E3 06: Final Fantasy III Preshow Report

Final Fantasy III has the distinction of being the only Final Fantasy game to have never been brought to US shores, or to have been ported or remade. That's all going to change later this year, though, as Square Enix prepares to release Final Fantasy III for the Nintendo DS.

Final Fantasy III for the DS is a complete remake of the original game. So far, the only concrete information we have about what will be different is that all of the graphics have been modeled in 3D, which is a far cry from the 8-bit graphics of the original game, which came out on the Famicom more than 15 years ago.

The game follows the tale of four young heroes who are in search of magic light crystals, which are required to maintain peace and harmony in the world. The gameplay is similar to other Final Fantasy games in that you travel from dungeon to dungeon and engage in random encounters. Final Fantasy III features a job system that lets you train your characters in various job classes. Each character gains new abilities and commands depending on which job class they are assigned to. It's a versatile system that was later seen in Final Fantasy V and Tactics.

We're hoping to learn more about this remake of the "lost" Final Fantasy game, including how the unique features of the DS hardware will affect gameplay. We'll bring you more details before this game when it is released later this year.