Final Fantasy 3 Creator Reveals Why Game Is Not As Story-Heavy As FF2
April has been a big month for Square-Enix, as not only has Final Fantasy 7 Remake broken sales records shortly after releasing earlier this month, but April 27th, 2020 also marks the 30th anniversary for Final Fantasy 3. This final title in Square's original run of Final Fantasy titles for the Famicom, or NES for fans outside of Japan, introduced the job systems and a number of now foundational mechanics for the series.
The focus on mechanics in Final Fantasy 3 has given it a reputation as a less story-heavy game as its predecessors, especially when looking at the more story focused Final Fantasy 2, that had some of the most memorable moments from the early series. An interview with Hiromichi Tanaka and Koichi Ishii, two developers who worked on Final Fantasy 3, fans may have just gotten the answer as to why the focus had turned more towards mechanics than story.
According to Tanaka, the story of Final Fantasy 3 was written by Hironobu Sakaguchi as opposed to Akitoshi Kawazu, who wrote the story for Final Fantasy 2. Kawazu has a reputation for adding what Tanaka referred to as a sort of signature style to storytelling, which lends itself to long, complex stories that put themselves to the forefront of a game. Sakaguchi would of course go on to direct and write for a number of other Final Fantasy's, including the recently remade Final Fantasy 7 and the original continuity currently being remade.
"That’s because Mr. Kawazu wasn’t involved. [laughs] When Mr. Kawazu creates stories, they have a certain distinctive characteristic to them, so his involvement often has a tendency for that game to be remembered as story-heavy."
In addition to the change in writer, there was clearly an incentive to move to a more mechanically impressive game in Final Fantasy 3 as well, as the Famicom's cartridges had been increasing in data capacity in the lead-up to the SNES at the time. As a result, this meant that the team working on the new game was focused on pushing the new, higher-capacity cartridges to their limit, which most took as adding more mechanics like the job system, creatures, and other assets. Learning from this push seems to also be what led the Final Fantasy series to keep pushing forward and introduce even bigger games with even more mechanics like epic summons, customizable magic systems, and branching leveling formats.
While fans outside of Japan may have not been able to play an officially localized release until 2005, Final Fantasy 3 still stands as a strong inflection point in the series. Early games looked to create compelling stories that would lead the player forward through the game, with relatively simple mechanics that the game builds on. With the introduction of the job system, Final Fantasy 3 added a welcome complexity to the series, and the effects can still be seen in how modern combat systems handle customization in the latest installments of the series.
Final Fantasy 3 is available now on Android, iOS, PC, and Nintendo DS.
Source: GameSpot
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