Is this the hardest, most time consuming FF ever?

[Water]

I've heard mixed reviews on FF3 and wanted to check before I bought on sale.

I've heard that FF3 is the 'grindiest' Final Fantasy ever created and with that comes a level of difficulty that is among the highest in the series. I've also heard that it's a long game (for early FF not like FF12).

I absolutely loved FF4 but was agnostic on FF5. Which is this game closer to?

Thanks!

[Linkurn.]

depends on what your goal is.

just beating the game? Not really. There is one part early where you will need to grind a few levels for a boss (pretty sure it's not more than maybe 5). Afterwards it's smooth sailing until the final boss which does require quite a bit of grinding.

beating the secret boss? Yes. That does take quite a lot of grinding

all achievements? There is an absurd one which requires you to reach lvl 99 over 20 times (iirc the pixel remaster version does not have that one so if you care about achievements you might wanna consider that version)

also keep in mind they did patch in auto battle with increased speed so it's not as bad anymore

[Water]

Just play for the story, it’s FF so expecting a little bit of needing to grind before progressing but not needing to spend half a day grinding to move from boss to boss.

[Zelph]

Originally posted by Water:

Just play for the story, it’s FF so expecting a little bit of needing to grind before progressing but not needing to spend half a day grinding to move from boss to boss.

Half a day? God no. Nothing requires that much time.

I only remember grinding a little bit early on, then for a bit at the end of the game.

[Justuค็็็็็็็s[FIN]]

It's certainly not the easiest. Only 13% of Steam players defeated the final boss.

[Skoops]

If you liked IV and weren't a big fan of V, I don't think you're going to be particularly into III. III is, like V, lighter on the plot and leans more into is class-changing system. The 3D remake tried to change this by turning the 4 characters in the party, whom were previously nameless avatars, into characters with personalities and more defined backstories, but in practice they feel very flat and half-baked, and after the first 5-10 hours their characterization drops to almost nothing anyway.

It's not a bad game, but it can be grindy, especially if you don't jive with the job system, which had some tweaks made that can make it feel more cumbersome to people who already aren't a fan of it. (They got rid of the CP resource that was used to change your class in the original Famicom version in favor of a job adjustment phase that nerfs your stats for a variable number of battles when you switch from one class to another; the Pixel Remaster has none of these and just lets you swap classes whenever you want without any penalty or cost)

The only major thing worth noting that can make the 3D remake feel grindier than it otherwise would is the fact that, as what was originally a DS game, there were limitations of how many models they could reasonably have on-screen during battle, so battles only have a max of 3 enemies per fight. (There is exactly 1 scripted battle with 4, oddly enough, but that's the only exception) However, in the original Famicom game, several encounters could have up to 9 enemy units at once, so the short-sighted compromise that was made was beefing up every enemy's stats and giving some of them (and basically every boss) 2 actions per turn. The result is the enemies on average being much stronger and more difficult to take down than they were originally. As a first-time player, you may not even really notice it once you get past the first boss.

But yeah. To answer your actual question, I don't think this is the grindiest or most time-consuming FF ever I would probably give that honor to VIII even if it doesn't have "grinding" in the usual sense, but I would also say that V is generally a much harder game than III (Unless you know the game well enough to break basically every fight with different ability/gear setups). But, given your feelings on IV and V, I don't feel confident in you finding particular enjoyment in III. The narrative, while not bad, is nothing to write home about, and its greatest strengths really are in its job system (which is substantially simpler and more quaint by comparison to what V would later do with it) and what the game managed to accomplish on the Famicom. The remake, while competent, doesn't tend to stand out. If you want to play FFIII, I would recommend the Pixel Remaster over the 3D remake unless the burlier monster stats sound like something you'd find more fun.