Will certainly blow you away after the first 2. This is how it all began.
Many, many years ago in a far and distant land, a brave man named Ortega had slain a dragon whom was terrorizing the land, and they'd fought up on top of a volcano. But as the dragon was about to go down, he grabbed Ortega and both of them fell into the volcanic abyss, Ortega never to be seen again.
Now, you, the son (or daughter depending on if you change gender) of Ortega, are celebrating your 16th birthday when your mother wakes you and tells you that you must see the king, and you do so. The king tells you of a new terror across the land, and leaves you to collect other brave people to join you on your long and difficult quest.
This game, you'll find later on, is indeed the story before the first Dragon Warrior, as you play as Erdrick (or Roto if you prefer). You will have the chance to see how everything happened before.
Good: Tons of new enemies added, another wonderfully composed soundtrack by Koichi Sugiyama, a new and huge world map, many new side-quests, new day-night feature, new class system granting 8 different classes for party members which can be changed mid-game in one of the shrines you find.
Bad: Fights can be repetitive, some maze-like places will drive you insane, lots of backtracking.
Graphics: Enix basically kept the same basic sprites they had before, nothing extremely fancy. Although, for a late NES game (and a rare one indeed) and for what they had, it was an excellent addition to the series visually. Also, it was a great idea for them to add the day-night system which never was seen before in Dragon Warrior, it gave a nice change visually in the overworld and everywhere else.
Sound/Music: The same "bump" sound when you ran into walls they took away from Dragon Warrior II but was in the first, is now back. Most of the sounds from the other games are the same, so there really is nothing new. Now the wonderful part is the music, some of the best music you'll ever hear on your NES. As I said earlier, Koichi again wrote the music once more and I must say, this is probably his best soundtrack of the three. His music was certainly not worthy of just simple beeps and blips, but had to make do with what he had, but there is an orchestral import soundtrack of this CD, which is excellently played.
Difficulty: Dispite some hardships and tough bosses, this game flows fairly decent. You will be fighting even larger groups of enemies than you did in the second game, so that adds onto time in battles and difficulties, yet you're given 3 party members instead of 2 this time.
Controls: Nothing at all changed from the others, D-pad moves you about, A brings up the menu, selects, and so on, while B cancels.
Overall: The best in all four DW games, and a completely wonderful experience to see how everything happened before as you play as Erdrick. Wherever you may be able to find this, do not pass it up.