spoiler pop this from here on out to reduce image scroll...
Note that this is the official unofficial Prima guide for Final Fantasy 3. Also, at this point, all images were provided by the internet archive. Previous pictures were taken on my library’s couch.
There is nothing I like more than an opening table of contents that makes this all sound appropriately epic. Historical Overview! The Watersheds of History! Play Mechanics!
If you are paying attention to the page numbers, you can figure out immediately where the bulk of this book’s bulk originates.
The authors of this book “have over 25 years of experience evaluating interactive entertainment”. In 1994, this just meant they could remember playing Pong. Also note that we are told that it would be “virtually impossible” to complete the quest without the knowledge found in this book. So anyone that is only hearing about Complete Final Fantasy III Forbidden Game Secrets for the first time,
how did you do it, you genius!?
This is an elaborate way of introducing the world of Final Fantasy 6, but it is at least accurate. Remember that this is Page 3 of this book before we get to a later point where it is completely contradicted.
This guide uses the weird tactic of describing all the locations in the game in order, but not yet providing an actual walkthrough. It is basically an overview of the game with the loosest explanations possible. It… is pretty alright, actually. It is here to fill up page space, but I appreciate the summaries.
I was approximately twelve when I read this guide, so suffice to say I did not understand references to “the Medici of early Europe”. Someone assumed a reader would need help getting through the first hour of Final Fantasy 6, but knew details of the Renaissance.
I mentioned earlier in my Final Fantasy 6 essays that this game is just loose enough that an active imagination could fill in the blanks and make even the most “we should probably put a dungeon at this point in the plot” location like Mt. Koltz an important part of the greater story of this world. Kaku apparently agrees, and fills some page space by describing Mt. Koltz as a sort of spiritual Mecca.
Cyan swore fealty to Samurai Masters… who must appear in some other game.
Aw, I distinctly remember looking up the concept of “liver spots” thanks to this passage on the Ghost Train/Phantom Forest.
Also: Baren Falls is “a one-way trip to Hell”. Gau should be offended!
Aw, yeah, here’s the entire reason I will always remember this book.
This history of the world was seemingly created whole cloth. I have found no source for all of this nonsense, and was theoretically an invention of this book from start to finish. I do not believe these time spans are based on anything, whether they be parallel “real world events” or just some nonsense from a Star Wars novel. Even some of the specific things, like Figaro using “machines” 84 years before the game, seem to be contradicted by the actual events of the game (isn’t the whole point of the first Figaro sequence that the empire/Kefka is surprised by their mechanical prowess?). Stuff like Kefka inventing Magitek is also downright bonkers.
Regardless, I cannot get mad, because being reminded that this “world” existed for a thousand years before the actual game started always set my own imagination ablaze…
Kefka is identified as the main threat from jump street here. I mean, he
is, but spoilers, guys.
There is no such status effect as “cursed”. Given “echo screen” is supposed to cure it, it looks like you guys couldn’t figure out “mute”. Doesn’t matter, you don’t explain what status effects
do anyway…
Here would likely be a good place to note that, as a connoisseur of strategy guides of the 90’s (or just someone that would do anything to complete The Seventh Guest), I know exactly what happened here: This is a strategy guide for a 16-bit “console” videogame being written by an author who traditionally writes guides for Western “PC” style videogames. References to Wizardry and Ultima give it away. In fact, the start of this page all but assumes you are coming over to Final Fantasy 3 from, like, The Incredible Machine. Thomas Covenant! Betrayal at Krondor! Bastard Swords! Get excited for treasure!
Mentions of Dragon Warrior or Final Fantasy 2 are completely absent.
Various “intricate” mechanics are described on the following pages, which basically works out to explanations of the individual character abilities. I am featuring this page because Nintendo Power rarely made Metallica or Doom II references. Or, for that matter, to the concept of “sass”.
Well that’s an ominous title for a map.
These maps were all hand (mouse) drawn in 1990s AutoCad, right? I want to state plainly again that this book is often wrong, but I love the effort that went into it.
Okay, I checked the SNES instruction manual, and, after that sacred object nearly put me in a nostalgia coma, I realized that all this “stat information” does
not appear in that book. And, as has been discussed here before, ages, blood type, and alike does not actually appear in the game either. However, the information here
is correct, insomuch as it can be found in the official Final Fantasy Ultimania books… albeit with a slightly skewed translation. For instance, the Ultimania notes that Celes likes “antique picture books”, while you can see “Old books and pictures” listed here. Similarly, officially Celes hates “weak men”, but that is recorded as “rowdy males” here…
My point? It appears this “unofficial guide” had access to
some official sources. Still got the mechanics of Runic
completely wrong, though.
But over and over again, it seems like everything else comes exclusively from the SNES game, and specifically “that” translation. There is no way “blow fish”, which is Cactuar’s 1,000 Needles everywhere else in the franchise, would make reference to fish in the Ultimania. Lore “Reflect” is 100% wrong.
Gogo listed on the same level as Banon is an insult to Mimics everywhere.
Let’s get Shakespeare all up in here! You get an English degree, and you
use it.
Here is what I was alluding to earlier: despite the history of Final Fantasy 3 being mostly correct on Page 3 of the book, here The War of Magi that occurred centuries before the game is conflated with the meeting of Terra’s parents, which happened (at most) 20 years back. Additionally, Kefka could be interpreted as someone with the power of the “mechanized fist” of the Empire, but he certainly doesn’t already have “Magicite Statues” in his “fortress”. Bro doesn’t even seem to have his own apartment in Vector! And then this half wrong recounting of half the plot segues into “here’s how Espers work”.
It's weird, y’all.
So now we get a rundown of all the Espers and their attendant spells and learn rates. No, this section does not ever tell you where to
find all of these Espers.
The permanent switch from Odin to Raiden is noted here, but it ignores that Crusader can teach meteor, too. Which is odd, considering Crusader is properly listed
as the next esper!
Pearl. Hehe.
Come to think of it, I do not believe I have ever been poisoned in Final Fantasy 3 after Mt. Koltz.
Does anyone know if these “three times” and “seven times” calculations are correct for the spell progressions? They are repeated for the Elemental 1/2/3 descriptions as well.
Does that imp look like a zombie to you!?
On seemingly only this page, there are references to “classes”. Most items apparently cure all classes, but Echo Screen only works for “fighters”. They had a chance to make this relevant with the Shadow/ninja-based items, but whiffed it.
Petrifaction. Microsoft Word claims that is a synonym for Petrification.
That is not how Cherub Down works. That is not how the Cure Ring works. That is not how the Dragon Horn works.
Expecting the Relic Ring to work like that will get you killed. Or… double killed?
We get pages of information on equipment. Occasionally, the descriptions of the items are fun.
I’m trying to remember if “Minerba Vische” is a Woolsey-ism or complete nonsense.
By volume, the majority of this book is the least useful bestiary ever to appear in print. Maybe 1.4 monsters per page, barely any pictures, and no information on where you actually encounter these creatures. And, given how the rest of the book works, there is no way anyone has ever proofed this information for exactitude. Before or
after publishing. Who would have the time?
The bosses are listed in alphabetical order. This is
violence.
Kefka walloping your party, you hastily flipping to the boss section, always seeing “Air Force (Laser Gun)” first while your HP dwindles down to nothing... Be glad you never have to fight Zoneseek! ... Until World of Final Fantasy, at least.
This screenshot gives me secondhand anxiety.
As you have probably guessed, Kefka's angel form and Tower of Power is listed under “F” for “The Final Boss”. The full description for the boss is marginally valuable (yes, tools
are useful), but the whole “face the adventure of a lifetime” denouement seems to imply this section would have once reasonably listed the bosses in plot-order. But here, we just go from “the absolute end” to “that fire boss”.
This strategy for Magi Master is more or less suicidal.
“At this point, however, our data become more general.” Book write hard, tired now.
If you learn one thing from this guide, it is that you must rotate the egg.
The general guide tips are actually pretty helpful. I appreciate any tip that derides hording and encourages spending that gold.
This section goes all in on the maps that I simultaneously find impressive in their craft, but wholly useless in their functionality. At least label the entrances and exits!
Yes. Bruins.
Good.
One of the most iconic scenes for an entire hardware generation is described as a “critical timing puzzle”.
My brother in Christ, did you think Lonewolf was somehow two wolves? Did one of the two wolves inside of you tell you this?
Do you mean “transparent points” like there would be a counter on the screen, but it is see-through? Because any other interpretation of that phrase is absolutely inapplicable.
That said, I think the answers to the dinner questions are correct here. Small miracle, considering Gestahl is repeatedly referred to as “the king”.
The death of General Leo gets a sentence. Ha.
Anti-Shadow bias detected.
“Cid dies, Celes is inconsolable.” Guess that’s canon.
Just because something sucks does not mean it is a “vacuum-like creature”.
These are the only maps of Kefka’s Tower available in the book. They are easily the most ineffective maps ever created.
You said I could live without Shadow earlier, and now he’s part of the final party recommendation!?
I had to stare at the list for a while to work out that this writer’s two “leave behinds” are Gau and Cyan. Those would be my picks on the SNES version, but Pixel Remaster does improve Cyan a tweak.
A handy-dandy index is included to navigate that page count and increase the page count further.
You think this got everything wrong? Write your own damn strategy guide!
And that’s about it. I never purchased either of those guides, but they’re “Official” and “Authorized”. I only buy renegade strategy guides now.
In lieu of filling out this survey, I have decided to complain on the internet. I wonder if Question #4 was there so they could petition Square for greater access to Terra’s blood type.
Question #8 being on a scale but still phrased as “covers
most of what I need” amuses me.
It is its own envelope! Neat!