A quick note before the review: I originally began a game of Final Fantasy III on the NES, but I only played for maybe five hours before I was unable to play further. Later I got FF3 for the Nintendo DS, which is an updated version. My review is based 90% on the DS version, though I will make occasional comments about the NES version.
     Final Fantasy III was the first ever job-class based Final Fantasy. This means that it is the first one where your party members are able to change between a warrior, black mage, thief, red mage, etc. throughout the game. Everything about this game is extremely well done considering the time period, even though it is obviously not the best in any regard. Some of this is due to the remake's new graphics and such, but the unchanged fundamentals still speak for themselves.
     The most important element to any game is the gameplay, which in this case is pretty decent. Sometimes it can be difficult to figure out where you're supposed to go, but it's generally a linear plot, which means you'll gain items such as a canoe, which means you need to enter the dungeon across the river. Occasionally, there will be two areas you can go to, but you'll figure out based on the dungeon's difficulty if you're supposed to be there or not. Which means save your game often, because you might walk into a dungeon accidentally where a single monster can destroy you all in a hit.  The fighting is fun, though a bit hard. One difficult element to deal with is directions after a fight. Your guy automatically faces forward when you end a battle, so if you forgot if you were going right or left at the current junction when you encountered a fight, you're going to probably go back and forth until you realize you went the wrong way. Then you get into another fight and forget all over again. Whee!
     The good gameplay largely comes from an amazingly customizable system. The job classes are like any other you have encountered. You progressively get more job classes at your disposal and can swap around between them, which means any two battles can feel completely different. This game has one element that no other job class Final Fantasy has had, and that is a warm-up period. If you change your job class, your stats are lowered for a set number of fights. This number is based on your job level as well as what job you changed from, which means if you change from a physical to a magic class (for example), there will be a higher waiting time until your stats are fully restored. While this can be slightly annoying if you want to become a new job right before a boss and now have to run in circles before fighting him, it has a certain element of awesomeness and realism to it, which I love.
     As I mentioned, there are job levels in addition to normal levels. Your normal level will make you a more proficient warrior, despite your specific job class. Your job level will make you more proficient in your specific job. By leveling up your job, you gain specific stats for that class, which will not carry over should you change your job (that's what normal levels are for). Also, by leveling up your job, you are able to hit more times with your weapon, thus causing more damage (normal levels do this too, but it stacks with job class). So as a monk, you may hit 12 times and do massive damage, then you come across an awesome sword or two and swap to a knight, but with no job levels in knight, you may only hit twice and not do a whole lot of damage. Leveling up not only your level, but also your job level is very important in this game.
     The customization is extremely cool for this game. For any job class, you're allowed to use a single weapon or two weapons. Which is awesome for several reasons. First off, however many times you're hitting when you attack is doubled, which also doubles the damage. So if you do a 6 hit combo, then equip a second sword, you'll now do a 12 hit combo. However, if your job allows you to use a shield, you really may want to consider it instead of a second weapon. You will need defense, it just depends if you want to sacrifice some awesome power for that defense. But for job classes that can't use a shield, you may as well throw a second weapon on, like a second magic power increasing staff for your mage.
     Much like Final Fantasy I, the awesome system of magic items makes for an interesting setup. Magic items means that sometimes you'll happen across something like a fire rod, which has a property of "Casts fire". This doesn't happen randomly after you attack like in some Final Fantasy games, but instead it means you can go into your items, select the fire rod, and target an enemy for a fire attack. A limiting factor in this game instead of FF1, however, is that only specific classes can use the specified items. Essentially, your monk cannot use a fire rod from your stash as an item, but your black mage can. This seems pointless until you realize that they (the Final Fantasy games) still hadn't moved away from level-based magic, which I will explain... right now.
     Level-based magic is the type of magic where you equip certain spells to your characters, then, each of those magics is a specific level (such as "Cure" is level 1, while "Fire 2" is a level 3). Your characters, as they level up (normal levels as well as job levels), will gain more uses of specific levels of spells. It is a very nice system to limit your power early on, so just because you have Fire 2 really early in the game doesn't mean you can just use it over and over. You may have just one use of a level 3 spell like Fire 2, so you'll need to use it wisely. Normally the level-based magic is annoying, but because there are still the magic items, and you get some of those items really early, they aren't so killer.
     The story is always important to a Final Fantasy (sometimes being more important than gameplay), and Final Fantasy III is not stellar in this department. The story is good, but simple. It's still the typical quest of the light warriors who are seeking out the power from the crystals in order to stop the darkness. The interesting part of the story happens when you realize it isn't the darkness you're fighting, but instead the void. The nothingness. That which is not light nor dark. For the overall story, the interesting parts (in my opinion) happen in the final dungeon, so I can't talk much about it. But the light/dark/void conflict was kinda interesting to me. Not wonderfully entertaining, but kind of interesting.
     Graphics and music are impressive on the Nintendo DS, but not in the NES version. The graphics were very well done on the DS. It was remade in a more three dimensional environment and everything is very fluid. They're good. The graphics on the NES were about the same as FF1. Possibly worse, in fact. Like most job class games go, they have different looks based on what class they are. Unfortunately, the NES doesn't hold much information, so making so many characters probably took a lot of room, which made them drop the quality a bit. Some graphics improved since FF1 and FF2, but some were worse, so it's kind of a wash...
     This game is pretty fun. It has some fun parts that force you to cast spells like mini on yourself, or frog. It's a fun little game. It isn't exactly a must-play, but if you're a fan of early Final Fantasy games, then you might as well give it a try. If you have a Nintendo DS, it's a good purchase. I enjoy it a lot. If you have an NES emulator or some other way of playing the original version, then it's a tough call. As a fan of the Final Fantasy style, I'd still say to play it, but if you never actually play this game, it's not the end of the world. I'll still let you call yourself a Final Fantasy fan, even if you haven't ever played this one... Though I might not call you a fan...

Goatbob's Rating: 
5/10 Lamps