Trivia / Final Fantasy III

• Creator Backlash: The developers themselves have stated that they hate the Crystal Tower's difficulty just as much as everyone else does, and regret making it so difficult.
• Dummied Out: Unused Animations exist for most of the bosses in the 3D version. Given that bosses have animations for attacking, but not casting magic, it's possible that these animations were intended for the latter.
• Late Export for You: It took 16 years(!) for Square Enix to release the game in the US, while the rest of the original six were ported to the PlayStation. The 2D version is even worse, as it took 31 years to see the light of day in international markets as the Pixel Remaster version.
• Killer App: While the original game was Japan-exclusive, it sold nearly 1.5 million units on the Famicom, and is generally marked as the point where Final Fantasy started to become the juggernaut it is today, being a favorite among the Japanese audience of the series, along with V, VII, and X. The Nintendo DS remake continued this, selling around 2 million units and incentivizing the JRPG crowd to buy the handheld.
• What Could Have Been:
  • A WonderSwan Color port of the game was in development, but got scrapped. Considering that the WonderSwan Color ports of I and II influenced their later releases, one has to wonder how things would have been had the III port not been cancelled. Interestingly, when comparing screenshots with the cancelled port, while the Pixel Remaster uses a different art style from it (also opting for an SNES era-like style), it uses the same coloring as the cancelled port for the sprites previously color limited due the Famicom's technical limitations.
  • The Ultimania has some changes noted in the design files:
    • The layout of the Alter Cave was different, though kept the same elements.
    • There was meant to be a queen of Saronia, who would go to war with the king rather than the king pitting his armies against each other.
    • There were more jobs and various design changes (the sprite for the "Knight" job was originally for the "Paladin" job, for example). The unused jobs and designs would be reused in future games.
    • Guardian, one of the Eureka bosses was meant to be a summon at one point, complete with Amano art. This never came to pass, though the design was used for the manga's portrayal of Xande.
    • A list of slated music tracks during development reveals that Xande was meant to have his own unique battle theme. This did not pan out, however, and he merely reuses the usual boss theme during his battle.
    • Speaking of Xande, early plans described him as a "cold and beautiful woman", and notes that the Cloud of Darkness was created by him/her using the Dark Crystals rather than being a natural entity called into existence by the imbalance between light and dark.
  • Plenty of text strings for conversations among the party members and companions exists in the remake's coding that are untranslated and go unused. Among other things, the text seems to suggest that the Castle Hein dungeon and Saronia would've played out entirely differently. An interview suggests that these scenes are remnants of an earlier plan that got dropped out of potentially coming off as annoying or jarring in a remake.
    • Luneth would have been separated from the party and would have had a character arc revolving around his pride.
    • The text makes reference to a character known as Falb from Tokkul who would have accompanied Luneth through Castle Hein.
    • The Evoker class would have been granted from a crystal piece found in the dungeon, suggesting that some jobs would be obtained through different means. In the final game, the Onion Knight Class is the only one gotten like this. On a similar note, the Bard class was supposed to be received after a sideplot in Duster involving Refia and a bard, potentially making it optional.
    • Some of the text mentions aspects of the game, such as hinting at the presence of Tonfas or mentions of the Bard's abilities, that were present in the Famicom version but got removed and reworked, for the former and the latter respectively.
    • Dialogue pertaining to Saronia suggests that Arc and Alus would have left the party temporarily due to Arc getting upset at Ingus and Refia for treating him like a child. In a reversal, dialogue for the Amur Sewers implies that Ingus was meant to go down there by himself after being annoyed by how light-hearted the rest of the party is.
    • Dialogue for Falgabard has Ingus show familiarity with the village, leading the party to theorize that he was born there.
    • Some of the scenes touch on character tics that are downplayed in the final game such as Luneth getting seasick/airsick (?) on airships, Arc's Height Angst, etc. Others focus on elements of the world such as the Flood of Light or Doga and Unei's thoughts and feelings about Xande. Most notably, one scene with Unei explains the nature of apprentices' immortality, explaining how they were able to gather everyone up during the climax despite previously being killed, and heavily alludes to the concept of Mono no Aware, hinting that Noah gifted Xande mortality to give him a deeper appreciation of life.
    • One of the scenes suggests that Desch's room in the Tower of Owen was visitable at some point in time. The room itself still remains in the game's code.
  • An interview with the developers of the remake reveals that a fifth party slot for guest characters was under consideration. It was ultimately dropped due to requiring too much power for an occasional feature, leading to the current system of the guests occasionally assisting.
  • The E3 2006 trailer shows that Luneth was blonde at one point in development. Additionally, Ingus' name changed during development as, outside of one instance, his name is shown to be "Freyrg"/"Freyg". Given the other names' romanizations, his name was likely "Freyr"^note It should be mentioned that "Inguz"/"Ingwaz", the probable source of his name, is the proto-germanic name for Freyr..
  • The Japanese-only official strategy guide includes an interview with key members of the remake's development. The interview touches upon aspects of the game that didn't make it into the final.
    • There were intended to be many new scenes, explaining the sheer amount of unused dialogue in the game's data. however, concerns about straying from the original led to the devs cutting most of the scenes, leaving the opening section and the ending to do the most heavy lifting in regards to the protagonists' personalities.
    • It was seriously considered to remove the Capacity Point system and just allow players to change jobs freely. However, it was decided that there needed to be some penalty for switching jobs and thus the Job Adjustment Period system came to be. It would not be until the Pixel Remaster release of Final Fantasy III that no penalty would be incurred for switching jobs.
    • The devs considered letting the player control which of the Evoker's White or Black Magic spells would trigger, before deciding to stick with the original randomized system.
    • One scrapped ability for the Dragoon was an "Abduction Jump", where the Dragoon would grab the opponent, carry them into the air, and slam them into the ground.
    • An online PVP mode was considered with a slew abilities designed around it. However, the developers grew uncomfortable with the idea of Luneth and co fighting each other, so they shelved the concept. It is worth noting that the DS remake of Final Fantasy IV would go on to feature a mode where players can customize an Eidolon named "Whyt" and pit them against each other.
    • Interestingly, the interview also has one for the original Famicom version: The devs considered averting the Featureless Protagonist aspect of the original Onion Knights and giving them distinct personalities, but dropped the idea as a reaction to Final Fantasy II (a more character-heavy game). The protagonists becoming more fleshed out characters would eventually be revisited in the remake.
• Urban Legend of Zelda: When the remake's difficulty is brought up, it's usually said to be a result of the devs overcompensating for only having three enemies on-screen during battles by jacking up the stats. While that is a factor, the official strategy guide reveals the difficulty bump was intentional, born out of a desire to avoid letting the player spam the "fight" command and breeze through the game.

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