Final Fantasy Legend III (Sa•Ga 3: Jikuu no Hasha in Japan) is a Game Boy video game. As the third game in the SaGa series, it was released in 1993 by Square.
Characters
Final Fantasy Legend III has several playable characters, four of which are the main characters, and the rest of which can be controlled, but cannot be altered by the player (i.e. leveling-up, removing equipment, or changing class). The four main characters are Arthur, Curtis, Gloria, and Sharon. As in most Final Fantasy games, these names are not required, and the player is given the option to name the main characters at the start of the game.
Playable Characters
Arthur, the hero, is one of three children sent into the present from the future, in the hopes of averting the world's destruction by flood. Arthur's default class is Human.
Curtis, the boy, is the second of the three children sent into the present to prevent the world's destruction. Curtis' default class is Mutant.
Gloria, the girl, is the third child sent into the present to stop the world's destruction. Gloria's default class is Mutant.
Sharon is a heroine who grew up in the town of Dharm, where the party starts out. She has an affectionate attachment to Arthur, which is evidenced early in the game. Sharon's default class is Human.
The remainder of the playable characters are the special 5th party members whose abilities and stats are fixed, and join and leave the party as the story progresses.
Myron is an excellent weapon and magic user and is the first extra party member encountered in the game. He grew up in the town of Dharm and is the town's guardian. He is also of the Human class.
Lara is a young woman who lives in Elan in the Past. She is a powerful magic user (due to being of the Mutant class) and has several spells at her disposal. She joins the party after Arthur defeats her and she comes to.
Dion is a young man who lives in Dharm in the Present, and in Viper in the Future. He's a well-balanced fighter, with excellent weapons and magic skills, and comes with a decent assortment of spells.
Faye is a young woman who lives in Dharm in the Present, and also appears in the Pureland. She's a good fighter, but is more proficient with weapons than with magic skills, though she comes with a fair number of spells.
Borgin is the man who heads up the Rebellion against the Masters. He's a mutant with excellent stats (by far the best 5th character in the game) and comes with a huge assortment of powerful spells.
Plot summary
In the future, the world is being destroyed by the Pureland water entity, and a band of rebels has gathered to avert this disaster. Their leader, Borgin, has sent three children back in time to the present in the hopes of improving the rebels' chances against their foes.
The game begins in the present with Arthur, Curtis, Gloria, and Myron all engaged in a fight using the Simulator, a huge device which simulates actual battles (including the spoils earned from them) with less risk than real battles. After the battle is over, Myron leaves and the remaining three go and talk with the Elder of Dharm about their mission, which for the time being is to travel to the town of Elan and talk to Cronos about Units. Units are devices that plug into the futuristic fighter called Talon, which can travel to the Past, Present, and Future, once the proper units have been found and installed. The first key item received is the Radar, which detects the number of units that remain uncollected in the current time period. While talking to Elder in the Temple, the party is joined by Sharon. Upon reaching Elan, Cronos bestows Arthur with the Past unit, allowing the party to travel into the past. On the way back to the Palace where the Talon is held, the party is attacked by a WaterHag monster working for the "masters." Before boarding the Talon, Myron leaves the party to go defend Dharm. The Past unit is then attached, and the party is off to the past.
In the past, the party encounters the younger, though not visually different, Elder, who is looking for a place to build a town. Arthur recommends to build one east of the Palace, and the Elder agrees and decides to name the town Dharm. The party then travels to Elan, and they find the young Cronos who informs them that Granny went to a cave to rescue a young woman named Lara. Naturally, it is now Arthur's duty to go to the cave and rescue both characters. Granny is found not that far into the cave, and she tells Arthur that Lara was taken by the monster Dogra, and she leaves the rescue up to Arthur. When the party encounters Lara, she's being controlled by Dogra and attacks them. After defeating her, she regains control of her body and joins the party. Deeper in the cave lies Dogra, who mistakes Arthur for Borgin and attacks. After Dogra is killed, it leaves behind the Rover unit, which is an engine type for the Talon, allowing it to move along the land (once it is freed from the Palace). Upon returning to Elan, Granny instructs Arthur to return to the Present and bring Lara to the Elder. She also gives Arthur the Dive spell, which will allow him to dive under the oceans and explore further places. In the past there is also a town, Lae, where people are being infected with a disease that turns them into monsters. One of the diseased people will give Arthur the Flushex unit, which, when installed into the Talon, will allow the player to reset any character's class to the default. A second town, under the ocean, can be visited and also holds the Ifram seed key item.
Back in the Present, Arthur takes Lara to the Elder, who will keep watch on her. He then tells Arthur that Cronos (in the Present) has found something. In Elan, Cronos tells Arthur that he has found out where the Future unit is located. Suddenly, the ground starts shaking and somebody runs in saying that something is happening in Lae's Bay. Cronos and Arthur go outside and find a structure rising from the water, and Cronos tells Arthur that one of the four Water Entity monsters, possibly either Chaos or Maitreya, is behind this. They both return to Elan and Cronos gives the player a copy of the key to the South Tower. At the top of South Tower, the party runs into Ashura, and Arthur demands that it return the units. Ashura, however, had already moved them to Chaos' castle, and a battle ensues. Upon defeating Ashura, Arthur receives the key to Chaos' castle. At the top of Chaos' castle the party encounters Chaos, and they fight and defeat him. After defeating Chaos, Arthur receives the Future and Hover units. The Hover unit is another engine unit for the Talon.
Fifteen years have passed. The future is a world mostly of water, with a few islands remaining. Dharm has been washed away and replaced by the secret town of New Dharm, hidden below a cemetery. Elan, however, is unaffected. Arthur first travels to Elan and finds Granny now on her death bed. She gives Arthur the Morph magic (which is essential later in the game, and very easy to miss receiving) and tells him to travel to the mutated city Muu. At a base in New Dharm, the party runs back into Myron, who has aged and become an even more accomplished fighter. He tells Arthur the password for the base in the technological city Viper, "ERAUQS" ("SQUARE" backwards). At the base in Viper, the party joins up with Dion, who has grown and urges Arthur to defeat Maitreya. He also mentions going to see Dr. Pulcer in an underwater building. When Arthur meets Dr. Pulcer, he tells him of the plan to get to the floating island known as Floatland. After using the Rocket to get to Floatland, Arthur journeys along the mountains and valleys atop it. Along the way the party comes across a strange building, and inside they find the Remote key item. Past the building is a huge mountain, atop which is Maitreya's tower. Partway to the top of the tower, a monster will bar the path, and Arthur will charge at it, falling down a floor and becoming separated from Dion. Dion then finds a secret door and confronts Maitreya, but is defeated. Arthur then rushes in to find Dion wounded, and attacks Maitreya. After defeating Maitreya, Arthur receives the X-Plane unit and takes Dion back to the base of the mountain, where Arthur calls Dr. Pulcer on the Radio. Dr. Pulcer destroys the Palace, freeing the Talon for use. After boarding the Talon, Arthur takes Dion back to Viper to get Dr. Belski to help him. Dr. Belski recovers Dion, he rejoins the party, and they head off towards the Pureland aboard the Talon.
As it warps to the Pureland, the Talon gets damaged and it can no longer time travel. Its engine units also get damaged, limiting it to land movement. Dion and Arthur disembark and agree to separate and search for the advance party and Faye. The Talon can now be boarded and will attack first and only once in each battle. Arthur and the game come upon a village filled with BlackCat monsters and where the people have been turned to stone. They find the Catnip key item growing on a tree in the back of the town. The party must now make its way to the temple to the north where Fenrir has made its home. Inside of the temple, Arthur uses the Catnip to lull all of the BlackCat monsters, allowing the party to proceed. At the back of the temple, Fenrir mistakes Arthur for Jupiah (his dead father) and attacks him. After defeating Fenrir, Arthur receives the Prison key which allows access into deeper in the temple, where he finds Faye. Faye asks where Dion has gone to and Arthur tells her that they have split up. Faye then tells Arthur of the Masters, who intend to rule the world and need her to draw one of the four Mystic swords. Faye then joins the party to aid them in their search for the four original Talon crew members. The town that was turned to stone by Fenrir is now back to normal, and one of the villagers, Eitar, tells Arthur he can find one of the four Talon crew, Buzi, atop Mt. Hasid. At the city of Darius to the east, Arthur and gang take a boat to the city of Knaya, the center of trade. (It should be noted that despite the fact that the Talon is now on another landmass and cannot travel to where Arthur is using its conventional drives, it can still be summoned to appear above Arthur with the Remote item.) The party then travels to Mt. Hasid, in search of Buzi. Partway up the mountain, the Missile unit is found (one of the Talon's weapon units), and at the top, the party finds Buzi, who is asking the monster Guha why the Masters seek to destroy other worlds. Guha admits that is up to Master Xagor to decide, and then tries to attack Buzi. Arthur gets in the way and a battle ensues. After defeating Guha, Buzi joins as a Talon crew member, and awaits aboard the Talon. Arthur then retrieves the Mystic sword Durend that Guha was guarding. At a cape to the north, Arthur meets Shar, one of the other Talon crew, and is told to retrieve the Tablet from a ruins to the south. The Tablet is said to hold the key to releasing the people of the Pureland from serving the Masters. At the entrance to the ruins, Arthur encounters the giant lizard Dahak, and must defeat it to proceed. After defeating Dahak, Arthur finds the Tablet and treks deeper into the ruins in order to remove the river that blocks travel across the desert. After opening up the desert for access, Arthur delivers the Tablet to Shar, who then tells Arthur to travel to Talonburg across the mountains while he gets busy deciphering the tablet. As Arthur crosses the desert in the Talon, it gets trapped in a whirlwind and crashes at the feet of the sandstorm master, a giant worm called Jorgandr. Yet another battle ensues, after which, Buzi tells Arthur to take what's left of the Talon to Talonburg. When he gets to Talonburg, Arthur finds not only the Hover and Shield units (engine and weapon units, respectively) but Dr. Quacer as well. Initially, Quacer mistakes Arthur for his father, Jupiah, but then realizes who it is. After being told of the Talon's destruction, Dr. Quacer attaches the recovered units to the Talon2. Now with the Hover unit, Arthur is free to go almost anywhere in the Pureland, except for the area in the middle surrounded by the barrier. Arthur returns to the cape and gets Shar and Buzi to rejoin the crew of the Talon. Arthur then flies to Cirrus, the Floating city. Here, Arthur finds the Talon crew member Juba, who wishes to go to Goht in search of the Metal item. Arthur then beseeches King Clamin to give him the pass into the Goht region, but he won't give it to him until he's recovered the sword Xcalibr. In a town of crystals, Arthur finds Xcalibr sealed in a rock, and urges Faye to go ahead and draw the sword. She does, and Arthur receives the Mystic sword Xcalibr. Arthur brings the sword back to King Clamin, shows it to him, and receives the Pass into the Underworld (which leads to Goht). Just as Arthur is about to enter the Underworld, Dion rushes out of it and replaces Faye as the party's 5th member.
Deep in the Underworld, Arthur finds many things including the Oil key item, the final Talon weapon unit, E-ray, the Crystal key item, and the Emblem key item. Arthur exits the underworld in the town of Donmac, and receives the Katana key item from a man in the town. After leaving Donmac, he comes upon the ruins where the monster Agron is guarding the Barrier Machine. Halfway through the ruins, Arthur runs into Borgin who tells Arthur he must investigate Mt. Goht, and then runs off. Arthur is then left to encounter Agron. When Arthur tries to wound Agron with the Mystic swords, he is unsuccessful as the Barrier Machine also protects Agron from their power. However, Dr. Quacer had installed a bomb in Dion for just such an occasion, and Dion performs a suicide attack and destroys the machine, leaving Agron vulnerable to attack. After defeating Agron, Borgin runs in to discover Dion dead, then tells Arthur that it is now time to go and face Xagor atop Mt. Goht. Arthur retrieves the Soar unit and then leaves the ruins. Back in Zhakal, the city where Faye drew Xcalibr, Arthur meets up with Masa, the last of the four Talon crew members.
Character classes
Final Fantasy Legend 3 differs from the previous two games in the SaGa series in the fact that instead of choosing character classes at the start of the game, a character's class may change by eating the meat of monsters and beasts, or installing the parts of cyborgs and robots after they are defeated in battle. Whether meat is eaten or parts are installed affects the change in the character's class. Each character starts at their default class (human or mutant depending on the character), and when fed meat will change towards beast (if fed any kind of meat), and then monster (if fed monster meat). When parts are installed into a character he will change towards cyborg (by installing any kind of parts), and then robot (by installing robot parts). Meat and parts counter each other: if a Beast has parts installed, he will revert to the default class. Likewise if a cyborg eats meat, he will also revert to the default class.
Each class also has specific weak and strong points.
Monster
Monsters are quite strong but are not affected by equipped weapons or armor (nor can they make use of them in battle), and must use natural Talents such as "Bite" and "2-Swords". Monsters also do not change forms upon level-up, and only change forms when the character is fed more monster meat.
Beast
Beasts are a moderately strong, dynamic class that can equip weapons and armor, and the best weapon to equip to them are "Techniques" such as "Punch". A peculiarity about beasts is that when a character levels-up, the form of beast will change to another beast whose typical level is close to the character's level.
Human
Humans grow stronger through leveling-up, and are best equipped with regular weapons. This is one of the default classes.
Mutant
Mutants are physically weaker than humans, but make up for it with a stronger ability to use magic. This is one of the default classes.
Cyborg
Cyborgs are also moderately strong and can equip weapons and armor. Unlike the beast class, cyborgs do not change upon level-up. An interesting fact about this class is that the character's maximum HP and MP will change depending upon his equipment. Other classes do not exhibit this behaviour. In many ways, Cyborgs are in keeping with the Robots of the previous game in the series.
Robot
Robots, unlike monsters, are affected by their equipment, and can use equipped weaponry or natural Talents. Robots are incapable or poor at using magic, as they tend to have a low or non-existent MP statistic. Robots' other stats tend to also be poor, especially their HP stat. However, a robot's stats can be changed manually through the use of special capsules which can be purchased at some stores. These capsules are the HP, Attack, Defense, and Speed capsules, which affect the associated stat permanently, similar to Humans in the first SaGa game. Like monsters, robots do not change form until new robot parts are installed.