I have to say, as a fan of FFIII, who was first introduced to the series by FFIII DS and still see it as one of if not my favorite, I am more than happy to see a video like this putting love and care into it's legacy.
Despite it being one of the entries that's less talked about in the series, it's one of favorites alongside FFV. The Class system is just so fun to play around with.
50:24 I always took the onion knights as in like a parallel to peeling an onion to reveal its inner layers. Like that's kinda similar to how the job progresses from being super weak to the strongest one in the game bc you had "peel" through the weaker stages of the job to reveal its inner strength and true potential
No it's fine, I'll just cry at work during the music section because of all the memories from the tunes. Absolutely lovely video and I'm really happy I found this channel. Looking forward to everything else you create.
Your videos are seriously things I absolutely look forward to. I played Final Fantasy XV when it first came out because it was a shiny, new JRPG for next-gen consoles at the time, but I never delved further in the series after that. These analysis videos are just so well written and engaging, and they have made me totally obsessed with the franchise now. Another comment mentioned how they love how you point out things we all take for granted and I could not have said it better myself. You really deserve more subs. These videos are works of art.
These videos are just getting better and better. I especially love how you dived into the inspirations for summons and other things for the latter half. These are making me want to play Final Fantasy and I'm kind of using these videos to see which I should start with, and it's a great ride I'm on while I scout out. The wait for these videos is well worth it, keep up the amazing work.
You deserve so many more subs. Not even that big a fan of the Final Fantasy series but your vids are just so easy and nice to watch. Can't wait to watch this one later :)
I seriously appreciate you and your "voice" in covering this series, especially giving every entry a proper look at. I cannot WAIT for FFV because it's my absolute favorite
I have a feeling that Shiva's attack, Diamond Dust, *might* be inspired by Cygnus Hyoga from Saint Seiya, which would have very much still have been popular in Japan at the time
I love the way you analized the series so far and talk about the origin of everything. Today I'm finishing ff iv and then will start watching the analysis of that game, honestly I can't wait to see what you have to say about that one (5 hours!).
Speaking of SMT, I just got into it a few months ago and my God, what an amazing series. I love all of the biblical/religious themes in it and I'm sure you do too.
Can't wait for you to get to IV and V! I feel like the series only starts to get talked about a lot with VI (deservedly so) but there's a lot of greatness even in IV.
Four's ending helped me through my dark night of the soul. Three's satisfied me on an emotional level that I do not think I can describe but I can still recall the sensation it gave me. Fun times.
I think there's a certain charm to old JRPG stories. I get why more complex stories are way more popular but I don't think anything that evolved can really capture the sheer sensation of just killing a really evil dragon or saving the world from a really evil time traveler.
Super excited for episode 3! I hardly name a handful of content creators who utilize the narrow overlap between concise and detailed. The way you enjoy games translates so well to videos. I love your discussion of music, story, and behind-the-scenes documentation, while only discussing gameplay mainly as a proxy to these elements. After all, the best way to understand gameplay is to experience it, not have it described (a fact not realized by the vast majority of FFII videos). Just felt like saying how awesome your vids are. Thanks!
I liked how you went into background into the names of the different characters and monsters, and reviewed the differences between different music tracks, can't wait for you to describe all the motifs in ff 6
I absolutely love these videos man keep up the great work. Im a huge fan of documentary types of videos and yours are absolutely awesome. I've listened the FF 1 and 2 videos multiple times as background noise while I'm playing Minecraft or something.
Man your videos are really some of the best out there on this website. I know it must be so much work, but I hope you continue putting out bangers. Can't wait for FF4 analysis!
The amount of work you put into this is amazing!! I had to google what the names you had for your characters ment. All that flies over my head but I enjoy names that have a "special meaning". 2 thumbs up!!
That was an amazing watch I love how you try to find the meaning behind things that we've just accepted without really thinking about it. The onion knight part legitimately made me laugh I've never been able to dive into the old NES FF myself (because honestly I find them pretty boring to play nowadays) but this is the perfect substitute Anyway, your videos are always a treat, looking forward to more!
Keep it on !!! Love the series, I am just now playing ff4, I hope I'll finish it before the next video! lmao I'll end up being alligned with your videos in playing the old ff games!
A fun note, Final Fantasy Wiki speculates about the origin of the Onion Knight name, theorizing that it's inspired by "[a] Japanese metaphoric idiom of poverty, aptly named the 'Onion Life', 'peeling away one layer at a time and crying all the way'." I do think that fits, considering the job's role in the original 2D version of the game, but the developers' answer is kinda objectively the correct answer to the question, haha
The theme of finding any spark of hope to have any strength to keep going in life might have come from the fact that during the last developmental stages of FF3, Hironobu Sakaguchi (writer) shockingly lost his supportive & loving mother when she burned alive in a sudden blaze that also took his childhood home 😔 this experience may well have flavored other story beats in FF4, FF7, and more I know it goes without saying that traumatic events often stay with us for years/decades and flavor how we see things sometimes
Hi Ludiscere! I love Final Fantasy III and I’m so happy to see this good work for it! I’m working on something similar but a lot more in-depth for this game. I hope you don't mind me crediting you as a source for parts cause this is some good stuff!
the onion knight bit was funny and unsurprising after you spend enough time reading japanese developpers (or just game developpers in general) interviews. We called it that because it was funny is so often the real reason.
This was my first Final Fantasy game I ever played, and while it's far from my favorite I still have fond memories of unlocking new jobs and playing around with them. Looking forward to watching this one!
Hi. I just joined the patreon. Happy to have found your channel! I watch a lot of long-form video essays, and I haven't seen any good ones on the Final Fantasy series yet, so your series was the perfect thing to get me back into the games! Can't wait for iv!
As a non FF fan, these videos are fantastic. The early games in particular always seemed like relics of the past to me, but these vids have given me a newfound appreciation for them and their place in gaming culture. Honestly might have turned me into a FF fan lol 1:05:10 Oh also, I'm sure other commentors have mentioned this, but Ramuh name might be based more on Ra's later incarnation, that being Amun-Ra. They were a merging between the creator god Amun and Ra. Amun-Ra backwards is "Ra-Amun", which sounds very similar to "Ramuh". The influence might even go beyond the name. Most notably, the Ancient Greeks interpreted Amun-Ra as the Egyptian version of Zeus. which may be why Ramuh is a lighting god in FF. Like you said tho, its hard to be sure Regardless, great vid.
I have always enjoyed III, it's fun AND it contains so many of the seeds of later games. Thank you so much for this excellent analysis - why have I only just discovered you?? Great job! (sic). Subscribed!
I watched your videos on FF1 and FF2 in hype of the pixel remasters, and later I was pretty hyped for this video after beating the FF3 pixel remaster! Great work! These seriously deserve way more views! The part where you covered the iconic summons was pretty sweet.
This series has the potential to become one of the best on RUclips. The ability to reference concrete points from the analysis of previous games without having to refer to a different content creator enables us to view past each game individually, which makes your videos truly stand out. That being said, you've got a monumental task in front of you. I pray that you'll have the strength, ability and support that you need to complete it.
i'm only at 34min of the video but i gotta say FFIII is fun game. At first i didn't like it, didn't play more than 1h on my ds at the time but i bought the steam version some years later and gave it a chance. I loved how simple the plot was, it was a fantastic adventure, there was no convoluted script, no edgy characters with weather based names, it was a game for you to enjoy the journey as you progress. Beautiful.
FF3 made dark knights seem so cool and it was the only time i didn't mind being forced to use a job class because it was so powerful and you only really needed one as opposed to converting your entire part like in other parts of the game with other classes. it's a bit disappointing that they're all just "evil" in FF4.
Fun fact: That class wasn't even originally Dark Knights, they were called Mystic Knights. As I recall they didn't even have Dark Wave, just access to low level White Magic. The Dark Knight (technically from II, but that didn't really have classes) finds its first proper outing in FFIV, which was then retrofitted to FFIII's later versions and the Mystic Knights were reinvented in FFV all together (oddly taking a look that seemed more related to Minwu than the original Mystic Knights)
This series is great gets better every video and gives solid perspective on a game I usually never delved too deep into or played very often will change that soon
The heartbreak with Aria getting such a masterpiece of a song, is because of all the helper characters in the game, she was truly killed off at the crystal, not returning at the final act, for the short time she was in the party, I felt like she left the biggest impact.
I learned so much in this video. I've never played any of the early Final Fantasy games, but I really enjoy hearing summaries of them. Honestly, my favorite bits are the ones where you try to find the origins of things, the onion knight one is fascinating, even if incorrect. Reading into things is what analysis is made to do, and I am here for it! During most of the video I realized just how much I want to pick "Final Fantasy: 4 Heroes of Light" back up. It was the first Final Fantasy game I ever played, and oh boy, I know that sounds weird. Loved it though, and learning about FFIII shows me where all the things I really enjoyed came from. Thank you for your hard work, this video is spectacular.
Finished watching through it and this was a nice analysis video! I especially liked the etymology sections, learning about kennings was really neat. I almost wanna play this game again but maybe I'll try 1 or 2 first since I haven't played either of those yet.
You couldn't have dropped this on a better day, with the maintenance for Endwalker early access :D Diving right into it, thank you for always taking the time to make top quality content for us!
Little info on Ramuh: He could be, design-wise at least, based on Lamuh. Ramuh is often translated as 'Lamú' in Spanish versions of Final Fantasy games and in Kingdom Hearts names that reference the summon.
Isn't the meaning of "Onion Knight" that they're a knight with many layers (like an onion)? Like that their default ability is to take on many layers (ie: the other jobs).
So this is the first video of yours I've seen, and given your presentation, the passion you exhibit, and the subject matter... you've definitely got a new subscriber out of me!
I think the themes of mortality and hope/hopelessness with Xande and the cloud of darkness deserves a bit more respect in some regards. There is a continuous theme of self sacrifice for others and the acceptance of death throughout the game with many characters. Xande and his relationship to the cloud of darkness are just the ultimate example of that. Xande refuses to accept his death and in turn decides to sacrifice the entire world just to keep himself alive a little bit longer. And even comes to the conclusion that if he dies, everything is pointless, the whole world might as well die with him. That's what the cloud of darkness is. It's the embodiment of giving in to that despair. The death of the world. It wants to return everything to nothing because the despair of confronting your own mortality feels like that is the only logical result. When you confront the cloud of darkness you are confronting your inevitable fate, as well as the world's eventual fate. That's why you don't actually destroy it. It tells you it will never go away. It will always be there, sitting and waiting for when the times comes for it to take the world. Just as death looms over us all, it's just waiting for the appropriate time. All we can do is fight it in the moment and do what we can with the time we have now, and find peace with the knowledge that the cloud of darkness will get its way eventually. That is the core of Final Fantasy 3.
Also Noah giving Xande mortality of all things was a dick move. Something doesn't gain meaning just because it's impermanent. All you've done there is taken something wonderful and everlasting with endless potential for change and beauty, and gave it an expiration date to rot away. He quite literally murdered his friend by doing this. Noah sucks lol And his other students were not much better, saying Xande was a fool and unappreciative for not liking that someone just guaranteed his death and told him he should be grateful. They don't even know what that means, they just assume it's a good thing because they don't have it. So dumb lol
FF3 for the Nintendo DS was one of the first Final Fantasy games I ever played as a kid, and even now I have a pretty strong soft spot for the game. I usually find my interest fizzling a bit as I approach the endgame, but until then the job system, combat, and music are enough to really carry you along the adventure, or at least they were for me. Giving the chibi characters each their own unique outfit for every job was also a wonderful decision that adds so much visual variety and flavor to the game, and I still find it charming. Next time I play I definitely want to try the pixel remake, though. Another absolute banger of a video. I am kicking myself for not diving into your channel sooner.
FFIIIDS is often touted as being difficult, and requiring a grind at points. I 100% disagree, the game will frequently tell you what you will need coming up. Additionally, you can do more than 9999 damage a turn, though it will only show 9999 on hit. There is a secret area that will tell you your highest damage done in a single hit. I think mine when I beat the game was around 48k.
It's always interesting to look back at games from the era when a lot of genre and mechanics were only just being defined and you had the first titles that actually got them right....90s gaming truly is such an interesting era for many genre and series
I'm not a musical theory expert, but here's what I can tell you about Crystal Room and the Prelude. Both of these songs use arpeggios, which means their chords are played one note at a time. The Prelude is made entirely of 4-note arpeggios which go up an octave each time they are played until they reach a high note, after which they go back down. Most of it consists of major and minor added second chords, which generally sound pretty when played in arpeggios. The Crystal Room also uses the same 4-note ascending pattern, but it starts off with a diminished 7th chord, a very dissonant chord generally used in classical music to create tension and drama, and as you observed, it does not take the time to come back down before switching to another chord.
I remember getting this game when I was around 8 or 9 years old (my fourth year of school) when I was very sick. I played it religiously, alternating it with Pokémon on the DS, but it took me around a year to finish it (due to having no internet) but most of that was spent trying to figure out why the final boss was basically impossible lol. I love this game. I'm not sure if this is an intended design choice but one of the things I like about this game is that it feels like every character is an archetype, rather than a realistic figure, and this paired with the narrative's vague ambiguity around feeding you it's big ideas that it pushes as central to the plot allows you to insert your own ideas into every character and story beat. There were a lot of things I spent time thinking were parts of the plot only to learn I had made them up as a kid which is funny.
One cool addition that I don't have a direct source for; but the reason why the DS version is actually significantly more difficult than the original/pixel remasters is because of a technical limitation. The reason for this is that the game engine they used (an older version of the same engine used for FF4) at the time couldn't handle rendering more than 3 enemy models + the party when in combat. As a result, they significantly increased the health and strength of most normal enemies to compensate for the lack of horde encounters the other final fantasy games have. Also are you planning to cover the after years for FF4 as well? It's to my knowledge the only direct sequel to a 2D final fantasy game and it's quite interesting if you ask me.
Just 8 mins in atm, the name Ingus sounds very like the Irish name Aengus. It would mean either One Strength, or One Choice or could be associated with Celtic God of Youth, Love but I don't know if that has any relevance to the character.
been thinking of replaying 3 recently I got the DS remake when I was 7 in 2008. I'm 22 years old and still have the save file from my childhood. The world and characters of ff3 are amazing, the story is great, the music is incredible, and the class system is deep. Highly recommend giving this game a shot if you haven't before.
Thank you SO MUCH for giving a heads up that I needed to pay attention to the music part and do some reading. A lesser video essayist would have just launched into a weird quiet period where I'd think they just forgot to record voice over! 😅
just finished FF3 thanks to your video and it was brutal! The end dungeon is so long and taxing and just plain hard sometimes, like each fight aren't that hard but you make a single mistake and you're in big trouble. And I grinded quite a bit, much harder than 2 in my opinion. Also I really don't like the animations in 3. At least in pixel art you have to imagine to get something out of it, but in the DS version it's just not that good.
Even though I admit FF4-6 were probably all better and improved on than 3 in some way I just have a huge soft spot for this game. Feels like the first FF to have a lot of the staples the series is known for. Idk, I just love this game.
I finish watching all the Final Fantasy reviews, they were really good and made me wanna try the games. Furthermore, you seem quite knowledgeable when comes to mythology, languages, literature etc. Really liked when you explored those topics, keep the good work. Now for anyone reading this, if you don't want to waste hours of your life downloading emulaters and finding the games, it was released a steam version with all the pixel games from I to VI. Never felt so stupid in my life, I literally discovered this 5 mins after being able to finally run the Final Fantasy Origins...
yeah of course! almost every mention of a 'dragon' in ancient myth just refers to a big old magic snake. maybe wasn't clear enough but what i meant was that almost everyone in the west today, if asked to picture a dragon, would first think of a winged lizard type! the winged idea has been around for at least 800 or so years i think, i want to say that there's george and the dragon stuff from the 13th/14th century or so (although i haven't checked for this comment) where there are tapestries/illustrations that lean a bit more towards the more modern interpretation. it's really cool seeing how it changed over time
I also looked into why they were called the Onion Knight when I first played the game. Although I eventually found the interviews I read a handful of clever comments which tied it to an exagerrated version of a Carl Sandberg quote: "Life is like an onion. You peel away one layer at a time and cry the whole time you do it!"
Final Fantasy XIV uses the idea of warriors of light vs darkness and balance in one of the expansions, and they elaborate on it, and it’s really cool. At least it inspired some greater things later!
About Titan being tied to the earth element; one of Titan’s signature attacks is called “Gaia’s Wrath” and Gaia in Greek myth is one of the major Titans and Gaia also basically means earth
Something further supported in FF XV where Titan is holding up a massive meteor, very much like Atlas literally carrying the world (Earth) on his shoulders.
Final Fantasy 3 on the DS was my first, and for long time my Favorite Final Fantasy. I love de 3D remake, I love the fact that when you change your clothes in game, you can see the diference in the character, the fact that I can make a dual wield character from the get go. Simply amazing. Would love to see a 3D remake of FF6 just to see that type of resources in the game.
I think the floating continent may be based on the concept of ukiyoe, or “floating world,” a concept (tied to the art genre) that the temporal life is a dream or fantasy. The dark flood over the world in the ds remake may also be a reference to the biblical beginning, where darkness was over the face of the deep.
I squeaked when I learned the DS version of this game was the first time we got 3 in the US. It was my first experience with a mainline Final Fantasy game lol. I'd played 4 heroes of light before it, and watched one of the movies, but I was definitely excited to get this game as I was getting into the series. It remains very interesting to me.
Seeing how long your analyses of the NES titles are....I am expecting your FF IV video to possibly hit the 2 hr mark! These are all great and I patiently await the next video no matter how long it takes. Besides, I'll be grinding in FF XI & XIV for the foreseeable future and the time in-between your videos will fly by xD
Damm, im watching this video again bc i really enjoyed it the first time and im just playing all the final fantasy games i havent played (and watching videos of those that i have already played) and it's a shame you have so little views tbh
The Masamune will never be more cool to me than it was in Chrono Trigger. To even obtain it is an ordeal including one of the creepier boss battles, it deals extra damage to the endlessly badass Magus, and it cuts a freaking mountain in half!
I didn't play FFIII until much later. On the PSP with a port of the 3D version. It remains the only FF game I have not finished. You bring up some valid points, and I do excuse the faults for it being early in the series and made on the nes. But I also don't have rose coloured glasses on when thinking of it. I am thankful for it introducing ideas that were later developed far better.
I love FF, but arbitrary limitations (especially for status effects) and lack of in-game communication of what things actually do (requiring for tedious trial and error that makes you wonder why you aren't just auto-attacking instead) are my main pain-points with the most of the series. Thanks for the in-depth analysis.
yeah, XIV goes really heavy with III references, especially in ARR and ShB. there are even more subtle ones like the Azys Lla stuff in 5.4 or 5.5 (i can't remember i think it's .4 though) being to do with Owen, a reference to the Tower of Owen in this game, and the Crystal Tower research group being NOAH, again a character from III. also, the CRP/LTW/WVR quests in ShB have you make a lute, and it plays the same song that Noah's Lute does in III. there's stuff to find everywhere!
The flood of watery darkness definitely inspired the flood of light in ffxiv shadowbringers and that game definitely does that concept much better justice by, being consistent with what it does and where it came from.
Wow never realized how much ff9 takes from ff3. I always thought 9 was based on 1 mainly but instead it's more like an amalgamation of all the early ff games made modern.
I was really looking forward to this one! So many things from this game remind me of FFIX, which is my favorite along with X :) These early games are super interesting to me because they show so much ambition (that would pay off a hundredfold as new instalments come out imo). And your videos are awesome! I can only imagine how much work goes into a video like this...Kudos to you!!
I'm wondering if the gift given to Xande is something that Une and Doga long for, perhaps their gifts don't let them die by they continue to age. It would likely make them wish for the ability to die instead of just perpetual life? Xande would think the real power he was denied was something greater, yet those with power long for an ending they cannot have.
I haven't verified it, but I've heard that FF3 is the first game to have a unique final boss theme. FF2 is close, but it uses the theme for the final boss earlier with the Behemoth fight.
Moogles saying "Kupo" at the end of sentences are cute and makes sense to them. It could have been worse if they said "Uguuu" all the time. But I get it, at first it would always be strange to hear a Moogle say "Kupo" until you eventually get used to it.
I loved how the video was filled with T-posing models asserting domjnance over the analisys haha great video! I have been waiting for this!!
I have to say, as a fan of FFIII, who was first introduced to the series by FFIII DS and still see it as one of if not my favorite, I am more than happy to see a video like this putting love and care into it's legacy.
This will be a fun watch for when waiting through Endwalker queues
that's what it's for :D
I really enjoy your videos. Final Fantasy III was the first FF game I played, so it'll always have a special place in my heart.
Man i REALLY love ff3, it was so great and i often replay it yearly. The Job system is just awesome and i wish this game got more love.
Despite it being one of the entries that's less talked about in the series, it's one of favorites alongside FFV. The Class system is just so fun to play around with.
Notice how coincidently FFIII and V were for a long time the 2 most obscure/most ignore games in the franchise.
50:24 I always took the onion knights as in like a parallel to peeling an onion to reveal its inner layers. Like that's kinda similar to how the job progresses from being super weak to the strongest one in the game bc you had "peel" through the weaker stages of the job to reveal its inner strength and true potential
No it's fine, I'll just cry at work during the music section because of all the memories from the tunes.
Absolutely lovely video and I'm really happy I found this channel. Looking forward to everything else you create.
Your videos are seriously things I absolutely look forward to. I played Final Fantasy XV when it first came out because it was a shiny, new JRPG for next-gen consoles at the time, but I never delved further in the series after that. These analysis videos are just so well written and engaging, and they have made me totally obsessed with the franchise now. Another comment mentioned how they love how you point out things we all take for granted and I could not have said it better myself. You really deserve more subs. These videos are works of art.
These videos are just getting better and better. I especially love how you dived into the inspirations for summons and other things for the latter half. These are making me want to play Final Fantasy and I'm kind of using these videos to see which I should start with, and it's a great ride I'm on while I scout out. The wait for these videos is well worth it, keep up the amazing work.
You deserve so many more subs. Not even that big a fan of the Final Fantasy series but your vids are just so easy and nice to watch. Can't wait to watch this one later :)
teachers pet
Nice job on the music section, very good way to approach it
I seriously appreciate you and your "voice" in covering this series, especially giving every entry a proper look at. I cannot WAIT for FFV because it's my absolute favorite
I have a feeling that Shiva's attack, Diamond Dust, *might* be inspired by Cygnus Hyoga from Saint Seiya, which would have very much still have been popular in Japan at the time
I love the way you analized the series so far and talk about the origin of everything. Today I'm finishing ff iv and then will start watching the analysis of that game, honestly I can't wait to see what you have to say about that one (5 hours!).
Thanks!! It's been a while since the last FF analysis!
This video is honestly one of those RUclips gems one would really like to portrait as a family heirloom.
Great work on this!
Speaking of SMT, I just got into it a few months ago and my God, what an amazing series. I love all of the biblical/religious themes in it and I'm sure you do too.
Can't wait for you to get to IV and V! I feel like the series only starts to get talked about a lot with VI (deservedly so) but there's a lot of greatness even in IV.
Four's ending helped me through my dark night of the soul. Three's satisfied me on an emotional level that I do not think I can describe but I can still recall the sensation it gave me. Fun times.
I think the themes of mortality and hope/hopelessness with Xande and the cloud of darkness deserves a bit more respect.
I think there's a certain charm to old JRPG stories. I get why more complex stories are way more popular but I don't think anything that evolved can really capture the sheer sensation of just killing a really evil dragon or saving the world from a really evil time traveler.
Super excited for episode 3! I hardly name a handful of content creators who utilize the narrow overlap between concise and detailed. The way you enjoy games translates so well to videos. I love your discussion of music, story, and behind-the-scenes documentation, while only discussing gameplay mainly as a proxy to these elements. After all, the best way to understand gameplay is to experience it, not have it described (a fact not realized by the vast majority of FFII videos).
Just felt like saying how awesome your vids are. Thanks!
Love to see a deep dive on Final Fantasy 3. It's my favorite in the series and I'm glad to see it get some more recognition.
I liked how you went into background into the names of the different characters and monsters, and reviewed the differences between different music tracks, can't wait for you to describe all the motifs in ff 6
I absolutely love these videos man keep up the great work. Im a huge fan of documentary types of videos and yours are absolutely awesome. I've listened the FF 1 and 2 videos multiple times as background noise while I'm playing Minecraft or something.
Man your videos are really some of the best out there on this website. I know it must be so much work, but I hope you continue putting out bangers. Can't wait for FF4 analysis!
thanks mate, that means a lot! new video out within a few weeks and then we're onto FF4 :)
The amount of work you put into this is amazing!! I had to google what the names you had for your characters ment. All that flies over my head but I enjoy names that have a "special meaning". 2 thumbs up!!
Stoked for more from this series. Always a treat when you post a new video!
Was not expecting the digicrest reference and it sent me lol, keep it up!
That was an amazing watch
I love how you try to find the meaning behind things that we've just accepted without really thinking about it. The onion knight part legitimately made me laugh
I've never been able to dive into the old NES FF myself (because honestly I find them pretty boring to play nowadays) but this is the perfect substitute
Anyway, your videos are always a treat, looking forward to more!
Keep it on !!! Love the series, I am just now playing ff4, I hope I'll finish it before the next video! lmao I'll end up being alligned with your videos in playing the old ff games!
A fun note, Final Fantasy Wiki speculates about the origin of the Onion Knight name, theorizing that it's inspired by "[a] Japanese metaphoric idiom of poverty, aptly named the 'Onion Life', 'peeling away one layer at a time and crying all the way'." I do think that fits, considering the job's role in the original 2D version of the game, but the developers' answer is kinda objectively the correct answer to the question, haha
The theme of finding any spark of hope to have any strength to keep going in life might have come from the fact that during the last developmental stages of FF3, Hironobu Sakaguchi (writer) shockingly lost his supportive & loving mother when she burned alive in a sudden blaze that also took his childhood home 😔 this experience may well have flavored other story beats in FF4, FF7, and more
I know it goes without saying that traumatic events often stay with us for years/decades and flavor how we see things sometimes
Hi Ludiscere! I love Final Fantasy III and I’m so happy to see this good work for it! I’m working on something similar but a lot more in-depth for this game. I hope you don't mind me crediting you as a source for parts cause this is some good stuff!
oh go for it! that's no problem at all
@@Ludiscere Thank you so much!
Great video!! So glad you're still making these.
the onion knight bit was funny and unsurprising after you spend enough time reading japanese developpers (or just game developpers in general) interviews.
We called it that because it was funny is so often the real reason.
This was my first Final Fantasy game I ever played, and while it's far from my favorite I still have fond memories of unlocking new jobs and playing around with them. Looking forward to watching this one!
Very good friend, you keep outdoing yourself with every video.
you are too kind, love you lots
Hi. I just joined the patreon. Happy to have found your channel! I watch a lot of long-form video essays, and I haven't seen any good ones on the Final Fantasy series yet, so your series was the perfect thing to get me back into the games! Can't wait for iv!
As a non FF fan, these videos are fantastic. The early games in particular always seemed like relics of the past to me, but these vids have given me a newfound appreciation for them and their place in gaming culture. Honestly might have turned me into a FF fan lol
1:05:10 Oh also, I'm sure other commentors have mentioned this, but Ramuh name might be based more on Ra's later incarnation, that being Amun-Ra. They were a merging between the creator god Amun and Ra. Amun-Ra backwards is "Ra-Amun", which sounds very similar to "Ramuh". The influence might even go beyond the name. Most notably, the Ancient Greeks interpreted Amun-Ra as the Egyptian version of Zeus. which may be why Ramuh is a lighting god in FF. Like you said tho, its hard to be sure
Regardless, great vid.
I have always enjoyed III, it's fun AND it contains so many of the seeds of later games. Thank you so much for this excellent analysis - why have I only just discovered you?? Great job! (sic). Subscribed!
I watched your videos on FF1 and FF2 in hype of the pixel remasters, and later I was pretty hyped for this video after beating the FF3 pixel remaster! Great work! These seriously deserve way more views!
The part where you covered the iconic summons was pretty sweet.
Woohoo that was really interesting. I didn’t expect you to find a totally different answer to the question of the onion knight name!
yeah! i thought i'd just about figured it out when i asked you, but then it all went up in flames haha
Important question: Why does the boss theme in this game slap so hard?
Uematsu pushed the NES to the brink of its capabilities with the soundtrack on this one.
Does it? I think it’s the weakest of the first 3 games
Right? AND the main battle theme! Hell the entire soundtrack is a hidden gem unto itself.
@@chcknpie04Is that a joke referencing how the first two games didn't originally have boss themes so technically first place is also last?
2 words- Final Fantasy.
This series has the potential to become one of the best on RUclips. The ability to reference concrete points from the analysis of previous games without having to refer to a different content creator enables us to view past each game individually, which makes your videos truly stand out.
That being said, you've got a monumental task in front of you. I pray that you'll have the strength, ability and support that you need to complete it.
Got to see this live. Pretty good video!
i'm only at 34min of the video but i gotta say FFIII is fun game. At first i didn't like it, didn't play more than 1h on my ds at the time but i bought the steam version some years later and gave it a chance. I loved how simple the plot was, it was a fantastic adventure, there was no convoluted script, no edgy characters with weather based names, it was a game for you to enjoy the journey as you progress. Beautiful.
FF3 made dark knights seem so cool and it was the only time i didn't mind being forced to use a job class because it was so powerful and you only really needed one as opposed to converting your entire part like in other parts of the game with other classes. it's a bit disappointing that they're all just "evil" in FF4.
Fun fact: That class wasn't even originally Dark Knights, they were called Mystic Knights. As I recall they didn't even have Dark Wave, just access to low level White Magic. The Dark Knight (technically from II, but that didn't really have classes) finds its first proper outing in FFIV, which was then retrofitted to FFIII's later versions and the Mystic Knights were reinvented in FFV all together (oddly taking a look that seemed more related to Minwu than the original Mystic Knights)
This series is great gets better every video and gives solid perspective on a game I usually never delved too deep into or played very often will change that soon
The heartbreak with Aria getting such a masterpiece of a song, is because of all the helper characters in the game, she was truly killed off at the crystal, not returning at the final act, for the short time she was in the party, I felt like she left the biggest impact.
I learned so much in this video. I've never played any of the early Final Fantasy games, but I really enjoy hearing summaries of them.
Honestly, my favorite bits are the ones where you try to find the origins of things, the onion knight one is fascinating, even if incorrect. Reading into things is what analysis is made to do, and I am here for it!
During most of the video I realized just how much I want to pick "Final Fantasy: 4 Heroes of Light" back up. It was the first Final Fantasy game I ever played, and oh boy, I know that sounds weird. Loved it though, and learning about FFIII shows me where all the things I really enjoyed came from. Thank you for your hard work, this video is spectacular.
Finished watching through it and this was a nice analysis video! I especially liked the etymology sections, learning about kennings was really neat. I almost wanna play this game again but maybe I'll try 1 or 2 first since I haven't played either of those yet.
You couldn't have dropped this on a better day, with the maintenance for Endwalker early access :D Diving right into it, thank you for always taking the time to make top quality content for us!
haha, i was relieved to get this out so that i could enjoy endwalker stress-free! thanks for watching, i really appreciate it :)
Little info on Ramuh: He could be, design-wise at least, based on Lamuh. Ramuh is often translated as 'Lamú' in Spanish versions of Final Fantasy games and in Kingdom Hearts names that reference the summon.
Isn't the meaning of "Onion Knight" that they're a knight with many layers (like an onion)? Like that their default ability is to take on many layers (ie: the other jobs).
So this is the first video of yours I've seen, and given your presentation, the passion you exhibit, and the subject matter... you've definitely got a new subscriber out of me!
As a child, I always junctioned Shiva to Squall in FF8. Btw, I love your explanations of the origins behind elements found in Final Fantasy games.
I think the themes of mortality and hope/hopelessness with Xande and the cloud of darkness deserves a bit more respect in some regards. There is a continuous theme of self sacrifice for others and the acceptance of death throughout the game with many characters. Xande and his relationship to the cloud of darkness are just the ultimate example of that.
Xande refuses to accept his death and in turn decides to sacrifice the entire world just to keep himself alive a little bit longer. And even comes to the conclusion that if he dies, everything is pointless, the whole world might as well die with him. That's what the cloud of darkness is. It's the embodiment of giving in to that despair. The death of the world. It wants to return everything to nothing because the despair of confronting your own mortality feels like that is the only logical result. When you confront the cloud of darkness you are confronting your inevitable fate, as well as the world's eventual fate. That's why you don't actually destroy it. It tells you it will never go away. It will always be there, sitting and waiting for when the times comes for it to take the world. Just as death looms over us all, it's just waiting for the appropriate time. All we can do is fight it in the moment and do what we can with the time we have now, and find peace with the knowledge that the cloud of darkness will get its way eventually. That is the core of Final Fantasy 3.
Also Noah giving Xande mortality of all things was a dick move. Something doesn't gain meaning just because it's impermanent. All you've done there is taken something wonderful and everlasting with endless potential for change and beauty, and gave it an expiration date to rot away. He quite literally murdered his friend by doing this. Noah sucks lol
And his other students were not much better, saying Xande was a fool and unappreciative for not liking that someone just guaranteed his death and told him he should be grateful. They don't even know what that means, they just assume it's a good thing because they don't have it. So dumb lol
@@Alex_Barbosa 🎯
FF3 for the Nintendo DS was one of the first Final Fantasy games I ever played as a kid, and even now I have a pretty strong soft spot for the game. I usually find my interest fizzling a bit as I approach the endgame, but until then the job system, combat, and music are enough to really carry you along the adventure, or at least they were for me. Giving the chibi characters each their own unique outfit for every job was also a wonderful decision that adds so much visual variety and flavor to the game, and I still find it charming. Next time I play I definitely want to try the pixel remake, though.
Another absolute banger of a video. I am kicking myself for not diving into your channel sooner.
FFIIIDS is often touted as being difficult, and requiring a grind at points. I 100% disagree, the game will frequently tell you what you will need coming up.
Additionally, you can do more than 9999 damage a turn, though it will only show 9999 on hit. There is a secret area that will tell you your highest damage done in a single hit. I think mine when I beat the game was around 48k.
It's always interesting to look back at games from the era when a lot of genre and mechanics were only just being defined and you had the first titles that actually got them right....90s gaming truly is such an interesting era for many genre and series
I'm not a musical theory expert, but here's what I can tell you about Crystal Room and the Prelude.
Both of these songs use arpeggios, which means their chords are played one note at a time. The Prelude is made entirely of 4-note arpeggios which go up an octave each time they are played until they reach a high note, after which they go back down. Most of it consists of major and minor added second chords, which generally sound pretty when played in arpeggios.
The Crystal Room also uses the same 4-note ascending pattern, but it starts off with a diminished 7th chord, a very dissonant chord generally used in classical music to create tension and drama, and as you observed, it does not take the time to come back down before switching to another chord.
I remember getting this game when I was around 8 or 9 years old (my fourth year of school) when I was very sick. I played it religiously, alternating it with Pokémon on the DS, but it took me around a year to finish it (due to having no internet) but most of that was spent trying to figure out why the final boss was basically impossible lol. I love this game.
I'm not sure if this is an intended design choice but one of the things I like about this game is that it feels like every character is an archetype, rather than a realistic figure, and this paired with the narrative's vague ambiguity around feeding you it's big ideas that it pushes as central to the plot allows you to insert your own ideas into every character and story beat. There were a lot of things I spent time thinking were parts of the plot only to learn I had made them up as a kid which is funny.
great stuff looking forward to your final fantasy 5 analysis!
One cool addition that I don't have a direct source for; but the reason why the DS version is actually significantly more difficult than the original/pixel remasters is because of a technical limitation.
The reason for this is that the game engine they used (an older version of the same engine used for FF4) at the time couldn't handle rendering more than 3 enemy models + the party when in combat. As a result, they significantly increased the health and strength of most normal enemies to compensate for the lack of horde encounters the other final fantasy games have.
Also are you planning to cover the after years for FF4 as well? It's to my knowledge the only direct sequel to a 2D final fantasy game and it's quite interesting if you ask me.
Just 8 mins in atm, the name Ingus sounds very like the Irish name Aengus. It would mean either One Strength, or One Choice or could be associated with Celtic God of Youth, Love but I don't know if that has any relevance to the character.
This is literally my favorite final fantasy and the entire reason I love class and job systems in video games.
been thinking of replaying 3 recently I got the DS remake when I was 7 in 2008. I'm 22 years old and still have the save file from my childhood. The world and characters of ff3 are amazing, the story is great, the music is incredible, and the class system is deep. Highly recommend giving this game a shot if you haven't before.
Thank you SO MUCH for giving a heads up that I needed to pay attention to the music part and do some reading. A lesser video essayist would have just launched into a weird quiet period where I'd think they just forgot to record voice over! 😅
just finished FF3 thanks to your video and it was brutal! The end dungeon is so long and taxing and just plain hard sometimes, like each fight aren't that hard but you make a single mistake and you're in big trouble.
And I grinded quite a bit, much harder than 2 in my opinion.
Also I really don't like the animations in 3. At least in pixel art you have to imagine to get something out of it, but in the DS version it's just not that good.
Even though I admit FF4-6 were probably all better and improved on than 3 in some way I just have a huge soft spot for this game. Feels like the first FF to have a lot of the staples the series is known for. Idk, I just love this game.
I finish watching all the Final Fantasy reviews, they were really good and made me wanna try the games. Furthermore, you seem quite knowledgeable when comes to mythology, languages, literature etc. Really liked when you explored those topics, keep the good work.
Now for anyone reading this, if you don't want to waste hours of your life downloading emulaters and finding the games, it was released a steam version with all the pixel games from I to VI.
Never felt so stupid in my life, I literally discovered this 5 mins after being able to finally run the Final Fantasy Origins...
Western Dragons were originaly also Serpentine
The words Dragon and Drake even come from the Greek word Drákōn, which means "big snake"
yeah of course! almost every mention of a 'dragon' in ancient myth just refers to a big old magic snake. maybe wasn't clear enough but what i meant was that almost everyone in the west today, if asked to picture a dragon, would first think of a winged lizard type! the winged idea has been around for at least 800 or so years i think, i want to say that there's george and the dragon stuff from the 13th/14th century or so (although i haven't checked for this comment) where there are tapestries/illustrations that lean a bit more towards the more modern interpretation. it's really cool seeing how it changed over time
@@Ludiscere
Yeah the modern part flew over my head
I also looked into why they were called the Onion Knight when I first played the game. Although I eventually found the interviews I read a handful of clever comments which tied it to an exagerrated version of a Carl Sandberg quote: "Life is like an onion. You peel away one layer at a time and cry the whole time you do it!"
54:12 Jesus Christ LMAO
Nah we have to go on believing it's a 10th-century kenning reference, I can't accept this!!!!
mate i was GUTTED
Final Fantasy XIV uses the idea of warriors of light vs darkness and balance in one of the expansions, and they elaborate on it, and it’s really cool. At least it inspired some greater things later!
Great stuff. Looking forwards to the FFIV video :D
About Titan being tied to the earth element; one of Titan’s signature attacks is called “Gaia’s Wrath” and Gaia in Greek myth is one of the major Titans and Gaia also basically means earth
Your analysis of Cloud of Darkness battle theme is spot on. A proper fucking bop is correct. Probably my favorite of the classic era boss themes.
I love these videos!! I can't wait till you release more!!
I would of thought Titan was based off Atlas. Which explains the earth element.
Something further supported in FF XV where Titan is holding up a massive meteor, very much like Atlas literally carrying the world (Earth) on his shoulders.
Final Fantasy 3 on the DS was my first, and for long time my Favorite Final Fantasy. I love de 3D remake, I love the fact that when you change your clothes in game, you can see the diference in the character, the fact that I can make a dual wield character from the get go. Simply amazing. Would love to see a 3D remake of FF6 just to see that type of resources in the game.
I forgot so many key plot points of this game. I love seeing how FF14 references these old games and I didn't even notice.
I think the floating continent may be based on the concept of ukiyoe, or “floating world,” a concept (tied to the art genre) that the temporal life is a dream or fantasy.
The dark flood over the world in the ds remake may also be a reference to the biblical beginning, where darkness was over the face of the deep.
I squeaked when I learned the DS version of this game was the first time we got 3 in the US. It was my first experience with a mainline Final Fantasy game lol. I'd played 4 heroes of light before it, and watched one of the movies, but I was definitely excited to get this game as I was getting into the series. It remains very interesting to me.
Seeing how long your analyses of the NES titles are....I am expecting your FF IV video to possibly hit the 2 hr mark! These are all great and I patiently await the next video no matter how long it takes. Besides, I'll be grinding in FF XI & XIV for the foreseeable future and the time in-between your videos will fly by xD
Hello Person from the Past, the Video ist over 5 Hours long and this Fact alone blew my Mind!
Damm, im watching this video again bc i really enjoyed it the first time and im just playing all the final fantasy games i havent played (and watching videos of those that i have already played) and it's a shame you have so little views tbh
The Masamune will never be more cool to me than it was in Chrono Trigger. To even obtain it is an ordeal including one of the creepier boss battles, it deals extra damage to the endlessly badass Magus, and it cuts a freaking mountain in half!
I didn't play FFIII until much later. On the PSP with a port of the 3D version. It remains the only FF game I have not finished. You bring up some valid points, and I do excuse the faults for it being early in the series and made on the nes. But I also don't have rose coloured glasses on when thinking of it. I am thankful for it introducing ideas that were later developed far better.
I love FF, but arbitrary limitations (especially for status effects) and lack of in-game communication of what things actually do (requiring for tedious trial and error that makes you wonder why you aren't just auto-attacking instead) are my main pain-points with the most of the series.
Thanks for the in-depth analysis.
I remember getting this on the NES emulator NESticle back in 99-00, I was blown away that an NES game had the job system I thought started in FFT
1:18:20 oh shit. I was seeing a lot of FF14 Shadowbringers references for this game, but this just straight up a FF3 original track??? Damn
yeah, XIV goes really heavy with III references, especially in ARR and ShB. there are even more subtle ones like the Azys Lla stuff in 5.4 or 5.5 (i can't remember i think it's .4 though) being to do with Owen, a reference to the Tower of Owen in this game, and the Crystal Tower research group being NOAH, again a character from III. also, the CRP/LTW/WVR quests in ShB have you make a lute, and it plays the same song that Noah's Lute does in III. there's stuff to find everywhere!
The flood of watery darkness definitely inspired the flood of light in ffxiv shadowbringers and that game definitely does that concept much better justice by, being consistent with what it does and where it came from.
Love the video, I was sadly listening to it like a podcast😆
Wow never realized how much ff9 takes from ff3. I always thought 9 was based on 1 mainly but instead it's more like an amalgamation of all the early ff games made modern.
I really like these FF videos. Subbed, liked and commented. More!
I love IV a lot. It's the only Final Fantasy game that's held my attention all the way through
I never managed to defeat the Cloud of Darkness in the DS version
I was really looking forward to this one! So many things from this game remind me of FFIX, which is my favorite along with X :) These early games are super interesting to me because they show so much ambition (that would pay off a hundredfold as new instalments come out imo). And your videos are awesome! I can only imagine how much work goes into a video like this...Kudos to you!!
I'm wondering if the gift given to Xande is something that Une and Doga long for, perhaps their gifts don't let them die by they continue to age. It would likely make them wish for the ability to die instead of just perpetual life? Xande would think the real power he was denied was something greater, yet those with power long for an ending they cannot have.
I haven't verified it, but I've heard that FF3 is the first game to have a unique final boss theme. FF2 is close, but it uses the theme for the final boss earlier with the Behemoth fight.
Moogles saying "Kupo" at the end of sentences are cute and makes sense to them.
It could have been worse if they said "Uguuu" all the time.
But I get it, at first it would always be strange to hear a Moogle say "Kupo" until you eventually get used to it.
I love these analyses!