Final Fantasy Legend III (Game Boy) review "It's like Roger Corman leading a tabletop campaign..."

Final Fantasy Legend III (aka SaGa 3, which I shall be calling it henceforth because I'm lazy) appears to be your average 8-bit RPG on its surface. It sports your standard presentation of super-deformed character models moseying around a grid-based world, packed in with battles that consist of enemy sprites floating in a flavorless void, waiting to be annihilated. You bump them off with the most basic of commands, relying on melee strategies more often than not because offensive magic sucks this time around.

However, when you pull back the layers, you expose a world that's part anime fantasy, part drive-in B-movie, and part sci-fi novel. SaGa 3 opens up with a cutscene outlining its conflict, in which some prick creates a gigantic being called the Pureland Water Entity: a humongous mouth in the sky constantly vomiting water and monster. As if the rising sea levels aren't a big enough problem, townsfolk also contend with killer pixies, robotic maidens, samurai that look like they were lifted from Hylics, and semi-feminine cyborgs with lips that cover their entire faces. Obviously, the future is screwed because no one knows how to destroy the Entity. Their only hope rests in sending some meddling kids from the future sent back to the past, because reasons.

So the kids arrive in their time machine, Talon 1, and train with the best warriors that time period has to offer. Eventually, they grow strong enough to embark on their time-traveling mission. They venture into the past, save a brainwashed girl from a winged phallus, and eventually catch the attention of the main antagonist: a massive brain-like creature called Xagor. Things just get weirder as they enter castles rising from the ocean, hop onto an island in the sky, and warp to the future and beyond to fight an eyeless cat, a monster that looks like a fleshy tornado covered in mouths, and a ghoul that could pass for pizza dough with skulls kneaded into it.

Suffice it to say that SaGa 3 is a downright strange adventure. It's not your average “amass a group of warriors to save a princess from random evil guy who's actually a dragon/demon/both in disguise” kind of campaign. This one trades castles and kingdoms for picket fences, television sets, and zany scientists working alongside honorable swordsmen to save the future. It's refreshing stepping into a city that looks like something featured in “The Jetsons,” decked out with robots selling laser guns and magic spells. In a way, it's like Square channeled Phantasy Star while utilizing their own standards for balancing and scenario building.

Which brings me to my next point: despite this being a SaGa title, it's terribly easy. For instance, earn enough money to buy all the best equipment a new town has to offer in two or three fights, and almost never need to stop to grind in general. And yet, it somehow manages to be entertaining because there's so much customization and variety available without the added headache of its franchise's seemingly randomized stat bolstering. Granted, most of the weapons you find or purchase and the magic you obtain is next to useless, but the building blocks for so many different types of characters remain regardless.

One other thing to consider is how each piece of equipment interacts with each class and race. You start the game with two humans and two mutants, with the former begging for the best weaponry while the latter craving magic-boosting goods. However, you don't need to journey with this setup. Occasionally, a piece of meat or machinery drops at the end of battle, and you have the choice to eat or install (respectively, because the other way around would be awkward) them to create new combinations of combatants.

For instance, if someone eats a piece of monster meat, they become one of the monsters you encounter, such as a pissed-off starfish, a ghostly wagon wheel, or a huge dragon. They lose the ability to equip items, but gain unique combat powers. Now you can breathe fire, curse your foes, or turn them to stone. Of course, since you can't don a new set of armor, you quickly become a liability, especially since your instant-death attacks and status-afflicting skills don't affect bosses. You're then left to rely on specialty strikes that fail to make a dent in a villain's hit points.

That's okay, because other transformations exist. Instead of a monster, you can become a humanoid beast who has balanced stats, decent combat skills, and a penchant for martial arts. If you don't like that, you can install robot parts that allow you to permanently bolster statistics using pills sold at item shops. Or hell, you could go for my favorite: a cyborg whose prowess increases with each new piece of equipment they grasp. They don't start off especially great, but they become more than reliable by the time you reach the end of the line, especially if you give one a mystic sword and the best armor money can buy.

Honestly, I don't care that this game is so easy that I can finish it with my eyes closed. It doesn't bother me that a modicum of grinding and investing in the best weaponry is all you need to fell most bosses without much trouble. Hell, only a handful of adversaries put up a good fight, including the aforementioned mouthy tornado and his pizza-dough companion. Mainly, they hit you with strikes that smash your whole party or nail you with status ailments, but those things are easy to overcome when you have healing spells that fully restore your whole entourage and a nearly bottomless supply of magic points. Seriously, during my last playthrough I only used one magic restoration item, and that was during my brawl with the final boss.

It also helps that SaGa 3 comes with a lot of “oh, cool!” moments. For instance, you eventually get the Talon 1 flying all over the world. You still run afoul of random groups of beasties, but now the Talon jumps in and bombards them before they have a chance to even blink. If you're lucky, some of your targets will perish in the onslaught. Those that remain struggle to stay alive, as they're already half-dead by the time you draw your sword. Plus, you gain other goodies for the Talon, including a free inn and some special shops that create one-of-a-kind weapons and spells (actually useful spells, to boot). But best of all, save scumming is absolutely allowed! Not that you'll need it...

Still, SaGa 3 stands out as a wacky, campy quest across time and dimensions. Never mind that it resembles just about every pre-1990 RPG, because it sure as hell doesn't behave like one. No, it doesn't drop a bunch of nonsense that the rest of its franchise brethren do, like weapons that are cheaper to buy brand new than they are to repair, or instances where you could become irrevocably stuck because you're not strong enough to fight the current enemies, but you can't travel back to a previous area. This one is a nice little respite in an otherwise unforgiving—and sometimes unpleasant—series of adventures.

Staff review by Joseph Shaffer (June 24, 2023) Rumor has it that Joe is not actually a man, but a machine that likes video games, horror movies, and long walks on the beach. His/Its first contribution to HonestGamers was a review of Breath of Fire III.