jared_c's review of FINAL FANTASY III.

I have always wanted to go back and play the final fantasy series from start to completion. I started the series with XIII, then have slowly gone back and played a few of the more well acclaimed older titles (VII, X, a few others). Last year I finally committed to starting the series from the beginning and going through in order playing the ones I had missed. I had played 1 and 2 via the gba Dawn of Souls update, and thankfully by the time I finished 2, the pixel remasters had come out so starting the pixel remasters with the third iteration of the series. Final Fantasy III is probably the shortest Final Fantasy game I've played so far, but was still incredibly fun. This is the first of the series to introduce jobs (classes/roles), and as you progress through the game you unlock jobs continually. A few jobs are the obvious choices needed to keep in your party, but the game really gives you a lot of opportunity to experiment with trying out different jobs and team build up. Some bosses are MUCH more difficult if you don't have at least one character of a specific job in your party. Sometimes you may come across locked doors that if you didn't find any magical keys, you can assign someone the Thief job to have them pick the lock. You even unlock the last few jobs of the game basically at the start of the final dungeon/boss rush. You can get the jobs and backtrack a bit so that you can level up the jobs before continuing on (Ninja class OP, especially using shurikens). This made the gameplay last a good bit longer if you want to experiment. The story here is really interesting, with some great characters. They sprinkle in a good bit of humor this time around to make it feel at least a little more light hearted, getting an audible chuckle out of me from time to time. I didn't have too much trouble early on in the game (I've learned to dedicate a lot of time to grinding levels these early FF games), but some of the bosses near the end really made me sweat. Out of the first 3 Final Fantasy games, I'd say this is easily the most difficult thus far. The pixel remaster gives a few options to cheese the game a bit if you'd like, including doubling xp gains, or doubling (maybe quadrupling?) your gil gains after each battle. You could probably fly through these games if you max these bonuses out early on, but that would probably also make the entire game too easy. Good to have the options there though if you'd like! I really enjoyed FFIII and seeing the first iteration of the job system. I'm excited to continue this journey and see what IV brings to the table! Side note, the music in this one if fantastic!