Final Fantasy III
Final Fantasy III is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square for the Family Computer. The third installment in the Final Fantasy series, it is the first numbered Final Fantasy game to feature the job-change system. The story revolves around four orphaned youths drawn to a crystal of light. The crystal grants them some of its power, and instructs them to go forth and restore balance to the world. Not knowing what to make of the crystal's pronouncements, but nonetheless recognizing the importance of its words, the four inform their adoptive families of their mission and set out to explore and bring back balance to the world.
| Final Fantasy III | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Square |
| Publisher(s) | Square |
| Director(s) | Hironobu Sakaguchi |
| Producer(s) | Masafumi Miyamoto |
| Designer(s) | |
| Programmer(s) | Nasir Gebelli |
| Artist(s) | Yoshitaka Amano |
| Writer(s) | |
| Composer(s) | Nobuo Uematsu |
| Series | Final Fantasy |
| Platform(s) | |
| Release | April 27, 1990
|
| Genre(s) | Role-playing |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer (remake only) |
The game was originally released in Japan on April 27, 1990. The original Famicom version sold 1.4 million copies in Japan. It had not been released outside Japan until a remake, also called Final Fantasy III, was developed by Matrix Software for the Nintendo DS on August 24, 2006. At that time, it was the only Final Fantasy game not previously released in North America or Europe. There had been earlier plans to remake the game for Bandai's WonderSwan Color handheld, as had been done with the first, second, and fourth installments of the series, but the game faced several delays and was eventually canceled after the premature cancellation of the platform. The Nintendo DS version of the game was positively received, selling nearly 2 million copies worldwide.
It was also released for many other systems: the Japanese Famicom version via the Virtual Console on July 21, 2009 (Wii) and January 8, 2014 (Wii U), an iOS port of the Nintendo DS remake on March 24, 2011, an Android port on March 12, 2012, a PlayStation Portable port in late September 2012 (downloadable-only format outside Japan via PlayStation Network) and a Windows port via Steam in 2014. An updated release based on the Famicom version of Final Fantasy III was released as part of the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster collection, marking the first time the original version of Final Fantasy III was released outside of Japan. This version was released in July 2021 for Windows, Android and iOS, and in April 2023 for PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch.