(SPOILER)Thanks for the hint.

I'm planning on emulating simply because it would feel wrong not to do so having emulated all the other early Final Fantasies (The turbo button is my friend.) However somewhere along the line I'm buying a DS for sure in order to play the remake and also for all the other games that are good for the handheld.

It was pretty embarrassing once I realised how obvious my mistake was. I've remembered why I started thinking that both games were the same. Most importantly was the first time, years ago, when I was introduced to all of the Final Fantasies before VII the person who handed me the copies had obviously missed out III by accident and instead put the imported American version of VI. So I had seen the games were identical and never thought more about it.

Secondly though, having never, ever visited this part of the EOFF forums I have never heard a single ounce of stroyline or character information or gameplay of III. It is completely new to me and I can't wait to get cracking on the play-through once I find a good ROM.