Dragon Quest III: The Seeds of Salvation (1988)

by Chunsoft, Tose, Enix America Corporation, Square Enix

Genres:Role-playing (RPG)

Themes:Fantasy, Historical, Sandbox

Game modes:Single player

Story:Dragon Quest III is noted for greatly expanding upon the original Dragon Warrior and Dragon Warrior II. The game uses basic console role-playing game conventions, such as leveling up by gaining experience points and equipping items. Battle is turn-based like the other games in the series. Dragon Warrior III features a class system, in which each character has a certain class. While the Hero always keeps the Hero class, the other characters can choose among the following: Soldier (Warrior in the GBC version), Fighter, Pilgrim (Cleric), Wizard (Mage), Merchant (Dealer), Goof-Off (Jester), Sage, and Thief which was available only in the later versions. The choice of class greatly affects the character's stats and spells he or she can learn. Furthermore, upon reaching experience Level 20, a character has the option of changing classes at the temple of Dhama, found halfway through the game. The game starts with just the Hero in the party, who then is able to recruit a party of three at the local tavern. Unlike most Dragon Quest parties, aside from the Hero, the party is not made up of characters involved in the story. Although only four characters can be in the party at a time, extra members of the party can be kept at the tavern, allowing room for new recruits. Another innovation is an arena where the player can place bets on the outcome of monster battles. The remakes incorporated some interface changes from later games in the series, such as simplified door opening; the bag, which replaced bank item storage; the item sorting "Tidy Item" and "Tidy Bag" commands; and the "Full HP" command, which can be used outside of combat to automate the process of casting healing and status restoring spells. While the earlier Dragon Quest games were also non-linear, Dragon Quest III was the most substantial example of open-world gameplay among the early Dragon Quest games. It also allowed the player to swap characters in and out of the party at will, and another "major innovation was the introduction of day/night cycles; certain items, characters, and quests are only accessible at certain times of day."Show more

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@Dakuwanga

March 14, 2025

Dragon Quest is a series that's a massive hit in Japan, but fairly obscure almost anywhere else. Which might be why I learned about the series only relatively recently, and thanks to the Internet. I played through the android mobile version of Dragon Quest III some time ago. It has just about all the mechanics and features one would expect from a fantasy RPG: A large world to explore, treasures to collect, leveling up characters, and character classes. Especially notable is the fact that with the exception of the Hero, the characters can change their classes after progressing far enough in the game. In fact, changing the classes is encouraged, since the characters will retain half of their stats and all the spells they had so far learned, allowing for combinations that normally wouldn't be possible. I can certainly see why this is the game that set the blueprint all the future titles would follow. And the reason it is the one that made the franchise famous in Japan. Therefore, it could well be argued Dragon Quest III is also the game with the most historical value in the entire series. Certainly something GOG should have. Although, I heavily recommend the version on GOG should be based on the SNES version rather than NES. Better looking character sprites, plus the remakes have additional features, such as the Thief character class and mini medals that can be collected and exchanged for special items.

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