Final Fantasy III

Lore & Background

Final Fantasy III was developed by series veterans including director Hironobu Sakaguchi, designers Hiromichi Tanaka and Kazuhiko Aoki, writer Kenji Terada, composer Nobuo Uematsu, and programmer Nasir Gebelli in his final contribution to the series. Production was a struggle due to data management, and new elements were added to encourage player experimentation. The artwork was a collaborative effort between Koichi Ishii as character and job designer, Yoshitaka Amano as monster designer, and Kazuko Shibuya as main sprite artist. When it completed development, it was described as one of the largest games on the system.

The game's story is set in an unnamed fantasy world protected by four elemental crystals. A millennium earlier, an ancient civilization overused the power of light and triggered a disaster that summoned the Cloud of Darkness. Two groups—the Warriors of Light and Warriors of Darkness—ended that threat. In the present, darkness is overtaking the world again. Four orphans from the village of Ur are chosen by the dying crystals to restore balance as Warriors of Light. They journey across a Floating Continent and a flooded surface world, eventually defeating the mage Xande and the Cloud of Darkness with the help of allies and the original Warriors of Darkness.

Gameplay returns to the traditional turn-based combat system of the original game, and adds a job system allowing players to switch between character classes with unique abilities. Jobs include warriors, monks, black and white mages, ninjas, dragoons, and summoners. Changing jobs and unlocking abilities are controlled with capacity points awarded after battle. The game sold 1.4 million copies in Japan and received generally positive reviews, with most praise going to its job system.

Reader's Guide

Final Fantasy III is significant as the game that introduced the job system, summoned monsters, and the Moogle—elements that became staples of the Final Fantasy series. Its job system allowed players to switch character classes freely, encouraging experimentation and replayability. The game was one of the largest on the Family Computer, requiring a 512 KB cartridge. Despite its success in Japan, the original Famicom version was not released outside Japan until 2021. A 3D remake for the Nintendo DS was released internationally in 2006. The game's development was notable for being the last original Final Fantasy programmed by Nasir Gebelli, who had to finish production in Sacramento, California after his work visa expired. The game's legacy includes a manga adaptation by Kenji Terada and appearances of its characters and settings in later Final Fantasy titles.

Did You Know?

• Final Fantasy III was the last Final Fantasy produced for the Family Computer console.
• The game required a 512 KB cartridge, the second-highest capacity for the system.
• A remake for the WonderSwan Color was planned but ultimately cancelled.

Development & the Return of a Legendary Team

The 2015 announcement of Final Fantasy VII Remake arrived after years of fan speculation about a return to the 1997 PlayStation classic. Square Enix assembled a creative team that reunited several key figures from the original: Tetsuya Nomura as director, Yoshinori Kitase as producer, Kazushige Nojima as writer, Motomu Toriyama as co-director, and Nobuo Uematsu as composer. This gathering of veteran talent signaled a deep commitment to honoring the source material while pushing it forward. The team undertook a full visual overhaul, redesigning every character to strike a balance between photorealistic detail and the stylized aesthetic fans remembered. Rather than simply remastering the pre-rendered environments of the original, the developers rebuilt the entire world in real-time polygonal graphics. The project was positioned as the first entry in a planned trilogy, meaning the narrative would be expanded and restructured across multiple titles rather than compressed into a single game. This ambitious scope set the stage for what would become one of the most anticipated releases in the franchise's history.

Reinventing Combat in Real Time

The most dramatic shift in Final Fantasy VII Remake was the complete reimagining of combat. Where the 1997 original relied on turn-based encounters, the remake introduced a real-time action system that draws comparisons to Final Fantasy XV. At its core sits an altered version of the Active Time Battle gauge, which fills gradually through combat or accelerates when the player lands attacks. Once the bar is full, the player can pause the action to channel magic, use items, or trigger special moves, each consuming a segment of the gauge. A key innovation is the ability to assign these abilities to shortcut buttons, letting players execute them mid-combat without breaking the flow. Switching between party members happens seamlessly at any moment, and each character brings a distinct kit—Cloud favors close-quarters melee while Barret operates at long range. Magic, summoning of large creatures, and a Limit Break gauge for devastating finishing attacks all layer onto this framework. Despite the real-time emphasis, strategic depth persists through weapon and spell selection for each party member.

A Dystopian Story of Fate and Resistance

Set in the dystopian cyberpunk metropolis of Midgar, the remake follows Cloud Strife, a former elite SOLDIER warrior for the Shinra Electric Power Company. Shinra harvests Mako—a refined form of the planet's spiritual energy—through massive reactors to power the city and fund cutting-edge technology. Disillusioned, Cloud accepts a mercenary contract with AVALANCHE, an ecological resistance group led by Barret Wallace that views Mako extraction as an existential threat to the planet. The narrative expands significantly on the original, deepening character development and introducing new plot threads. Ghost-like entities called Whispers haunt Cloud, simultaneously aiding and obstructing him to preserve a predetermined course of destiny. Aerith Gainsborough, a florist and the last descendant of the Cetra—a near-extinct precursor race tied to a mythical Promised Land—becomes central to the conflict. Sephiroth, an enigmatic former SOLDIER, orchestrates his own infiltration of Shinra, stealing a mysterious entity called Jenova connected to the Cetra's extinction. The story culminates in a confrontation atop Shinra headquarters where Sephiroth murders the company president, and Cloud's group is forced to flee Midgar.

Record-Breaking Sales and a Multi-Year Trilogy

Final Fantasy VII Remake became one of the fastest-selling PlayStation 4 titles in history, moving more than 3.5 million copies within its first three days on the market. By March 2025, global sales had surpassed 8.7 million units. Critics broadly praised the game's visuals, narrative depth, musical score, and the strategic richness of its revamped battle system, though some noted the linearity of the main path and the repetitive nature of certain side-quests. Following the initial 2020 PlayStation 4 release, Square Enix shipped an enhanced edition called Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade in 2021 for PlayStation 5 and Windows. Further ports for the Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox Series X/S are scheduled for 2026. The remake trilogy continues with Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, the second installment, launching in 2024, and Final Fantasy VII Revelation, the concluding entry, slated for 2027. This multi-year rollout has kept the story of Cloud, Tifa, Barret, and their allies at the center of gaming conversation for nearly a decade.