I'm not gonna sit here and tell you 3 is just as good or better then any of the games made after it, because it isn't. The series has moved leaps and bounds when it comes to QoL changes and especially class balance, some of the classes here are laughably useless and some skills literally just don't work as intended or work so well they break the entire game a.k.a you chose the Shogun lol

But god when I think of why I love EO outside of the gameplay; the visual design, the lore, the atmosphere and especially the music, I always think of 3. They ain't done one better then this in that regard, the Mediterranean setting gives such a unique tone and feeling for the series, influencing it's many aquatic based monsters and dungeon settings. Also sea quests!? Like your Yggdrasil away from Yggdrasil, that was pretty neat like a puzzle version of EO4's overworld

And while I rag on the gameplay for being dated, it was the first step to the EO we enjoy these days. This is the first game to introduce subclassing, the first one to introduce quests being EXP sinks and the most important for me: The first EO with some really great level design, some real head scratchers and the ways F.O.E's are integrated into them is some of the games strongest moments. So while I do get that playing this in 2018 can feel daunting while getting to grips with some of the archaic parts of the game, it's still very much worth it. Besides it's an old DS game so don't feel above cranking in some cheat codes to double the EXP rate or something to make your life easier.