Play Final Fantasy III Online

Summary

Final Fantasy III on the Nintendo DS is a full‑3D reimagining of the 1990 classic, finally giving western players a proper localized experience. The overhaul replaces the original 8‑bit sprites with smooth polygonal models, adds a CGI opening, and expands the story while keeping the core adventure intact.

The game still revolves around a quartet of heroes who start as Onion Knights and can switch among dozens of jobs—warriors, monks, mages, ninjas, dragoons, summoners, and more—using capacity points earned after battles. Turn‑based combat returns, letting you attack, defend, cast spells, or use items, while the overworld opens up gradually as you travel on foot, by chocobo, boat, and eventually airship. Development was guided by series veterans such as Hironobu Sakaguchi, Hiromichi Tanaka, Kazuhiko Aoki, Kenji Terada, Nobuo Uematsu and Nasir Gebelli, with Akihiko Yoshida redesigning the characters and jobs for the DS version.

Storyline

Final Fantasy III takes place in an unnamed fantasy world guarded by four elemental crystals. A thousand years earlier, a technologically advanced civilization on a floating continent tried to control the light crystals, upsetting the balance with their dark counterparts and summoning the Cloud of Darkness. The original Warriors of Light and Warriors of Darkness restored harmony, but the floating continent remained as a ruin.

In the present, darkness is spreading again. The tale opens on the Floating Continent where four orphaned youths from the village of Ur are chosen by the dying Wind Crystal, become the Warriors of Light, and start with the default Onion Knight class. Along the way they befriend Princess Sara, survivor Desch, engineer Cid, Prince Alus of Saronia, and the students Doga and Unei, while the main antagonist Xande, a student of Magus Noah, seeks immortality by flooding the world with darkness.

After securing the blessings of the Fire, Water and Earth Crystals and obtaining the airship Invincible, the heroes travel to the flooded surface, aid Alus, and uncover Xande’s plan to halt time. They infiltrate the Crystal Tower, defeat Xande, but the Cloud of Darkness returns, killing the party until Doga and Unei sacrifice themselves to revive them. The Warriors then enter the realm of darkness, join forces with the original Warriors of Darkness, defeat the Cloud, revive the crystals, restore balance, and return to their ordinary lives.