Review: Final Fantasy III (DS)

Score: 87

Wow. Just wow. After a truck load of mediocre, half-hearted titles for Nintendo DS (see the main reviews page), at last here's a title that has seen huge investment by the developers. The only staggering thing about Final Fantasy III is that, despite what I've just said, it's still significantly under-developed.

Let me explain. First of all, scroll up and down this review and feast your eyes on the visuals. From full motion video sequences to real-time-(semi-)rendered environments, Final Fantasy III looks better than almost any DS game so far. However, notice also that I'm only showing single-height screenshots. This is because the top screen in the DS is hardly used at all. Very disappointing, in principle but I'm not going to comment further on this because there's just far too much else to say.

Although technically part of a series, Final Fantasy III works very well when played on its own. You control an adventurer and his or her team, assembling colleagues and assigning jobs and skills in fairly traditional (but immaculately presented) fashion.

How you equip each character will determine how they cope in each situation, whether fighting an enemy, solving a puzzle or unearthing treasure in a hazard.

Character selection is best done with the stylus but you can also complete every action with the d-pad and action keys, so full marks for flexibility here.

Be warned that if you're new to RPG (Role Playing Games) then you're going to be fighting hard for survival with Final Fantasy III. Easy this game isn't, despite the huge clues throughout on the best course of action in each scene.

There's tremendous depth to each scene and to the story as a whole, with even hardened RPG fans taking dozens of hours to complete the title. In comparison to other laughable DS titles of the same value, Final Fantasy III simply shines.

Superb music throughout, great artwork and gorgeous video rendering, added to the detailed story and complex gameplay make this excellent value. So what if the developers decided not to use the top screen - this is one case where there's enough going on below for it to be forgiveable.

(Buy/preorder Final Fantasy III for the Nintendo DS Lite now)