![]() ![]() In addition, a lot of the walkthrough is just plain incorrect in literally dozens of places. It will point out what items can be found in each area (well, most of them at any rate.Kunkel and Vance didn't find a lot of the off-the-beaten-path goodies), but it does not explain where any of them actually are in relation to the map, or what steps might be necessary to uncover them. ![]() Thus, what you get are a bevy of hand-drawn maps that show the entire area.but are almost completely worthless for all the work put into them, since they don't point out any useful features.Įven as a walkthrough or secrets guide, the book is deficient. These are not maps, exactly.more like someone took pictures of the screen, printed those pictures out, then placed a sheet of tracing paper over them and drew over every building, tree, hill, stream, and other feature, but never bothered to fill in any of the information. The maps, maps, and more maps hyped on the back cover are likewise odd. (Edit: see the update below, but this is exactly what happened). What's more, the explanations of item abilities and magic spells often read as though someone gave them a very basic, machine-like translation from the original which were never edited for clarity. Item names, as noted, often bear no resemblance to their final forms. 'Spears' are translated as 'spheres' for some reason. More credence is given to this theory since one of the screenshots includes the original Japanese "Bar" sign, which was censored by Nintendo, and read "Cafe" in the US edition of the game. If that's the case, it's almost certain Kunkel and Vance were working off incomplete information and a near-zero knowledge of the Japanese language. But the items? Almost all the item names in this guide are completely incorrect-it's likely the item list was among the last things Woolsey worked on, since the majority of his effort was likely focused on the game's massive story. What's odd about this book is that it gets almost all of the character names and spell/Esper names correct, even when it comes to the bizarre spellings imposed by Woolsey to comply with the aforementioned character limits ('Fenix' instead of 'Phoenix', etc.). One of the necessities for squeezing all of the story into the cart, as related by translator Ted Woolsey in an interview, was re-naming the bulk of the enemies, items, spells, and Espers in the game, in order to fit into the character limits imposed by the game. Writing a guide to a game that large requires an exceptional lead time if you're planning to match the game's release date, and from the contents of the book, it's easy to ascertain that the author (in this case, Bill Kunkel, aka "The Game Doctor" himself, with assistance from another writer named Ken Vance) was working off pre-release materials. ![]() See, Final Fantasy III (or Final Fantasy VI as it's now known) is a massive game, and as noted in the introduction, not one you can finish over the course of a three-day rental. This isn't actually a name, it's a fragment meaning "fast write", and it's a clue to why this guide is so bizarre. The author's name, "Hayaku Kaku", is written as '早く書く' in Japanese. Part strategy guide, part fanfic, Complete Final Fantasy III Forbidden Game Secrets is a nearly 500-page tribute to absurdity and lies. In my obsessive quest to learn everything I could about the game though, I bought every magazine and book I could find about it, including Nintendo's own official guide and Peter Olafson's full-colour guide. It's my favorite entry in the series, and I've beaten it multiple times and on multiple platforms, including the Game Boy Advance version with the extra content. This is one of the most ridiculous guides I've ever owned.īack in 1994, Final Fantasy III was released in the US, and like many people, I went absolutely ga-ga over the game. ![]()
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