Final Fantasy III is like doing your taxes

[@HOLEheregonenow]

You can cast Mini & Toad on your entire party with one cast (takes up one spell charge) and I don't say this as someone who knew this ahead of time, I made the same mistake you did thinking I needed to cast it individually on my whole party, wasn't until several hours into my playthrough I realized I could team cast.

[@jonathanhargraves2241]

Still sucks though, wasting two spell charges or 8 magic items is a pain no matter how small of an issue it is

[@Mimiyan_or_Pikapikafan]

Really glad I didn't do that, because that'd suck. Even worse

[@TheIvoryDingo]

I find it ironic that FF3's endgame (one of the most notorious in the series due to its difficulty) was the direct inspiration for the most brain dead easy alliance raid (24 man content) in FF14.

[@culIen]

A comedic overcorrection that also lead to the XIV counterpart forever being almost as infamous! Impressive!

[@kirestus]

A tip when you are in a forced mini or frog dungeon, you can cast the spell on the whole party at once for a single charge

[@nahumgardner]

You can use a mallet, at least in the pixel remastered, to make someone many. You can also use the mini spell on four people at once by pushing left while selecting a target. You can't turn yourself into a toad with maiden's kiss though.

[@LAGSAS]

I dont have any words to express how neat and fun this video is, but im also leaving a comment for the algorithm

[@TheTateful]

Scholar is a boss-killer. They can do absurd amounts of damage with attack items.

[@Anaklusmos42]

Is there an on-use bonus ?

[@leargamma4912]

​@Anaklusmos42 yes. At job level 1-19 it is a times 2 multiplier. Then at 20 it becomes 2.5 multiplier. Eventually before job level 50 it becomes 3.5. At 90 it becomes 4.0, but only with attacking items. High potions and potions are always just double.

[@vodkaffee4856]

final fantasy 3 is on my top III final fantasies, when i had a potato computer and basically and no internet this 200kb game was a blessing, and i really liked the nes version, played it to completion

[@janyozenith4331]

Same dude!

[@Zelphiez]

I think some of Uematsu's greatest work is in the nes version. I liked the pixel remaster arrangement of the world map but I much preferred the OG version. It really had that "nes sound" to it and the instrumentation of the arranged version lost that imo.

[@xanderac]

Wonderful work Cullen, I don't have the patience to play a lot of the older JRPG's so it's always interesting getting a full story of a game from the perspective of someone I like and respect. I think you did a fantastic job, good memes and pacing~

[@culIen]

Thanks Xander, this one was fun! I'm also finding I don't have patience for a lot of older RPGs as of late, and I think this is the game that tipped me off to that >.>

[@SomeSunshineOutside]

FFIII on DS was my first FF. The music and visuals are very pretty and kept me grinding when I hit a wall. When only changing jobs one or two times it turned out all right. Great memories from the game but trying it now I'd just get frustrated.

[@elgatochurro]

Very much the same, the intro especially made me want to play a ttrpgs without knowing what I they even were

[@JoelBurger]

There being no reason to pick any other classes was true in the original, but not really in 3D or PR. Sage will now always have less Intelligence than a Magus, less Mind than a Devout, and less spell charges than either. Having a Magus that is able to constantly go on the offensive with Bio/Quake/Thundaga/Flare and a Devout to constantly keep the party healed up (or using Aeroga/Holy) is better than having a Sage who has to consistently waffle back and forth between the two while not doing either as well.

[@culIen]

That's a good point, and I think if the game was a bit more versatile I can see how it would be worth doing that. I'll keep my eyes out for that in one of the later job games, I just think FF3 is a bit too simplistic to even need to worry about that kind of stuff. Glad there is some extra details I missed tho!

[@elgatochurro]

Tbh sage and ninja seemed like the best jobs because of when you get them

[@leargamma4912]

​@@elgatochurroyou get those jobs with only 6 bosses left. How dumb are you to think they're objectively better than the knight or viking or dark knight you have been using for hours? Even the thief is better.

[@Cevian]

What were they cooking?

[@nezkeys79]

Mages can use staffs and rods that cast spells for free btw, and running 4 rdm is easy and cheap to stack spells on all of them anyway

[@danmacarro]

Can't wait for FFV! I keep going back to that one again and again because the job system.

[@culIen]

Hoping for next year! This video really burned me out on FF for a bit, but I'm hoping to return to this soon ^-^ Thanks for watching!

[@Road_to_Dawn]

22:26 OMG I’m not the only one who references that line from PT Also, “Guchi” lmao that part was fantastic. I would’ve absolutely lost my mind if The Guchi handed me a boxed FF9 Also also, wait. Do you actually love FF2, because if so, I’m once again not the only one lol

[@culIen]

I do love FF2, I think that game is super neat and my favorite of the NES trilogy!

[@Road_to_Dawn]

@@culIen YES! I thought I was alone in that!

[@MasterFhyl]

I could not agree more with you that the NES has literally NO good games that weren't remade better later on a different system.

[@Multienderguy37]

Castlevania 3 (The Japanese version), though that is the only example that comes to mind.

[@tinkerer3399]

Little Nemo Dream Master is what springs to my mind.

[@jonathanhargraves2241]

Only exceptions I can think of are SMB3 and some arcade-like games like Dr. Mario, Yoshi's Cookie, Wrecking Crew, Tetris, etc. Everything else were far too ambitious for a console this weak, and it shows with how much better the remakes for these games are

[@MasterFhyl]

@jonathanhargraves2241 err.. Most of not all of those games got remade on better hardware. (which was my point)

[@jonathanhargraves2241]

@@MasterFhyl That's true, I misread your comment.

[@p9faf3cht]

This guy is mad funny lmao Great video. Keep up the great work :3

[@traviseller8160]

If FF3 is like doing taxes, then thank you for doing mine for free. I pay to get mine done.

[@bjbovia]

after playing 1 and 2 I skipped to 4 because I got burnt out on NES era design sensibilities, but maybe I could watch all of gundam again in the time it takes to grind through 3

[@elolawynladriel]

I am interested in this video series. What kind of job systems qualify for the series? Tactics games as well? FFX-2 Dresspheres? FFXIII roles? Lightning Returns garbs?

[@culIen]

Tactics, Bravely, X-2, and Lightning Returns all count! I plan on doing side videos on the games leading up to X-2 and LR (I need to figure out if I consider the other XIII games as job games, it's more obvious in LR)

[@RwnEsper]

​@@culIen If you want to be thorough, you should do a video on Bravely Default (the series at least).

[@culIen]

​@RwnEsper yep! That's the plan! Every tactics game and every Bravely. I'm of the rare opinion that Second is both the best game in that series and the best job system game I've ever played, so I'm excited to one day cover all of them!

[@Boto-rj9xs]

I have been slowly playing every FF game in order and its kinda amazing how this game is the core of a lot of what makes final fantasy, final fantasy despite it being pretty rough. This game has a lot of flaws but I cant really dislike it, its charming in a weird way.

[@culIen]

I do think it has a lot of charm even with some of the flaws, but a lot of that good grace is kind of lost just with how fresh the end game is. I think the further away I get the more I'll appreciate it, I just wish it could have gotten a remake that was more willing to expand on what work than repeat the same mistakes. Could have been cool! I respect how much this did for the series tho

[@sinom]

How can you turn down a free boxed copy of FF9???

[@Multienderguy37]

I have played ff1 through 7, and this is my favorite, I found it really fun. The job system is less “fragmented” than 5, the world is interesting and uni que, dungeons are mostly well designed, with one exception (not the crystal tower, there is a much, much worse area) and you get stupidly op at the end. I actually did a long essay on why i like this game so much, and what it does well, though that may be beyond the scope of a KZbin comment. 16:52 I also think this game is better than DQ11 , mainly because of the whole post game, which is mandatory to understand the story. 28:47 The boss with one attack? I beat her first try on the famicom in the early level 50s. FYI use single target full heal spells with two healers, and buff or summon on the first turn. I did not grind in this dungeon or eureka at all. The best strategy would be to get the loot from a quarter of eureka, hightail it back to the invincible, get the rest of eureka’s loot, back to the ship, quarter of the actual dungeons loot, back to ship, rest of the dungeons loot, back to ship and you can complete the game half asleep from that point on, no grinding required. You should do all the optional dungeons, get all the summons and do the penultimate dungeon before the ancient maze, if you feel unprepared. The final dungeon in NES FF1 requires a lot of grinding, and so do a lot of that game (you have to use the strategy I outlined for the crystal tower for every dungeon in FF1, and it is super boring, even in the good ones.)

[@maraganger]

hmmmm sleepy chicken 👀 nah but for real, what a good vid, absolutely can't wait for the FFV vid !

[@culIen]

Thank you gamerrrrrr It'll be a bit bc now I am free to cover weird games~☆ But hopefully before the end of the year ^-^

[@codywhite8427]

I been playing it lately, it's okay.. I personally am starting to enjoy it and I like it more than two. Im playing the 3d version, the opening scene when you first see the crystal looked dope af but that's it, id rather see the pixel remastered, i do think the 3d version helps the bare bones story a little, I owned 3 for years and want to get on to playing 4, 5 and 6.

[@marx2282]

This video was great, so I’m commenting for the algorithm :3 keep it up!

[@culIen]

Thank you very much ^-^

[@justmavi7999]

After having to double my playtime just to level up enough to beat the damn final boss, on psp, I feel like every person who finished ff3 share this injury. Leaving part of them dead forever. Wondering what they are doing with their life...

[@Ryuoh]

Not gonna lie, I'd like you to do a retrospective on fft more so the "war of the lions" version.

[@edcaous]

My PR (switch ver) had the option to turn random encounters off. Didn't grind, but found the final boss to be really boring. She just spams particle laser beam cannon or whatever every turn so you just have to target all heal every turn with your devout or sage or whatever. So I just had attacker, attacker, all target heal, all target heal, and then set it on auto. It took like a billion years because without shuriken spam you do piss damage compared to the ridiculous amount of health she has and I had to pause auto a few times to give my healers elixirs so they could continue heal all, but it worked eventually. xdeath > clown man > chaos > emperor > cod

[@scpfilechildrenbarrow2212]

Xande was a way cooler fight than cloud of darkness funnily enough

[@elolawynladriel]

I played FFIII on DS after playing and loving both FFV and FFTA on GBA and I did not get the point of the job system. I don't remember it very well but I think you lost all progress when changing jobs. I think I sticked to the first jobs until you get out to the ocean world then abandoned the game. 😥

[@culIen]

Yeah from what I've gathered they make the job system really confusing in the ds version by adding unnecessary bells and whistles? Not huge on it, which is a shame because aesthetically I adore FFIII on the ds. If I hadn't done the necessary research, I probably would have played that version for this vid and been much more miserable.

[@Mimiyan_or_Pikapikafan]

Wouldn't have beaten the 3D Remake of FF3 without quicksaves, first game I've played that quicksaves mattered

[@JorgeGomez-hx5uu]

Yeah I’m playing through to rn with a white mage, black mage, monk and warrior (at the sewer section) and now I’m starting to think I have to grind one of the unique classes alongside my beefier characters just to increase my chances. Am I playing the game wrong?

[@GaoRush]

i'm in your walls kupo

[@culIen]

weeknd lost in maze.gif

[@nono-ru1mm]

thank you for reminding me to do some push ups

[@culIen]

Fit in a couple planks too 💪

[@Inogat]

Wild Rose

[@FatalKitsune]

At least I used the Onion Knight for about ten minutes. Scholar I never used a single time. Not even when the game intended for you to use it.

[@Ajhmee]

You don't need to grind that much, if you change job to Master(Karateka) to gain more HP each time you level up.

[@GCVazquez]

GAS GAS GAS GAS GAS

[@culIen]

My fire alarm after I cook bacon for too long like

[@Kirbyluver2]

This vid just makes me think “git gud”. A lot of the complaints are just misunderstanding of the game. For example you can switch from ur black mage whos out of charges to a scholar and pwn bosses with elemental items during mid game. The pixel remaster also lets YOU balance the exp curve yourself removing all grinding

[@culIen]

The exp curve thing you're talking about was a console exclusive Boost feature that was never patched into the PC release, which this video was based on. Even if it was, this video was released/recorded before the console version came out. I also find it really funny that you're telling me to git gud and then tell me I should have cheated lol. I wish I could have, because I have nothing to prove and wish I didn't have to fight so many boring encounters.

[@leargamma4912]

Doing the game in a four job fiesta format really makes this game tedious. Yeah you don't need to grind job levels if you are lucky and have forsight. But if you're SOL with monk and no white mage equivalent ever? You are going to be in the level 70's before you get to the final boss because damn you NEED heals.

[@BronxDragon]

I am prepared to die on my hill. But the end game was utter garbo and what you have to do just to beat the cloud of darkness without pulling your hair out is just dumb. And the crystal tower is pure ass.

[@culIen]

Yep! Actually irredeemable and the reason why this video took so long. I'm really surprised that it has received two remakes and no one ever thought to redesign the crystal tower.

[@شخصشخصاخر]

Dude I love you

[@RwnEsper]

I first played the fan translation in early 2000; I thought it was good, but basic. The 3DS remake at least made some attempt at giving the characters, well, character, and I will always appreciate it for that. Also, a video on FF3's job system, and you didn't cover endgame Onion Knight? Shame on you! (Just kidding, that grind was awful)

[@culIen]

I think end game onion knight is exclusive to the 3D version, in the pixel remaster you just have them as your useless starting class haha. I can't imagine the end game grind somehow being even WORSE

[@RwnEsper]

@@culIen Above level 90, AND while equipped with the special Onion gear that drops rarely from certain dragons in the final areas, the base class gets special bonuses. In the 3D remake, they locked this inherent "bonus" behind a new class. It is NOT worthwhile, but AFAIK it is still in the Pixel Remaster. FF5 took the root idea of rewarding investment in the systems and made it actually rewarding.

[@RikkiG1984]

Man, this is tremendous, thank you. I'm doing a playthrough of all the Pixel Remasters now, and this was my first time ever with 3. I thought it was pretty bad, and the worst of the 2d era! You're helping me solidify my own thoughts here. "FF3 is like doing your taxes, and FF5 is the tax return." Perfect!

[@keeptv1918]

Not peak per se… but in the 3D remake scholar is actually pretty good I’d even argue for a top tier job especially if you use the item duplication glitch then you can just toss Antarctic winds, bomb fragments or arms and hi-potions like crazy at double the effectiveness making them even more powerful than the mage jobs even more so on a low level run

[@robby024]

I won't lie. Going from how much more I liked ff2 over 1 w the remasters, I liked how ff3 started and it's fast pacing but these first 3 are absolutely no match for the first 3 dragon quest games I also recently played through

[@minneyar42]

"No good games on the NES" While I think a lot of NES games suffer from coming out at the cusp of when game developers started to develop games for a home audience rather than arcades, and the technological limitations made it hard to make games with a lot of depth, I will always reply to this assertion with: Crystalis. Utterly fantastic game that has never been remade on a newer system (the GBC version doesn't count, it's worse), and really the only negative thing I can say about it is there's no in-game map system and the dungeon layouts can be very confusing, but there's no shame in just looking up maps online if you're bad at mapping things out in your head. Not only is it the best game on the NES, it's still better than most action RPGs on the SNES. Anyway, FF3... yeah. It's ok. I'll admit I've played the NES version but never actually got through the crystal tower, and I haven't played any of the other versions... although it seems to me like maybe the ridiculous amount of grinding at the end is unnecessary if you can two-shot the final boss after that? I mean, presumably it'd be possible with a little more difficultly at lower levels.

[@culIen]

Not to break from the bit, but the NES comment was mostly just a gag! This crystalis game seems neat, I've never seen it before and apparently it's on switch. I'll have to check this out! I think I might eventually give FF3 on NES a shot, the aesthetics are at least very cozy and you can tell they understood the system more, but would probably also just stop before the Crystal Tower lol

[@NerevarineKing]

...but I like Crystal Tower, although the final boss is pretty shitty.

[@nezkeys79]

There's only four things I dislike about the game... 1) job adjustment phase (and the mp to zero / elixir waste thing) 2) crystal tower + xande + 4 dark crystals + final boss all in one go. Pretty sure most people will just escape every battle if they die just to get back quicker to where they were. Simulated difficulty and annoying. Just drop a save before Cloud of Darkness and make it as hard as you want 3) when you get the final "op" jobs you already have a bunch of jobs almost level 99 so weaken yourself if you wanna equip them and spend hours catching back up. The final boss can be beaten easily with whm + 3 warriors at JL99 spamming advance 4) Mini/Toad sections

[@PunishedPrince]

lol i knew you had seen ideon but didn’t know that we both became tomino fans around the same time. currently watching L-Gaim

[@culIen]

ooooooooooooooooooooo I need to hop on L-Gaim its on my list!

[@cronoesify]

This is a game that you had to have played back in the early 90s. Because what it brought to the franchise was A. LOT. It seems small now because of what the franchise ended up becoming after FF6/7, but if you played this back when the fan translation for the NES version came out (around 2000 for the complete translation) it was shocking how much of an actual game there was there. It felt like a legitimate prototype for FF4, and a game worth playing in its own right. Sure, people shit on it now, but I am shocked that this gets so much hate. FF3 was the foundation for SO MANY Squaresoft games at the time - especially when you look at how their game boy RPG efforts really drew upon it.

[@culIen]

@cronoesify i definitely acknowledge this game as important, my issues come from it being sandwiched between much more interesting games to actually play. It also doesn't help that square has essentially redone this formula a few more times with games like ff5 and bravely, but that's not really it's fault. I'm not even as mad at the bullshit, I just wish there was a bit more going on when other NES rpgs have more sauce (the initial 4 DQs and Mother come to mind)

[@cronoesify]

@@culIen Saying FF2 is a more interesting game to play begs for your definition of interesting. Just because you have character portraits, a story that progresses, and an early battle system for SaGa, doesnt mean it is more interesting in a way that you would want to play over FF3. No question FF4 is foundational to the series and the infinitely better game, but FF3 has more in common with FF1 and 2 than FF4 does. FF1-5 are its own thing, and I personally prefer 3 in terms of playing something that is not just representative of the series to that point, but gaming in general at the time. There is a reason why the Japanese love 3 - its legacy was defined by those who got to experience it at the time. It is the quintessential "you just had to be there". And while 5 did what 3 did better, OG gets points. 3 is a game that gets hated simply because when it finally came here, it came here as that god awful DS version - by then, the magic was gone, and any and every gamer in the West moved on.

[@culIen]

@cronoesify it being proto saga is enough for me, I like sicko games and FF2 is that. It is more interesting in ways that *I'd* want to play over FF3, not saying my experience is universal. FF3 is probably the better designed game but it doesn't do it for me and that's fine

[@Jacked_Dude_Loves_Wheyfus]

Based of you to watch so many mecha anime while grinding

[@KisekiFox]

Others have mentioned the mini problem fixes so I won't bring that up haha. I do generally agree with you here tho. As someone who played the ds version when he was a wee babbu, and genuinely had no issues with the game difficulty wise (i never even grinded at any point, i don't play RPG's that make me grind lmao) the game was a nice lil portable rpg to play....until the crystal tower. I'll always remember getting through the whole thing, eureka included, and reaching the final boss only for it To do more damage than I could heal and die Rendering hours upon hours of progress lost And that's when I turned off the game and told everyone I beat it anyways lmao. Interesting that you could enjoy 2 more tho, I find that game a lot more boring and frustrating because that game is entirely "grind or die" with no nice difficulty curve to be found, you're either overpowered, or underpowered without much wiggle room and that just kinda sucks for me if there isn't an entertaining story keeping me going along too. Fun video tho, always enjoy your stuff even if our likes on FF games in particular would be way different lol.

[@culIen]

@KisekiFox honestly I don't even remember my issues with mini, they were probably just an annoyance with the game not conveying itself properly (or I just missed it, possible!). FF3 is mostly just OK, but I get why people like it. The ultimate point of this was to just convey that, but being a 30 min vid with some jabs at it makes that harder to parse. I think something like FF2 is just a bit more interesting for someone like me to comb through, even if the game balance isn't really there. A lot of that adoration comes from it just being a prototype SaGa though, and just my general interest in Black Sheep entries. Thanks for the watch in support! Hopefully even if I continue to disagree with you on FF games, I can still entertain you 🫡

[@peropero2208]

Recently finished FF3 and I'll be honest The Pixel Remaster is SO much better than the PSP version Also I still consider Scholar pretty fine cause you can deal tons of damage with attack items

[@stevenrosscarpenter]

Megaman 2 on NES is great. Bubble bobble too

[@Tvmasterj]

Kamen Rider Build gang!

[@PunishedPrince]

FF9 is good and vivi is one of the best FF characters but i’m of the opinion that it’s a safe rpg and we don’t take those. give me that neat shit

[@culIen]

REALEST SHIT WE NEED OUT GAMES WITH A BIT OF SPICE IN THIS NECK OF THE WOODS

[@Chietcom]

rewatched the video. I decided to play every Nes and SNES FF game (and maybe 7). And it startet so good. FF1 was solid, but wierd with its story progression. FF2 was ALOT of fun and i really liked it. BUT i think ff3 just broke me and i am only half way in, needing to go through some sewers. Mini and Toad can go to hell. The Jobs feel completly pointless and more like another equipment slot. I hate the Mp system and Mages feel so Handicapped in the way to the boss. And everything feels like a glass cannon. My party dies with 1 hit but so does the enemy. Everything just feels so tedius and i am not even at the "worse" part of the game.

[@killscreen7519]

Story was a real step back IMHO compared to FF2. This felt like more like FFI - 2. The Pixel Remaster is a tough slog and I don't know if I can bring myself to finish it. At least the story in FF2 kept me invested. The story in 3 is boring. They setup the Warriors of Light and Dark early on and I just have no F's to give about it

[@jeankirchstein2552]

Oh boy i can't wait for the 6 hour video essay on ff7

[@culIen]

Thankfully it isn't a job system game, so I'm spared from covering the most discussed game ever made 😌

[@jonathanhargraves2241]

I've used a Level 90 Scholar at Job Level 99, they are never good. I've been this game three times, twice on the PR version and once on the NES translation so that I could try the Crystal Tower in its worst form, and each playthrough was worst than the last. I like this game, but it is monotonous as hell. You play through this linear experience that you have fun with until you reach sections that arbitrarily force you to play different jobs, or else you will be punished for wanting to play it your way. The Ancient's Maze on the NES version is the perfect encapsulation of this game's flaws, and is the sole reason I fell out of love with this game. You are asked to use a class you don't get support for until after this maze, and they more than likely expect you to run away from every battle in order to survive. You are likely severely underleveled at this point if you haven't grinded on your own time, with your party getting one or two-shotted with each hit, and battles drag out because of the splitting enemies and your magic spells having damage reduction. At the lower levels of the dungeon you are literally unable to run from battles, with thieves being unable to flee and having to chip away at the enemy for minutes at a time. After getting the Invincible, you are basically in the endgame and are asked to do the last two dungeons, which suck in their own right. It's honestly impressive that they made 3 dungeons back-to-back that are worst than FF1's Ice Cavern.

[@deathtaco4095]

i think your wrong sorry

[@culIen]

@@deathtaco4095 👍

[@vgnvideogameninja2930]

OMG, such cringe... 😒

[@leargamma4912]

Yet another person complaining about spell charges. You do know there's way more in ff 3 than there are in 1? And the original 1 didn't have ethers or mp restore either. By the time you hit level 50 for mages, which to be fair doesn't take too long if you're not running from each fight, you should have around 23 to 28 level 1 magic casts. The further on you get into the game the less of an issue this is. You gotta run back to the healing save? Dude. The pixel remaster lets you turn off encounters. How is that an inconvenience? No patience with you skibidy zoomers. Edit: JUST TARGET ALL WITH MINI OR BUY THE MALLET ITEMS. IT'S A SINGLE DUNGEON YOU NEED TO DO THIS FOR. UNLESS YOU HAVE NO USE FOR MAGES THIS IS NOT A PROBLEM. GROW UP OR SHUT UP.

[@culIen]

@leargamma4912 damn I was about to reply to your first comment and try to engage with you meaningfully about job fiesta (something I'm interested in but don't know too much about) until you embarrassed yourself with whatever the hell this is. The most I can concede with is that honing in on the minor annoyance I had with mini as a joke was an oversight and probably not worth the bit. Everything else is just preference, which is subjective so who cares. Crazy how people are willing to listen to you when you don't come at them saying dumb shit like "skibidi zoomer", which is wrong anyway lol. Take care.