Update Twenty: 9 July 2017

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

Much sooner than expected, the monthly challenge has fallen! I enjoyed playing so much I maaaay pick another longer game to do the challenge with. Don’t quote me on this, though.

The PC port of Final Fantasy III is based off of the handheld remaster, which is partly why I picked it up. I first started playing video games around Kingdom Hearts, so there’s a certain level of graphical quality I enjoy, and the farther one gets from it, the less fun I have. FF8 is fine, FF7 hard to look at. But this game - it’s so cute! Simplistic, well-stylized 3D models complement the overall tone of the game, look great, and help usher in a new cadre of players to experience part of the Final Fantasy history.

This game’s claim to fame is the creation of the jobs system. Like roles in other final fantasy games, these jobs can be swapped out on each character, so no one character is stuck in one role, though the jobs you have them in do effect their stat growth. Each job has their own special (Cute!) outfit and set of skills and abilities they can use, but some of them are pretty esoteric and there’s not a lot of description in the game about what precisely they do.

That’s kind of an issue I had with the whole game overall - it’s very heavily marked by its time where everything, from the writing to the plot to the characters, is simple and barren. The plot is pretty much ‘go here, do this, go there, do that, save the world’. Each of the four main characters gets maybe three or four non-plot related, non-‘let’s go guys!’ character-establishing lines of dialogue. How light it is on story dates it and makes me enjoy it less - I was basically along for the ride and didn’t care very much.

Two things I thought the game did well though was how it translated the old 2D pixel monster art into 3D models that retained their style and still looked cool (filling out the bestiary was my favorite part of this game, which is rare for me) and I liked how there was a TON of secret shit in this game for you to find. Hidden passageways and corridors into the darkness taking you to new, unseen rooms are everywhere, really unlike newer games. It was a cool sense of surprise and rewarded the eagle-eyed (or just lucky??) player.

I finished this game earlier than the How Long To Beat estimate with a little help from a friend because I’m an adult with a job and achievements that bring no value other than massive timesinks make me sad.

Next up: An SG win, a Playing Appreciated win no less, means I’ll be venturing back into the realm of HOGs with…

See you soon!