Background: Final Fantasy III was created in 1990 by the same director at Square, Hironobu Sakaguchi and was the first title in the series released on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, however once again the title was only released in Japan. It wasn't until sixteen years later! that they released an english version on the Nintendo DS system, completely revamped, and in full 3D. In a way I feel like I'm cheating a little bit but I'm sticking with the excuse that my Japanese just isn't up to par to play an entire RPG in it JUST yet, so full 3D english version here I come... It's a little odd playing it like this, especially knowing that four, five and six will look like one did again. I almost feel as though I'm playing the old game in the future or something like that, check out the screens below to see the difference between the original JP title and the newer EN one; same game, same story, same characters, same battle system, TOTALLY different graphics...
I borrowed a DS from my brother-in-law and fired up his FF3 game (luckily he already had it on his DS). I've never really played a game on the DS before so it was kinda cool playing with the stick and two screens, but after about a half an hour, I tossed the stick (fun but making things slower). I got control of a single character, main character I assume, and named him Rhek, my usual alias in most games and all FF games until XI. Since I didn't know what class he'd be or if I got a choice I didn't want to go with Lokeir who's usually a WHM/SMN. Anyway, look how it turned out last game, I got to play Lokeir all of one hour =P. Already, I like this game better. I started with a 'Job', this is first appearance of the job system in FF, where each class is interchangable and you level a Job in addition to or in leiu of your normal levels. I quickly picked up the rest of my party and named them Ikorid, Yorick and Nazomi.
I then proceeded to get my ass handed to me, and be confused as to where to go, since I was getting one shotted down the obvious story arc road in a cave of skeletons and mummies. Had to go level a bit I guess... Grinded through about 8 levels in the out lying forests and main castle, then went back into the caves and cleaned house nicely. After a bit more story, I just now realize how far FF2 diverged and how quickly Square abandoned it to come back to what worked in the first game. And I was wrong before about the crystals. I thought every FF game held a common theme in crystals, but not 2. FF3 brought them back in again and the 'Warriors of Light' as my heros are called once more and have been prophecized once more to save the world once more. Sweeeet!
Presented with my first tier of jobs to pick for my characters, which I can change around at any time, I had to pick from... you guessed it: Warrior, Monk, Thief, Red Mage, Black Mage, White Mage. Awesome! I've decided to let the brothers Ikorid and Yorick have the spot light once more as the heavy hitters as Thief (to be Ninja I assume) and Warrior (to be Knight of some kind I assume) respectively. I put Rhek in some Black Mage garb and Nazomi got cast as a Red Mage (as she was when we played XI). What's that Rhek? No White Mage in your party??? Yea, gonna try it out, see if I can get away with a more damage oriented party.
Another cool aspect was the fact that you could move your spells around. Like I have a Cure orb and if suddenly I want Rhek to have cure instead of Nazomi, I can remove the orb from Nazomi and put it on Rhek. This seems familiar... *coughMateriAcough* While they do have levels on them, I don't think the spells/orbs level up, I think it just indicates that they go in the tier one slot on my magic grid.
Oh, oh, oh and I saw a Moogle in my second town. As well as Cid, and I already got his airship! and destroyed his airship... ><
It's cool though I guess, I got a magical canoe.....
Game is awesome so far, love it, reminds me of VII and Tactics quite a bit just because of the 3D look, the materia like spells, the job levels and the ability to change them, etc.
2 comments:
I see you like the idea of crafting your own characters, which I do as well, but the next 7 Final Fantasys (up to XI) are all static characters with their own unique background and story. Enjoy this one with your custom characters, it's the last!
Yea, but at least you could move spells around a little. I mean it all really comes down to spells in the end. Of course some characters like Aeris are a designated WHM from the start, but you could still make her a BLM, SMN, support type character with materia selection. Same in VIII, IX, and X if I remember right. All the other characters are perfectly capable of hitting hard with the right armor, spell set, or being a caster if you really wanted.
Post a Comment