Dragon Warrior III -NES- 9

January 16, 2024

Dragon Warrior III completes the Erdrick trilogy on the NES by going back in time and telling the story of Erdrick himself, the great ancestor of the heroes in the first two games. You begin the adventure on his 16th birthday, when the king of Aliahan assigns you to defeat the archfiend Baramos, who threatens the land. There is some interesting backstory that develops about your father Oretega, who is thought to have died while fighting a dragon, and it is up to you to continue his legacy as a great warrior.

DW3 is another great installment in the classic series, and continues the grand sense of adventure established in the first two titles. This entry introduces the class system, which allows you to change your team members’ abilities throughout the game. You can choose between eight different classes, so this allows for a lot of flexibility in the way your party develops. It is similar to the job system in Final Fantasy 3 for the Famicom, which released over two years after DW3 in Japan. There is also a day/night cycle introduced here, where townspeople will say and do different things depending on the time of day. Other quality of life improvements include being able to fast travel to any town with the Return spell.

DW3 also expands the scope of the previous title by giving two large landscapes to explore. Roaming the lands, exploring the dungeons, and fighting enemies was just as fun as it was for me in DW2, which I loved. DW3 polishes some of the quirks that game had with attaining currency, but you still have to grind through a lot of enemies to level up significantly and earn enough money for the best equipment. That is how these classic jrpg’s play, and I personally love them.

Being able to recruit different members to your team was cool, but I do prefer my rpg party members to have a little backstory, like they did in DW2. In DW3, the party members are just hired mercenaries with no voice, background, or personality whatsoever. Fortunately, the hero himself develops a lot of backstory as the events come full circle to establish the lore in DW1&DW2.

Completing the many memorable side quests throughout the playthrough was also a lot fun. In the town of Jipang, the leader is secretly the town monster Orochi, requiring the villagers to sacrifice their daughters. The townspeople of Noaniels are all put under a sleep spell by an Elf queen, and you have to convince her to break the spell. There is also a phantom ship that you must find in order to reunite the spirits of two long lost lovers. And just when you think it is all over, a whole new map opens up beneath the earth, with a new threat emerging.

As for the soundtrack, it was solid, but I preferred the soundtrack in DW2. The main overworld theme and castle theme in DW2 were superior than the ones here in DW3. Fortunately, the music gets better towards the end of DW3 with the angelic flight theme of Ramia, and a beautiful remix of the Alefgard theme in the Dark World. I’m giving DW3 a 9 out of ten.