Final Fantasy III: How Not To Design A Final Dungeon

 Final Fantasy III(not to be confused with Final Fantasy VI, which was released as III on the Super NES) is the last of the NES Final Fantasies, and the end of an era in many ways.  Subsequent installments were more story-driven, had ATB combat if not real time(although X is an exception), and introduced many of the conveniences that modern gamers take for granted, like save points. The fact that Final Fantasy III lacks those is one reason why its final dungeon is poorly designed and unnecessarily difficult.

In order to even reach the Crystal Tower, you must pass through the Ancient's Maze, which is also the dungeon where you find the final Crystal. The dungeon is rather straightforward, and you can save before entering the Crystal Tower, but it's an unnecessary trip between where you land the airship and the tower.

The Crystal Tower itself is a standard tower-type dungeon, which means that it's rather long and linear. The first floor of the tower has an entrance to the Forbidden Land of Eureka, an optional dungeon, which has some good gear and challenging bosses. Your final destination, however, is at the top of the tower, which is quite a hike.

Once at the top, you face Xande, who isn't too difficult despite being the game's main antagonist, but he isn't the final boss. After his defeat, the evil being known as the Cloud of Darkness breaks free, and you must pursue it to the World of Darkness to defeat it and save the world.

The World of Darkness is a relatively simple dungeon, with a central hub and five paths- to the north, northeast, southeast, southwest and northwest.  You can reach the Cloud of Darkness by going north, but it's almost undefeatable unless you make the proper preparations. That involves going to each of the crystals in the other four directions, defeating the bosses that guard them- Echida, Cerberus, Ahriman and the Two-Headed Dragon- and enlisting the Warriors of Darkness' help. Once you do, each of the Warriors of Darkness will accompany you to the final battle, and sacrifice themselves to weaken the Cloud of Darkness.

Even with this help, the Cloud of Darkness is easily the most difficult boss in the game, with the hardest part being its deadly multi-target attack, Particle Beam. The worst part, however, is what's at stake. If you win, you beat the game, but if you lose, you have to, at minimum, start over from the beginning of the Crystal Tower. After everything I've just described, it should be obvious that dying at this point will cost you a lot of progress- possibly an hour. In this regard, it's a bit like the Gate of Finis from Octopath Traveler, but with fewer bosses and a slew of random encounters.

The difficulty curve doesn't help. While Final Fantasy III is difficult overall, the final dungeon doesn't stand out all that much. Xande and the four crystal guardians are challenging, but if you have trouble with them, you likely wouldn't win against the Cloud of Darkness anyway. What's most frustrating is to defeat every other foe with relative ease, but die against the Cloud of Darkness, rendering all your progress wasted.

In short, Final Fantasy III's final dungeon isn't overly difficult, but is needlessly frustrating, and is an excellent example of a poor final dungeon that causes an otherwise good Final Fantasy to conclude on a sour note.

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