Genre: RPG Developer: Enix System: NES
Here are some cool tunes from different parts of the game.
Underworld Theme (Playing)
Cave Music
Overworld Music
Town Music
0000000 Dragon Warrior 3 is one of the greatest games of all time. I am a fan of NES games in general, but
this one in particular is very important in terms of the great classics. I'm not sure whether this game came
out before or after the first Final Fantasy, but it made a number of large improvements over the first Dragon
Warrior (I'm not ignoring the fact that there must have been a Dragon Warrior 2; I just haven't gotten around
to playing it yet). One innovation that stands out in particular: the bank. I don't recall any RPGs which I've
played that utilizes this game mechanic. It goes together with the very good, imo, game mechanic of having the
penalty of dying (i.e. your whole team dies and it's GAME OVER) being that half your gold is taken away. To
prevent loss, you put your money in the town's bank. I do wish they had an added feature where your money
gains interest over time (using the amount of time you've spent actively playing the game -- (there would have
to be something like at least one battle completed every so often to qualify as "active"). Also, there weren't
really an impressive number of weapons, shields, armor, etc like I thought I remember there being and at the end
of the game money became useless because it was too easy to get and the items were to few and to cheap to buy.
Which also made the gambling useless, but that would have been useless anyway because you got money a lot faster
by grinding.
0000000 One thing that makes it difficult to fairly judge this game against others, and which I strive to do
when I write all of these reviews is that I try to write the reviews of games close to the time that they are
released so I can judge the game according to the standards of the day. By the standards of the day this game
was released, the graphics were gorgeous. So please don't complain to me that I gave the graphics or the sound
too high of a rating.
0000000 I don't want to rattle on and on, so let me leave off with my most important point that I'd like to make:
NES classics like Dragon Warrior 3 are and continue to be better than most modern games in terms of gameplay for
one simple reason: They don't hold your hand. They are difficult. You will get stuck in Dragon Warrior 3. At
one point in the game you get a ship and you are expected to something unheard of in today's games: explore.
Yes, a novel concept. Having a free roaming world to explore, where you don't have to do things in a linear
fashion. Even more novel than that: the things you are expected to get to advance the game are somewhat difficult
to find, and you have to listen to the subtle things the townspeople say to help you figure it out. So if I rate
this game higher than Suikoden and every other RPG I've rated so far, so be it, even though I personally feel that
some of my ratings are wrong now, since I think rating Suikoden higher than FF3 and FF10 is ridiculous.
But I don't retroactively change my reviews.
~ Adam Henderson
0000000Review Update! I just finished beating it a second time and had a blast playing through it again. I am
also going to make some tweaks to this review (despite me saying I don't retroactively change my reviews, I am making an exception for this game,
since this is basically my favorite game of all time.
There's something to be said for the simplicity of this RPG, while also adding some interesting mild complexity as the game progresses. I
really appreciated the progression of going to new towns in this game and buying more expensive and better weapons, and some of the weapons
and spells toward the end of the game were innovative. Not all of the spells and items were useful, but I actually have come to really
like the idea of "cursed" items-- items that have a drawback in exchange for more powerful stats I think have a place in modern RPGs. This game
was quite long-- probably 60 hours of gameplay (hard to know for sure since it doesn't record your time), which was also satisfying for a game like
this.
There were some negatives here and there, notably some of the status effects and spells were more annoying than enjoyable, notably instant-kill
spells and status effects like "numb". It was nice that numb eventually went away without the need to cure it, but it seemed like it lasted too
long. Also, the "Limbo" spell which forced you to abandon your current exploration and go back to the first town to get your character back was
really annoying and didn't add anything to the enjoyment of the game.
There were some points in the game that required you to basically look up the answer to get past progression blockers. I wouldn't say any of these
were particularly bad and they didn't happen too often, but I would say a perfect game probably wouldn't force you to do this. But with ChatGPT, it
was kindof satisfying to ask ChatGPT and get answers to questions, even if ChatGPT didn't always get it exactly right.
This is just a dream of mine, but one day it would be nice to make a pixellated game similar to this. It will probably never happen, but this
game has a lot of potential as a starting point and making a game similar to this but with more items, a new story. One character is a second weapons
and armor shop guy in a town at the end of the game that you can't actually buy advanced weapons and armor from. It would be nice if, as a reward for
completing a dungeon, that guy would have been unlocked. Another thing I really appreciate was that spells were automatically unlocked by gaining
experience levels for your characters, and while the jobs were limited as far as promoting your characters to a new class, I was able to promote my
dark mage to a sage and that was actually satisfying, although it only allowed me to use white mage (healing) spells rather than advanced dark mage
spells, which was kindof a disappointment.
I'll finish by saying this. The main reason the latest RPGs don't appeal to me is because they are too childish, too complex, and the focus on 3-D
actually hurts the fun of the game rather than adding to it. I had started Tears of the Kingdom (a game I'm not sure I'll ever finish / make a review
of), and there is a very strong focus of rotating junk in 3-D with the Ultrahand ability, something I just don't find fun or enjoyable at all, it
feels more like work than fun. Going back to the days where things were 2-D like the original Legend of Zelda, Zelda 2, and this game seems like a
good way for modern games to re-attract a player like myself.
~ Adam Henderson
Game Difficulty Rating:
7/10 DIFFICULT
90% Pixely, but beautiful.
90% The music and sfx were good for what this game is.
98% Loved the bank mechanic.
95% I even enjoyed the grinding.
90% I'd say easily 100 hours of gameplay.
OVERALL SCORE = 93%
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