One day a great earthquake opens a cave near the village of Ur. Four orphaned youths decide to venture into the cave, to test their skills. After fighting an ambush of monsters, the four come accross a crystal. The crystal tells them of a immanent danger taking the world, and charges them with its power. The youths have no understanding of what is going on, but realize the importance of what was said to them. It is then they decide to venture out, and restore the balance of light and darkness in the world.

Final Fantasy III was definately the difinitive Final Fantasy for the NES generation. It had everything aan RPG and Final Fantasy should have...and more.
Final Fantasy III was released in 1990, to great success in Japan. It was the most anticipated game of 1990. And the fan base of the series were not disapointed.
The graphics were vastly improved over the first two titles, pushing the Famicon to its utter limits.
The sound made major breakthroughs in Final Fantasy III. Things like playing the piano could be heard, or chocobo's Wark. The music, though seeming a bit corny at times, was a perfect fit to the game.
The gameplay was perfect. Nothign was overly easy, and at the same time you were not frustrated to tears in difficulty. Also the auto-targeting made its debut in Final Fantasy III. This allowed a player to automatically strike another target, if the original target is defeated.
Final Fantasy III was extremely pivotal in the series. This was the first title to create the job/class system, later found in V, Tactics, and X-2. It was also the debut of summons, or call monsters. This has become a staple to every Final Fantasy after. This is also the first time you see those loveable, pom-pom toting Moogles. With the axception of IV, Moogles have appeared in every Final Fantasy. Moogles even make small appearances in Advent Children, and The Spirits Within.
Overall, Final Fantasy III was simply the best title of its time, and one of the most important title in the franchise. The characters are great, and the gameplay was solid. I would highly suggest downloading a emmulated version of the game, and playing it. Just so you can see just how great this title truely is.

In 2006, Final Fantasy III finally got to see release outside of Japan. It was ported to the Nintendo DS, and was given the biggest improvement of all the re-releases to date. It was given a fully 3-D graphics update. Though it is something similar to playing Final Fantasy VII, it was a definate welcome to see. Kinda made me wonder why this was not done for I, II, IV, V, and VI.
Your four main characters are also no longer nameless Characters. They have each been given a name, small history, and a little bit of personality. This definately made the game richer than the old version. The story was given a great treatment, making the game a lot more involving. Some of the spells, and classes were changed to make them more familiar to newer gamers. The challenge of the game as well as most of the scenarios are kept basically the same. If you played the NES version, you would easily recognize a lot of places.
It is definately fantastic for Final Fantasy fans to finally be able to have the entire series. We waited for fifteen years, and believe me it was worth the wait!