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Final Fantasy Legend III | HearLore
Final Fantasy Legend III
In the year 1991, a silent flood began to consume the world, not made of water but of a non-sentient entity known as the Water Entity. This force summoned monsters and abandoned cities, threatening to erase existence across multiple time periods. A group of four warriors, chosen from two distinct races, set out to stop this apocalyptic event. They were not alone, as youths from the future arrived to aid them, revealing that the Entity's destruction was happening simultaneously in the past, present, and future. The party's mission was to collect parts for the Talon, a ship capable of traveling between time periods and dimensions. They learned that the Water Entity was created by the dimensional realm of Pureland, which had once waged a war so destructive it threatened multiple dimensions. The god Sol, creator of the Talon, had sealed Pureland away and scattered the Talon across time periods to prevent its use. The Water Entity was manifested as an act of vengeance from Pureland's primal water deity Xagor. After breaking into Pureland, the original Talon was destroyed and had to be rebuilt, with the party redubbing it Talon2. While exploring Pureland, the party encountered Sol, who now housed the soul of Xagor, and were forced to kill both. In his last act, Sol destroyed the Water Entity, and the party escaped back to their own dimension, destroying the Talon2 in the process.
A New Studio Rises
Production began in 1990, following the completion of the previous game, but the creative landscape had shifted dramatically. Series creator Akitoshi Kawazu was completely occupied with developing Romancing SaGa, making Final Fantasy Legend III the only series title he was not involved in. Production was given by Kawazu to a newly-founded Square studio in Osaka, with Chihiro Fujioka producing the game. The team was establishing themselves as a department, and as a result, a great deal of effort was put into the production. They decided to overcome the Game Boy's limitations by leaving some aspects to the player's imagination instead. In the case of graphics, this meant establishing first an object, then its shadows, allowing the player to visualize the missing colors themselves. A similar concept was applied to the game's music to overcome the limitation of working with only three notes for composition. The world used design elements and motifs from science fiction, traditional fantasy, and referenced Norse mythology. The design of the Talon, called the Stethros in Japanese, was based on the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter. The game's title included the term Final Chapter, as Kawazu was at the time intending to end the SaGa series and brand. These plans changed and the SaGa series continued, leaving Kawazu confused in retrospect about his choice of the title.
Final Fantasy Legend III follows four warriors from two races who travel through time to stop the Water Entity, a non-sentient force summoned by the dimensional realm of Pureland. The party collects parts for the Talon ship to move between eras and eventually destroys the entity by killing the god Sol and the primal water deity Xagor.
Who developed Final Fantasy Legend III?
Final Fantasy Legend III was developed by a newly-founded Square studio in Osaka with Chihiro Fujioka as the producer. Series creator Akitoshi Kawazu was not involved in the project because he was occupied with developing Romancing SaGa.
When was Final Fantasy Legend III released in Japan?
Final Fantasy Legend III was released under its SaGa 3 title by Square in Japan on the 13th of December 1991. Two guidebooks were published by NTT Publishing in December 1991 and January 1992.
How does the character class system work in Final Fantasy Legend III?
Players choose from two races, humans and mutants, who gain experience points or use skills to level up. Characters can evolve into monster or robot classes by using items like meat or mechanical parts gained from enemies.
What is the release date of the Collection of SaGa Final Fantasy Legend on mobile platforms?
The Collection of SaGa Final Fantasy Legend was released for Android and iOS on the 22nd of September 2021. It was later released for Microsoft Windows through Steam on October 21.
How many units did Final Fantasy Legend III sell by 2002?
As of 2002, Final Fantasy Legend III had sold 650,000 units, making it the third best-selling title of the Game Boy SaGa releases. It was also the lowest-selling original SaGa title as of that time.
The game's music was co-composed by Ryuji Sasai and Fujioka, two collaborators who had worked together before Fujioka joined Square. As Fujioka worked on the game's programming, Sasai stated he would handle the game's music, though a musician himself, Fujioka opted to contribute four additional songs to the game. As the game was trying new elements, the composers sought to do the same. To this end, they used four sound channels, and created a stereo sound element that could both be fed through the console's single speaker and work on headphones. Sasai compared the limitations with the audio to a guitar capable of only six tones, though the cartridge capacity for the Game Boy at the time provided some difficulty. As a result, they concentrated on smaller songs, reducing the length of the tracks until they felt the music gave the proper impression. A compilation album featuring music from the three Game Boy SaGa titles, All Sounds of SaGa, was published in 1991 by NTT Publishing. The music was released in a soundtrack album in 2018 alongside music from the original SaGa and SaGa 2.
The Translator's Burden
The game was released under its SaGa 3 title by Square in Japan on the 13th of December 1991. Two guidebooks were published by NTT Publishing in December 1991 and January 1992. In North America, the game was released by Square in August 1993. As with the first two SaGa games, Square rebranded the game under the Final Fantasy moniker in English territories, capitalizing on the recognized brand to grow its regional presence. The English translation was the first project of translator Ted Woolsey at Square. He was given the Final Fantasy IV translation as an example and instructed to ensure there were no repeats of that mess. It was the last SaGa title for the Game Boy, and the last SaGa title to receive a Western release until SaGa Frontier for the PlayStation in 1998. Sunsoft re-released the game in April 1998, alongside the other two SaGa titles for the Game Boy and Final Fantasy Adventure. In 2020, the Game Boy original was re-released alongside the other Game Boy SaGa titles for the Nintendo Switch to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the SaGa series. The collection was published worldwide by Square Enix on December 19 under the title Collection of SaGa: Final Fantasy Legend. It was a digital exclusive release, and included English and Japanese text options worldwide. Production began at Square Enix so players could enjoy the original SaGa trilogy on modern hardware. While Kawazu had earlier plans to bring the originals onto newer hardware, the series' 30th anniversary provided a good opportunity to fulfill his wish. The port included color and resolution options, higher speed options during gameplay, control options that emulated the Game Boy console, a commemorative track created by Ito, and new artwork by Fujioka. The minor adjustments were done to reflect modern gaming tastes, but otherwise the games were unaltered. While the titles were rebranded as part of the SaGa series, their original Final Fantasy branding was retained as a subtitle to avoid undue confusion for original players. This edition was the first time the Game Boy titles released in Europe. This version was released for Android and iOS on the 22nd of September 2021, and later for Microsoft Windows through Steam on October 21.
Time Travel Mechanics
The game's narrative follows a group of warriors as they fight a god-like being in the past, present, and future. During gameplay, players explore the different time periods, fighting in turn-based battles and raising character power through a combination of experience points, skill leveling, and material-based character classes. Players choose their basic characters from two different races, humans and mutants, who have different ways they can raise their experience levels. Travel between eras is carried out using the airship Talon, which is upgraded during the campaign to reach new areas. Battles play out using a turn-based combat system, where party members attack enemies using their equipped weapons or magic spells. Humans raise their level using experience points in battle, while mutants raise their attributes and skills based on usage in battles. Humans and mutants can evolve into monster or robot character classes using items gained from enemies; meat triggers evolution into beasts, then monsters, while mechanical parts transform characters into cyborgs, then robots. Characters are further customized by equipping magic stones, gaining access to new abilities. Dying in battle forces the player to reload a previous saved game. The Nintendo DS remake retains the original story, but removes the experience point-based leveling while incorporating mechanics established in earlier and later SaGa titles. These include skill learning and statistic leveling based on player actions in battles, nonlinear storytelling and exploration through the Free Scenario System, and upgrades to the party's ship. The graphics were also changed, shifting from 2D top-down to an angled 3D presentation. A new mechanic is Time Gear, a special ability which stops time in field environments, freezing enemies and disrupting environmental effects which can halt the party.
Sales and Critical Reception
In Japan, SaGa 3 topped the Famitsu sales charts from December 1991 to January 1992. As of 2002, the game had sold 650,000 units, making it the third best-selling title of the Game Boy SaGa releases, and the lowest-selling original SaGa title as of that time. The DS remake debuted in eighth place in Japanese sales charts, with opening sales of over 27,300 units. By the end of the year, the title had sold just over 59,000 units. The Western Game Boy release of Final Fantasy Legend III received mostly positive reviews, maintaining a 71% aggregate score on GameRankings. The Collection of SaGa version earned a score of 70 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 14 critic reviews. In their review of the original game, Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu noted the user-friendly alterations, but one critic felt that it was notably dissimilar from earlier SaGa titles. Electronic Gaming Monthly lauded it as a good quality RPG, citing the game's graphics and story as its high points, giving it four reviewer scores of 8 out of 10 and an Editor's Choice Gold Award. Nintendo Power largely agreed with these sentiments, stating that the game had excellent game depth and good graphics for a Game Boy RPG, but found the title's story and gameplay to be too similar to previous Final Fantasy Legend games. IGN called attention to the game's dated graphics and faulted the soundtrack, yet still found the game's music to be better than most Game Boy titles. They additionally found fault with the game's equipment screen due to obtuse design and poor image quality, though declared it to be accessible even to novice players. GamePro applauded the game for the battle simulator feature, the ability to transform the character using parts of slain enemies, and the booklets and map included in the game box; they made special note of the time travel mechanic, praising the feeling of fighting enemies in the past after seeing them in later periods. Corbie Dillard of Nintendo Life, writing in a 2009 retrospective review, called it a fitting conclusion to the Game Boy SaGa trilogy, though he noted some continued irritating elements in gameplay and design from earlier titles. GameDaily named it alongside the related Game Boy Final Fantasy titles as definitive games for the system, describing it as providing hours of role-playing excitement. The sentiment was shared by gaming magazines Electronic Gaming Monthly and Pocket Games, the latter of which ranked the titles together 8th out of the Top 50 games for the Game Boy. Reviewing the DS remake, Famitsu praised the continued innovation of class evolution, noted its fast-paced narrative, and lauded the new Time Gear mechanic. Michael Baker of RPGamer praised the improved mechanics and further polish from the SaGa 2 remake, though felt that the plot was still lacking. In their own review of the Collection of SaGa compilation, Jordan Rudek Nintendo World Report called the third game a good place to start for beginners due to its stronger narrative and more traditional gameplay design compared to other SaGa titles. Nintendo Lifes Mitch Vogel felt that all three titles in Collection of SaGa were very simplistic by modern standards, with none of them having aged well compared to other titles of their time.