Back in 1998 I got introduced to Final Fantasy VII. After playing it through I was lucky enough to experience the improved graphics and gripping story of VIII. The rest is history.
By now I am sure everyone who knows me knows that the Final Fantasy series of games is very close to my heart.
Last year I told you about my playthrough of Final Fantasy II. Strange thing is- we grew up with a game console like the Famicom (In South Africa it was the Golden China), but I never saw the big names like Metal Gear and Final Fantasy on it. To be honest- I wonder if I would have enjoyed it if I was not able to save my progress the way we do nowadays...
Nonetheless- I am really happy to be able to download these old games on the PS Vita. In this age of 500GB sized games it is nice to see how much value Final Fantasy actually delivers in their low-priced 200MB downloads.
I am really happy to get these looks into the past to see how we got to the epic adventures that we have in VII, VIII, X, XII and of course XV. Some of you may have other favourites. I totally understand.
I realise that the game I have played is a remake and I had the benefit of much nicer graphics than what players had in the original NES version (NES and Famicom are actually the same thing. You might know it as one thing in the West and it was known as the other in Japan back in the day). Still- in this game I saw the foreshadowing of the chibi-styled characters that we got to know in Final Fantasy VII, with the Playstation graphics.
Final Fantasy II had the kinds of magic and Cid that became a prevailing theme in later games along with the world map and battle system that we saw prevailing all the way up to X as far as I have played. I have not played XI so I welcome anyone to tell me about it.
III introduced us to 2 of my favourite things that I loved in later games- Chocobos and Summon Magic!
I must say- Square has really improved on that over the years...
I have always loved Shiva. She was not that awesome in the beginning, though. The summons of Final Fantasy 3 each have two possible moves whenever you use them and you don't get to choose.
Shiva had her Icy Stare which is actually much weaker than her Diamond Dust attack in VII, but that is the better of her two moves. If you are unlucky you end up with a status attack that is completely useless against boss characters.
And Bahamut- sheesh!
The badass master of the Mega Flare turns out to have only a status booster and an instant kill attack to its name. As we know, however, in Final Fantasy games- bosses are immune to instant kills.
The best of the summoned buffoons turned out to be Ifrit. He had his Hellfire attack right from his first day. Actually- I liked this version of him because it accidentally heals your party to 100% whenever it slips up. Now that is a mistake he is welcome to make in any battle- I am sure you will agree...
I have always thought that the dresspheres in X-2 were a novel idea for the franchise. III showed me, however, that they were in fact only a new version of the job system, that was introduced in this game if not in the very first. It was not in II.
One of the weirdest things I have found in this system is that the Monk- class actually gets weakened by the addition of its weapons rather than enhanced. In my case Luneth was a monk and his bare fists were even more powerful than the 2 most powerful warrior-class weapons combined!
As you progress in the game you get blessed by each of the 4 light crystals and with each blessing new jobs open up.
The job all 4 of the main characters start with is that of Freelancer.
Later on we get the following classes:
Warrior Class: Mystic Class: Martial Artists:
Warrior Black Mage Monk
Knight White Mage Black Belt
Onion Knight Red Mage Ninja
Dark Knight Geomancer
Dragoon Scholar
Viking Devout
Ranger Sage
With these jobs the newest are not necessarily the best. I have chosen the following jobs for the final battles: Monk, Dragoon, Sage x2.
My reasons for choosing the Monk were 2 things- Strongest attack power of all classes and the ability to counterattack. You meet some boss characters that get up to 3 turns to attack. Those counterattacks help even the odds in these instances. Sure- the Ninja looked cool and could throw stuff, but in the end I needed someone that could finish the fight.
The Sage is simply the best magic user. It can summon and use black as well as white magic. While I enjoyed seeing Refia in that cute Nekomimi outfit of the Devout class it was time to get serious. Those bastards in the final battles tend to target your white magic specialists, so it is nice to have two magic users that can both recover and attack.
Then- off all those classes in the Warrior category I chose the Dragoon. Thing is- all of the classes in this category are strong and heavily armoured (if you buy dilligently), but the Dragoon has this awesome ability called Jump. With Jump the Dragoon leaves the battle and stays out of harm's way while the other party members get injured and afflicted with status ailments. Then- while everyone is tied up dealing with all that- the Dragoon drops in unexpectedly and deals up to 9999 damage! Btw- one of my Dragoon Ignus' weapons was the Blood Lance that drained HP from enemies. In this game it drains generous amounts and I almost never needed to use recovery magic on him.
We further have not one, but 2 princesses in this game. The one being Sara- the love of Ignus' life and the other Aria- who would later get copied by another famous Final Fantasy lady in a later game by...
Okay- let's not spoil it entirely for everyone.
It is strange that all Final Fantasy games that I have played before this one (to recap- they are II, VII, VIII, X, X-2, XII and XV) one mostly had 1 airship, with VIII as the exception if you count the space ship. In this earlier game you had 4!
The first is Cid's airship that gets destroyed when you use it to ram a giant boulder out of the way.
The second starts out as a seafaring ship that you get from the Vikings. This gets modified by Cid later on to become an airship that can only land on water.
The Nautilus flies as fast as a jet plane. It can also move under water.
Then- lastly- you have the Invincible that does not land, but which can be exited. This ship also has shops and beds which make grinding a lot easier.
These were all the cool things about the game.
What had almost caused me to quit this game, however, was that the final battle is by no means a final battle. Set at a point where saving is not possible the first of the 6, yes SIX, final battles gets preceded by a rather long cutscene in which you have to press X just to get the dialogue to move along. You can't skip the animation, though...
I have died a couple of times, so this got on my nerves very soon.
After the first battle you enter the World of Darkness where you have to fight 5 compulsory battles. and 4 optional ones. The four optional ones are triggered by chests containing ribbons. Those of us who know our Final Fantasy know that ribbons ward off all status ailments. So- these battles are worth it as the final FINAL boss likes to turn people into toads like another boss character that we know from a later game...
Apart from that- this game's predecessor had a final boss that was ridiculously easy to defeat if you have battled Sephiroth in VII beforehand. III has final bosses that actually compare really well with those of VII. Be warned. I have died 4 times and you have 6 battles to go without saving in between...
This game is miles away from its predecessor. I can imagine it being the cause of a lot of game controllers having gotten broken during the 90's...
Speaking of status ailments- I have never thought that I would ever WANT to cast MINI or TOAD on myself, but the debut of these two kinds of status magic are actually as key elements that enable you to access important parts of the game. In some places you need to be a toad to swim under water and in others you need to be small enough to fit through small openings or to enter the Gnome Village.
All in all, however, I am glad to have finished the game and to be able to tell you about it.
We are now spoiled with high resolution graphics and realism and often criticise the games of this age for... I actually don't know why... I am actually still in awe of the games of this age because I can only imagine how much work must have gone into them.
Final Fantasy III proved to me, however, that although it was made in a time of consoles with 8bit graphics and no save features it did not prevent its creators at Squaresoft to squeeze as much of their imaginations into it to create a game that had me busy for days.
I will, however, appreciate a patch that allows for saving between those final battles...
