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With an unforgettable cast, story, and music, FF3 may be the best thing Square has ever given us

Hey Final Fantasy fans, I've finally made it to the big one, a game which we all cherish and remember fondly. Final Fantasy VI was released in 1994; in North America, we got it as Final Fantasy III (because it was the third game in the series for us). It was developed and published by Squaresoft, and is a JRPG for the Super Nintendo. This game cannot get enough praise! Is it overrated like VII? Not at all. (Note: Full spoilers for the plot will follow. You've been warned!)

For starters, FF3 has a great story. Unlike the first five games, FF3's story does not involve any crystals. That's right, this is the first game in the series not to have crystals as the main plot! Instead the story is about an evil empire, magic, and creatures called espers. The Empire wants to harness the power of the espers in order to take control of the world; a group called The Returners are the few who are willing to oppose the Empire in this endeavor. The translation is pretty good; it was translated by Ted Woolsey, who was involved in the translation of several JRPGs of the 90s.

Right away we're introduced to the main character of the game, a young woman named Terra. We quickly discover that Terra is special, but we're not sure why. Next we're introduced to the Grade-A cast, which includes the treasure hunter Locke, the brash king Edgar, and the burly Sabin. Each character has his own backstory, and these are explained throughout the game very well (for the most part). The cast is very endearing; even their expressions and interactions are good. Each playable character is introduced and you'll be able to name them anything you like, which is a neat addition.The characters have histories, past struggles that are still gripping them; for example, Locke's old girlfriend was killed in a cave-in, so he has an affinity for protecting women; Cyan loses his wife and child in the game and feels responsible for their loss for nearly the rest of the game; but by far the character who gets the most treatment is Terra, who discovers that she's a human-esper hybrid.

The battle system in the game is great. The game uses the Active Time Battle system which was started in 4, but a progress bar shows you how long until each character can attack (which is a very helpful addition). Each character also has a unique ability that he/she can use in battle. For instance, Locke can steal, Edgar can use tools (such as the Bio Blaster and Drill), Cyan has Sword Technique, Terra and Celes can use magic, Gau can use rage (which uses the attacks of certain enemies), Mog can dance to perform certain attacks, Shadow can throw weapons, and there are more! Sabin's blitz attacks, which must be performed through certain button combinations, was one of my favorite special attacks. These fighting varieties add a lot to the game, making battles more interesting. Up to four characters can be in your party at once, and since there are so many characters in the game (a total of 14), they were smart with how they handled them; once you get the use of an airship through Setzer, you can freely choose who you want in your party and the others will stay on the airship.

Throughout the game, it's important that you keep all your characters equipped with the best armor and weapons. These will raise your stats, such as strength, vigor, stamina, attack power, magic power, defense, etc. You can also equip two relics on each character. Relics will give special abilities to a character; some relics will protect from certain status ailments while others will raise magic power or vigor. There are tons of relics in the game, and they are very helpful. Characters will also gain levels and learn new things as the game progresses.

One part of the game I really enjoyed was near the beginning of the game when your group gets split up. You can choose either to go with Locke's route, Sabin's route, or Edgar, Terra, and Banon's route. Sabin's is by far the most interesting and the longest, but the option to choose is such a great idea. Locke recruits Celes, who was once a general of the Empire (yet he still trusts her). Sabin gets a couple men along the way too; one is Cyan, the prince of Doma (who loses everyone to the plague of poison), and the other is Gau, a young man who has grown up in the wild. You'll also meet Shadow, a mysterious man who pops in and out of the story at his own leisure. Edgar, Terra, and Bannon will just continue to Narshe, the town where the Returners meet.

When it comes to villains, Kefka is in a class all by himself. At first he seems to be a very week and pathetic guy, someone who is serving the Emporer (named Gestahl) out of duty. But over the course of the game, you see that Kefka will go as far as it takes to get power. He poisons Doma Castle in order to kill everyone, even some of the Empire's soldiers. He also kills General Leo, the Empire's best soldier. Kefka wants the power of the espers, and he will not let anything get in his way of obtaining that power.

The game is clearly split into two parts. The first part is the world of balance, leading up to the Floating Continent; the second part is the world of ruin, which I'll explain. Kefka finally gets the power of the statues, causing some land to float into the sky. Your party jumps onto the Floating Continent to defeat Kefka once and for all; but when you get to him, he kills Emporer Gestahl and pushes him off the continent. Then he absorbs the power of the statues and your party has to escape before the continent is destroyed. Anyone playing FF3 for the first time might think that the Floating Continent was the end of the game, but it's actually only the half-way point! The bad guy actually wins. He gains the power of the statues and Setzer's airship is torn in half as the world is ravaged by destruction. And so, the curtain closes on the first half of the game.

The second half of the game starts when Celes wakes up from a coma one year later. Her uncle is taking care of her on a little island. She doesn't know what happened to everyone, but after finding Locke's bandana, she sets out to find them. The overworld now looks completely different; everything is desolate, and the music is eery and lonely. While the first half of the game is linear for the most part, the second half of the game is very non-linear; you can find certain characters at certain places, and the order you get them doesn't matter. After Setzer joins your team, he leads you to a site where an old airship is buried, sharing the story of his lost friend at the same time. With an airship, you can freely traverse the land, searching for friends. The second half is when you really learn about these characters.

The world of ruin gives you a lot of side quests to do; there are several optional dungeons to find and explore. There are also two optional characters to find in the world of ruin: Umaro (a sasquatch living in the mines of Narshe) and Gogo (an imitator). Umaro is a power-house fighter who will fight completely on his own; you cannot equip anything except relics on him. Umaro was one of my favorite fighters; this dude is strong, and he will even throw other characters at enemies, which is so awesome! Gogo will imitate the attack of the person who went before him, no matter what it is; that's the only thing he can do (he can't even use items).

Once you have everyone, you can face Kefka once and for all in his tower. This whole time Kefka has been doing nothing but sitting in his tower burning any towns that irritate him. The game wisely takes advantage of the large cast of characters by making you split into three parties (this happens several times during the second half). The design of the dungeons throughout the game are done very well. This last dungeon has a lot of switches to step on. Finally you make it to Kefka, and you get to choose the order of your party. You have to fight three tough battles before you get to Kefka; if someone dies along the way, he's replaced by the next character in the next battle. Suffice to say, FF3 has one of the greatest final battles and endings. Kefka has completely lost his mind, desiring only destruction for the world.

FF3 is such a satisfying game! The only bad things I can say is that (1) random encounters can be a pain, especially when you're trying to find a way through a tricky dungeon, and (2) some of the characters, such as Gau, Strago, and Relm, are not fleshed out well. However, these shortcomings are nothing in the grand scheme of this incredible game. It's still fun to play to this day! For a video game, the story is amazing! I also have to mention that a second player can control some of the fighters during battle, which is something that has never been done before in a FF game.

And last of all, the music! FF3 has some of gaming's best music. The quality of the music is by far the best sounding that you'll hear on the system. The instrumentation is so good! Each character has a theme, giving more life and personality to them. The dungeon themes, the awesome battle themes, and the overworld themes all add up to make this game a wonderful experience. Almost every song in the game is memorable. And what can I say about the ending? It's almost 22 minutes long! Truly, the game ends and you feel like you have actually saved the world from destruction.

Final Verdict--5 Stars: Awesome!

Now I'm not saying that FF3 is a perfect game, but it doesn't have any glaring problems. If anything, the game shines in every area: fantastic story, great characters, incredible music, killer villain, solid battle system, and what an ending! The game has plenty of memorable moments; who could forget the ghost train or the opera scene? When it comes to JRPGs, it doesn't really get any better than this!

Join me every Saturday as we take a look back at all kinds of retro games, good and bad.