It's a shame that such an ambitious and, compared to the other installments, large game was never released in America.
The core gameplay remains unchanged from the original: you go around from town to town, trying to advance the story and level up your characters. However, the core system was improved upon with the job system. Instead of being forced to stick with one class for the rest of the game, you can now earn jobs from the crystals, each of which comes with a multitude of abilities that each has their use at one point or another in the game. For example, while the Scholar is very useful against foes that can change their weakness, he may not be as efficient at destroying enemies that can cast a strong multi-target attack, which the Dragoon’s Jump ability is efficient at. Finding that perfect combination of heavy hitters & magicians can take up a good portion of the game. However, it seems you’ll stick with the “2 heavy hitters, an offensive mage & a healer” configuration for the majority, if not the entire game. The game also offers secondary characters that follow you around throughout portions of the game. This is Final Fantasy III’s greatest flaw. They do just that: follow you around. In fact, they only serve as a hint system for those who are new to RPG’s or Final Fantasy, and tools with which to advance the story further otherwise. If you’re not fluent in Japanese, you can download the Neo Demiforce translation over the internet. Although competent, it will sometimes have a glaring and amusing error due to the prioritization of the literal translation over the human translation.
The graphics are exactly what you’d expect from the Final Fantasy series. In fact, some of the classes and monsters from the previous installments are re-used in this. But it still looks good. The graphics remain detailed and the animations precise and to the point.
And of course, the music is some of the best that you’ll find on the NES. It’s engaging and advances the story in ways that became common in the SNES era. In fact, some of you might be tempted enough to actually get these songs yourself.
All in all, it's a shame that such an ambitious and, compared to the other installments, large game was never released in America. I’d recommend it to anyone willing to get it, whether it be through importing or emulation.