Why was FF3 ported to so few systems?

[Edmond Dantes]

This came up on another forum, so I thought I'd ask.

So... FF1 came out for NES, Playstation, GBA and PSP
FF2? NES, Playstation, GBA and PSP
FF4? SNES, Playstation, GBA, DS and PSP
FF5... SNES, Playstation, GBA
FF6... SNES, Playstation, GBA

But FF3, often considered the best game of the original Famicom trilogy?

Famicom and DS. That's it.

What is up with this? Does Square hate that game for some reason?

[Zing]

I have played neither 3 nor 5, but I have long been under the impression that 5 was "3 done properly".

[Baloo]

Didn't they also renumber the games in the states?

[Edmond Dantes]

Didn't they also renumber the games in the states?

They did. I'm not in the habit of bringing it up because all the experts already know and in this day and age its a pointless piece of trivia that only confuses the uninitiated.

But just to be clear:

When I say "FF3" I mean the game about the Onion Kids who can change their class whenever they want to. Whenever I'm talking about the game with Magitek Armor and Espers--even if I'm talking about the SNES release--I'll say FF6.

[heybtbm]

Does Square hate that game for some reason?

Considering the fact that SquareEnix gave FF3 the biggest makeover of any of their FF re-releases....I'd say no.

[Patney]

It also got an iOS release, so that's three ports actually.

[Scissors]

Final Fantasy 3 was released on the iPhone too, along with FF1 and FF2. FF1, FF2, and FF4 also came out for the Wonderswan Color. I'm pretty sure several of them are downloadable PS3 and Wii games.

[Einzelherz]

I have played neither 3 nor 5, but I have long been under the impression that 5 was "3 done properly".

More accurately 5 is 3 done better. 3 stands very well on its own and actually it's a little stronger in some places than 5. 5 cleans up the job system a lot, though.

[Kitsune Sniper]

I dunno, but I was pissed off that they never released it on the GBA.

[Boltorano]

I dunno, but I was pissed off that they never released it on the GBA.

Seconded. I never really liked the polygonal style on the DS remakes, and despite the awful butchering of the audio in the GBA port of 6, I think I would have enjoyed a graphical touch-up of 3 much more on there.

[kupomogli]

Why was FF3 ported to so few systems?

Why would you port the worst in the series over all others which would make you more money? The only reason I see Squaresoft porting it over to the DS was that we still haven't played it(legit) over in the US and everyone is sure to buy into it. Why has FF1, 2(debatable, but I like it,) FF4, 5, and 6 been ported so many times? They're all good games, some more than others.

FF3 takes grinding for exp to a whole new level. If you thought any of the Dragon Warrior games were bad, FF3 is ridiculous. The class change system was poorly done, as most every class in the game is just a more powerful version of the same class(aside from a few.) The NES version has a delay on every attack chosen and when attacks are done, making battles take a much longer amount of time, even when killing enemies in a single hit. Pair the delay on all attacks with the massive amount of grinding and it's even less enjoyable. The worst aspect of the game though isn't even the grinding, it's the requirement in multiple dungeons to change yourself tiny, use frog, change all characters to one of those few certain classes to get through a battle, etc. Instead of playing how you want, you're forced to play to a set of standards repeatedly throughout the game.

Finally, and this isn't such a big one, but FF3 took a major step backwards from what was introduced in FF2. FF2 was story heavy and had a great storyline. FF3 had an almost non existent storyline, similar to the first game which also had a storyline which was almost non existent.

I've finished the NES version on emulator in the 90s. Didn't get too far into the DS game before turning the game off and haven't bothered picking it up since. It's my least favorite title in the series. I'd rather pay a monthly fee to play FF11, another game I didn't like much at all.

[FoxNtd]

I always thought it was odd FF3 got scrapped for Wonderswan but 4 didn't. :|

[courtesi1]

I know this may not apply because I'll be talking about the three lettered word: ROM.

Want more challenge? Here you go...

http://www.del337ed.com/blog/index.php/2007/07/25/ffvi-hard-type/

In theory you could burn this to real ROM chips and slip in a FF3/6 cartridge case.

I do not know if this affected the Ultima spell but you could always get it branded onto a sword and donate the proceeds for additional difficulty :)

[Aussie2B]

I couldn't make a call as to why it was ported/remade prior to the DS version, but maybe the DS version didn't sell as well as they were hoping? Or wasn't as well-received? I know it didn't do much for me (I haven't played the Famicom original), and the final dungeon was so awful that it really soured me on the whole game. But I've yet to play a Final Fantasy that I thought was all that great, so I can't speak on behalf of Final Fantasy fans.

[Rickstilwell1]

I couldn't make a call as to why it was ported/remade prior to the DS version, but maybe the DS version didn't sell as well as they were hoping? Or wasn't as well-received? I know it didn't do much for me (I haven't played the Famicom original), and the final dungeon was so awful that it really soured me on the whole game. But I've yet to play a Final Fantasy that I thought was all that great, so I can't speak on behalf of Final Fantasy fans.

Even in the NES version, the final dungeon is loooooong and you can only save outside which makes it extremely hard. Talk about what if you lose to the final boss or don't even make it to it alive or run out of items to heal yourself. When I beat the game I used an emulator and savestates. I just had to.

In the remakes for Game Boy Advance and DS you save pretty much anywhere so it makes it sooo much easier than the originals.

[Edmond Dantes]

Huh. I remember playing FF3 on emulators and thinking "wow, this is actually awesome." But maybe that was because I had savestates and stuff.

[Rickstilwell1]

Huh. I remember playing FF3 on emulators and thinking "wow, this is actually awesome." But maybe that was because I had savestates and stuff.

Yeah personally I liked the NES Final Fantasy games on FCE Ultra emulator with the speed at 200% so the games weren't so slow and played more like their remakes' speeds.

[SparTonberry]

I always thought it was odd FF3 got scrapped for Wonderswan but 4 didn't. :|

From what I understand, Square wanted to remake the NES trilogy for WonderSwan and the SNES trilogy on GBA, back when they were banned from Nintendo consoles because Yamauchi was pissed at them.
Perhaps they had already started working on FF4 Advance and then when the WS was dying (and they got their Nintendo license re-instated), decided to scrap FF3 and work more on FF4 for both?

[Edmond Dantes]

From what I understand, Square wanted to remake the NES trilogy for WonderSwan and the SNES trilogy on GBA, back when they were banned from Nintendo consoles

Couldn't help but notice a little hole in your theory.LOL

[Leo_A]

Nintendo would've loved to have Square developing big projects for the Nintendo 64 and GameCube. Their near absence certainly wasn't because Nintendo had banned them from Nintendo consoles.

[Rickstilwell1]

I had heard the reason FF3 was scrapped for Wonderswan was that they were having issues with the coding, making the extremely large game fit. It kind of makes sense.

You take a game that filled pretty much the maximum space for a Famicom cart and upgrade its graphics as much as the new platform can handle. Once you do that, you're going to have some issues with space because you just multiplied the rom's file size when you upgraded the graphics and sound. Now you're stuck trying to cram that upgrade of an already large game in a format that also has limited space. The Game Boy Advance might have been able to hold it, but by then they were moving onto the next big system. Still, I was surprised after Final Fantasy Origins, FF3 didn't get a PS1 release. They could have bundled it with Mystic Quest or some other Square SNES RPG on a disc 2.

[kupomogli]

Square was never banned from Nintendo consoles. They just stopped developing for them for such a long time because the lack of space on the N64 cartridge in comparison to the PSX. It should be obvious with the PS2 why they developed almost exclusively for the console.

[Edmond Dantes]

Square was never banned from Nintendo consoles. They just stopped developing for them for such a long time because the lack of space on the N64 cartridge in comparison to the PSX. It should be obvious with the PS2 why they developed almost exclusively for the console.

Yeah, it was the only console that could hold all their movies! Err, I'm sorry, games!

[Aussie2B]

Square wasn't "banned" (not unless your argument is that the development teams were banned by the higher-ups), but you're kidding yourself if you think that Square simply avoided Nintendo because of storage space issues. There absolutely was bad blood between them. How else would you explain such a stupid business decision as to put the Final Fantasy games on the infinitely less popular Wonderswan rather than on the Nintendo handhelds? It was pure spite that kept them from going with the Game Boy Color or GBA in its early years. Same goes for every other handheld game they created in that period. They intentionally avoided the Nintendo handhelds even though they were the logical platform of choice. I'm guessing the merger with Enix, who were on fine terms with Nintendo, did a lot to repair the relationship.

[kupomogli]

Everyone already knows about Nintendo's threats to developers/publishers and the like, and that is one of the reasons that many companies turned away from consoles like the N64 as soon as something else came along, but the storage issue was a big thing I think.

Do you really think something the scope of FF7 could have ever fit on the N64 with what Squaresoft had in mind if the tech demo is anything to go by? I'd imagine that the spell effects, especially the summons, would have to be cut down severely. I'll agree that there are games that show that the N64 can have fairly large worlds, but I don't think a standard RPG would work on the system very well. Ogre Battle 64 is one of my favorite games on the console, and one of the largest games as well, but you also can't deny it has some of the worst graphics on the N64(great prerendered 3d and character models though) and the reason why it's such a large game is because everything is just reused over and over.

I will also agree that the hate towards Nintendo isn't unlikely. I actually didn't even think of the handheld consoles and I, at the time, can't think of any games Squaresoft developed during that time period either.

[GameNinja]

I have a quick question on the topic, I don't mean to threadjack.

If I wanted the best FF6 (FF3 US, the SNES one) experience, which version would I want to get?

[skaar]

Why read emotion into what could have been a simple business decision? Maybe at the time they didn't want to bother with localization of a text-heavy title?

[SparTonberry]

I'd heard rumors that when someone at Square met with Yamauchi to announce their decision to support the PS1 (whereas previously Square's console development was exclusively on Nintendo hardware), whoever was there representing Square said something to piss off Yamauchi.

I can recall reading news stories back in the day of how Square had to apply multiple times for a GBA dev license (and sending apology letters) before they were accepted.

[j_factor]

Squaresoft did publish two GBA games in Japan before the merger with Enix, for what it's worth. Of course they supported WonderSwan Color first, for a couple of years, and then switched to GBA only after they were done with it (because it was going down the tubes). I never understood why Square was always a one-console, one-handheld company. I can't think of any other major game company that has adhered to such a practice since the end of the NES exclusivity era.

[Aussie2B]

Squaresoft did publish two GBA games in Japan before the merger with Enix, for what it's worth.

Yeah, I know. Basically right before. It was after the merger when things really took off in terms of them publishing games on Nintendo systems, so that's why I'm suspecting it eased the relationship.

[Einzelherz]

It's hard.

Shortened that up for you.

[Jorpho]

There's a couple of improvement hacks for the GBA port of FF6, by the way (and likewise for FF4).

http://www.romhacking.net/?genre=&platform=&game=819&category=&perpage=20&page=hacks&hacksearch=Go&title=&author=

I think I might just keep my copy sealed and use my EZFlash IV when I finally get around to it.

[Edmond Dantes]

I have a quick question on the topic, I don't mean to threadjack.

If I wanted the best FF6 (FF3 US, the SNES one) experience, which version would I want to get?

Probably the SNES one. I haven't played any of the others but I saw a Youtube vid of the GBA one and I didn't like the script changes.

[fahlim003]

I have a quick question on the topic, I don't mean to threadjack.

If I wanted the best FF6 (FF3 US, the SNES one) experience, which version would I want to get?
No doubt the SNES version. Original sound, no loading, and nothing in the conversions that warrants any improvement over the original (added dungeons, worse sound, minor graphical changes, etc..). SNES is best.

I have played neither 3 nor 5, but I have long been under the impression that 5 was "3 done properly".
Pretty much, FF3 is a soul sucker and even if FF5 is light on story, the job system is executed properly and actually makes leveling up fun. I think there's good reason why FF3 took so long to convert, however once it did get a full makeover on DS that pretty much sealed the deal so nothing else needed to be done.