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Let me give an example of what this means in Final Fantasy III. Say that a monster you are fighting has the ability to kill a member of your party in two attacks. In one round of combat, the monster attacks, followed by all of your characters. One of your players is now half dead, and the monster is going to attack and kill him the next round before you have the chance to heal him. Had you been able to wait to select a move until it was your characters’ turn the previous round, you could have healed him in time. I personally hope that this gameplay element is changed before the game sees its release this fall.



FF III will also support online play via the Nintendo WiFi Connection. Although the details have not been given, it sounds like the game’s online features will be limited to some sort of message service; we’ll just have to wait and find out!

In its current state, Final Fantasy III looks at least as good as any of the PS1 Final Fantasies, if not better. The character models were certainly more visually pleasing than Final Fantasy VII’s blocky figures. Instead of attempting photo-realism and falling short due to the DS’ hardware limitations, Square-Enix has gone for a more cartoony, fantasy-esque style that is very successful. Overall, the graphics looked exactly how they should: I don’t know how to describe it exactly, but the entire visual display of the game just had the same feeling as a two-dimensional Final Fantasy game.



Assuming it continues down the path it seems to be headed, Final Fantasy III is set to be a top-notch old school RPG for the Nintendo DS. This should be a DS title RPG fans won’t want to miss, especially considering this is the only Final Fantasy game that has not been previously released in North America.

Preview by Michael Walker.