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So once again I'm coming back to this game.

I played it in 1.3.0 and liked it, and when I've seen an update I was downloading that patch with a speed of Haste buffed ninja. I chose main version of the hack and was struck to the head by variability of classes I can choose. They keeping their few main roles, but with different flavors, wich I'm satisfied by. My chose was Fighter, mystic knight, wich was basycally black mage with swords, neko mage and summoner with bow and arrows. Hack also made me not stupidly mash A button on final areas, wich I appreciate. All tho enemies in optional undersea cave gave me a hard time, so when I realized I can carry this place, all stuff inside of it was not so useful to me. So...stuff... Loot drop seems but so good to me. For me it's fine when enemies give me weak stuff, no big deal, but I don't like fact that endgame gear can just drop from enemies. I got genji armor and holy spell from enemies in Fargabaad cave. At the end of the game I was just throwing crystal armors around like it was nothing. I think those things should've stay in chests. I still don't find shields useful because it's still better just pick 2 weapons anyway. Maybe there is a way to limit dual wielding to only classes like ninja or make them hit less then just one weapon? I liked new progression, even throw I liked original's class rprogressions and how they are become more powerful. Game itself I think become little easier. Or, at least, focus of difficulty was moved to the middle. Zande didn't viped me with 3k damage meteors (wich I'm totally okay with not doing btw), but Kraken surprized me with party vipe like once. All other bosses was kinda pushovers except optional once.

This romhack made me excited and inspired for some reason. Why FF3 have so few hacks? Maybe one day I'll even make one myself idk. But for now I recommend to try out this one.

It's the first time I have finished Final Fantasy 3 and it was with this hack ! 3 or 4 years ago I already played the original game but stopped near after the fire crystal. So, what do i think of this hack ? Well it's pretty great, but i have some things to note and i'll start with the magic spells. In this hack they have been reinforced and will almost always hit more hard than your best physical attacker, so it's great for you ! But the monsters also hit very hard with their magic spells, and I have the feeling more monsters can now use spells or inflicts status effects (also is that me or every monsters have their HP doubled from the original game???). So yeah despite the numerous jobs buffs the hack doesn't make the game easier, so yeah it balances it but at somes moments my characters were taking too much damage or weren't dealing enough damages without wasting all my magics so I just had to grind for 2 or 3 levels to not have a game over or something (looking at you sunken cave, hein's castle and the forbidden land Eureka). Other than that, I expected the hack to fix the Garuda battle, like at least being able to defeat it without having to grind the job level of our Dragoons, but it seems not. Oh well ! However the experience of Final Fantasy 3 has been much improved in general and this is why I recommand this hack, also the final dungeon is much better since you don't have to be scared of meteo sweeping out your entire party ! But it doesn't means you don't have to level up a bit before it, after all it's the end of the game. Also, I heard (from @arc_cad on Twitter, a fellow FF3 enthusiast) this hack is supposed to be played with a patch that gives you every job when starting the game ? If that's the case, this should have been easier since you make up your party at the start and don't have to grind for job levels.

So in conclusion ! It's a good hack, but in order for it to be the perfect hack to play the original Final Fantasy 3, it needs a few more corrections. I hope this version isn't the final one, I would be glad to replay Final Fantasy 3 in a few years with the final version of this hack, when I would have forgot pretty much all about the game ! Thanks for reading i guess, sometimes I like to share my opinions.

Yeah, that's right, I just finished my sixth playthrough of Final Fantasy III Maeson Mix this evening. What was my motivation? Beating the game with each classes, meaning this hack is doing (mostly!) a superb job balance wise. It is really the definitive version of FF3 in my humble opinion because it fixes most problems in vanilla game. Gone is the %/"?* Xande's and Arhiman's Meteor and the forced party of Ninja + Ninja + Sage + Sage. Its really good!

I do have a complaint however. You see, magic users have been improved in many ways. Maybe too much. At the moment, they completely outclasses physical oriented jobs. Late game enemies have so much defense and evasion rating that you should just place your Knight or Viking on the back row and spam magics like Toad or Bolt 3. Oh... and monsters have elemental resistances too. Since most of end-game weapons have elemental affinity, they are doing extremely low damage.

Also, it could be interesting to further distinguish White Mage/Black Mage from DevoutMagus. Maybe the White Mage could sport a higher strength and equip hammers like in FF1? Just a thought. Also, I think some equipment options should be rebalanced. Why should I use staves if I can give my spell casters two shield boosting intelligence and spirit? Put two Hero Shields or Demon Shields on your Magus or Devout and they will not only be almost unkillable but completely shred everything.

But again, I highly recommend this hack. It is superb.

Magical jobs were done fairly well, though I feel that allowing casters to dual-wield shields made them too tanky. Once +5 int/spirit shields became available, there seemed to be little incentive to use anything else, as most other rods only gave an additional bonus to a single element (and wasn't even very noticeable).

Melee damage, however, seemed to be lacking due to the high defense values that many enemies had, particularly in the final dungeon. My party consisted of a dark knight, red mage, magus, and devout. Melee was so worthless in most cases that I flat-out abandoned the idea of physically attacking anything other than bosses, opting instead to enjoy the more consistent benefits of double shields in the back row and nuking everything down.

Weaknesses aside, I recommend playing this hack, as it provoked an enjoyable amount of extra thought when considering party composition, equipment, and casting choices.

The hack is very very good, it adds a lot of things and it's very funny to play, I didn't finish it yet but the only problem that I'm getting is the fact that physical attacks from enemies doesn't reduce your life at all, you get always 1 or very low dmg, the difficulty at start seems to be very low BUT this isn't a difficulty hack, so If you will read this review PLEASE add a difficulty.ips (don't make the game unbalanced like vanilla in the end) just make it harder at the start (I'm playing even with even moar hp+) Magic is kinda broken from enemies, like they can remove a lot of hp, but physical attacks are ridicolous. I'M ENJOYING THIS MOD AND IT'S VERY FUNNY TO PLAY afterall, I like the balance and stats changes.I would reccomend this mod? OF COURSE! it made the original game funnier than ever, just add that little thing of a difficulty increasing and it would be great, Thank you for this mod ♥

First off. I appreciate what the hack was trying to do. In some way it succeed, but its definitely not for anyone who wants any challenge at all. fights typically only last one round and every class is twice as tanky as before.

I also find it funny that places sell phoenix down now, but you wont ever need to buy any at all. By the time you might even come close to dying you will be deep in the game where you can just use life spells.

Making the other classes more viable and useful is a good idea, but the way this patch does that is by giving every class better stats, everyone can use magic (cept dragoon.) and removing tons of restrictions of each class.

Every class is INSANELY overpowered now if you use all the patches. Not one class has a downside. No matter your team, unless you really try to lose, you will plow through everything. I got off the floating continent and to the 3rd crystal in an hour.

The magic change patch makes every spell way stronger, not just a power boost though. in the vanilla version targeting 2 would halve the poor, and more than that and its only 1/4. i dunno the exact numbers of the change, but its way less of decrease.

for example, a multi target fire in vanilla hits all for around 15, in this version, hits all for 60.

This alone will let you just steamroll every encounter with 2 casts, even with the increased monster hp. and for bosses its basically pointless to attack normally, since black magic hits for about 3 times as much as a normal attack from a fighter.

not only that, the changes to equipment are insane. even early game equipment will give lots of bonus stats. If you had even the worst equip that gives stats, brought into the vanilla game, they would outclass everything till mid game. not to mention every class can now use way more types of equipment so even classes that used to only wear cloth can now use other things that give triple the defense of what they could wear before.

If you want any kinda strategy in fight, or any kind of fun at all. i recommenced the class stats and command changes with the more hp for monsters patches only.

I don't exactly recall how hard or easy the NES version of FF3 is, but I do know a lot of jobs were just kinda mediocre so this hack seemed like a great idea. And for the most part it does deliver on the promise of a better balanced experience!

I was running with the full package plus the magic expansion, for context. And while I do like how it plays mostly, there are some things that I feel need to be tuned a bit, so I'll go over some weird stuff.

1. The enemies in Tower of Owen cast full party ice magic, at the point when I reached this place that would almost one-shot most of my party. I don't know the AI of the game, but if two enemies can choose to do that in an formation that it would be a insta-death scenario. Later enemies in the sunken cavern and the cave leading up to the fire crystal are way less lethal, so this seems like an oversight due to the changes to spell balance.

2. I used Thief for a decent chunk of time and attempt to steal very often against regular enemies, not a single attempt ever succeeded; Either I have terrible luck or the steal rate is rather poor, considering this is Thief's only real niche, especially with the magic expansion, I feel it could use a second look over.

3. Some classes that previously were rather poor now feel like they are overwhelmingly better. Scholar and push out pretty good damage with books, but more importantly, they get very strong black magic and arguably more charges than even black mages have at that point in the game. I like that the magic expansion gives magic to more classes, it makes the magic only portions of the game much better. However, I feel a lot of them are missing a growth in that department, they often just start with an absurd number of charges for everything they have access too, often out rivalling the proper caster classes. I feel them starting with less charges and then quickly building up to their cap might be a better idea? Rather than monk starting with like, what 10 or 15 t1 charges?

I don't feel like I grinded in the slightest yet when I got to Hein he basically died in two turns (three if counting the scan) from spells cast by my scholar (my other characters did basically sub 50 damage total in physical hits).

4. Enemy physical attacks seem under-tuned? This is where my memory of NES FF3 fails me, but certainly physical attacks used to hit harder? Not even my frail black mage (when I had one) was taking much of any damage from them, especially in comparison to enemy spells.

All things considered though, I really do dig the hack, it certainly succeeds in making more classes in the game viable.

What can I say that the other reviewers have not said? There is so much work put into this. If Square Enix ever decides to finally release a proper 2D Final Fantasy III remake like it was suppose to appear on the GBA alongside FF I II IV V VI, then they should take some notes from you hehe...

P.S. I dare ask would Maeson attempt the same for Final Fantasy II? Fix the Ultima spell, remedy the item menu limitation, bug fixes and more variety in shop items.

I love the world of Final Fantasy 3; it has such an enchanting palette and layout. It's always been a special experience, but I never enjoyed it as much as I did playing Maeson Mix. The only reason I could ever think to play the original anymore is if I wanted to go back to having 2 ninjas and 2 sages at the end. The best thing is that you can pick and mix your changes, so you can customize your experience. If you don't want to, there's a convenience patch that just changes everything. I think the best way to review this hack is to go patch by patch.

The magic patch might be the only part of the equation that I didn't like; it really beefs up the spells. Think about that carefully: it beefs up the spells; not your spells. Yes, they are far more powerful than every, but the problem is that the enemies have very powerful magic, as well, and it's a little too powerful. I like a challenge in an RPG, but this becomes more like a race to see who can cast the one-hit-kill spell of their choice first. The healing spells are still not great for healing the entire party, either, so it's still a little lopsided. Geomancy still had too high a failure rate for my liking, but maybe I was just really unlucky. My suggestion would be to beef up the White Magic even more, and maybe split the magic patch between the 3 schools of magic.

The class patch is where this really shines; every class has been rebalanced, so that almost every class is a viable choice. The ninja and sage have been nerfed quite a bit, and while the ninja is still a good choice; it's not the only choice for a physical class. The fighter was toned down a bit in that he has fewer hits, despite being strong, so other classes can still deal more damage. The knight was nerfed even more, but not long after you get it, you can find the King Sword, which still makes him a good choice. I was especially impressed with the hunter, which I'd never used before, but he does a great job in combat, and the low-level White Magic was a nice bonus. The thief is now great, too; his agility is so high, that despite the inferior strength and weaponry, he was dealing more damage per round than some of my actual heavy hitters. Bards are also not useless anymore! They're decently strong, but still good as a support class. The biggest improvement, in my opinion, is the viking, who went from being a bumbling brick wall to a full-blown tank; his strength is ridiculous, and he gets some great equipment, too.

The command patch is useful, generally putting commands in a more convenient order. There isn't a whole lot else to say, other than that having a Fight command for the bard and a Cheer command for the viking were great additions.

I'm combining the weapon and armor patches here, and they're both great. Armor is greatly improved, and almost every weapon is, as well. The biggest part of this would be the changes in who can equip what. Books are super strong, now, and only the scholar can use them, so he becomes an absolute beast. A similar thing happens to the viking, because the Triton Hammer is now far and away the most powerful weapon in the entire game, and yes, that counts the Shuriken. The Monk and Karateka now actually have time to use their respective weapons, because they're good enough that they exceed their barefisted abilities. Another neat feature is that the Asura can be used by every single class, so you're never stuck without the ability to deal with those annoying splitting enemies; white wizards that can dual-wield katanas can be a lot of fun, too. On the other side, the M. Knight and Dragoon are more useful when you get them, because they'll have available weapons that they can equip. The only weapon that's really out of whack is the Boomerang, which is super powerful when you get it.

There isn't much to say about the shop patch, either, other than that it's nice to be able to buy Fenix Down, and that you can now buy spears without getting stuck in Salonia.

I didn't play with the default monster HP patch, but I did play with the Even Moar HP patch, and I just want to say how much I love that that is its name! The first time I played Maeson Mix, I thought it was just too easy with the new class stats and ridiculous new weapons, and Even Moar HP does a great job of balancing that out. It makes the game challenging without making it a total slog, where you dread every encounter, just because of what damage sponges the enemies are.

There isn't too much to discuss about the steal changes patch, but what an improvement! Never before did I have any desire to use a thief, but with this patch, they're incredibly useful. Unlike later Final Fantasy games, you steal from the drop list, but being able to just stand there and farm items from enemies - some of them legendary weapons, like Excalibur - makes it exciting to have a thief. If you're going to go this route, however, I'd recommend getting a thief as soon as possible, so that he has the skill to steal some of the better stuff. The added benefit of this patch is that enemies will also drop better stuff.

Finally, the aesthetic patches were a big part of why I checked this out in the first place. You can change the 3 character palettes between the usual red, blue, and green, along with a brand new purple! Most of the choices look just great, and I had a lot of fun customizing my party appearance both times I played. You can also change the battle and regular menu colors to quite a nice variety with and without the gray border.

As a whole, these patches greatly improve the Final Fantasy 3 experience; I found myself using classes and weapons I'd never even dreamt of using before, and as soon as I'd finished my first run, I immediately wanted to play it again! Final Fantasy 3 was a classic, but Maeson Mix elevates it to the level of masterpiece.

Maeson I want to personally thank you for bringing new life into my favorite NES game and one of the top ranked RPGs I've played.

Patching all the stuff you want can be a bit intimidating but it's not too bad if you read the readme's. I personally used every single patch I could including the modified magick. Haha

• Cheers

This is an amazing re imagining of Final Fantasy III. The amount of options you are given is just awesome. I have played through it multiple times and that just doesn't really happen with rom hacks. The fact that Maeson took the time to change EVERYTHING is quite a feat in itself. I can't recommend it enough and if I could, I would bear hug Maeson into oblivion.

This is one of my favorite games of all time and this hack just makes everything better. Kudos Maeson, you did a great job.

This was the only FF I had never played, so when I saw this hack, I decided to finally give it a shot.

I played using all the balancing patches available, and I was not disappointed with the work that went into them. I was told the original game was extremely easy, but this patch definitely adds some difficulty, especially to the endgame, but it does so in a pretty balanced fashion.

If you've played the game before, I strongly recommend playing with the regular changes plus the moarHP patch, but if you haven't played it before, or are new to older RPG's, definitely play with just the regular balancing changes. It will definitely enhance your FF3 experience, and make it much less of a cakewalk!

Also, bonus props to Maeson for the way he separated out individual patches to give players the option of using/not using some of his changes-not a lot of difficulty/balancing mods I've played have done something like that!