give you unique battle commands. Warriors can use the Advance ability which results in an extra-strong attack but also temporarily lowers your defense. Thieves can steal and their Flee ability allows your party to take less damage when you're running away. There are 23 jobs in the game each with their own pros and cons. When you switch to a job you've never used before, however, you start out at Job Level 1 so it's not in your best interest to keep switching back and forth. Still sometimes you just get the urge to make someone a Knight.

Sound is pretty good and the quality is actually quite good if you use headphones. It's repetitive but at least it's a LOT better than the music in FFXII. There's no voice acting, which is actually a good thing considering a lot of dialogue in this game is actually quite cheesy (i.e. "Ah! I slept like a log!" which Luneth says after you rest at an inn). Graphics are impressive for a DS game. Environments look quite good and lush until you zoom in, in which case it looks quite pixelated. The characters look better than the bizarro characters in FFVII's bad movie sequences, but they stil have lines for lips. Anyway, you're not going to be playing this for graphics, but it looks pretty good. I'd say it's a PS1 level in terms of graphics. You might think that's not good but I think the PSP is closer to PS1 graphics too than it is to PS2.

This game is really simple, but unlike FFI and FFII which I didn't like, you can see why this game was such a huge hit in Japan and why the series became so popular. The balance in difficulty is just right and you'll have to go around leveling up before a dungeon or a boss fight a few times but you'll never have to do it too long. The "Warriors of the Light" storyline is cheesy but the various towns and races of people keep the game interesting. It's hard to explain, but FFIII is a fun game, especially for a handheld. It's not particularly meaty fare, but it is a fun distraction. Still, the best handheld game I ever played was Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.

So in conclusion, FF3 is works very well as a game to play on the go, and heck, it's better than FFXII! The only problem is that the game cartridge is so small that you might lose it. I know all DS games are like this but I just need to vent because I put this game in that tiny pocket that you have in your right pocket in jeans. This thing: http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/8853/jeanstn3.jpg (You'll have to copy and paste since epinions doesn't allow outside links). Yeah so I did laundry and checked my pockets but forgot to check the tiny pocket and now I lost FF3. This is the second time I did this. The first time the game stayed in the pocket and even worked even though it went through the wash and dryer. Some shirts can't even say that, so that's something...I guess.

Man, that last paragraph was a waste of space.