2023-04-26 15:00:00
Square Enix’s “FINAL FANTASY III” (herefollowing, “FFIII”) celebrates its 33rd anniversary today, marking the anniversary of “doing three things”.
When it comes to “FF”, there are many titles that have a “job system”, but following the first work, “FFIII” has a job system that has evolved further. After being released as an RPG for the Famicom on April 27, 1990, this work was ported to various hardware, and on April 20, 2023, the Pixel Remastered version was released on PlayStation 4 / Nintendo Switch. (PC/smartphone version will be released in 2021).
In this article, I would like to look back on such “FFIII” with memories.
[[FF Pixel Remastered]”Final Fantasy III” Promotion Trailer]
Development of job system
The jobs of the first “FF” consisted only of standard jobs such as warrior, monk, thief, red magician, white magician, and black magician, but this work has more than 20 jobs. Was. Therefore, the combination of jobs is infinite! However, the boss “Garuda” is very difficult to capture unless all of them are dragon knights.
All “FFIII” jobs start from “Onion Swordsman”. Onion Swordsman is often thought of as the weakest job in the game, but in reality, his stats increase rapidly around level 90, and he becomes the strongest at level 99. There was also a powerful weapon and armor called the “Onion” series that only Onion swordsmen might equip.
Starting from such an onion swordsman, all party members do not have proper nouns like “FFII”, and are closer to the first generation “FF”. By the way, FFIII was also the first time job-specific commands such as Thief’s “Nusum” and Dragoon’s “Jump” appeared. Although it was not called an ability yet at this time, it can be said to be the origin of the ability.
By the way, there were several works that adopted the job system, but while many of them returned to level 1 when changing jobs, “FFIII” maintains the character level. There is a system called proficiency that increases as you continue to use the job, and the maximum proficiency is 99, and the higher the proficiency value, the more damage you can deal to enemies and the greater the effect of job abilities. There is In other words, it can be said that raising both levels and proficiency is the biggest feature of FFIII.
In this work, you can change jobs anytime, anywhere except during battle, but in the original version, you needed something called capacity points (CP) when changing jobs, so CP tended to run out. However, did you know that the CP system has been removed in the pixel remastered version that was just released on the home console the other day? The Picurima version is even easier to play, and that’s why I still recommend FFIII.
The Eternal Wind and the Crystal Tower, the background music has deep memories
What do you think of when you hear “FFIII”? The first thing that comes to mind for me is the field BGM called “Eternal Wind”. Recently, it has been used in games such as FFXIV, so it seems that more and more people are familiar with Eternal Wind. It’s a field BGM, but it’s no exaggeration to say that it’s actually the main theme of FFIII.
At that time, it was an era of so-called “blinking sounds”, but it is a song that makes you feel a spacious and wide field, and if you close your eyes, it is a song that reminds you of the wind. It’s a song that starts with an arpeggio that feels like Nobuo Uematsu, and the rhythm of this arpeggio can be said to be perfect.
And another memorable one is “Crystal Tower” (aka “Tower of Silks”). This also appears in “FFXIV”, including BGM and the actual Crystal Tower, so many people may know it there. However, in fact, when FFIII was released, the Crystal Tower was a so-called “villainous dungeon”. The final dungeon from the Labyrinth of the Ancients is the Crystal Tower. There is also an entrance to “Forbidden Land Eureka”, where you can obtain powerful weapons and magic. But the problem isn’t Eureka. It’s the Crystal Tower.
The Crystal Tower, commonly known as Kuritawa, was a very long dungeon. And while it’s long enough to make you want to emphasize that, there are no recovery points or save points. Even so, it was possible to go back outside until I defeated Xande, but once I defeated Xande and entered the world of darkness, I mightn’t even go back. In other words, at the end, you have two choices: die and return or live and clear. Defeat Xande on the top floor of Kuritawa → Defeat the 4 bosses in the world of darkness → Defeat the final boss Cloud of Darkness. I can’t do it too much.
Even so, it was a fairly difficult dungeon to clear at first glance (with gimmicks that are hard to notice at first glance), and it was a dungeon that might only be described as brutal. Of course, if they were wiped out, they would have to climb Kuritawa once more from the beginning.
……The Crystal Tower, which has been closed for a long time, has a very impressive BGM. Rather, it can be said that the transparent and beautiful melody supported the heart that was regarding to break. I can even feel the excitement of being able to make a song this far with a sound source from the FC era, so if you only know the arranged version, I would like you to listen to the Piko Piko sound. Especially with the home console version of Pikrima, you can switch between the original sound source and the arranged sound source.
By the way, in the pixel remastered version, although there is no save point, you can save interrupted. Also, since the auto save is done at the timing of the map change, it can be said that the difficulty of Oita Kuritawa has been lowered. Although I have a desire to challenge the difficulty level that broke my heart at the time, the ease of play of Pikrima is one of its charms.
It’s a little off topic, but FFIII still ranks among my favorite FF series. It is no exaggeration to say that most of the reasons are in the BGM of good songs. In particular, “Battle 2”, which flows during the boss battle, is one of the most famous boss battle songs of all time, as it inspires the excitement of the battle, “I must defeat this enemy in front of me!”
“Giant City Saronia” is also one of the most memorable songs, even though it can only be heard for a limited time. It has the bravery of an army, and the sense of presence of a “great city” is audibly appealing.
“FFIII” has so many songs that awaken to the wonderfulness of music, and I think there are many fans who say, “This is where I woke up to game music.” In fact, I used to listen to the original soundtrack like crazy at the time.
It’s certainly a work that puts emphasis on the system aspect, but…
“FF” has been said to be a series where the even numbers are the story and the odd numbers are the system. The four protagonists, the onion swordsmen, don’t even have names and have no individuality. Although it is certainly a work closer to the system than the story, the story cannot be fooled at all.
At the time of release, I didn’t know what happened for a moment when I got out of the floating continent. I thought that the floating continent was the whole world, and I never imagined that it was just one small world, and that there was still a vast world outside the floating continent.
The floating continent and the surface world, the story running around the two was very magnificent.
The NPCs were also very attractive. The comical “Foursome Grandpa”, which also had its own BGM, was good, but the “Water Priestess Area”, which is also famous as BGM, is one of the important NPCs that excites this work.
He accompanies the party to restore light to the water crystal that has sunk, but at the young age of 15, he shoulders various difficulties, and when he protects the main characters, he receives a poisoned arrow and loses his life. I mightn’t watch the story without crying.
Another thing that brought tears to my eyes was Desh, who was impressive in his bright blue outfit. Desh, who has a bright personality even though he has lost his memory, accompanies him to Owen’s Tower and regains the memory he lost at Owen’s Tower, remembering himself as the watchman of Owen’s Tower. And in order to stop Owen’s tower rampage, he jumped into the flames of the power reactor alone.
…… And so far, it is a tearful story that leads to “death”, but in later developments, it turns out that Desh is actually alive. It was a development that almost told me to return my tears, but I remember being honestly happy that Desh was alive.
It’s true that compared to FF, which emphasizes the story, it’s a classic story with a light seasoning, but that doesn’t mean the story is bad. The first boss battle is over, there is an opening, and then you learn your mission and set off on your journey… “FFIII” has the goodness of a story that is typical of “FFIII”. Therefore, it can be said that the “eternal wind” is still deeply rooted in our hearts.
Masterpieces you still want to play
It’s a work from 33 years ago, so there are parts that are overly generous, especially the Garuda battle that can only be cleared by a dragon knight, enemies that can only be dealt with by the Dark Sword, dungeons that can only be cleared by a real mage, and so on. There were times. Although it was easy to become a shinobi kenken (ninja and sage) in the end, I tried becoming a thief, a magic swordsman, a geomancer, and a scholar. It’s attractive to be able to enjoy various jobs such as becoming one. Also, although it has nothing to do with strength, doushi’s job icon was really cute.
It is no exaggeration to say that the job system established in this work will be passed down to the later FF series for a long time. For those of you who haven’t played it yet, I definitely want you to play it, and for those who played it at the time, I would like to take this opportunity to recommend the Picryma version of FFIII.
In the end, I ended up sticking with Pikrima, but it’s still a masterpiece that I want people to play even following 33 years. With the Pikrima version, you can adjust the encounter on/off function, and the amount of experience points and ABP you earn, so you’ll be happy that the clearing time will be greatly shortened.
I think that the fact that the home console version of Pikrima “FFIII” was released just the other day at this exact timing in 1933 is some kind of fate. In addition to the PS4/Switch home console version, there is also a PC/smartphone version that has been released before, so it would be great if you might play according to your environment.
© 1987, 2021 SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD. All Rights Reserved.
LOGO & IMAGE ILLUSTRATION: © 1987 YOSHITAKA AMANO
1682527225
#FINAL #FANTASY #III #Todays #33rd #Anniversary #Days #Eternal #wind #crystal #tower #impressive #work #nowGAME #Watch
