Well, fresh off of the craptastic experience that was Final Fantasy 4, I decided to give its
predecessor Final Fantasy 3 a try. Instead of playing the DS remake, I opted to play the
translated NES original using an emulator... primary so I could draw fair comparisons
between FF3 and the NES Dragon Warrior Games.



I played the game all the way through. I'm amazed by how similar it was to FF4 in terms of
basic gameplay, and even graphics. Just like the kinda-sorta ugly Dragon Quest 5, the FF4
graphics were definitely carry-overs from the previous NES games. FF4 probably could
have been called "Final Fantasy 3 with a s*** story and no class changing".

While Final Fantasy 3 had its moments, it still doesn't hold a candle to Dragon Warrior 3 or
4. As expected, the class changing system was INCREDIBLY shallow. You can essentially
change your class at any moment, and the only thing that carries over is Max HP. This
translates into certain parts of the game where you have to change all four of your party
members to a certain class just to beat a particular boss or get through a dungeon that has
class-targeted enemies.

Not that you'll really care about what your class is anyway, because at the end of the game
you get access to the two UBER CLASSES, which equate to an unstoppable warrior class
that can equip every weapon/armor, and a magic class that can cast every spell in the
game. Lame.



The overworld stuff is cool- airships that can do different things, from dive underwater to
hop over mountains. There are also secrets-galore to be found in dungeons and towns,
which is fun. The graphics are pretty damn good for an NES game as well.

Overall FF3 was fun but shallow, and very disappointing near the end. Which brings me to
the next FF game that I'm going to take a stab at... Final Fantasy 5.

I'm about three hours in and FF5 has COMPLETELY blown me away so far! The class
changing system isn't just really fun... it's very deep without being to complex or
intimidating. The graphics are great, the music is excellent, and so far the story is generic
but well done.

So, here is where things stand on the FF games that I have played through:

FF X > FF XII > FF 3 > FF 4 > FF 1