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

60% Still pixely, but great.
37% At least there was a much better variety.
98% Loved the bank mechanic.
98% I even enjoyed the grinding.
85% I'd say easily 100 hours of gameplay.

OVERALL SCORE = 82%



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