Final Fantasy III Players Guide

The Final Fantasy III Players Guide is an official guide for Final Fantasy VI (released in North America as Final Fantasy III on SNES). The book was written by Peter Olafson and published by Infotainment World Books in 1994. Infotainment World only published a few guides, and Peter Olafson later wrote guides for Prima. Prima also released a guide for Final Fantasy VI, although it was unofficial. In addition to licensing the Players Guide, Nintendo published their own official guide, the Final Fantasy III Nintendo Player's Guide.

The guide is illustrated with screenshots from the game and with Yoshitaka Amano's artwork. The guide puts focus on discussing the story, and is favored more for its writing style than for its service as a gameplay guide. The guide is notable for being incomplete and incorrect, such as believing the only outcome of the fish minigame is Cid's death, and stating that 256 battles with the Cursed Ring turns it into a Hero Ring.


 * Language: English
 * Pages: 192
 * Format: 8.2" x 0.5" x 10.2" Paperback
 * ISBN 978-1-57280-039-7

Contents
The page numbering of this book uses Roman numerals 1 (i) to 21 (xxi) for the book's introduction, and uses 1-164 for the main portion of the guide.

Meta
Explains the approach of the book. It is one thing to simply tell a story. It is another to reveal the workings of a world. I've sought to do both here, As this book goes to press, I'm still finding thing I didn't know about. , and And because it feels like a world, I've used real-world directions rather than TV-screen directions. . Retells and expands on the game's introductory scenes prior to entering Narshe proper. This is not listed in the contents, or is counted as part of the "Introduction". Briefly mentions the characters, the basics of gameplay and how to play the game.
 * , p.(vii)
 * , p.(viii)
 * , p.(ix)
 * , p.(xi)
 * &#58; The Story So Far, p.(xiii)
 * , p.(xviii)

Guide
Each Part divides itself into sections for sub-sections of the game. Lists and charts appear throughout the guide, usually when they first become relevant: For example, the Tools chart appears after Edgar is introduced, and the Spells Chart after the first battle with Locke, Terra, and Edgar. From the Raid on Narshe to the Battle for the Frozen Esper. From losing Terra to the Opera. From boarding the Blackjack to the Returners meeting in Narshe. From the optional Lone Wolf event in Narshe to the Battle of Thamasa. From Leo's grave to the escape from the Floating Continent. From the timeskip to recovering the Falcon. Maranda, the Opera House with the Dirt Dragon, Jidoor, Zozo, Mount Zozo with the Storm Dragon and recruiting Cyan, Doma Castle and the Cyan's unconscious, Zone Eater's Belly and recruiting Gogo (the guide questions whether Gogo is the fake Siegfried), the Veldt and recruiting Gau, the Cave on the Veldt (the guide writes this section as if Relm is the party member seen here, though parantheses mention that Shadow may appear instead, and that the Striker is required for recruiting Shadow), Thamasa, Jidoor and the Auction House, Owzer's Mansion and recruiting Relm, recruiting Strago at the Cult of Kefka Tower, Ebot's Rock, Mobliz and recruiting Terra, Narshe with the Ice Dragon and recruiting Mog and Umaro, the "Star Shaped Mountain" Phoenix Cave with the Red Dragon and recruiting Locke (the guide mentions the save point glitch), the "Other Castle" Ancient Castle with the Blue Dragon, return to Narshe for Ragnarok and Cursed Shield, Doom Gaze, Gau's father event, Duncan event, the Dragon's Neck Colosseum and recruiting Shadow, and Shadow's dream events. The section ends with the extra Mobliz scenes and an Ether, the new behaviors of the switches at the Opera House, and mentions of airship party member dialog. Mentions grinding strategies, the climbing of Cult of Kefka Tower (and the White Dragon), and the final dungeon Kefka's Tower (and the remaining two dragons) and the credits. The guide views the Statue of the Gods as an organic version of Kefka's tower. The section shows the entire world maps and field areas (mostly the main external area of each location, sans-NPCs and chests) and captions them. The World of Ruin map is upside down. The guide also comes with correctly orientated annotated maps of the World of Balance and World of Ruin.
 * &#58; Up and Running, p.001
 * &#58; In Search of Terra, p.031
 * &#58; In the Enemy's Back Yard, p.045
 * &#58; Of Espers and Treachery, p.057
 * &#58; Not With A Whimper, p.079
 * &#58; A New World, p.089
 * &#58; The Roads Not Taken&#58; Tieing up Loose Ends, p.105
 * &#58; Endgame&#58; Going After the Big K, p.141
 * &#58; Maps of Final Fantasy III, p.155

Credits
Mostly adapted from the prose Acknowledgements section.


 * Author
 * Peter Olafson


 * Planning
 * Corey Sandler


 * Design and graphic production
 * Fred Swartz


 * Copy-editing
 * Gloria Sturzenacker


 * Supplying information about the game's inner workings
 * Mirko Freguia, James Gillis, Conan Chamberlain, Josh Gabbard and Ted Woolsey at Square Soft


 * A bear about deadlines
 * Roger Gottlieb


 * Giving the author the chance to do the book
 * Ron Resnick


 * Original illustrations
 * Yoshitaka Amano