"Dragon Warrior 3. A game of the RPG type. But does it live up to its expectance?"

Dragon Warrior 3 hit the stores on July 18, 2001. Many kids went out to but this game, a sequel to two other great games. But does it live up to its expectance…

Gameplay:10: As many other RPGs for the GameBoy system, DW3 has easy to learn controls. Some people, may get annoyed with the menu that pops up when you press B, though. To talk to people, search the ground, or look/search in a chest or door, you simply press A. A great new function is the Recall function, where you press SELECT after talking to an individual to remember what he said to you. What I believe annoys people the most is the Field Log save function, which you can use by pressing START. Although you can save anywhere except in battle, you lose the log after you return to the game through it. An alternate way of saving, is to go to the King/Queen of a castle and saving to your journal, which in my opinion is more effective and useful.

The challenge in this game range in between medium to hard. You will spend many hours leveling up your characters and searching for places in a vast world. You will meet new people and learn new things as you go on.

There are 9 classes in the game for your characters. One of them, the Hero class, can only be used by the Hero. Another of the classes is only available later on in the game. You may only have 4 people in your group, including the Hero. The 7 other classes can be chosen for the 3 companions you get at the beginning. There are classes like the Mage class, a class that can use many powerful spells, or the Warrior class, a class with great strength and attack ability. You can also change the classes of you group, excluding the Hero, at a certain point of the game. As you change classes, you keep all the spells you have learned in the previous class, which in my opinion is great. You can choose if you want each character to be a male or female, as well as the Hero.

There are also personalities for each of your characters. These personalities effect how they grow. At the beginning, you are asked several questions that effect your personality. What mainly effects your personality though, is one of several interactive scenes where your actions determine you personality. There are many personalities like Valiant, Lewd, and Sexy. Some personalities are better suited for certain classes. There are items that help you change a character’s personality if you are not satisfied with them.

You can also equip your characters with certain items and weapons. Each character has his/her own weapons and armor. There are also items that you can equip that raise a character’s agility, strength, intelligence, etc. Each character can hold up to 12 items, including the equipped ones. They can only equip up to 6 items. There is also a bag that has unlimited amount of space for holding items.

Leveling up your characters may get tedious and boring after a while, but is quite fun. As you fight monsters, you gain money and possibly something called a Monster Medal. There are many Monster Medals in the game that also vary in metal. You can trade these medals with your friends that have DW3.

There are also two minigames that you can play as you go along in your journey. They are the Pachisi Tracks, a board game where you are the game piece, and the Monster Stadium, where you bet money on fighting monsters. These games are great and help if you are bored.

Story:6: You are the son of a great hero that was killed on his journey to kill the Demon Lord Baramos. You wake up on your sixteenth birthday after a strange dream. Your mother sends you to the King, who tells you to go and kill Baramos. You are sent to a tavern where you recruit 3 companions of you choice. Then your journey begins.

As you can probably tell, the story isn’t really a big mystery novel. No big plot. It’s a typical story found in many games.

Sound:8: The sound is ok. It doesn’t really affect your way of playing the game. The music changes when you enter towns, castles, caves, towers, and when you’re in a fight. The music isn’t something you can really hum to, but it’s good enough to not become irritating. The sound effects are great, both when in battle and in certain events in an area (for example, when the ground is shaking).

Graphics:9: This game really shows the graphic capabilities of the GameBoy Color. The monster animation during a battle is absolutely great and well detailed. Each character has a very distinctive look. And their clothes may change depending on what you equip on them. The person that designed the characters and monsters in this game is Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragon Ball Z. You can see his style of design in each character/monster.

Replayability:10: This game is packed with hours and hours of fun. There are so many different ways to play the game. There are different characters you can take with you, different genders that can affect different parts of the game, and different personalities that affect how you character grows and fights. With trying to collect all the Monster Medals and other items, you will be glued to this game. The minigames will keep you playing again and again.

Buy or Rent: If you can find it, buy it. A great RPG for GameBoy Color. It’s a must get for all you RPG fans. If you aren’t sure if you’d like it and want to rent it first, be cautioned. You won’t have enough time to really get into the game. It’s definitely a BUY.

Overall: This game has very few flaws and so much fun. It’s a great RPG for any game player anywhere. My Overall score is an average of what the scores were. It gets a 8.6. Since decimals aren’t allowed, it gets a 9!!!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/03/01, Updated 08/03/01