#future press

Party Member Levels (Life of the Party)

While temporary party aren't directly controllable, they seem to have their own levels and stats. Interestingly the Future Press strategy guide states that they also have stats. Though I should clarify: At this time, I have yet to find these in the Japanese strategy guide, so I am not entirely sure that these are accurate. However, the FP guide in general is close to the Japanese guide in terms of technical information, so I am willing to accept that risk.

These are:

Sara: Lv 5 (Str/Vit/Agi/Min: 6, Int: 7)

Cid: Lv 3 (Str/Agi: 5, Vit/Int/Min: 8)

Desch: Lv 10 (Str: 15, Vit: 10, Agi: 14, Int: 7, Min: 6

Aria: Lv 25 (All: 25)

Alus: Lv 30 (All: 35)

Doga/Unei: Lv 50 (All: 45)

Some observations:

The guide notes that the characters stats are usually significantly higher than the main characters' at the same levels. This is especially noticeable with Alus (The party's base stats, by compare, will be: Str/Agi: 24, Vit/Min/Int: 20)

Cid is the only party member to be weaker than the character before him (Sara), presumably due to how little time the party spends with him. He does have an impressively strong hammer, though.

Despite being portrayed as a White Mage, Sara's Int (7) is slightly higher than her Min (6).

It seems that after Desch, the devs kinda gave up with making varied stats, so Aria, Alus, Doga and Unei have the same number for all their stats.

Coincidence or otherwise, Aria's stat number also matches her level.

Doga and Unei share the same levels and stats as each other, a distinction no other party member has. For extra fun, Xande is also level 50, although his actual stats are unfortunately but understandably different.

Alus, a 10 year old boy is somehow twice as strong as Desch, a grown man.

Mognet Details (Stampin' N Stompin')

Most of Mognet's discussion usually begins and ends with it being connected to the sidequests. Because of this, there are a few features of Mognet that go undernoticed.

One particular aspect is the cards: For meeting the Legendary Smith with a mastered job and defeating the Iron Giant, the party can get cards signifying their mastery.

(I have yet to defeat the Iron Giant. I apologize for being a fraud).

In the PSP and Steam versions, these cards are mostly just rewards. In the DS version, however, they can be used as stamps for Mognet. And while the Iron Giant is purely to flaunt your superiority over the beast, the job mastery cards actually allow players to help out other players: If a player holding a signed letter runs into the Legendary Smith, she will give the player the respective job mastery item without having a level 99 job. While it doesn't break the game, due to how late it is before you can encounter the Smith, it does cut down on the grind you'd need if you wanted those items.

Encounter Frequency (Fights in the A.M. P.M. F.M.)

In Octopath Traveler, a later game by Team Asano, entering a new location will usually show you a danger level, giving you a general idea of how strong the enemies in that area are. While the mechanic is visible in OT, it was actually deployed discreetly in Final Fantasy III: Each area has a level that the guides recommend the player be at. However, the game itself uses a more subtle method: If your party is below the recommended level, the encounter rate will be higher than usual. By contrast, the further above the recommended level that the party is (up to six levels), the lower the encounter rate will be.

For example: The Nepto Shrine has a Danger Level of 10. If the party made it to the Shrine at level 7, then they will likely encounter more enemies than they would at level 10. By contrast, at level 16, they will have a chance at encountering the least amount of enemies.

Attack Types (SMASH! SLASH! STAB!)

In Final Fantasy III, elemental weaknesses are clear and easily implied by the fact that Mages have themed spells. However, the game also has a second, subtle weakness system: Attack Types, the physical counterpart.

The four attack types are

Unhanded: Despite the name, Claws are also included

Blow: Weapons that focus on slamming or bludgeoning the foe

Cut: Weapons that actually cut the foe, like Swords

Stab: Weapons that stab or have a stab-like effect, like Arrows

Interestingly, some weapons aren't mutually exclusive: Axes count for both blows and cuts, Knives count for both stabs and cuts and Unarmed counts for both Unhanded and Blow.

Hands (The Hands of Fate)

The Hand stat is a secret stat that the game silently keeps track of for each character. The hand stat represents how many times a physical attack has been made with a particular hand, the hand getting 3 XP for each use. Much like job levels only one hand level can be gained per battle, regardless of how many points are racked up. Theoretically, if you can have hands of different levels, although given how much III encourages dual-wielding, it's unlikely.

The FP guide recommends using the Ranger's barrage if you want to build up the hand stat, as that is a multi-hit attack that nonetheless counts each hit for the hand.

Weight (The Weight of the World)

Weight is not a new mechanic to Final Fantasy. Final Fantasy V, in particular has the stat help to determine who quickly a character acts (i.e. how fast the ATB bar fills up). However, V is the rare game where the game will actively inform the player of its existence. Other games in the series have it, including III (at least, in the remake).

Weight, along with Agility, determines how soon a character will act during the turn, as well as how many hits a character does (alongside the aforementioned Hand stat). This is why a Warrior with an axe will generally hit less than a Warrior with a sword, despite having higher attack. Interestingly magic also has weight to it with spells having a specific weight/cast time to it.

Boss Scripts (Script Write)

Bosses changing strategy mid-fight has been a Final Fantasy staple since at least Final Fantasy IV (Zeromus, for example, only starts to spam Meteo when he's close to dying), so the FF3 remake isn't particularly new or original for using this. Still, it's something to be aware of in case you make a particular fight harder than it needs to be.

A likely candidate for this is actually the final boss: While the Cloud of Darkness uses Particle Beam (and spams it during the last phase), it actually doesn't use the move until it's down to 80% of its HP, using the less threatening standard attack instead. This means that a player willing to take some turns to lower the danger can focus on the tentacles, which are the more immediate threat.