just keep on trying in your way
I finished Final Fantasy III last night. Hooray! This puts me one step closer to my goal of playing ALL the Final Fantasy games (in the main series, at the very least) before FFXIII comes out.
I had problems getting into this one. Maybe it was because I had played nothing but RPGs for months. FFI, FFII, the complete Kingdom Hearts series, FFVII... by the time I got to FFIII I was a bit burned out.
But really, I think the problem was the Distant Worlds concert. I absolutely loved seeing bits from all the games, and I left the concert with a deep urge to collect and play them all ASAP. FFIII was one that I was most excited about playing; the opening video really intrigued me and made it look awesome. Anticipation tends to be a problem, much like hype. I had heard so much hype about FFVII that I pretty much expected that it would not live up to it (and in my opinion, it didn't), so it doesn't really surprise me that FFIII was not the awesome experience I was hoping it would be. Disappoints me, yes, but not surprises me.
Here, let me show you the opening video:
Being that I'm a a story person, the stuff that immediately caught my attention were the character moments. Specifically, the scene with Luneth and Ingus having an argument, ending with Luneth GRRfacing, and the later seen showing Ingus saving Luneth. I fully expected these moments to happen in game. Except they didn't. Okay, yeah, Ingus and Luneth vaguely get on each others' nerves, but for the most part there's no arguing. And unless my memory fails me, there is no such moment where Ingus says Luneth from falling off a cliff.
Character development is pretty sparse in this game overall. Oh, they definitely do have character traits. They feel like real people. Even the NPCs have personality. But there's really no character arcs or growth of any kind. And while there is a most definite story arc, it didn't feel very gripping to me, and thus I had no impetus to play the game other than to knock it off my list.
Also: I've gotten spoiled with the later games in the series (and the KH series) in that I've gotten used to moooooooooooooovies during expositiony scenes. Since there was a pretty pretty FMV as the opener, I kind of expected we'd see some during the game, too. No such luck. There's a teensy one at the end of the game, but pretty much the opening is it.
So, meh.
All that being said: I certainly didn't hate the game. Here's the things I consider the strong points:
(1) The Job Class system. Out of all the Final Fantasy games I've played, this one has the most flexible jobs. You can switch jobs at will, which means if you suddenly find yourself needing a thief so you can open doors, it's no problem. I tended to leave my characters in their particular jobs so they'd increase their job levels and become stronger, but all the characters changed jobs at least once in the game, and some changed several times. One drawback to this system, though, is that it tended to make battles a bit too easy as you could use a job that was suited to the situation, though that's not entirely a drawback.
(2) The NPCs. One of the things I really love about the series is that the gameplay is slightly different in each game. In this one, NPCs join your party at times, and they'll help out in battle. You can also talk to them at any time, which leads to greater story detail (though it can also be annoying because they repeat themselves a lot). I found most of the NPCs to be fun, interesting characters that I enjoyed being with.
(3) The hidden passageways and items. It was fun to zoom in and see if there was any loot laying around or to discover a secret room. I'm sure I didn't find them all, so on the next playthrough I'll use a guide so I can find the ones I missed.
(4) Ingus' victory pose. It cracked me up so much!
1:06:42 PM xnera: Ingus is the pouty one in the game. When they do the victory pose he stands there with his arms crossed, looking down at the ground instead of at the "camera" like the others
1:06:55 PM xnera: and when he goes up a level, he just does a fist pump. it's funny
1:07:15 PM mackillian: lol
1:07:18 PM mackillian: lol
1:07:27 PM xnera: he wears gloves, so I like to pretend he is flipping everyone off beneath his glove when he does the fist pump
1:10:42 PM mackillian: *snort*
I laughed for several minutes when I had him leading the party as a thief, because he then had his back turned to the rest of the group during the victory pose. *giggles* I'm also dying to see some fan art of Ingus wearing the Devout outfit with the hood up, 'cause it'd be hysterical. Bonus points if it's the girls' outfit. I'd draw it myself except I lack the skills.
(5) The endgame. This is where I finally took an interest in the story, because threads came together and got tied up in a neat package. The endgame is what really saved the game for me and made it a story rather than a string of events. No, I'm not going to explain why, 'cause I hate spoilers and don't want to spoil anyone who might want to play it.
I want to take a moment to talk about the music. Part of the reason I enjoy playing the early games is because I'm well familiar with the musical themes from listening to the various Final Fantasy CDs nonstop for the past six years. So I was looking forward to hearing the familiar tunes, much like I sometimes wandered around in FFI just so I could hear the music play. Matoya's Cave, man. <3
One of my favorite songs from the Final Fantasy N Generation disc is The Breeze, which is an arranged version of a Final Fantasy III theme. I fully expected to hear it in game; because of the feel of the song, I suspected it might be the end theme. Except I didn't notice it while playing. o_O So I did a bunch of Googling and Wiki-ing and YouTubing, and after much research, I have concluded that The Breeze is a heavily arranged version of the Hometown of Ur theme. Which fascinates me. Part of the reason FFVIII's OST is high on my favorites is that the individual themes are layered and rearranged throughout the soundtrack; to me, it speaks of how brilliant a composer Uematsu-san is. The fact that The Breeze is so, so different from its in-game song just blows my mind, and makes me wish I understood music theory better so I could pick it apart some more.
Likewise, I had a similar issue identifying Roaming Sheep; more searching and researching, and I have decided it is likely a arrangement Eternal Wind. Y'all agree with these two discoveries, or are my ears deceiving me?
And finally *snerks*, I griped to mackillian this morning that the game did NOT end with the Final Fantasy theme. WUWT? Except I just listened to the end credits again, and you DO hear a phrase or two of it in the background towards the end. I'm still grumbling about this because IT'S THE FRICKIN' THEME SONG and it IMO should be much more prominent, but at least it IS there.
I found the music mostly forgettable while playing, but I highly suspected it was due to the limitations of the DS' sound system, and after listening to the tracks again via YouTube I have confirmed that. They sound much, much better on my computer than on my DS, and it's no wonder to me, then, that I love the arranged/concert versions so much. That said, there WAS one theme that captured me in-game, and that was Forbidden Land Eureka. It's the most epic, powerful theme in the game, in my personal opinion, and I loved revisting Eureka so I could hear the song again.
So there's my review. Yes, I will play this game again. I'm hoping I'll like it better the second time around, but even if not... well, I'll still enjoy it. If only because Ingus is so cute when he's pouting. :D
And this icon reminds me that I haven't watched the Versus trailers in several days, so I'm gonna go do that.
I had problems getting into this one. Maybe it was because I had played nothing but RPGs for months. FFI, FFII, the complete Kingdom Hearts series, FFVII... by the time I got to FFIII I was a bit burned out.
But really, I think the problem was the Distant Worlds concert. I absolutely loved seeing bits from all the games, and I left the concert with a deep urge to collect and play them all ASAP. FFIII was one that I was most excited about playing; the opening video really intrigued me and made it look awesome. Anticipation tends to be a problem, much like hype. I had heard so much hype about FFVII that I pretty much expected that it would not live up to it (and in my opinion, it didn't), so it doesn't really surprise me that FFIII was not the awesome experience I was hoping it would be. Disappoints me, yes, but not surprises me.
Here, let me show you the opening video:
Click to viewBeing that I'm a a story person, the stuff that immediately caught my attention were the character moments. Specifically, the scene with Luneth and Ingus having an argument, ending with Luneth GRRfacing, and the later seen showing Ingus saving Luneth. I fully expected these moments to happen in game. Except they didn't. Okay, yeah, Ingus and Luneth vaguely get on each others' nerves, but for the most part there's no arguing. And unless my memory fails me, there is no such moment where Ingus says Luneth from falling off a cliff.
Character development is pretty sparse in this game overall. Oh, they definitely do have character traits. They feel like real people. Even the NPCs have personality. But there's really no character arcs or growth of any kind. And while there is a most definite story arc, it didn't feel very gripping to me, and thus I had no impetus to play the game other than to knock it off my list.
Also: I've gotten spoiled with the later games in the series (and the KH series) in that I've gotten used to moooooooooooooovies during expositiony scenes. Since there was a pretty pretty FMV as the opener, I kind of expected we'd see some during the game, too. No such luck. There's a teensy one at the end of the game, but pretty much the opening is it.
So, meh.
All that being said: I certainly didn't hate the game. Here's the things I consider the strong points:
(1) The Job Class system. Out of all the Final Fantasy games I've played, this one has the most flexible jobs. You can switch jobs at will, which means if you suddenly find yourself needing a thief so you can open doors, it's no problem. I tended to leave my characters in their particular jobs so they'd increase their job levels and become stronger, but all the characters changed jobs at least once in the game, and some changed several times. One drawback to this system, though, is that it tended to make battles a bit too easy as you could use a job that was suited to the situation, though that's not entirely a drawback.
(2) The NPCs. One of the things I really love about the series is that the gameplay is slightly different in each game. In this one, NPCs join your party at times, and they'll help out in battle. You can also talk to them at any time, which leads to greater story detail (though it can also be annoying because they repeat themselves a lot). I found most of the NPCs to be fun, interesting characters that I enjoyed being with.
(3) The hidden passageways and items. It was fun to zoom in and see if there was any loot laying around or to discover a secret room. I'm sure I didn't find them all, so on the next playthrough I'll use a guide so I can find the ones I missed.
(4) Ingus' victory pose. It cracked me up so much!
1:06:42 PM xnera: Ingus is the pouty one in the game. When they do the victory pose he stands there with his arms crossed, looking down at the ground instead of at the "camera" like the others
1:06:55 PM xnera: and when he goes up a level, he just does a fist pump. it's funny
1:07:15 PM mackillian: lol
1:07:18 PM mackillian: lol
1:07:27 PM xnera: he wears gloves, so I like to pretend he is flipping everyone off beneath his glove when he does the fist pump
1:10:42 PM mackillian: *snort*
I laughed for several minutes when I had him leading the party as a thief, because he then had his back turned to the rest of the group during the victory pose. *giggles* I'm also dying to see some fan art of Ingus wearing the Devout outfit with the hood up, 'cause it'd be hysterical. Bonus points if it's the girls' outfit. I'd draw it myself except I lack the skills.
(5) The endgame. This is where I finally took an interest in the story, because threads came together and got tied up in a neat package. The endgame is what really saved the game for me and made it a story rather than a string of events. No, I'm not going to explain why, 'cause I hate spoilers and don't want to spoil anyone who might want to play it.
I want to take a moment to talk about the music. Part of the reason I enjoy playing the early games is because I'm well familiar with the musical themes from listening to the various Final Fantasy CDs nonstop for the past six years. So I was looking forward to hearing the familiar tunes, much like I sometimes wandered around in FFI just so I could hear the music play. Matoya's Cave, man. <3
One of my favorite songs from the Final Fantasy N Generation disc is The Breeze, which is an arranged version of a Final Fantasy III theme. I fully expected to hear it in game; because of the feel of the song, I suspected it might be the end theme. Except I didn't notice it while playing. o_O So I did a bunch of Googling and Wiki-ing and YouTubing, and after much research, I have concluded that The Breeze is a heavily arranged version of the Hometown of Ur theme. Which fascinates me. Part of the reason FFVIII's OST is high on my favorites is that the individual themes are layered and rearranged throughout the soundtrack; to me, it speaks of how brilliant a composer Uematsu-san is. The fact that The Breeze is so, so different from its in-game song just blows my mind, and makes me wish I understood music theory better so I could pick it apart some more.
Likewise, I had a similar issue identifying Roaming Sheep; more searching and researching, and I have decided it is likely a arrangement Eternal Wind. Y'all agree with these two discoveries, or are my ears deceiving me?
And finally *snerks*, I griped to mackillian this morning that the game did NOT end with the Final Fantasy theme. WUWT? Except I just listened to the end credits again, and you DO hear a phrase or two of it in the background towards the end. I'm still grumbling about this because IT'S THE FRICKIN' THEME SONG and it IMO should be much more prominent, but at least it IS there.
I found the music mostly forgettable while playing, but I highly suspected it was due to the limitations of the DS' sound system, and after listening to the tracks again via YouTube I have confirmed that. They sound much, much better on my computer than on my DS, and it's no wonder to me, then, that I love the arranged/concert versions so much. That said, there WAS one theme that captured me in-game, and that was Forbidden Land Eureka. It's the most epic, powerful theme in the game, in my personal opinion, and I loved revisting Eureka so I could hear the song again.
So there's my review. Yes, I will play this game again. I'm hoping I'll like it better the second time around, but even if not... well, I'll still enjoy it. If only because Ingus is so cute when he's pouting. :D
And this icon reminds me that I haven't watched the Versus trailers in several days, so I'm gonna go do that.