After dropping an easy 25 hours into FM3, we've found it to be a refreshing and mature change of pace from Square's post-FFVIII efforts. As you develop your characters, they pick up skills (depending on the weapon they specialize in), that randomly activate based on your combat environment. Again, you have full control over each aspect of your mechanized entourage, and can freely interchange body parts to suit your overall strategy.

Gameplay in FM3 is heavily based on the two previous FMs. While the 3D engine itself still leaves quite a bit to the imagination, FM3 has drastically improved the battle scene load times which rendered FM2 nigh unplayable definitely one of FM3's major highlights. When two units engage in combat or melee, the action unfolds in full polygonal viscera. Like Square's previous Final Fantasy Tactics, the battle maps in FM3 are a hybrid of 2D sprites on a free-rotating 3D background. Nearly all the cutscenes are real-time, which gives FM3's world a real coherent graphical aesthetic.

One reason Square was able to fit all of FM3's story and data onto a single disc was their limited use of FMV throughout the game.

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