Worlds Collide

Dragon Quest 3: The seeds of Salvation

You made it. You're here now because you either decided to skip two or... or you beat Dragon Warrior 2 and you're still thirsty. If the sequel didn't cause you to break your system or you're like me, and just love the JRPG genre then Dragon Warrior 3 for the gameboy color is your logical next stop.

The first game made waves, the second game made a strong maelstrom. This game makes an entire beach vacation. It's long, but with enough changes to the formula it's right to think of this game as one of the best of the series. There's a reason this 'Hero' is the first of the original games to be a 'skin' in the popular super smash bros. series.

Chronologically this game actually happens before dragon warrior 1, and will therefore set the stage for things to come in that game. This game is a story of how developers actually listened to feedback and fixed the things wrong with the sequel and then some. It's a story of the comeback of a staple to the JRPG genre, and it comes back swinging. Let's talk about it:

Music:

Koichi Sugiyama outdoes himself once again. Stylistically it continues the themes of heavy fanfare and brass melodies, borrowing from the first two games and flushing them out making each one better. Music from the opening theme to the closing credits does not fail to exceed expectations. Each melody is well thought out, and carries the sense of the game with it.

Different areas get different music now in addition to the dungeons, there's a few different overworld themes, great menu and shopping music, depending on where you are in the game, and each piece is different enough to add a nice flavor to the playthrough.

Music: 5/5

Animation:

Akira Toriyama strikes again. His style is another staple, not just for JRPGs but Japan in general. You might know him from the popular Dragon Ball Z series, but he's held a firm grasp on the video game world since the late 80s as well. With over 250 unique designs (would be more but some of em just used the same design with different colors) backgrounds, characters and box art he flushes out a well designed world.

There's not a lot left to be desired when it comes to the animation and while a little cartoony it gives you the nostalgic feel of sliding into a nice pair of sweatpants, what's not to love?

Animation 5/5

Plot:

The first Dragon warrior game left a lot to be desired as far as an actual story goes. Was it great for it's time? Yes, but that doesn't mean that as a fan you can't desire more story, more BBEG*s, more... of everything. Dragon Warrior 3 for the gameboy color packs a content punch.

*BBEG Definition: Big bad evil guy/gal. Dragon quest has at least one per game, but usually more.

With a consensus of at least 30 hours of playtime the hero travels through a world of light, and a world of darkness. It's reminiscent of the Gold/Silver Pokemon games with two regions, except Dragon Warrior did it first.

The story unfolds now with several well planned events and the story is not a convoluted mess as in the sequel of the series. Compared to the 50 hours of playtime of Dragon Warrior 2, it manages to pack in 3x the story in a little over half the game time.

The plot isn't perfect, but it carries a player through a narrative all the way through with very few plot holes and only a little confusion throughout.

Plot 4.5/5

Gameplay:

This is the story of how developers listen to the community that plays the game. Grinding still exists, but man did they tone back the random encounters. It was actually fun trying to go from town to town, and not having to worry about a thousand attacks from monsters.

Each monster is well designed with specific spells and attacks, letting you know what to expect when you get into these battles.

If you'll remember the second game tried to add a few party members to the fray. Well Dragon Warrior 3 takes that and turns it on it's head. While not a bad idea to add characters to the game Dragon Warrior 3 decided that you should be able to recruit these characters.

That's right you can recruit randos* that you name and train. You can have three of these members in y our party, each one has eight different classes that they can become and they can all switch classes. Enter the Min/Maxers*, with this ultimate tray of possibilities added to the fray of grind, loot, buy, repeat those 30 hours we talked about earlier go by way faster than you'd think.

*Randos definition: Random people, nameable and completely customizable

*Min/Maxers definition: Someone who calculates the meta of a game to create the ultimate warrior/combination of badassery. Known to ruin a DnD campaign if not properly employed.

With all of the changes, the elements that remain the same keep a formula of success. If Dragon Warrior 2 is New Coke, then Dragon Warrior 3 is the return to the original formula, if they kept cocaine in the mix.

It's great to see a company that not only listens to the demands of the players and tries to fix things, but also adds new things to an existing formula to spice things up from generation to generation in new and interesting ways (looking at you Pokemon)

Did I mention also that they give you a fast travel option now?

Gameplay 5/5

Overall: 4.9/5 Play this game, no seriously play this game.

Extra note 1: Worth mentioning that this game is a little different on the NES/ and GBC versions, I've only played the GBC version and cannot comment on the actual original.

Extra note 2: I'm writing this in January of 2022, there's already a remake for this game on the Nintendo Switch that I also haven't played, if you like this series but don't have a GBC, you may want to look at playing the switch version, there are likely good quality of life changes as well as it's pretty cheap on the Nintendo Store

Extra note 3: They are planning on doing another HD-2D remake, from the same guys that did Octopath traveler, look up the trailer, it looks fantastic. I plan on playing that one, and if you haven't played this yet, you may want to wait until it drops hopefully at the tail end of this year (2022)

Extra note 4: Play this game