Final Fantasy III is a lengthy quest with great graphics and fun level grinding.
You can only save on the world map. This might sound dated, but once you realize how short the dungeons are in the game you'll realize how easy the game would be if you could save before each boss battle. The only time I ever died in the game was fighting Bahamut on the mountain, fighting the dragon on the boat and the final boss before I figured out how to kill him. The game is not as hard as people make it out to be. If you liked Final Fantasy V like I did, then you'll enjoy this as much as me.
----------Battle System----------
Final Fantasy III is a classic turn-based RPG. The turns go in rounds like the first Final Fantasy, you have to set each characters moves and watch the round play out. The character or enemy with the greatest speed usually (but not always) go first. Some enemies go more than once to even things out though. The battles are all random, besides the boss fights. You can see all boss fights coming a mile away so you'll have plenty of time to repair. The random encounter rates isn't bad at all, there was a couple dungeons where I only had to fight twice before the boss. There's only 4 playable characters in the game, but at certain points in the storyline some 5th non-playable character will join you. One the map he or she will follow you, and if you go into a battle that 5th character will randomly attack first giving your characters a head start in battle. No character has an advantage over another. It doesn't matter which one you control on the map. No one learns any personalized spells or attacks. There are about 20 jobs to learn for each character and there's no way to master all the jobs before you finish the game. Each job however has advantages and disadvantages over another. Some jobs can equip swords, while others you can only equip rods. Some jobs can use magic, some can use other job-specific abilities. Each stat for a job can level up differently. Each job level can max out at 99. The higher the level the better the stats and the better your attack combos are. When you equip a new job your character starts off at level 1. Each time you equip a job your stats are always weakened until you beat a random number of battles.
While this game has alot of similarities to Final Fantasy 5, they differ with the magic. You have to buy all summons, white and black magic from stores like in the original Final Fantasy. You don't gain job experience, so you can only level up 1 job level per battle. I can't pin point exactly how to level up a job, but I think it's determined by how often you attack, or even faster how often you attack with your special abilities. The dungeons are fairly linear and easy to figure out. Most dungeons have hidden areas that are impossible to see with the naked eye. You have to walk across each wall to find them. This is a typical thing for Final Fantasy and its clones. On main screen you can zoom in and out using your stylus or L button. The zoom feature lets you see things better, or to find secrets. The secrets will show a glowing ring floating in the general area, and you have to click a lever or wall to activate something. The only difficulty in dungeons is to survive to the end of them and beat the boss. The only trick I had was to not use any magic on the way. I still breezed by this game without much trouble. ----------Characters / Story----------
The story is lacking alot. They gave the game an entire make over, but pretty much didn't change much about the story, while there’s more dialog, there's still short on it. They give each character a background, and a small amount of personality, but still not enough. The story is decent, and they give you enough dialog to move you along to the next area though. Overall, don't expect an epic Final Fantasy storyline along the lines of FF4 and FF6-12. Overall the game is very similar to Final Fantasy 5. ----------Graphics----------
At the start of the game you'll be welcomed with a lengthy CGI cutscene that uses both screens at some points. This is the only CGI cutscene in the game, so soak it up while it lasts. You can view it anytime you start the game up though. The characters are bigheaded block 3D models. The character models are slightly better looking than the ones from Final Fantasy 7. The backgounds are in game 3D, not pre-rendered at all. The camera is fix on your character at all times, so you can't move it at all. You can however zoom in and out to view secrets. When your characters have important dialog scenes the camera zooms into the characters that are talking to give them more expressions. When you change job classes your characters costumes change as well, but they all have distinct characteristics to them. If you change everyone into a warrior there will be atleast something different between each character. The only thing that changes about your character when you equip stuff is the weapons, they're all visible in the battle scenes.
The enemy models look great, and they're always in constant movement, unlike the the NES and SNES Final Fantasys of the past. ----------Sound----------
The music is classic Final Fantasy stuff we've all heard a million times. There's no voice overs or even voice effects. The sound effects are minimal. Overall the Final Fantasy score is fun stuff to listen to while playing an RPG and it never gets old.
----------World Map----------
The map is a tried and true Final Fantasy overview world map. The top screen displays the world map with dots displaying each town and dungeon. The bottom screen is where you physically walk across the map either by foot, boat or flying ship. The map starts off small just displaying a small continent, then it eventually gets bigger as you unlock new areas until it finall displays the entire map at once.
----------Time to Complete Game (first run through, last save before credits)----------
36:40:04
After you beat the final boss you keep ALL experience, gil and items you found in the final castle since your last save and they warp you out of the castle where you can save and play on!