PixlBit

Programming Note: To date, I am halfway through Final Fantasy IX on my Quest. Next up is Final Fantasy X (PS2), then Final Fantasy II (GBA), Final Fantasy XII (PS2), Final Fantasy III (DS), and finally, Final Fantasy XIII (PS3). If you're just joining us, I have played all these games many times before, but I'm going in order of US release date for the quest, hence the number jumping.

3.

At this juncture of the Quest, I am comfortable saying that, unless there are any major upsets down the line, Final Fantasy III on SNES stands as the ultimate expression of a Final Fantasy game. The objective "best", if you will. Now, I am fully aware that this game has had its praises sang far and wide on your World Wide Webs. Prior to the Quest, I would not have considered myself a fanperson of this game; I certainly loved it as a lad, but as an adult, hadn't visited it since it came out on Game Boy Advance. With a recent playthrough under my belt, I find it hard to argue that it is anything other than the Ultimate Final Fantasy Experience.

As such, and with the added bonus of buying myself some more time to finish the rest of the Final Fantasy games, I am going to break Final Fantasy III up into a variety of aspects, which I will dissect and discuss individually. In no particular order, these aspects are: plot, character development, music, mechanics (character growth/battling), mechanics (overworld/exploration), villain(s), and secrets. Still, by way of introduction, I will start with my emotional reaction to the game, shaken up with some nostalgia. And so...

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Where to begin? Final Fantasy III arrived right at the time in my life when I was becoming coherent and capable enough to both understand what it meant that a new game was coming out, and to be able to read up on said game as much as I possibly could. Nintendo Power had a heck of a year, between Donkey Kong Country and Final Fantasy III, and this guy read the bindings right off his copies and played that DKC VHS enough times to damage it beyond repair (wonder what I could sell one of those for, now? [note: two bucks? what a letdown...]).

My good friend, Tim, who opened my eyes to Final Fantasy II long ago, was the lucky recipient of a launch day copy of Final Fantasy III. I remember waiting at the lunch table with bated breath to hear his tales of Magitek Armor, magic beasts, and other amazing stories. I desperately, desperately wanted this game. Right about the time I simply couldn't take it anymore, wouldn't you know, it was Christmas (well-played, NoA). Following my usual Christmas morning practice, I would creep downstairs at 3, then 330, then 4, then 430, then 5, then 530, then 6 and finally... 7. The rule was, we had to wait until 7, and we had to wait for the whole family before we could open a present. But being the sharp young lad I was, I knew the shape of a Super Nintendo box when I saw it... Could it be? Did I get Final Fantasy III? And why did my brother have his own Super Nintendo box-shaped present?

As I sat and stared at those Magitek Armor-clad warriors striding, Mode-7 style, into the distance, snow falling around them mirroring the snow falling in the windows around me, I fell into Final Fantasy III like a warm blanket on a cold day and became completely immersed, as I never had before.

 

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Why do we game? I've approached this question from a couple angles so far, but I have yet to tackle it head on. From my perspective, I game because, at its best, gaming is an escape. Once a game has me in its grasp, real life slowly melts away, and the game carries me on its own. The carrot remains just out of reach; another level lies around the corner, more dialogue, a new song, new realms, twists and turns...

Final Fantasy III, like so many of its siblings, starts in media res. We don't know who this beautiful woman is, where she came from, or why we are in this town. Instead we're pulled inexorably with her to a mysterious block of ice. The townspeople throw themselves into our path, trying in vain to stop our implacable charge, but we will not be swayed, nor slowed. They do not even attempt to speak to us as we cut them from our path...

As we approach the dimly lit cavern, the soft and strange blue light emanating from the ice beckons us closer... and changes our lives forever.

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What is immersion? In my eyes, the best games seemlessly cross that barrier between reality and fantasy; drawing you in to a world through that most gaming of ways: by experience. More than any other Final Fantasy thus far, I was utterly struck by how quickly and effortlessly Final Fantasy III drew me back in to its magic. The snow outside the window, a trip to the Opera followed by the storming of an evil slave-factory, the breaking of the World... A true masterpiece of a game, worthy of all its accolades.

As our technological advances and entertainment edge ever closer to true immersion, virtual reality, I wonder if we are, perhaps, searching in the wrong direction. As I think on some of my favorite works of art, I'm struck by the realization that Shakespeare did not even need gendered actors to create some of the most engrossing works of human history, that M.C. Escher required no 3D screens to draw you in to a strange and beautiful world, that Beethoven needed only a piano to pound out the desires of his muse.

Limitations push us to ever higher heights of achievement. As we collectively set about demolishing barriers of entry, are we clearing mountains and plateaus from our path? Is the going so easy that we don't even remember what it was to strive?

As these thoughts course through my head, I wonder, is it any accident that the greatest Final Fantasy game came on a 16-bit system? That a forced perspective, pudgy little sprites, and plunky little sounds could steal the hearts and minds of a generation of gamers? That we transitioned from the modesty of earlier entries, in to a form of grace?

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I hope you are able to join me in the following weeks, as we examine just what it is about this game that seems to resonate with so many...