Introduction

So here I am attempting a FF3 Solo Character Challenge Run.

What is Final Fantasy III?

It's the third Final Fantasy game released in Japan, and the last one to appear on the Famicom. It's best known for being the first game to have an interchangable job system, which lets characters change from, say, a Fighter to a White Mage at the drop of a hat. It also adds a lot of FF class mainstays such as the Dragoon, Bard, and Summoner classes. Speaking of summons, this game also introduces many of the mainstay summons you know and love, such as Ifrit, Shiva, Ramuh, and Titan. It also introduces a bunch of other stuff I'll get to once I get there.

What's this about a Solo Challenge?

Final Fantasy III gives you four characters. I only plan on using one of them. Why? I felt like a challenge, and I've played through FF3 enough times that I feel I can handle it. The fact that there's not only a FAQ on how to do such a challenge, but one that's about the same except sticking with one class tells me it's feasible, if very difficult for certain bosses. Of course, I plan to switch up classes when necessary.

So how are you going to approach this?

While I'll talk about story and all that stuff, my priority is to talk strategy on how I approach certain enemies. Some bosses will be easy, others will be much more difficult. While I've beat this game several times, this is the first time I'm doing this challenge, so I think it'll be fun to go over all the mistakes I make and what alternate strategies I could go through.

To make things a bit more interesting, I'm also doing a different translation than what most people are familiar with. It adds more dialogue and features, including a dash button (YES). If you want to try it out, read the readme since it's not compatible with certain emulators due to increasing the size of the original game.

I'll also be including the music, as it has the best music of any FF game.

Any rules?

* Spoilers in spoil tags. This game doesn't have a great story, but hey, there may be one person who wants to see how the story develops, and as far as NES games go this game has a decent story. There's actually a scene or two that's pretty nice.
* Don't discuss strategies too far ahead of where I am. The next dungeon's fine. The next boss isn't, as then we'll have a page of black bars. Keep in mind I'll ignore suggestions, but I still encourage you guys to discuss them.

I don't plan to use any regular walkthrough FAQs except to navigate a certain dungeon (because fuck that dungeon) or to use save states except for another dungeon (because fuck that dungeon too) or maybe show off alternative ways to kill a boss. I know the game well enough to know where I'm going next, generally. I'll probably use stuff like character FAQs to compare stuff, but that's it.

That's it. Now, there's a little bit of business I need you guys to take care of in the following post.

Table of Contents

• Preparation
• Chapter 1 - Stalin's Struggles to Stab a Turtle.
• Chapter 2 - Better Dead Than Red Mage
• Chapter 3 - Stalin is Assassinated by a Dirty Rat
• Chapter 4 - Getting Stoned on Toads
• Chapter 5 - This Update has DWARVES in It
• Chapter 6 - One Cannot Survive on Gimmicks Alone
• Chapter 7 - Stalin Murders Capitalism
• Chapter 8 - Further Proof That Communism > Monarchy
• Chapter 9 - Fuck This Game
• Chapter 10 - Une's Much More Awesome Than Doga
• Chapter 11 - Sidequest Extravaganza
• Chapter 12 - Hell is the Cave of Darkness
• Chapter 13 - In Which We Trivialize the End Game
• Chapter 14 - Comrades in Arms
• Chapter 15 - FUCK
• Final Chapter - The Rise of Communism

Fan Stuff

TurnipFritter documents the humble beginnings of Stalin.


Orange Fluffy Sheep takes inventory of my Let's Plays.


Pesky Splinter encourages the coming revolution.


Orange Fluffy Sheep considers the oddity of a ghost pining for a living girl.


Pesky Splinter gets some behind-the-scenes images of Stalin's adventures.


Shaezerus shows Stalin doing what he does best: Whacking mermaids with flails from a canoe.


Man with Hat documents Stalin's involvement with the ever-increasing horse abuse epidemic.


Dogbutt gives some insight on where exactly Doga channels his magic.


AlouetteNR demonstrates how outclassed monarchy is when compared to a man of the people.


Schwarzwald modifies some official art to make it more accurate in the context of the LP.


Orange Fluffy Sheep informs us about a little-known Square side project.


Pesky Splinter sets the stage of the final battle.