Chris W

Final Fantasy III
Publisher: Square Enix
Developer: Square Enix / Matrix Software
Platform: DS
Available: Now

A question for you, Players: what is a remake? It seems obvious enough, but I bet you can’t pin it down in a few words. Let’s work it out together.

Clearly, a mere port of a title to a new platform won’t cut it. Adding new characters or dungeons, tweaking item drops or stats is closer, but we’re still talking ‘enhanced’ rather than a remake. No, something needs to be reworked substantially to earn the title; a redesign for a new generation. So let’s rephrase the question: which aspects do we have to redesign? Is a graphical overhaul enough, or should something more fundamental be addressed? Does it depend on the innards of the target machine? Or on those of the game?

There are two core elements that comprise each Final Fantasy title: the story (or characters), and the battle system. And here, by so sumptuously, so lavishly overhauling the presentation, that first aspect has without doubt been addressed and remade gloriously. It’s sometimes said there are only seven stories in the world, and to retell this one in such opulent fashion is surely as good as you can get without rewriting the narrative afresh - which would essentially create a new FF game, not a remake.

All of which makes it so stupefying that the combat system remains a relic of the past. Hear this: your team’s actions must be decided upon before each round begins, but then play order - both yours and the enemy’s - is completely random. Consequently, if one character takes heavy damage you have the choice of a) assigning one person to do the healing and hoping he or she gets in there before the victim is killed, or b) assigning everyone to healing and squandering three turns (and hoping the enemy doesn’t get the first move, killing the casualty anyway). Forget all you’ve learned about Final Fantasy in the last decade and a half, because any strategy you can come up with here is necessarily and critically compromised by a reliance on dumb luck. Taking the active battle system from any subsequent game, hell, just giving everyone a Speed stat would have made a world of difference. But no.

When I buy a remake, I’m not interested in the ‘charm’ of the old-school experience. There are updates and ports which manage that without pretense, and enhancements that get a dab of polish and minor tweaking with no duplicity as to their lack of modern credentials underneath. But crucially, this isn’t a simple lick of paint, and the sheer magnitude of effort that’s gone into making this look and sound so wonderful, without ever addressing what makes the game tick, creates grave doubts over who Square Enix are trying to fool: us or themselves. Final Fantasy has long been their flagship audiographical series - compare the beautiful but less mainstream splendour of Dragon Quest VIII’s cartoon appeal - but this reliance on sensory updates above all else must be a cause for concern, and when the series is now consuming its past just as visibly as its present, it can only bode ill for the future.

Summary:

The most technologically impressive show yet seen from the DS, coupled to the most decrepit gameplay mechanic. Fans of the series will adore it, but Pokémon’s battle system craps all over this, for Christ’s sake.