I deem it is safe to say that FINAL FANTASY III is by far the most appealing entry of the Pixel Remaster collection, considering it is the first time the original 2D version gets a worldwide release. That also means that differently from the other pixel remasters, it isn't missing any extra content from a PSP or GBA version.

The developers did an excellent job with the new sprites, animations, and spicing up the sceneries. There's a workaround to fix the font[www.rpgsite.net], too. I'd love to see games from other series get the same Pixel Remaster treatment.

My only frustration is that the job-based stats growth mechanic didn't age as well as I expected. For instance, having to level up specific jobs just so that a character can have enough HP ends up a rather tiresome task at times.

The Final Fantasy I've played more than I'd care to admit. This entry gets a lot of middling responses, but I've always thought it was good place to jump into the series. Full bias, I think it has the best music in the franchise and the Pixel Remaster comes at it even bigger than the 3D remake (which I'd definitely recommend as well, if not more in some cases.)

I'm the only person in the world who shills for Final Fantasy III. It's the best one. Don't let seasoned Final Fantasy fans tell you otherwise. Don't let them tell you about spiky blond bois or crazy clowns and opera scenes. It's Onions or nothing.

This is the definitive version of Final Fantasy III that I always hoped we'd get, but never imagined we actually would.

Differences:
Although changing jobs is now as easy as never before, your MP's are gone if you do that. (Changing to black belts is therefore a REAL punishment for magic users)
Gungnir and the ultimate weapons have vanished, which means thieves are now totally irrelevant and dragoons lost much possible damage.
Scholars are still useless (NO Hein and Amon are not an exception).
Rangers may profit from lowered prices but the rune bow isn't available before Saronia.
Warriors don't get the x1.5 to x2.4 bonus, so they will probably change soon after the fire crystal.
Black mages can't use staves, white mages can't use rods -> no free spells for BM and golem staff killing is much less effective/possible.
Black belts gets an AOE attack -> dark knights don't know why they even exist.
Sages are the "know all" but have less MP than the specialists.
Masamune is again titled "best sword" which is just not true.
Fast saving + autosave = you can save everywhere at any time and won't lose that much playtime from dying.
Monsters are rebalanced to be easier -> NDS is more challenging.
The old man won't show of your stats -> please use the bestiary in main menu instead.
You can be Frog and Mini at the same time.
Similarities:
Still the best NES music of all, now with crispy bassoons.

I played and platinumed all six Pixel Remasters, and wrote a review for each! Read them all for comparison and context, or skip to the one you came here for!


This is the most barebones of the series, no pesky characters or plot to get in the way. Kill some enemies, level up, next town, new gear, next dungeon. It is also probably the second easiest. Not going to complain! Short, sweet and to the point. Just over 18 hours for all achievements.

You start out with your four nameless, silent, little pixelated heroes and choose a class for each of them. I chose warrior, “thief,” white mage, and black mage. I did some research and as far as I can tell “thief” is Japanese for what roughly translates to “broke-ass warrior.” I would recommend new players to opt for two full warriors as to have a party of 4 instead of the 3.5 that I ended up with. Sure, his defense, damage, HP, and set of equipable weapons were all worse than my warrior, but his agility was slightly above average, so I had that working for me!

Level-ups come in the traditional way, classes are well defined, spells are bought at shops. Instead of having a global MP pool, each tier of spells has a limited number of casts (recharged by items or at an inn).

Music was good, but nothing remarkable.

Verdict: 3.5/5 “thieves”



This is the weird one where you level-up a skill or weapon by using it repeatedly, Bethesda-style. There are no classes or jobs per-se but each character gets good at what they have been doing. It’s not my preferred way of doing business, but I didn’t mind too much.

For their second entry in the series, they actually bothered to have some sort of plot! There seem to be people in the world who have lives, roles in society and care about stuff. You have your war, an evil empire, and a magical tornado, oh my! Your “characters” however are just pixelated bundles of stats who barely speak. That’s fine, just swing those hunks of metal and wood at the things I tell you to swing them at. Uh, Maria… your bow is pointing the wrong way.

A pretty easy entry in the series, with a weird difficulty spike at the end, but even that wasn’t too bad. You can quick-save between fights. Buy your spells at town. Cast them with a global MP pool this time. Cost is based on how much you have leveled the spell. (Spells are are trash btw in this one, but a few enemies are highly resistant to physical.)

Again, music was par for the course.

Verdict: 3.5/5 evil empires




Our third entry here seems to be the birthplace of jobs. A job is like a class but a bit more focused and you can swap in out of them at any time. Your job levels up independently of your character level, but character level has much more barring on your effectiveness, so you are encouraged to bounce around jobs from time to time.

This was definitely the easiest of the six games, and just barely the shortest, clocking in at about 18 hours for 100% achievements. Auto-battle, Hello. Much like the first, the story is bare-bones and player characters are just stat-sprites. Just bellybuttonless palette-swapped clones who occasionally grunt. The magic system is the same as the first game. It’s probably the weakest entry in the series, unless you're into the whole “brevity” thing… man.

I caught some of the music, but to be honest I was listening to the Cyberpunk 2077 score for much of this game. A little weird, I know… Moving on!

Verdict: 3/5 floating continents


Oh sh*t, here we go! We have characters, they live, they love, they suffer, they grow. Romance, betrayal! Ok, sorry, let’s start over. The third entry takes a big leap forward in terms of characters and story, as in, it has them. You have your main main characters and then some guests that come and go. Jobs are gone, and the characters each have a set, permanent class. The classes are well defined with unique abilities and equipment sets. Spells, for those who can use them, are learned naturally through leveling.

This is probably the second best game in the series. Challenge and length are moderate. The story, characters, and destinations are all well above average. Some extremely unforgiving RNG from the original has been toned down significantly for those of you interested in treasure-hunting all the treasures huntable.

The music takes a big step up at this point in the series. The moon music is strange yet awesome. The “giant” music is epic and gorgeous. Could it be that this is just the nostalgia factor due to playing this game as a wonder-filled, wide-eyed child? Nope!

Verdict: 4.5/5 spoony bards


Jobs: check
Acceptably life-like characters: check
High concentrations of chocobo: check
Verdict: Not yet? Ok.

This is the hardest game in the series, and second longest. We’ve jumped up to almost 57 hours for all achievements! *sigh* What am I doing with my life? Annoying status effects abound in the later dungeons (where are those damned ribbons?), and optional superbosses make their first appearance! Think Ruby and Emerald in FF7.

As mentioned above, jobs are back. And how. There’s a ton of them, and you’re going to master every bloody one if you want that final achievement. Yes, even the geomancer! Especially the geomancer!! One really great thing is that you can master certain abilities or passives unique to one job and then “equip” it on another job (one at a time only). Buy your spells at the local grocer. Standard MP pool is present. If you enjoy a grind and a challenge, this is the one for you.

The music quality remains high, especially on a certain larger-than-normal bridge, and when fighting one not-so-mysterious swordsman. \m/

Verdict: 4/5 cartoonish, one-dimensional villains


We made it. Here we are at what is definitely the crown jewel of the Pixel Remasters. Maybe even the best RPG of its era? I would still argue for Chrono Trigger, but elder millennials and gen-xers of good faith can disagree. Where to start? We have a massive cast of memorable characters (including the best villain of all time), romance, comedy, tragedy, and the best spectacle and story-telling in the series. The locations, the towns, dungeons, forests, and factories really come to life through excellent art direction and detail. And the music is stellar! “But this isn’t the end of the review...” Don’t care!

Note: Some reviews mention a strange rainy town filled with thieves and liars. Never heard of it. Not in this game.

My only gripe with VI is the class system. There really isn’t much of one. Every character has a unique ability, but equipment sets have huge overlap, and characters are frequently rotating in and out of the party. So you never feel like you have clear defined combat roles. Really, it’s nitpicking though. This is the longest of the games, though it ends up feeling appropriate. Difficulty is middling.

Now, I know you're dying for me to tell you how magic works in VI. Well, dear reader, for that you will have to subject yourself to a fairly minor spoiler. Later in the game anyone can access any spell. You find espers to equip throughout the game, each one of which teaches a handful of spells. After a learning period, you can rotate that esper to a different party member.

Well, that’s it! The music is amazing. The overworld theme, the blonde’s theme, the villains theme. And the town that doesn’t exist has terrible music!

Verdict: 5/5 16-bit laughs, 5/5 opera-loving octopi, 5/5 B-day suits. I can’t decide!

If you plan on 100%ing this game be aware there are some opportunities you can miss. A guide is recommended.

I had actually been dreading this version of Final Fantasy 3, since Square Enix's releases of mobile games on Steam have been very hit or miss, mostly the latter. So, I'm honestly surprised to find myself recommending this release, to the point it might be the best version of Final Fantasy 3 to date. This game has tons of smart changes that make this the most definitive way to play this game, the finest of the Famicom released trio. With a lot of nice QoL changes, this game plays like it has the best features of the 3D release and the original Famicom version.

Changes include;
More inventory space
Auto-Battle (Can be configured to persist between battles or not, remembers last entered actions)
Optimized equipment and remove all options
No Class Points OR lowered stats after changing class, so you can change classes as often as you like
Access to Defend commands on all classes (important for job leveling)
Quick Saves (No auto save)
Using equipment will show you what classes you currently have can use it, making it easier to figure out
Buying equipment from shops will now show what, of your party, can use the equipment
Equipment now tells you what stats (Strength, Agility, etc) they increase, where previous versions did not

The game also plays like the Famicom original, so you don't get Thief with the first crystal, unlike the 3D version. So, if you've played the original and know how to break the game, they still work.

It does still have some problems with forced class use, like using mages whenever you have to use Mini, or you could wind up having a great deal of trouble. Moreover, the class you are when you level up still affects your HP growth (Switching classes does not change your HP, only MP, so gain too many levels with classes with bad growth and you may wind up very fragile later on). Based on it being like the Famicom original, I also expect the game to be a more or less smooth ride until the endgame, when it suddenly becomes very difficult. Hope you have a lot of health by then!

In all, this is the best way to experience Final Fantasy 3. It has a lot of QoL changes that make the game far more approachable and just the right difficulty curve, if you expect the brick wall at the end. So long as you keep your job levels up, it should be a smooth and enjoyable ride for anyone into old school turn based RPGs.

An absolute must-buy. This is the first time FF3 has been made in 2D for the english market. If you don't like the way the 3D version looks (I dont), then this is for you.

The orchestrated rearrangements of music in all of the pixel remasters are great, but the electric guitar battle theme in this one just kicks butt. Oh, and the game's short but a lot of fun.

Now Square-Enix, bring Final Fantasy Tactics (War of the Lions) to Steam so I can finish my collection.