Within the light, the will of the crystal surged through them

Final Fantasy 3 Pixel Remaster

The legend of the Crystal Tower



Logo for Final Fantasy 3 featuring a warrior of light drawn in Amano Yoshitaka's style.

Developer: SquareEnix
Publisher: SquareEnix
Genre: JRPG, Adventure

The original Final Fantasy 3 on the NES was never released outside of Japan, and the rest of the world never got a version of it until the DS remake in 2006. I didn't get that version, but when I saw the pixel remasters, I knew I finally had my chance to play this. I was only familiar with it from the context of FFXIV, as it features heavily in the Crystal Tower alliance raids.

This one has a bit more story than FF1. It's honestly a very basic story with very basic writing, but I found it relaxing to play and honestly very fun.


Screenshot from FF3 Pixel Remaster. This shows the character naming screen with four Onion Knight sprites, each with a name box beside them. There is a Red one named Mikey, a Blue one named Naf, a Green one named Aeneas, and a Pink one named Mitchi

It starts off pretty simple, you choose names for your four player characters, each an Onion Knight with different colored armor, and you're immediately dropped into your first adventure. If you can't think of any good names, there's a built in name generator, which is how we ended up with good ol Aeneas.

You and your friends are a group of orphans hoping to be heros, raised by the temple in your small town. But the Crystals of Light have important plans for you, so you set off to claim your destiny.

The combat system is turn based, without the Active Time Battle system that would make its debut in FF4. This game introduced the job system, where you can change your class throughout the game, rather than being stuck with your initial choice like back in FF1. Job levels and your character levels are seperate, and whichever job you have equiped when you gain character levels seems to have some bearing on your overall stats. I can't find any documentation on this, but I know by the end, Aeneas, who was our tank for the majority of the game, ended up with a significntly higher amount of HP than everyone else.


Screenshot from FF3 Pixel Remaster. A battle taking place on a desert background. The party is fighting 3 black flan monsters. The bard in the party is casting Paeon.

The visuals and music were given a facelift, and now resembled SNES games rather than the NES it originated from. The remixed music was fantastic, and I enjoyed pretty much all of the tracks.

While definitely very simplistic by modern standards, I can see why this one is seen as a classic by many, and it was full of charm and heart. Took me an overall time of 31 hours including grind and going for achievements with 100% completion.


Screenshot from FF3 Pixel Remaster. The player characters are gathered around the bed in a fancy looking room. The dialogue box says: Let's all take a nap in the princess's bed.

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Review posted 2023/10/31

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