Really? I absolutely hated it! I had to force myself to finish it just for the sake of having every FF completed.

I played the NES version but I completed the DS version. It's a lot better but it still sucks, it's one of the only JRPG's where I truly had to grind to beat it.

Well to be fair the DS version is slow. If you ever wanted to go back to it (which I doubt) try the PSP version. It speeds up battles, has sharper graphics, doesn't make getting the Onion Armor impossible, can switch between NES/PSP versions soundtracks (PSP OST is a better version of the DS's), and adds a few other things I can't recall. 

The end section is complete bullshit though. Get to the Crystal Castle and everyone in my party is almost impossible to beat, go to where the boss was and got my ass handed to me multiple times... the game definitely needs to get that fixed if they want it more accessible to the modern players. It has flaws for sure, but since its pretty short (takes me like 25-ish hours to beat) I consider it pretty fun if you're bored and dont wanna invest a lot of time to a RPG XD 

I might be bias since it was my first FF game and made me get into RPGs in general, because before that I EXCLUSIVELY played Pokemon as the only RPG series I played. I think most peoples first FF sticks to a person XD but I think its awesome. 

If it's your first game in the series then it's understandable. The last portion of the game (as you point out) is bullshit and you have to grind a lot to stand a chance. Not to mention that there is no save point in the last area so you have to beat like 8 bosses without losing!

Final Fantasy III was one of my last Final Fantasy games so I was burned out with the series anyway.

Purchase Arc Rise Fantasia on the Wii. It's an overlooked gem of a game thats only main flaw is shitty voice acting that can be turned off. Otherwise it's probably the best Wii game I ever played.

Oh yeah I forgot about the save state crap I thought it did a decent job for the most part -not needing save crystals and such. But the one place where that would have REALLY benefitted would have been that damn castle. It's just a huge maze with cheap enemies and an even cheaper boss and so having to go ALL the way back outside to save was a hassle. 

Oh yeah? That might have also caused you to dislike it more XD as much as I like 3, most FF games have evolved to be much better. FF5 DID improve the class system (as much as I hate to admit), and subsequent games in the series improved the battle system, though I thought they handled summons and magic decent. But if you went from 7 or 9 or whatever and went to 3 it probably felt ancient and bad. It's definitely very flawed though. However I feel like the worst one (in terms of BS thrown at you) is FF2. God that game can be a nightmare. 

DQ IV, VI and Chrono Trigger bought.

That's some awesome gaming right there. Start with Chrono Trigger! One of the few JRPGs that truly sucked me into it's world.

Good. Then I'll start that but also need to finish SMTIV on 3DS. Now I only need to confirm DQ V and IX.

Anddddd DQV bought.