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.p...fvi-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.

[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.