[Ginkasa]

Dragon Quest III was originally released in North America as Dragon Warrior III on the NES in 1991. I first played it on the GBC with the DWIII remake released on that console in NA in 2001. Last Friday, I beat it again on the Switch port that was released in 2019.

Dragon Quest III is functionally the A Link to the Past of the Dragon Quest series. What I mean by this is that DQIII is where the series can be considered fully formed. While I and II are obviously important building blocks for the series (in the same way the original LoZ and AoL are important building blocks for the Zelda series), they feel more like prototypes when compared to more modern entries in the Dragon Quest series. III is the first game that really feels like it belongs alongside the later releases.

What DQIII really adds are customization and options. I has a very linear system of progression that the player really has no control over. II offers a few more options in regards to equipment, but your party and their skills are on tracks. III adds a "vocation system" (basically a job or class system) that allows you to fully customize your team outside of the main hero. There is also a personality system added to all re-releases after the original NES release that adds another layer of customizability to it. And the beauty of these systems is that for the most part you can dive in deep or nearly ignore them however you choose.

At the beginning of the game you start out only with the main Hero character. Before leaving town you're directed to Patty's Party Planning Place to recruit party members to take on your quest. While there are some default character pre-created, you can also make your own characters including naming them, assigning them a vocation, and feeding them stat boosting seeds to determine their starting stats. You can recruit up to 3 characters giving you a full party of 4 including your Hero. Of course, this is up to 3, meaning you can roll through the game with just the Hero or with only 1 or 2 party members if you choose. And that's not all! You aren't stuck with your party once chosen like you are in, say, the original Final Fantasy. You can drop off your party members and create new ones as desired, allowing you to experiment to your heart's desire. The only caveat is that any new party members are starting fresh at level 1.

And STILL that's not all! About a third of the way through the game you reach Alltrades Abbey which allows any non-Hero character at level 20 or high to reassign their vocation. They can switch jobs! While this resets the character back to level 1, the stats are only cut in half rather than rolling all the way back. You also get to keep any spells the character had learned from magic based vocations. This results in a character much stronger than a brand new level 1 character and allows you to essentially create your own custom classes. A warrior who can heal or a mage who can actually inflict some physical damage.

The personality system is a little more vague as it doesn't really describe itself in game and you has less direct control over some of its mechanics. Basically, at the start of the game you take a personality quiz that determines what personality is assigned to your main character. This personality adjust stat growth meaning your Hero could be a stronger physical character or a stronger magical character. He/she could be fast or slower based on what you choose. The other party characters are also assigned a personality based on what seeds you give them at character creation. You can also alter personalities later on utilizing accessories that change it while equipped or books that permanently change their personality. Most players probably won't even mess with this at first, but advanced players can use to min/max their party.

The downside to all of this is that none of the characters really have any personality as it relates to the story. They are all mostly voiceless templates similar to the prior two games. The story itself does have a fantastic twist though. DQ I and II refer to a legendary hero named Erdrick (or maybe Loto or Roto depending on who has translated the game). III initially appears completely separate from those two games, but 2/3s of the way through you find yourself in the world fo the first game hundreds of years prior. The end of game reveals that you've been playing the Legendary hero Erdrick all along. Good stuff.

Overall, I really enjoy III. Like I mentioned before, when I was first playing the series on the GBA I was as excited for the re-release of III just as if it were a new, modern game. It is a dramatic improvement on what you see in I and II and often shows up on fans' favorite DQ games list.

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I'm currently playing through IV and its interesting playing III and IV back to back now how much IV kind of aims to be the opposite of III (but not in a bad way!). More on that later.