Collection essentials #189: Final Fantasy III (SNES)

And now for a REAL big one.

This is another case where the numbering of the game was changed for the American release. This was the third mainline game in the series to be released in North America, so they decided to call it Final Fantasy III there even though it was actually the sixth game. All future rereleases are titled under the game’s original name, and all fan discourse refers to it that way too, so for the rest of this post I will be referring to this game as Final Fantasy VI.

Square already had a good run with Final Fantasy on the Super Nintendo, with two quality entries that had helped push the genre forward and set the standard for what a quality JRPG could be. And then, in 1994 came this title, what could be considered the magnum opus of the 2D era, and some would even say the whole series. This game and Chrono Trigger, both produced by Square and a year apart from each other, are probably the most widely revered 2D Japanese RPGs of all time.

Compared to previous series, Final Fantasy VI tells the biggest story with the most rich and diverse cast of characters yet. The setting is a little different too; while previous games established a medieval-style fantasy world, the setting in FFVI features some “steampunk” elements with more technology featured than previous games. The game presents magic as something real, but largely unused and forgotten about in the times leading up to the game’s events. When the story begins, a powerful and evil empire has found a way to capture and utilize magical beings called “Espers” which they use to power magic-infused technology, and there’s a group of rebels who are working to try and stop them. Sound familiar? That may not be a coincidence, as Final Fantasy games often included characters named Biggs and Wedge as an homage to Star Wars.

Final Fantasy VI features a huge array of heroes who wind up joining your party. There are a total of 14 recruitable characters, an awful lot for this kind of RPG and especially in this era, and most of them have a significant amount of backstory and optional side quests to flesh them out. And another thing notable is that there isn’t truly one main character. Most RPGs tend to focus on a central protagonist who the player controls the entire time (or close) and whom most of the story is built around. That’s not the case in FFVI, as none of the characters clearly sticks out the most, to great effect. But possibly the game’s greatest character-related achievement is the main villain, Kefka. For the previous five games, the “big bad” evil guy who serves as the story’s main antagonist isn’t a big focus and not something I tend to think about when reflecting on those games. But Kefka is an incredible, unforgettable villain; a maniacal, power-hungry, sociopathic monster of a person with a highly distinct appearance, with a memorable villainous sense of humor. He is introduced early in the game and makes an impression in practically every scene he’s in.

The game also benefits from having a much better English localization than FFIV had. The poor English is gone, which is huge because that would have compromised the player’s ability to take scenes seriously. The guy in charge of the English localization, Ted Woolsey, is known for letting his own sense of humor slip into the translations with memorable lines known as “Woolseyisms”. Future releases of the game feature a new translation script which some prefer, but I do think there is a charm to the original game’s dialogue.

In terms of gameplay, it shouldn’t be a surprise that FFVI is very fun to play. Now, the “job” system from Final Fantasy V is gone, but it wouldn’t have worked very well with such a large cast anyway. Unique abilities are once again a part of each character’s identity and usefulness, but there is still a way to customize characters as you have a choice of what kind of magic they learn as they level up. FFVI is definitely the best game yet for exploring, as the second half of the game is much less “linear” than the first, meaning that the player has lots of freedom to travel the world as they please to trigger various events before taking on the final dungeon. The gameplay is not perfect, unfortunately. The game still utilizes “random battles” where you are randomly whisked away to a fight while walking in an area with enemies rather than encountering visible enemies as you traverse the world, so that can get pretty annoying. There are some spots in the game where progression can be a little “cryptic”, not to the impossible extent that some games were in the NES era, but in a way that can frustrate new players. 

Special mention has to be given to the game’s music, which features incredible work from Nobuo Uematsu. It is remarkable how much his musical genius was able to get out of the somewhat limited capabilities of the Super Nintendo. The game’s climactic final boss battle features an epic medley, “Dancing Mad”, that progresses as the player reaches different phases of the fight, totaling over 17 and a half minutes of music. I heard a critic once remark that composing such music for a Super Nintendo game would be analogous to Michaelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel with a box of crayons. A master work.

As for my personal history with the game, it was another one that I knew existed as a kid, and I was interested to learn more, but didn’t for a long time. In 2003 I played my first Final Fantasy game, the following one in the series. And then when I got the internet at the end of that year, I suddenly was able to learn more about Final Fantasy much more easily. And in 2004 I grabbed this game on eBay, played it, and it blew me away. I called it my favorite Final Fantasy game, which was no small potatoes considering what a strong series it is. The complete copy in the photo is one I acquired later in my incredible Craigslist haul of 2011 which jump-started my biggest phase of video game collecting. 

I actually have only played Final Fantasy VI all the way through just that one time. Not that I haven’t wanted to beat it again, and I have played it some at times, but there’s such a huge amount of other entertainment to consume that it keeps me from spending a large amount of time even with some of my favorites. Would Final Fantasy VI still hold up as my top in the series if I played it all the way through again? I’m not 100% sure. But what is for sure is that it’s an incredible classic, one that every fan of the genre should play, and the epitome of a collection essential.