The Final Fantasy III Nintendo DS remake was first revealed to be in development on October 7, 2004, but detailed information did not emerge until a year later. Hiromichi Tanaka, one of the main designers of the original, headed the project as both the executive producer and director. His guidance and supervision was needed because the remake was not a mere graphical update like those for Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II, but a total overhaul using the Nintendo DS's 3D capabilities; however, screenshots suggest the layout of the dungeons and towns will be nearly identical to the original. Tomoya Asano is the producer. Developer Matrix Software handled the programming of the game.[9] Ryosuke Aiba, the art director of Final Fantasy XI, is the new art director. Along with the 3D graphics, a full motion video opening scene has been made for the game, similar to those from the 2D Final Fantasy remakes for the PlayStation.
An official shot of the English version of the remake showing Luneth, the new protagonistNobuo Uematsu, composer of the game's original score, supervised the arrangement of the game's music and arranged a new orchestral version of the game's main theme.[10] Tsuyoshi Sekito and Keiji Kawamori handled the arranging duties.[11] A remix of "This Is the Final Battle" by Uematsu's rock arrangement group, The Black Mages, as well as a techno arrangement of "Eternal Wind" by muZik, will appear on the DS game's soundtrack, which will be released in Japan on September 20.[12]
Akihiko Yoshida redesigned the original characters for use in 3D, and designed the looks of the new playable characters. The formerly generic and nameless party characters were given new default names: Luneth (Runesu), Arc (Arukū), Refia (Refia) and Ingus (Inguzu); three party members are now male and one is female. They were given new personalities and background stories, and additional scenes were added to develop their individuality; however, the main storyline was not changed significantly. Along with these four, additional characters (called sub-characters) also joined the party temporarily, like in the original. Unlike the original however, these characters may randomly participate in battle.
Final Fantasy III for the Nintendo DS features overhauls to the job system, including the rebalancing of the classes, the addition of new abilities, a new "Freelancer" class that becomes the default job for the characters at the beginning of the game (the Onion Knight is now a secret class), new events, a new crystal and dungeon, and removal of Capacity Points. Unlike the original Famicom version, most of the jobs remain useful for the entire game; the ultimate jobs, the Ninja and the Sage, are rebalanced so that they have the same level of abilities as the Warrior and others. Kazuhiko Aoki, who designed the battle system of the original game, was in charge of overhauling the battle system.
It also has been noted that the remake takes advantage of the Wi-Fi hardware of the Nintendo DS in the form of a Mail/Mognet system similar to what was in Final Fantasy IX. Various moogles in the game request the player to help deliver mail to others. Players are also able to send mail to various characters in the game, as well as to other players, and sidequests can be unlocked using this system as well.[13] With the DS remake, Final Fantasy III saw distribution outside of Japan for the first time in 16 years. The game was released in Japan on August 24, 2006, and sales for the first week were over half a million copies.
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