Some games practically set the tone for all that will come after them yet are little known save to dedicated fans. Final Fantasy III Pixel Remaster is a proper release of one of these lost diamonds and generally does a good job of being both old and new. back in the day, the only way to enjoy the original NES game was via fan translation and emulation, and yes, I enjoyed it immensely via this medium. That said, Pixel Remaster is a completely legal way to get the same experience with lessons learned since 1990.

A bit of background: Final Fantasy I was the only NES release in Western territories. It was somewhat flawed but set out the basics of all the following games. Final Fantasy II for NES was a further teething period in the series, trying out many ideas, some of which would be spun off into other games. It was with Final Fantasy III for NES that many elements experimented with in the first two would attain the forms they were known by for the rest of the series. The Job System, Summon magic, a more fleshed-out version of the Job system pioneered in the first game, and many other elements that would be standard in all future games all debuted here. Aside from a 2006 3D remake with several alterations, the original experience in 2D was to remain a lost bit of history to all save hardcore fans until Final Fantasy 3 Pixel Remaster finally gave the whole world the original 1990 experience.

That said, bit of a caveat. While the art, gameplay, and presentation cleave strongly to the original NES experience, it also comes with many of the enhancements of prior ports for a better quality of life minus anything that changed the original core experience. Specifically, Pixel Remaster does not have any new content added specifically in the 2006 release that included a new optional boss and dungeons as well as the tweaked plot of that title. They did add a toggle to the game menus allowing gold and EXP earned to be multiplied up to a factor of 4, though, which can be useful for beginner players and speedrunners.

The story begins innocently enough, with four kids doing some spelunking in a cave that goes badly. After escaping the cave, they find they are now charged with a great responsibility to the world, which they learn is in grave danger. While it's a bare-bones plot at first, it quickly gets more nuanced, and a danger that spans entire worlds becomes their foe, one that must be defeated.

The gameplay is going to be familiar to turn-based RPG fans. You must explore dungeons, fight monsters by choosing commands in set turns during combat, get new equipment and abilities, and eventually take down a great evil in the world.

The game subsystems, however, need explanation. The job system refers to unlockable classes like Fighter, White Mage, Scholar, Dragoon, and so on that allow the equipping of different weapons, armor, and abilities. Unlike the original 1990 and 2006 versions, which had penalties for switching job classes one had not mastered, that has been removed in Pixel Remaster. The 1990 and 2006 versions also had some annoyingly long dungeons towards the end with no place to save one's progress. This is fixed in Pixel Remaster, making the end game somewhat less painful. Finally, while the Job class abilities were roughly implemented and had a few minor bugs, even in the 2006 version, they are now more in line with more modern remakes with reworked balance and other fixes.

That said, this game is going to be HARD. The 2006 remake was somewhat easier in making certain dungeons much shorter and reducing the number of enemies fought to around 3 or 4 at most due to rebalancing and technical limitations of the engine. The Pixel Remaster restores fighting up to eight monsters in some battles like the 1990 release. Further, the dungeons follow the pattern of the 1990 release, meaning they are quite long, have multiple secret passageways, and gimmicks like needing to enter them using certain skills like the Mini spell are just as hard as the 1990 release. Overall, enemy balance is closer to the 1990 release, which could be quite hard (such as punishing trying to run by dropping your defense to zero and making them ruthless at attacking weaker characters). This game will be very difficult even though it also includes a bunch of quality-of-life enhancements from prior ports, so be advised this is not a game that will forgive casuals, especially later on.


Morally, there are going to be some issues.

Violence is RPG style "Give orders and watch it happen". Bodies disappear after death and there is no blood or gore. Violence is only possible in self-defense.

Graphically, it resembles an SNES quality 2D RPG, though the art strongly adheres to the original NES/Famicom art style. There are some high-quality particle style effects for certain animations, though overall the game feels like a high-quality "neo-retro" release version of Final Fantasy III. The music and sound effects are enhanced versions of the original NES chiptune-style music, now lovingly rendered with far better instrumentals. However, there is a classic music option for those who want nostalgia.

This title can be played with a keyboard and mouse or any Steam-compatible controller. In both cases, the controls are very simple and intuitive. The UI does take cues from the PSP and later ports, making a lot of quality-of-life adjustments over the original release.

The stability of this port is pretty solid. It runs out of the box on Windows, will run with little trouble on Linux via Steam Proton, and is Verified for the Steam Deck as well. System requirements are fairly modest, so even a low-end gaming setup can run this quite well.

There are some minor moral issues.

The language is pretty clean, given it's based on an NES/Famicom-era RPG. Some mentions of d*mn and h*ll show up, generally in a religious sense (like in monster names to denote their demonic origin). Sexuality is mostly absent save for some humanoid monster sprites that have nudity minus explicit details.

You will have to fight demonic and undead foes. The magic usable by the player is pretty generic for the most part. Light and dark-themed attacks exist but are more generic elements than light and dark being good and evil respectively. Morally, this is pretty clean. There are a few references to drinking alcohol, but nothing the player can partake in.

Final Fantasy III Pixel Remaster is technically sound and pretty much a faithful enhanced port of the original title for the modern era. Morally, it's got some issues but nothing an older child on up couldn't handle. Given its place in gaming history and this being the first time the original engine style of this game is available legally, definitely get it if you love old-school turn-based RPGs and Final Fantasy.