Final Fantasy III Neoclassical

What it changes

Neoclassical, by madric, tries to bring Final Fantasy III closer to what its designers seem to have intended, in the spirit of Final Fantasy Restored for the first game. The full list is long; the main points:

• Damage and magic: the main-hand weapon hits harder while weapon values are lowered, bows ignore more armor, and Intelligence and Spirit count in full for spells, so magic stays useful late in the game. Spirit also boosts healing.
• Jobs: later jobs are still stronger, but early jobs keep getting equipment and stay usable. Skill levels come faster, every job has its own critical hit profile, and weak abilities such as Scare, Buildup and Jump were reworked, with new traits for the Scholar and Bard.
• Weapons: each weapon type now has a clear role, from accurate swords to heavy, unreliable hammers, life-draining bells and hex-casting harps.
• Stealing: rewritten from scratch, with better loot and rare items for skilled thieves.
• Fixes: Haste, Cheer and Safe no longer wear off when you open the item menu, elemental boosts like the Ice Rod's now work, and the rarest monsters can actually be met.

Playing it

The hack is played in English, on top of Chaos Rush's translation of the Famicom game. Apply it to your own copy of the game following the README in madric's GitHub repository, which also holds detailed patch notes with every formula.