Fourteen playable characters, a storytelling machine the Super Nintendo had no business running.

On pure gut feeling, no criterion, Final Fantasy III lands mid-pack, ahead of 45% of games. Nothing spectacular. But the detail tells a rougher story. The wish to rediscover it for the first time puts it ahead of 86% of titles, on few votes so treat it as a first signal, and attachment follows, ahead of 60%. Its music holds up too, ahead of 63%. Then, at the bottom of the page, the drop: controller in hand, it sits at the very bottom of the ranking, behind almost everything else. Art style stays modest as well. That is the game in one picture: people dream of living it again, and nobody defends the way it feels to play.

That is the usual fate of 2D RPGs from that era when they meet modern games on criteria built for today. Its semi real-time battle system marked its time, but that is not what sticks here.

So, who is it for? For you if a huge cast, a story that keeps forking and a soundtrack that lingers matter more than what your hands are doing. Much less so if you chase feel first, sharpness, the immediate pleasure of the input.