Since we were able to look at the whole of Final Fantasy 3 last week, now we are going to examine it in crucible of the canon. Sit back and watch, kiddies.
There! Now wasn’t that fun/only vaguely insulting to Final Fantasy 16?
FGC #700.2 Final Fantasy 3
System: Yes, we got captures from the Famicom, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo DS for that video. Those are just three of the systems that may contain a Final Fantasy 3.- Number of players: One dude played through, like, all of that.
- Director’s Commentary: I realized I have covered a lot of Final Fantasy games on the site, and I have footage saved from all of ‘em… so why not do something with all those files? Also, this whole thing was vaguely inspired by a post about summons by David Kinne, and he was an all-star that provided footage of Final Fantasy 14, too. Sorry! I couldn’t find Ifrit during my trial period!
- But was this video about Final Fantasy 3? Well, Final Fantasy 3 started it. Does that count for something? Bah! I’ll at least make the rest of these bullet points about the game. Does that work for everybody?
- Sad but true: In FF3, you can never have just one airship that does everything. You have to juggle your crafts if you want to successively visit every spot on the planet. This would be vaguely repeated a game later with Final Fantasy 4 not allowing the Lunar Whale to go underground, but at least that was justified. The Invincible doesn’t have “whale” as part of its name.
- Charge that Spell: This was the last Final Fantasy to have different levels of spells with different magic point charges. On one hand, this is the secret way to make Fire always valuable when you can nab Fira and Firaga. Unfortunately, it is easy to see why this is the last we would ever encounter that system, as it is almost guaranteed you will fill up your spell inventory for levels before you even know you are supposed to be able to wedge a casting of Ifrit in there. It was vaguely annoying in earlier games, but now that summons are a part of the picture, things have changed. MP forever.
- Equipment Matters: A number of RPGs from this era had issues with fitting shops/equipment upgrades into the endgame, because they established all the towns early, and then had four different dungeons left to go. See also Final Fantasy 5, or any of the 16-bit Mana games. Final Fantasy 3 attempts to alleviate this issue by including ruins where “some shops rushed into the ruins and are selling stuff”. This is immediately after you use magic to clear a cave in, so those Tornekos rushed in fast.
Random Questions: The dwarves, who are known for digging deep into the Earth, are living on a floating continent. Do they eventually dig straight through the island, and fall miles down to the ocean? Has that already happened?- Further Questions: There is a circle of seers in Gulgan Gulch. Are they supposed to be a reference to the circle of sages in Final Fantasy? Or does one just assume that those that can see the future and impart that wisdom to heroes just naturally hang out in circles waiting for heroes to arrive?
- Did you know? The original Final Fantasy 3 did not have healing/save points in the final dungeon. That whole palace can reasonably take hours, and vaguely feels like it is as long as every dungeon in the game combined. This is likely the result of FF3 being constructed by masochists.
- Would I play again: I fought a sea dragon in a river, I am now well and truly done with Final Fantasy 3. I will likely play any other Final Fantasy before I hit this one again (well, maybe not Final Fantasy 2), so I doubt I’ll see these onion kids again until after they expire. This video did remind me I haven’t played Final Fantasy 13 in ages…
What’s next? Random ROB has chosen… Mega Man 9! Tornado Man is coming down to Earth! Please look forward to it!
