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

Excellent job! I remember playing through this game in middle school, and periodically think "Man, that game was awesome, I should play it again!" You have successfully convinced me that this is a terrible idea.

I like to imagine that this line is uttered with a voice of regret and sorrow.

Hooray! Nice job, Beowulf! I can't see myself playing this game, but I will say that it's pretty fascinating to look at.

Congratulations on finishing this!

One thing I don't remember seeing: Going to a sunken ship in the future, picking up the items, and then going to the present or past and checking it there. Spoiler alert - it doesn't work.

I hope I'm overshadowing anything if I now talk about the DS remake a bit more, but they revamped the game systems enough that I feel like i should mention it.

Things people might not like:
- I get the impression many people liked this game because it has a standard leveling system... well the bad news is that the remake scraps this and goes with a traditional SaGa "increase by doing" system.
- They also brought back weapon durability, although it's possible to repair weapons.
- They scrapped the world map, instead each location is linked by a line and when you reach say the "temple road" location you zoom in and can wander around. Each area can have multiple exits that then open up new paths on the "world map".
- The Talon no longer automatically shoots things at the start of the battle. You have to specifically use it as a weapon.
- The sunken ships are only accessible in one time period. So they "fixed" that.
- There is a "password" system in the game, but they aren't randomized so you can look them up and get a bunch of awesome items from the start. It's probably the one thing they seemed to put the least effort into doing.

These issues aside I'd have to say it's one of the best remakes I've ever played, and it's a real pity that it was never translated. SaGa 2 was almost a one-to-one remake, but this actually tried to add interesting systems to game and improve upon the original limited story.

Updates the battle system:
- Each weapon has multiple attacks, that range from one durability to four.
- The first attack is initially available on each weapon/spell, the rest have to be "sparked".
- There are now character specific skill levels for each weapon. I assume it's used to increase the chance to spark attacks. Each monster type has a different focus:

• Humans get short swords, katanas, and maybe something else
• Espers get all spells, bows and rapier.
• Beastmen get karate and spears
• Cyborgs get long swords and axes
• Robots get guns and something else

- Each weapon type focuses on different stats, so bows, rapiers, and karate increase agility, which swords and axes increase strength. Monsters seem to get increases based on the type they are and the type of attack they use.
- If you use an attack of two durability or more there is a change to chain attacks with other members.
- You can turn humans into Espers and vice versa.
- Beastmen get a huge HP boost, they can go past the 999 HP limit
- Monsters are based on the type of meat you eat, and with no levels they don't change unless you eat something.
- I'm not 100% sure about this, but I think there's an "evolution" for monsters, in that if you have a fire based monster, then when you become another monsters you may retain fire based attacks.
- If you have already become that type of creature then when you try to eat meat or install parts you can see a preview of what you will become. It's also possible to not change at all.
- Every time you eat meat or install parts there is a chance that your characters will gain an attribute, for example being "strong against fire". I don't remember that they are based directly on the monster type as before.
- Monsters are visible on the map, and you can chain battles to make them more difficult.
- You queue up 4-5 turns, but then each character acts on based on their speed.
- They give you a "time gear" in battle. The past version allows you to summon attacks from prior turns. The present version is an all out attack. I think the future pulls from future turns, but I don't remember. This is incredibly useful if you want to set up complex chain attacks - but it's not very useful as the normal battles aren't that difficult.
- The inventory has increased in size, although not so much that you hoard everything you come across.

Are battles any more interesting? Not really, I spent most of my time trying to earn new monsters, so I mostly stayed away from the robot forms, but they haven't changed much so I don't feel like I missed much. Most of the battle system additions are overkill for normal battles, unless you specifically try to make it harder. The bosses can still be difficult, but most of the time turning everyone into Beastmen was a simply path to victory. Monsters are still fairly weak and have fewer attacks than the other characters can use.

New additions:
- They have a "mini game" where you can freeze time and "capture" monsters. This is supposed to power up the ship's attacks, it takes 200+ of different types of monsters, but most areas only have about 15-20 enemies on it, so I never really bothered with it.
- They have monster hunt side quests, although most of the time they aren't particularly powerful.
- The added a ton of side quests that have actual story components to them that use the time gear to time travel, even in the Pureland.
- Once you get to the Pureland you can actually return to the original world.
- If you bring a character to a time they already exist, they'll hang out in the Talon. I guess so they don't accidentally change things... although the main characters don't seem to care.
- They added a new character "The Wanderer" who shows up early on to give you the "time gears", but he also occasionally shows up elsewhere.
- There is a newgame+ mode.
- In newgame+ if you complete certain side quests and answer in a specific ways you can unlock a post-game boss. I haven't actually done this, but from what I've heard it's a fairly challenging battle where the character can use your time gear attacks against you.

Given that I'm not fluent in Japanese it's difficult to comment on the overall story, but they don't have the space limitations of the original GameBoy, so the conversations flow far better. You also have far more interaction with the children from the present, although much of it is tied to side quests that are easy to miss. Each of the story side quests has at least two solutions, you can either time travel to fix the problem before it happens, or you can solve it immediately – which increases the use of actual time travel in the game. The characters actually stop and discuss what's going on every so often and the pros and cons of messing with time to fix things, it can be quite hilarious when some of the characters are non-human.

Again, I haven't done it, but here's the post-boss story additions. Courtesy of WeekendRisktaker (?), I believe, via the GameFaqs forums:


The main point is that Borgin used you, used Faye, used Dune's dad, and used pretty much everyone else in the game in order to do one thing, and that was to destroy Ragna/Sol. Specifically, to destroy Ragna/Sol post-merger, because to destroy one and not the other was to cause too great an imbalance. Ragna's reason for invading was to regain the ability to create worlds, a power it had lost when part of its essence had broken away to become Sol. By merging, Ragna would regain that part of its power, and gain too much influence over space and time.

Borgin had tried to eliminate the threat several times before, apparently. One time resulted in the future that Dune et al. were sent away from. It's possible (though not really supported in the text), that he eliminated Sol in that instance. In the game timeline, he led Jupiter (Dune's dad) and Faye on an expedition to the Pureland, but they were doing too well. Borgin was afraid that Jupiter and Faye would destroy Ragna before the merger could be complete, so he told Fenrir about Faye, got her kidnapped, and when he and Jupiter went to rescue her, he stabbed Jupiter in the back.

Borgin was also the one who got the God-Beasts of the Pureland looking for a girl with a red birthmark, by telling them that only she could retrieve the Excalibur and kill Ragna. Entities like Fenrir were interested in getting rid of Ragna so that they could further their own agendas. Again, it looked like they were going to succeed too early when they captured Lara/Freya, who MIGHT have worked even though Dogra had been told she wasn't acceptable. Borgin fixed the Talon so that it could only travel between three specific time zones, and chose the Past zone destination primarily so that Lara could be rescued before the monsters realized what they had.

Dune confronted him about this in the True Ending after several bits of information fall into place.
1) Borgin's skill with time-travel equipment
2) Faye's and Jupiter's account of the Fenrir incident didn't quite jive with Borgin's
3) Borgin told everyone that the Talon 2 was controlled by the brain of Dune's father, but there was no way that he could have known that since Dune was not even born yet in that timeline.


It's not perfect, but it does address some possible plot holes in the original game.

Good stuff, Beowulf. It was an interesting read.

I find it amusing that the Gill Men (and their palette-swaps) are in a tub of water. They seem annoyed by you interrupting their baths.

So you're saying this is a remake by people who fundamentally do not understand 80% of the game's appeal then.

I don't know, I think that ramming a spaceship into Azatoth after it finishes eating God might make up more then 20% of the originals appeal.

The remake rolls back a lot of things to be like SaGa 2, which is a big improvement in my eyes. I was initially upset about the world map but I got over it.