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Final Fantasy III Players Guide

Areala
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About This File

Final Fantasy III / Final Fantasy VI is, hands down, my favorite Final Fantasy title. And this right here just might be my favorite strategy guide of all time. Presented in full colour, flush with screenshots, along with copious artwork by artist Yoshitaka Amano, and a section at the end featuring some gorgeous full-size in-game maps, Olafson's guide is written more like a story as opposed to a walkthrough.

At $12.95, this was an absolute showstopper of a book. It may be less complete overall than Nintendo's own game guide, as it doesn't contain things like monster stats, weapon and item lists, Gau's Rage tables, or other in-depth information one might expect to see in an RPG guide. But the sheer quality of Olafson's prose guides the reader through the story so well it feels like playing the game. It's one of the few guides I've read from cover to cover multiple times. It's just that good.

This book is generally very expensive on the second-hand market. Copies on eBay routinely sell for $50 or more, and copies in excellent condition can fetch upwards of $100. For Final Fantasy III fans, it's a highly-sought collector's item. If you've ever looked at a listing and wondered why, I hope a flip through this book explains everything. If every guide followed Olafson's example, strategy guides would be regarded as works of art instead of simple cash grabs.

Enjoy! ❤️

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miketheratguy

I still have my original copy of this, I remember it being a really great strategy guide. Nintendo's official guide was very neatly organized and rich with tips but it felt kind of cold and businesslike in a way. This one felt really engaging and colorful (and also about twice as thick if I recall correctly). One of the better unofficial guides in my possession.

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Areala
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This comment is too wonderful to get lost on the forum pages. From user @cleansed:

Quote

I worked for squaresoft at the time FF6 was released.  I had been very blessed to be hired on as a game play counselor after getting to beta test secret of mana, mystic quest, breath of fire, and final fantasy 3.  Peter actually came out to our facilities in Redmond and it was mine and another GPCs responsibility to take him around town and what not.  He mined our brains for FF3 related stuff, made some phone calls to us later on, and then that was it.  I didn't know I was credited in the guide until later.  I am also credited in secret of mana as a beta tester.  My name is Joshua Gabbard.

Mr. Gabbard, thank you for all the work you did to help get this game (and guide) out into the world, and thank you for sharing your story! :)

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cleansed
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On 10/9/2024 at 5:43 AM, Areala said:

This comment is too wonderful to get lost on the forum pages. From user @cleansed:

Mr. Gabbard, thank you for all the work you did to help get this game (and guide) out into the world, and thank you for sharing your story! :)

Thank you!  I was very blessed to work for this company at 16 years of age!  I got hired because I had been living in Redmond Washington in the 90s and was a huge square fan.  I sent in a reply card to them and they called me one day asking if I would be interested in testing Secret of Mana?!  Umm yes please.

It was really cool there were about 12 of us similar ages and we went to Square every day for like a week during the summer to test it.  They fed us pizza and we got to make some contributions.  I named a couple of enemies (Snap Dragon and Tsunami (formally Mr. Water)  Also got a free copy of the game when it was over and some merchandise.  

They kept calling me back to test and it culminated with Final Fantasy 6.  I got to bring my brother and sister with me and play through it.  They had me take a game play phone call during this time and then after the beta test they hired me.  My brother discovered the relm sketch glitch but they didn't fix it for some reason.

Working for Square as a game play counselor was really amazing.  I got to play video games all day, test unreleased games, hang with the us developers, visit Nintendo etc.  I even contributed to Chrono Trigger by naming Ayla.  Frequently work with Ted Woosely and I want to confess that I borrowed his final fantasy v music cd and didn't return it.  😞

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