Series creator Akitoshi Kawazu did not take part in the original production due to his work on Romancing SaGa, and development was instead handled by Square's newly-established Osaka studio.

Final Fantasy Legend III, known in Japan as SaGa 3: Jikuu no Hasha, is a role-playing video game set in a science fiction-based world where players take on the role of a four-person party as they travel between environments in different time periods.

[6] Battles play out using a turn-based combat system, where party members attack enemies using their equipped weapons or magic spells.

[6] The Nintendo DS remake retains the original story, but removes the experience point-based leveling while incorporating mechanics established in earlier and later SaGa titles.

These include skill learning and statistic leveling based on player actions in battles, nonlinear storytelling and exploration through the "Free Scenario System", and upgrades to the party's ship.

They learn that the Water Entity was created by the dimensional realm of Pureland, who once waged a war so destructive that it threatened multiple dimensions.

[14] The game's title included the term "Final Chapter", as Kawazu was at the time intending to end the SaGa series and brand.

These plans changed and the SaGa series continued, leaving Kawazu confused in retrospect about his choice of the title.

[15][16] Fujioka noted that in addition to creating the game, the team were also establishing themselves as a department, and as a result a great deal of effort was put into the production.

In the case of graphics, this meant establishing first an object, then its shadows, allowing the player to visualize the missing colors themselves; a similar concept was applied to the game's music to overcome the limitation of working with only three notes for composition.

[20] Sasai compared the limitations with the audio to a guitar capable of only six tones, though the cartridge capacity for the Game Boy at the time provided some difficulty.

As a result, they concentrated on smaller songs, reducing the length of the tracks until they felt the music gave the proper impression.

While Kawazu had earlier plans to bring the originals onto newer hardware, the series' 30th anniversary provided a good opportunity to fulfil his wish.

[31] A remake for the Nintendo DS titled SaGa 3 Jikū no Hasha: Shadow or Light[e] was announced in September 2010.

It featured many staff members from the remake of the second SaGa game, including producer Hiroyuki Miura, and character designer Gen Kobayashi.

[50] The Western Game Boy release of Final Fantasy Legend III received mostly positive reviews, maintaining a 71% aggregate score on GameRankings.

They additionally found fault with the game's equipment screen due to obtuse design and poor image quality, though declared it to be accessible even to novice players.

[7] GamePro applauded the game for the battle simulator feature, the ability to transform the character using parts of slain enemies, and the booklets and map included in the game box; they made special note of the time travel mechanic, praising the feeling of fighting enemies in the past after seeing them in later periods.

[52] Corbie Dillard of Nintendo Life, writing in a 2009 retrospective review, called it a fitting conclusion to the Game Boy SaGa trilogy, though he noted some continued irritating elements in gameplay and design from earlier titles.

[41][54] Reviewing the DS remake, Famitsu praised the continued innovation of class evolution, noted its fast-paced narrative, and lauded the new Time Gear mechanic.

[39] Michael Baker of RPGamer praised the improved mechanics and further polish from the SaGa 2 remake, though felt that the plot was still lacking.