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Final Fantasy III Play Journal Part 1: The Job System

Exploring the original six Final Fantasy games through the Pixel Remaster versions has been a fun exercise and helped me appreciate the risks this series has taken and its influence on role playing games. 

Hot on the heels of completing Final Fantasy II, I began playing, of course, Final Fantasy III. Much like its predecessor, I hadn’t played this one before, though I did recently find Final Fantasy III in my collection of Nintendo DS games. I have no memory of playing it so I must bought it and never got around to it. What a sin. Ah well, I am correcting that now with the Pixel Remaster version. 

The first thing I noticed was that Squaresoft took a step back from the classless progression system of Final Fantasy II and made a game that harkens back to the original Final Fantasy. The difference here is that all of the characters are generic fighters until you complete the first quest and unlock several "jobs" that you can assign to the characters. This is the first appearance of the influential job system that found its way into many more Final Fantasy games as well as other RPGs.

The trick with the job system is not that you assign a job to characters and be done with it. That would be no different than how you build a party in the first Final Fantasy. No, the job system allows you to change a character's job regularly depending on what fits the situation. You can spec your party to be damage dealing, blade wielding fighters with a white mage to heal them for one dungeon and then switch things up to be a spell caster heavy party for the next one. It's a fun system mechanic that ensures you never regret a party setup hours into the game. This keeps the game fresh while adding some challenge and strategy to each new quest. How will you prepare your party and are they setup for success? That is what makes the job system and Final Fantasy III special. 

I have not ventured far enough into the game to unlock more jobs so I am still working with the initial set provided early in the game. I can't wait to find more. I will have more Play Journal articles about my Final Fantasy III experience as I progress so stay tuned. 

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