So, final thoughts.
First, I want to reemphasize that I really love FF III. I think that became obvious through my posts, but I feel like it's fair to mention it one more time. Because it's just a really great game, and a really great FF.
Final Fantasy I feels, like it is first and foremost a try, to make a D&D videogame. I know, I repeat myself here, and I will try not to do that every time I write these final thoughts, but anyway – FF I doesn't really feel like a Final Fantasy game to me. Which is fine. It is a fun game in it's own right, and I enjoyed my time with it a lot. But it feels mainly like a D&D game to me.
Final Fantasy II felt like a bigger-and-better version, if you look at it in a specific way. Mainly: it tried to frame the adventure within an epic story, to give it more focus and really give the player a way to build their characters in the way they wanted to. FF I already gave the player a choice in their characters, but not nearly as much as a real D&D game would. II tried to rectify that. And the story in I is basically not there, it only has setpieces, if you even want to call it that. FF I was a bunch of little quests strung together in a clumsy way. FF II is a big campaign, where each step leads to the next.
When FF I focused on bringing D&D to the Famicom, and FF II focused on adding story and character development, FF III feels most like it wanted to translate a childrens adventure into a videogame. It is to a good degree FF I, but better. Except that it also uses story way more competently than FF I, which grounds you better in the world. The job system feels like a mix of choosing your jobs at the beginning, and doing whatever you want. You still can develop your characters in different ways, but instead of giving you only the barest of clues in how to develop anyone, it created archetypes for you. But you still can decide, which of these archetypes to use. Well, for the most part.
But aside from that, FF III is just a joy to play, and I can't help but think that was very much intended, to differentiate itself from the grim story of FF II. You have little flourishes everywhere (the little cannon in the pirate cave, the pianos that you can play and make people dance to, but also stuff like the woman with the floating shoes from the sewers, who just throws exploding shoes at you). It's a goofy game, and has fun with itself. You meet multiple weird and goofy people, and all kinds of different scenarios, like a child whould think them up. Sure, there is a Djinn who transformed everyone into ghosts, and than you visit a mansion where everything is made out of gold, or a horrible place where monsters are split in two, if you don't use the darkness of these monsters yourself. It's very inventive, and throws creative ideas at you all the time. Including, of course, the different jobs.
The jobs
I like to thing that, in FF II, the developers thought of all these fun classes that you would be able to turn your characters into. Except that it didn't work out that well. So, I guess, the basic idea for FF III was to give the player an easy way to use these classes.
I wanted to talk a bit about each job, but than realized that I don't have that much to actually say about most of them. They aren't that different at this point, at least the physical classes, and they are all useful enough. Jobs like Fighter and Monk have clear upgrades, and I can't imagine a reason to stick to them, except for a challenge run.
It's obvious that this is the first time that a real job system was used. Especially the physical jobs seems very similar, though they are all powerful enough. You have little things, like the Monk and Karateka getting more HP than the rest, and the Knight automatically defending party members in critical health, but it is still very basic. That doesn't mean it's not fun, because just the different costumes add a feel of trying something new, whenever you change jobs.
As I mentioned, the only class that I didn't get a real use out of was the bard. The jobs are still pretty simplistic, which is probably part of the reason, why they didn't figure out how to do a pure supporting class correctly. Other weird classes, like Scholar and Geomancer, are fine, at least in some places of the game. And the second sets of jobs don't have clear upgrades anymore, this is mainly a thing of the first set, the classes taken from FF I.
For example, the Knight is a strong class up to the end. You can change him to a Viking, a Dragoon or a Magic Knight, but these aren't straight upgrades. Similarly, you can keep using a Black Mage, or change back into one whenever you get new spells, but you could also change to the Evoker, and later Summoner. Considering that the game does often enough pressure you into specific jobs, it also does add more freedom than one would expect. I guess that was not quite intended, but was just a side effect of such a system. Which would lead to the mix-and-match approach of FF V.
A class that surprised me a lot was Evoker. It should have a clear upgrade in the Summoner, but that isn't strictly true. The Summoner casts monsters, that all attack all enemies. It is clearly a strong class. The Evoker never prodoces that effect. There is a 50:50 chance, that the summoned monster will attack one monster, or do some status magic. Which shouldn't be ignored, it is very helpful to have Shiva put every monster to sleep, or for Ramuh to paralyze everyone. Even for bosses, you have the simple option of Titan, whose two Evoker attacks are: Strong Attack and Stronger Attack. It's a really fun class.
But I still feel like the game intended you to mainly upgrade your jobs, and use newer ones, when you got them (or when you were pressured). There are just a lot of examples, where certain jobs will make a dungeon easier. And, of course, there are the two final jobs, with one being clearly superior to all physical, and one being clearly superior to all magical jobs. There is no reason not to use the Sage and the Ninja, except for a challenge run.
It's definitely a very fun system, and is part of why FF III is such a joyful game. Just all the different costumes are a joy to look at.
Right, before I forget, someone really seemed to have taken interest in the Magic Knight, which would become the Dark Knight in FF IV. There is some talk about „Defeating your inner Darkness“, something like that. This indicates, that at least with this job, there were ideas for how to incorporate them into the story. Except that this wasn't the game for that. But the seeds for FF IV were planted here.
The Chocobos and the Moogles
Chocobos were introduced in FF II, and, despite being very easily missable, seemed to have immediately made their way into the hearts of the designer or the fans (or maybe just both). They are way more prominent here, already. Not too much, but you find multiple Chocobo Forests all around the world, and the Fat Chocobo is very helpful (and really cute).
Interestingly, in FF II (and I think even here, in FF III) they were thought of as very different, than what they would later became (as seen in the picture). The first concept art shows them as giant, naked birds with long beaks, which can carry multiple people at once. I guess the cute sprite helped making them into the adorable birds they would become later on. I certainly love them, they alone make an FF game feel more like a part of the series.
The Moogles are introduced here, and it's interesting how their first appearance shows them as dangerous guardians, before their master Doga appears. That their sprite is cute doesn't mean anything, after all (just look at the Chocobo). But they are here introduced as nice and helpful.
The Summons
I always loved the summons, and used them whenever possible (except that they cost MP, which I tried to preserve, *sigh*). Their appearance seems to have left quite an impression, either with the desigerns, or with the fans (or, again, both).
We see the first instance of creatures from older games being reused as summons. Leviathan isn't quite that, as it was just a gigantic sea monster in II, but Bahamuth was an important side character. I imagine it was quite interesting for japanese players, when they tried this game and found out that they could use the king of dragons as helper in battle.
The whole idea of summons is pretty cool. Just that you call uppon powerful creatures, all with their unique, interesting designs, with names from real-world mythological sources, is a great idea. It's no wonder that they hung around. I also like that the game makes it clear, that summoning is a pretty difficult kind of magic. The rookies are not able to call upon the full power of the creatures, you need to be a master at the craft for that.
That a Chocobo is summonable indicates, that you should be able to call upon all different kinds of creatures. But without a small set of summons, this would need more design work than would be sensible for two jobs. I just like this little detail, that you would probably also be able to summon a hawk or a clownfish.
The Sidequests
FF I already had some sidequests (mainly the quest for the class change, I'm not sure if there are any others?). FF II, I think, didn't have any sidequests at all. So I count the focus on voluntary stuff in FF III as something new. You have four dungeons, that you can completely ignore (the dungeons where you meet Odin, Leviathan and Bahamut, as well as the dungeon under the triangle-shaped island with a ton of treasure). There is a town that you don't need to visit at all. There are a ton of things hidden in dungeons and especially towns/castles, which you can only find by searching for hidden halways (but there are always clues that they are there).
The Evoker and Summoner are jobs, that will only really work if you even do the sidequests. Granted, you can also buy the three final summons in a semi-hidden shop, so the designers weren't quite at the point, where they would lock players out of side stuff, especially when it would weaken two whole jobs. But it's really nice, that you have these side-quests, that give really great rewards (Bahamut is already super-awesome and powerful).
Even the final jobs and the ultimate weapons can be completely skipped, because they are in a subdungeon of the final dungeon, that you never need to explore.
I really like this approach, it makes the whole world (and especially the towns and castles) so much bigger and interesting than they would be otherwise. There is always stuff to find, and it is a big part of why this feels like a kids imagined adventure, translated to the videogame format.
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Well, I think that's all. I already talked about the Dark World, and how it fascinates me. If there is one thing I would like to get more details on (like I did with Paramecia in II, and how the Empire was as a place before everything went horrible), it's the story of how the Dark World changed from a normal world to this weird, little place, that you visit at the end, and how the Warriors of Darkness came to be imprisoned. Sounds like an interesting, dark tale.
Anyway, next up is FF IV. I'll wait for some time, as I need a break. Maybe until gorha and Conchobar are done with their playthroughs. No pressure, guys, take the time you need.
I don't think I had considered her as the personification of a fundamental cosmic concept, but I like the idea and it makes her an even higher-tier villain than most other baddies in the series. I suppose the only other entity close to that level would be Necron, whom I interpret as the personification of Death?
I remember Josef very well, and I loved his design.
