Final Fantasy III (2006 video game)

• 1. Introduction

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  Final Fantasy III sold 500,000 copies in Japan in its first week on the Nintendo DS, surpassing Square Enix's own prediction of 350,000. That figure is striking on its own. What makes it more remarkable is that the game behind those numbers had never been released outside Japan before. For sixteen years, it had existed only on the Famicom, unavailable to Western audiences who had played Final Fantasy, II, IV, V, and VI without ever encountering the third entry. The 2006 DS remake finally bridged that gap, delivering a completely rebuilt version of the 1990 original to a global audience. How that remake came to exist, what it changed, and how it was received by players who finally got to play it are the questions this documentary explores.

• 2. A Long Road to Remake

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  The path to the 2006 Nintendo DS remake was neither direct nor smooth. An attempt to rebuild the game for the WonderSwan Color had already failed before the project ever reached players. Then, in 2003, Square merged with its former competitor Enix to form Square Enix, and the newly combined company publicly assured fans that the promised remake had not been abandoned. Speculation settled on the PlayStation or the Game Boy Advance, the platforms where earlier Final Fantasy entries had found new life. Development initially pointed toward the PlayStation 2.

  Nintendo intervened. Square Enix was persuaded to redirect the project to the Nintendo DS, the company's new handheld system. That decision proved commercially sound given the DS's eventual commercial performance. The remake was first announced in October 2004, though detailed information stayed private for a full year after that announcement.

  Hiromichi Tanaka took charge of the project as both executive producer and director. His direct involvement was essential because this was not a simple graphical refresh. Unlike the remakes of Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II, which updated visuals while largely preserving the originals, this project rebuilt the game from the ground up using the Nintendo DS's 3D capabilities. Programming was handled by developer Matrix Software, who co-developed the title alongside Square Enix.

• 3. Giving Characters Faces

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  Tanaka named the four protagonists himself, working in coordination with producer Tomoya Asano. The original game's party consisted of four Onion Knights with no names, no individual histories, and no distinct personalities. That anonymity had been a conscious choice, mirroring the approach of the very first Final Fantasy and standing in contrast to Final Fantasy II's heavier focus on character and story. By the time the remake entered development, named and individualized protagonists had become standard in the series following Final Fantasy IV.

  Akihiko Yoshida, whose prior credit included Final Fantasy XII, redesigned the original characters for 3D and created the visual identities for the new named versions. The four protagonists became Luneth, an adventurous orphan from the village of Ur; Arc, Luneth's timid but intelligent best friend; Refia, a girl from the village of Kazus who repeatedly fled her father's blacksmith training; and Ingus, a soldier loyal to the King of Sasune who had a quiet affection for the princess Sara.

  Asano and Tanaka both noted that the team had originally planned to give the characters much larger roles in the plot. Concern about alienating fans of the original game tempered that ambition. The final implementation confined the new personalities primarily to the game's introduction and its ending, leaving the core storyline largely intact. Additional temporary characters, called sub-characters, joined the party as in the original, but in the remake they could participate in battles at random.

• 4. Rebuilding the Job System

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  The job system underwent a significant redesign. The original Famicom version used capacity points to govern job changes, and many jobs became useless as players advanced. The remake replaced capacity points with a Job Transition Phase: switching jobs imposed a temporary statistical penalty lasting anywhere from zero to ten battles. The length of that penalty depended on how similar the new job was to the old one and how experienced the character was in the new role.

  A new default class called the Freelancer replaced the Onion Knight at the start of the game. The Onion Knight was retained as a secret class rather than the starting option. The ultimate jobs, the Ninja and the Sage, were rebalanced to sit alongside the Warrior in terms of ability level, as were lesser-used classes like the Geomancer. A new crystal, a new dungeon, and new job-specific items were added; these items became accessible only after a character had fully mastered a particular job.

  The Crystal Tower, the original game's final dungeon, had drawn criticism for its length and absence of save points or restoration options. The team considered adding save points there but ultimately chose to preserve the original design. Those save points would eventually be incorporated into the 2D Pixel Remaster version of the game. The remake also used the Nintendo DS's Wi-Fi to let players send in-game mail to unlock sidequests, and it included an interruption-save feature that allowed players to power down the DS mid-session and resume exactly where they left off.

• 5. Music, Ports, and Expansions

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  Tsuyoshi Sekito and Keiji Kawamori arranged the score for the DS remake, working under the supervision of composer Nobuo Uematsu. NTT Publishing released the soundtrack in 2006 as Final Fantasy III Original Soundtrack, which included revamped versions of the original tracks alongside additional compositions.

  The iOS port arrived on the 24th of March 2011, with improved gameplay, enhanced graphics, and remastered audio. The Mognet mail feature for player-to-player communication was removed, but the Onion Knight job became available through a different quest. An Android version of that remaster followed in June 2012. The PlayStation Portable port released on September 20 the same year in downloadable-only format outside Japan. Square Enix released a high-definition version for the Ouya console in April 2013, positioning it as a launch title for that platform. A Windows Phone port arrived on the 27th of December 2013.

  The Steam release launched in the west on the 27th of May 2014. Japan received the Steam version on the 28th of February 2020, alongside a wide update that added an auto battle function, a 2x speed mode for combat, an improved interface, and support for 16:9 and 21:9 widescreen displays. The game reached GOG.com on the 29th of January 2026.

• 6. Sales and Critical Reception

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  By the end of 2006, the DS remake had sold over 935,000 copies in Japan alone. As of August 2007, Japanese sales had reached 990,000 units while North American sales stood at 460,000. By August 2008, European sales totaled 480,000 units, bringing worldwide DS sales to 1.93 million units. Combined Famicom and DS sales reached 3.33 million units as of that same date. The PSP port added over 80,000 copies sold in Japan by the end of 2012.

  Critical reception was mostly positive. The game held an aggregate score of 77 percent on GameRankings. One publication described it as an RPG for dedicated enthusiasts, calling it one of the best portable RPGs available and characterizing it as a slice of history and a missing piece of a blockbuster series. Another outlet argued that enjoyment depended entirely on a player's willingness to engage with archaic mechanics that might feel primitive compared to other Square Enix titles of the period, while acknowledging that some players would find that challenge appealing.

  Negative observations clustered around specific friction points. One review noted that the Nintendo DS's top screen sat inactive for 75 percent of the game. Another critique pointed out that battles which had taken seconds in the original now stretched toward a minute in the 3D remake. The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences nominated the game for Role-Playing Game of the Year at the 10th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, a recognition that acknowledged the remake's place in the broader landscape of the medium.