Much better than 1 and 2.
Review 14
As of this review, I will no longer be grading games by a “sound” category. I think that the sound of a game is too opinionated and it kinda bogs down a game’s score more than improves it.
Game Genre: RPG
Graphics
The graphics are still Gameboy Color quality, but have greatly improved from the previous Dragon Warriors. Objects on the map no longer fit one pixel, but have expanded so that some pixels have multiple territories!!! Pretty exciting, isn’t it? To top that, enemies in battle have animations, and there are a small amount of cutscenes that make you feel like you are holding a Gameboy Advance in your hands.
Gameplay
There are A LOT of gameplay improvements that I will explain later, so I’ll generalize it here.
Many people hate old-school turn-based RPG games because they are “boring” and just clicking “attack” and “flee” doesn’t cut it for them. They probably would hate this game. For those of us who love the older RPGs, we love this game. Dragon Warrior III contains walking, talking, and fighting. A lot of fighting. So much fighting that it would make Rocky Balboa cry. For some reason, however, the game is exciting and addicting. For one, the difficulty level has left the building. Compared to the first two Dragon Warrior games, this game is a cakewalk…to begin with. More about the difficulty will be explained later, but the game is much easier and way less complicated, yet retains its challenges.
Controls
What can be said, other than “A” is action, “B” is cancel and brings up the menu, “Start” saves the game in the field log, “Select” allows you to view the world map, and the D-Pad moves your characters.
Story
This category wins the MVP award. The third installment of the Dragon Warrior series sets itself as a prequel to the first two games. You are “insert name here”. Your father, Ortega, the strongest man in the world, and the world’s only hope, set out to defeat Lord Baramos, the evil Demon Lord. He closed in on Baramos’s keep, only to be attacked by a winged monster and pushed into a volcano. He’s probably dead. You are Ortega’s legacy and defeat the evil in the world.
I refuse to spoil any details of the story because it is so great. It had me playing for 6 hours at a time. The end is incredibly surprising, so if you get the game or download the rom, I highly suggest trying your best to beat this game.
Improvements
Obviously, I like the improvements (and this category will only reflect a “10” in the overall score). To start, the world map is bigger. Much bigger. And it’s also easier to find your way around. As I said earlier, enemies have animations as well. In my opinion, the greatest improvement is the speed of the characters in a town or a dungeon. On the world map, the characters retain their sluggish speed, but otherwise move very fast, making it easier to make it through a dungeon and quicker to make your way through a town.
You can hold up to 4 characters, which can be created or used generically. Each character can hold up to 10 items, same as the previous games, BUT, and this is a huge BUT (I know, “haha, he said huge butt), there is now a bag that can hold more than enough of your excess items. Weapons and items now contain a plethora of new objects. They are also easier to buy (the most expensive is 35,000 G, where in DW II, the most expensive was 65,000).
There are two minigames to top it off. The first is Pachisi. There are 5 Pachisi tracks in all. To play Pachisi, you need a token. There are more than enough tokens in the world, believe me. Rather fun, Pachisi consists of square tiles, kind of like a board game. The first character in your party rolls dice and moves squares, attempting to reach the goal and so forth. The minigame itself receives a 9 out of 10.
The second minigame is stadium battles. You can bet money on the type of monster you think will win a battle against other monsters, and based on the odds, win money from it. You can also pay 5 G to receive a tip on who is best suited to win. This minigame gets a 7 out of 10.
Durability
Another 10. This…game…lasts…for….EVER!!! It took me a solid three weeks to beat it, and I must have played the game at least three hours a day. To explain would involve spoilers and I hate to spoil a good storyline. Just take my word for it. This game will make you happy. For a good long time. And to top it off, you can still play the game after you defeat the final boss, in order to finish some sidequests like a new Pachisi board and such.
Frustration Rate:
Dragon Warrior III keeps its high level of difficulty, but it’s not nearly as hard as the previous two. Dungeons are still complicated, but not frustrating, and special items are still hard to find. A perfect frustration rate, in my opinion, because it’s even fun when it’s difficult.
Overall Score (8.67/10)