So, this is almost certainly my personal winner of the RPG showdown as well. The Job System in all of its iterations is perhaps my favourite battle system in JRPGs (in most franchises), the music is awesome still, I like the maps and their gimmicks too. In terms of gameplay, this is undoubtedly my pick. I played through the fan-translation decades ago and really liked it even back then, when I couldn't even read katakana/hiragana, haha. I bought the pixel remake last year on PC immediately (it's somewhat easier/more player-friendly/balanced) and also really enjoyed it. DDS 2 and Dragon Quest 4 are close, but this is the most nostalgic game in my case. I'd also argue it's the last "big" Famicom RPG. There are a couple games from 1991 I really like, but they didn't have nearly as much impact as this one.
This is one of those games I've thought of maybe trying but I've heard awful things about it's final dungeon and how bad of a difficulty spike it is. So it's kind of just pulled me away from trying it.
What I wanna know is which long running rpg of 1990 has a theme song that sounds the most like a national anthem. My top three has to be 1. Dragon Quest 4 2. Fire Emblem 3. Final Fantasy 3
For me personally it is a number three in this 1990 RPG showdown. DQ4 is a winner and a ridiculous ninja game from ASCII is at number two. Not that FF3 was bad, just annoyingly grindy near the end of the game. Do blame the almighty bosses casting Meteor and the lack of save points 🙂 And also the atmosphere and the plot felt a little lackluster. FF1-2 were the closest to an epic swashbuckling on the Famicom you could get at the time while FF3 changed things slightly to a european fairytale fantasy. Not a bad thing, it's just not on par with the first two games imo 🙂 As for the visuals, music and the job class system, Final Fantasy 3 is brilliant. P.S. Someday I'm going to beat it with four dragoons equipped with blood lances!
I'd honestly put Crystalis/Godslayer over FF3 in the showdown, because FF3 kind of drags on and doesn't really make good use of its job changing mechanic while Godslayer is just solid all around.
Though if we're excluding action RPGs then I guess I'd put FF3 behind DQ4.
This was a pricy game at the time for a non-adult title. It's a large 4 megabit game with battery back-up and the MMC3 chip, but we've seen that before and at more reasonable prices. I think Square knew that the audience would be willing to shell out more for this. A lot of these games will continue to be a bit pricy in the 90s as the audience for Famicom dwindles and the boards become more expensive to print. When the price of Famicom carts were about the same as the price of Super Famicom games (or higher) I think less people wanted to shell out money for them.
Interesting tidbit about Nasir Gebelli, his name flew under my radar. Seems like a prominent and prolific figure in the 80s..90s video game scene. Twice as interesting the rest of the team apparently followed him to California. Hard to imagine that happening with the modern US visa policies.
Gosh this used to be one of my favorite JRPG games, but when I played the PR remake I realized this might have been due to this being the first game I played(or muddled through) in Japanese. For me III was bested in every way (except music) by V. In contrast DQ III and IV are high water marks in the series (for me). I don't hate FF III, it just didn't age well for me is all.
8 Comments
So, this is almost certainly my personal winner of the RPG showdown as well. The Job System in all of its iterations is perhaps my favourite battle system in JRPGs (in most franchises), the music is awesome still, I like the maps and their gimmicks too. In terms of gameplay, this is undoubtedly my pick. I played through the fan-translation decades ago and really liked it even back then, when I couldn't even read katakana/hiragana, haha. I bought the pixel remake last year on PC immediately (it's somewhat easier/more player-friendly/balanced) and also really enjoyed it. DDS 2 and Dragon Quest 4 are close, but this is the most nostalgic game in my case. I'd also argue it's the last "big" Famicom RPG. There are a couple games from 1991 I really like, but they didn't have nearly as much impact as this one.
This is one of those games I've thought of maybe trying but I've heard awful things about it's final dungeon and how bad of a difficulty spike it is. So it's kind of just pulled me away from trying it.
What I wanna know is which long running rpg of 1990 has a theme song that sounds the most like a national anthem. My top three has to be
1. Dragon Quest 4
2. Fire Emblem
3. Final Fantasy 3
For me personally it is a number three in this 1990 RPG showdown. DQ4 is a winner and a ridiculous ninja game from ASCII is at number two.
Not that FF3 was bad, just annoyingly grindy near the end of the game. Do blame the almighty bosses casting Meteor and the lack of save points 🙂
And also the atmosphere and the plot felt a little lackluster. FF1-2 were the closest to an epic swashbuckling on the Famicom you could get at the time while FF3 changed things slightly to a european fairytale fantasy. Not a bad thing, it's just not on par with the first two games imo 🙂
As for the visuals, music and the job class system, Final Fantasy 3 is brilliant.
P.S. Someday I'm going to beat it with four dragoons equipped with blood lances!
I'd honestly put Crystalis/Godslayer over FF3 in the showdown, because FF3 kind of drags on and doesn't really make good use of its job changing mechanic while Godslayer is just solid all around.
Though if we're excluding action RPGs then I guess I'd put FF3 behind DQ4.
This was a pricy game at the time for a non-adult title. It's a large 4 megabit game with battery back-up and the MMC3 chip, but we've seen that before and at more reasonable prices. I think Square knew that the audience would be willing to shell out more for this. A lot of these games will continue to be a bit pricy in the 90s as the audience for Famicom dwindles and the boards become more expensive to print. When the price of Famicom carts were about the same as the price of Super Famicom games (or higher) I think less people wanted to shell out money for them.
Interesting tidbit about Nasir Gebelli, his name flew under my radar. Seems like a prominent and prolific figure in the 80s..90s video game scene.
Twice as interesting the rest of the team apparently followed him to California.
Hard to imagine that happening with the modern US visa policies.
Gosh this used to be one of my favorite JRPG games, but when I played the PR remake I realized this might have been due to this being the first game I played(or muddled through) in Japanese. For me III was bested in every way (except music) by V. In contrast DQ III and IV are high water marks in the series (for me). I don't hate FF III, it just didn't age well for me is all.