The Ruler of Time and Space! Let’s Play Final Fantasy Legend 3

I doubt I’m teaching anyone here new things about this game, but it was originally released in Japan as SaGa 3: Jikū no Hasha, and like the previous two SaGa games, it was released as “Final Fantasy Legend” in the US to boost sales. Unlike the first two SaGa games, it was made by the team that developed Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest, and is generally considered the oddball of the series.

It’s also the only game in the SaGa series that I ever beat “honestly”, using no cheat devices or guides beyond what came with the game. These two things are related.

I recently realized that, while I’ve played through this game at least half a dozen times in nearly 20 years, I always use basically the same party: Human, Mutant, Mutant, Beast. Occasionally I switch off who gets to be the Beast. I don’t think I’ve ever used a Robot.

Hence this LP. I’m going to attempt to play through the game with a party of Robot, Cyborg, Beast, Monster; with each character locked into that type from as early as possible until the ending. The plot will mostly come in transcriptions to limit the deluge of text screenshots, and I’ll be commenting on the various forms my characters switch into and how well they perform in different areas.

In retrospect, I wish I could provide a more in-depth translation, because while Woolsey’s work here is better than the average game at the time, it’s still crammed in and obviously missing pieces. But I don’t know any Japanese. Instead, you’ll get fanwanking about what I think is “really” going on.

Our heroes:


Their US default names are Arthur, Curtis, Gloria and Sharon. In the remake (the best translation of the Japanese default names I know of) their names are Dune, Polnaref, Milfie and Sireugh. But I suspect we can do better in both cases.

With no further ado…Pick me some names! Six character limit. Note that the four characters will be changed into Robot, Cyborg, Beast, and Monster, in that order.

GaiGar, Austin, Hank, and Frank

Butz, Vaan, Rydia, and Liting.

Most of the people here haven't played this game. Don't sell yourself short, especially not as the opening sentence of your LP.

Reed, Ben Grimm, Sue and Milfie.

Because how could you POSSIBLY reject a character name like "Milfie"

I've never played this one either. I kept meaning to but never actually did.

6 character limit. Benrim? Bengri? Bengrm? :/

Thing

After actually noticing what these characters are going to be, my name choices have changed:

Uly, Yale, Devon, True

Time to rewatch Earth 2?

To tweak the Marvel theme a bit:

Robot: Vision
Cyborg: Cable
Beast: Beast
Monster: Thing

This is it, True Believers! A classic team-up for the ages!

Yeah, but that's a team that has The Vision. You can see the obvious problem it has.

Alternate robot: Ultron. Sure, he's the hero!

I'd have gone with The Mad Thinkers Awesome Android, or The Super Adaptoid but your idea is good too

Robot: Robot
Cyborg: Cyborg
Beast: Beast
Monster: Monstr

I'm changing my vote to this, except instead of "Milfie" it should be "HERBIE".

Please don't use Milfie. My brain will automatically switch it to MILFie and that's too weird to keep reading the entire duration of a LP.

Oh snap! This is one of my favorite games ever, so I'm definitely excited about this. I honestly prefer the default names since that's what I'm so used to. Godspeed on the whole heavy usage of not-Humans/Mutants though, I could never make that work effectively and always stuck to their default forms as well as names. Maybe that was why I had such a hard time with stuff??? =p That or being a dumb kid, one or the other...not like being older makes the form system much less arcane even with the in-manual charts that I felt lied to me. But yeah, this game is awesome and incredibly ambitious for a Gameboy RPG.

If anything, this.

This is a neat game.
ProTip: Stone is the best spell for random encounters. The few instances it doesn't work exit will pick up the slack.

My last play through of this I didn't even bother buying new weapons, I just loaded up on the bombs to power through the bosses.

Robot: Rock
Beast: Rush
Cyborg: Roll
Monster: Wily

Robot: Kilroy
Cyborg: Darth
Beast: BobSap
Monster: Cookie

This is the absolute worst way to go about doing this. Just omit whatever isn't important.

Bender, Flexo, Leela and Zodbrg.

FFL3 doesn't quite recapture the magic of FFL2 but it's still a neat game. I played through the DS remake recently and found it overcomplicated, but in a mostly good way.

Part #2: Class Details

But Mogri, selling myself short is one of the things I do best!

So, some mechanics breakdown of this game, since it’s different from the other Final Fantasy Legend games. You always start with the same four named characters, and they’re automatically two humans and two mutants. Each character can transform into other classes by eating meat (once to become a beast, twice to become a monster) or installing parts (once to become a cyborg, twice to become a robot). You can change back by switching up (so a monster who installs parts becomes a beast, logical as that sounds) or by using the Flushex, an item available fairly early on.

All characters get stronger in the standard rpg fashion, by earning XP and gaining levels. However, there are also some hiccups to that system, and each of the classes have their own quirks.

Humans get a bonus to damage with weapons.

Mutants get a bonus to damage with attack magic and “psi” weapons.

Monsters take on the full statistics of an enemy monster of the same type, and get no benefits from equipped weapons or armor. They get Talents to use in battle (which don’t cost MP), and must eat the meat of other monsters to change types. (These are closest to the Monsters in the other two FFL games.)

Beasts take on most of the statistics of the enemy beast of the same type, except defense, which is halved. They still get the benefit of their weapons and armor, though, so it balances out. They get a bonus to damage with techniques, represented as <T>, and also get Talents. Beasts automatically change to a different type when they gain levels, but can also change by eating beast meat. Starting around the halfway point of the game, at least one beast at every level has a Talent that can inflict Stone, which as Sporophyte notes is practically a game-breaker. (These are closest to the Mutants in the other two FFL games, but only sorta-kinda.)

Cyborgs take on a fraction of the statistics of the enemy cyborg of the same type, but get a bonus to each stat depending on the equipment they’re using. Their weapon and shield increase max HP and attack; helmet and armor increase max HP and defense; gloves and shoes increase max MP and agility; and other equipment increases max MP and magic. The back of the map that came with the game includes a chart of every item and the cyborg bonus it provides. They also get Talents. (These are closest to the Robots in FFL2, but hobbled by the fact they can’t equip multiples of any equipment type.)

Robots take on a very small fraction of the statistics of the enemy robot of the same type, but you can feed them “capsules” bought in stores to permanently increase their stats. These capsules never change in cost, so you can buy many more of them in the late-game. They get a bonus to certain robot-specific talents (which are influenced both by their strength and their max HP). They cannot use magic at all, and have permanent 0 MP. (These are closest to the Humans in FFL.)

Before I really get started, I have a few theories about which characters will be useful: I think my Beast will be the most consistently useful character, as most Beasts have decent MP scores, they can deal very nice damage with Techs, and when they start getting Talents that inflict Stone, that’s effectively an instant-kill that few monsters resist. I think the Cyborg will also be consistently half-decent, as long as I load him up with my best weapons and armor at each turn. I have concerns about my Monster, because they don’t get status defense (or any bonuses) from equipment and I don’t think they have as much access to instant-kill attacks. I think the Monster may be a drag for long sections. The Robot, though, is going to be most interesting: I think he’ll be a big drag for half the game when I can’t afford capsules for him, and then once I start rolling in money (proportionally) I’ll just max out his stats and he’ll be awesome through the endgame.

Our choices for names are all over the map, so I’m going to narrow it down to the choices that amuse me the most and have you vote on them:

Team Marvel - Robot: MODOK, Cyborg: Cable, Beast: Beast, Monster: Thing
Team Megaman - Robot: Rock, Beast: Rush, Cyborg: Roll, Monster: Wily
Team Mixed-Metaphor - Robot: Kilroy, Cyborg: Darth, Beast: BobSap, Monster: Cookie

Most votes by the weekend wins!

Make mine MARVEL.

Megaman!

It's MAHVEL, BABY!!

DISAGREE

FFL3 shows, like, two lines of text per box. As with most textastic games, a mix of screenshots and transcription is usually the way to go.

Oh, and go TEAM MEGAMAN (for everlasting justice), although Rush should be the monster and Wily the beastman. I don't know who MODOK is and I'm not sure who BobSap is supposed to be.

BobSap is Robert Malcolm "Bob" Sapp, aka “the beast”, a kickboxer and mixed martial artist. I know literally nothing about him beyond skimming his wikipedia page.

MODOK is the Mechanical Organism Designed Only for Killing. He looks like a giant floating head with robo-bits.

I'll vote for the Worlds Greatest LP Team, True Believers! Excelsior!

I'm maintaining my vote for Team Mixed Metaphor.