Dragon Quest III - Part 2/9 - SFC (SNES) - ドラゴンクエストIII そして伝説へ… ~ King for a Day

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Retro Zen

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Published on March 16, 2023 1:51:11 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eJiDPG9QOc

Game:

Dragon Quest III: The Seeds of Salvation (1988)

Duration: 4:03:00

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10

Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjd3BsQQrwANDjF1eVjdzvPmLJDGOD28k

With Dragon Quest III begins the string of beloved and fondly remembered DQ games. I & II are usually seen as humble beginnings, and are rarely favorites. III is what cemented the DQ franchise in Japan as one of the most popular video games of all-time. You must've heard the story: kids skipped school to stand in line to buy the game, and adults skipped work to stand in line to buy the game! DQIII became a cultural phenomenon and DQ is still one of Japan's most popular franchises. You may also have heard that it became illegal to sell DQ games on a weekday following the release of DQIII on a Wednesday in 1988 -- but that's a myth that's been propagated ad nauseam. Rather, Enix just decided to not release their DQ games on weekdays anymore. It never became law.

DQIII is one of the rare DQ games I had yet to fully play -- I had played some of the GBC port of this SFC remake back in the day, but had never gotten very far. DQIII is hard. Like, really hard. I remember thinking DQII was hard but HOLY MOLY is this one grindy. (And no, the Switch port of the mobile version doesn't count.)

Basically, for the first time in DQ, you can change classes. Excluding your main character, locked into the "Hero" class, characters you recruit can be any of the following classes: Warrior, Fighter, Wizard, Cleric, Thief (exclusive to the remakes), Jester, Merchant, and Sage. Once a character hits level 20, you can change their class to anything else. They go back to level 1, but retain half of their stats and all magic spells learned. Is it worth changing classes? For a Sage, yes. Otherwise, maybe not? Since you have to level up your characters from scratch after a class change, it can become quite tedious, and you don't really need to to beat the game.

There are also personality types that change stat gains upon leveling up, and some personalities are better than others. Some can be permanently obtained through books or other items, while others are temporary and depend on your equipped gear. However, female characters have the best personalities available in the game, so you're better off creating an all-female team. I didn't bother messing around with the system too much, as there are many personality types and I didn't want to waste too much time. I just got some generally positive ones and then stuck with them until the end.

The story is good and offers a now well-known twist at the end, but it was a big thing at the time. Of course, DQIII is bigger and longer than its two predecessors. The music is classic DQ fare -- there's some good stuff in there and the world map theme is an absolute classic. Also notice that the sprite work in this SNES remake is much better than it was in the DQ1+2 remake. The battle animations also look really good. So the original DQV on SNES looks more like the DQ1+2 remake, while the original DQVI on SNES original looks like this DQIII remake. (The original DQIV was a NES game and its first remake a PS1 game.)

This remake also adds sugoroku boards (pachisi in English) -- which are entirely RNG-based and a real pain in the butt. Roll dice, move, roll dice, move... until you fail by falling into a trap or lose to an enemy group. Or you can win by reaching the final square of the board. There are five different boards in the game, and the final fifth board can only be unlocked by defeating the secret post-game boss! But at that point, what's the point if you've already managed to beat the strongest boss in the game? I don't know. The boards were a fun diversion -- and you could net some pretty neat items from them -- but the randomness also made it quite frustrating, especially for the later more difficult boards.

Speaking of frustration, I died a lot in this game. And some parts frustrated me (lol). But hey, I still pushed through and eventually beat the game. But freaking Baramos, man. Argh! XD However, I did NOT beat the secret dungeon with my own file. I switched to the Japanese guy's original file from way back in the mid 1990s, presumably, because he was level 99 and so I used his file to beat the secret boss. =) EZPZ!

Ultimately, I enjoyed my time with DQIII, but it's got to be my least favorite DQ so far because of its excessive grinding. I know, I know, git gud or whatever. Still, DQIII is an all-time classic. They're even building yet another remake in HD-2D mode! Pretty sure they'll tone down the difficulty, though! XD

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