"One of the best RPG Remixes ever!"

Dragon Warrior III GBC Remix

Enix releases Dragon Warrior III on the Game Boy Color. Is it a worthy Remix or is it just a NES to GBC Port? Read on to find out.

+ Battle Engine
The Battle engine features some new features not present in the Dragon Warrior I+II Remix. Monsters have animations and you can have a party of four now and not just three. Other than that, everything else is your basic Dragon Warrior stuff. Battles are not much of a chore as they were in the NES Version as you can automatically hit another target if you select a target that happens to be defeated by another party member during a battle sequence. This was also implemented in the Dragon Warrior II Remix and I'm glad it was. :) The battle system is nothing too special but I have to give it a 10 because this is a NES Remix and you can't expect anything all that big.

+ Gameplay Engines
Keep in mind that I haven't played much of the NES Version so I maybe unaware of all the changes present in the Remix. From what I know, a Thief class , a Tiny Medal Quest, a Pachisi Minigame and a Monster track were all added along with the new Personality System. The Thief class has some really cool techniques which can prove to be really helpful in your Quest. You could win some cool prizes in the Tiny Medal Quest including a Sacred Bikini(yep, thats right) and a Golden Ticket which I believe gives you unlimited Pachisi games! yay. The Pachisi game is like a cool Board game done Dragon Warrior style. It's a pretty addictive minigame but unfortunately the game does have one major bug in it which can raise your levels at an incredible rate after fighting a battle. (It happens rarely but this happened to some people from the Gamefaqs Message Boards. I haven't tried the Monster Track yet though. Oh and I almost forgot about the Monster Medals! In DW3, monsters drop Medals of themselves for you to collect. Well not all the time, probably about 5% of the time or something. If you collect all 165 Medals then you'll get a new surprise but I have yet to collect all the medals. I have like 70 something after beating the game. You can even trade monster medals with your friends via Cable Link! Pretty neat changes overall. The most impressive and imaginative one would be the Personality System. At the start of the game, the gamer is asked a series of questions which are to be answered to determine which should be your final test. The final test is a scenario which you will have to complete so that your personality may be determined. I got Happy twice, and Lewd once. :) There are about 40+ possible personalities. Each personality can effect your character's statistics and battle skill in a certain way. For eg. If your Tough, your characters will be very strong and have high stamina. If your Sexy, then your characters will be very agile. hehe. I was disappointed with how your personality can't affect the plot but maybe Enix will make it happen someday.

+ Control/Menus
Unlike the NES Versions, the GBC Remixes have excellent Controls and Menus. Everything is very convenient and easy to access. Thank you Enix for not making Dragon Warrior such a tedious game like it was back in the day. :)

+ Challenge
The challenge is perfect. Not too hard and not too easy for my liking. It's just right. The game is not a non-linear nightmare like DW2 but its still pretty non-linear but not to the point that it will frustrate you. You might be stuck at some points but for most of the game you'll know what you need to do. The battles and dungeons are tough but not as much as Dragon Warrior II.

+ Class System
Sure its no where as good as Dragon Quest VI or VII but think about it this way. This game was originally made back in 1988 and most of the RPGs at that time were really cheesy so it would be unfair to compare this game to the current RPGs out on the market. I'm giving this an automatic + because Dragon Warrior III is the first RPG in my knowledge to let you customize your characters rather than being stuck with preset characters like in most RPGs. Personally, I thought the class system could have been more convenient. For eg. You can't just master every class because every time you switch jobs, your stats get halved. Its also best to train with classes that aren't outrageously different from eachother. If you train with lets say a Cleric then switch to Mage then you'll have great results as your magic and agility will be pretty high. If you train with a Warrior and a Cleric though, your stats would be a mess because your MP would be low from training as a Warrior and your Strength would be low from training as a Cleric.

+ Graphics
Is this on the Game Boy Color? This looks like a Super Nintendo game. Honestly. These graphics are great! They even have Battle animations! No wonder DW3 is on a 32 Mega Bit Cart. The character design could have used an upgrade though as they look NES-like and this game could use some backgrounds for battles. The main artist did a fantastic job with the backgrounds in DQ6 and its too bad there were none for the DW3 remix. The DW3 Box Art was pretty nice too. That girl in the bikini armor was nicely drawn. :)

+ Sound
Nicely done. I was impressed considering that this is a GBC game. The music is pretty catchy and enjoyable. It's not amazing but it fits the Dragon Warrior theme real well.
Finally, A Dragon Warrior game that doesn't sound annoying. You have no idea how much I felt like bashing my Nintendo system with a baseball bat back in the day while playing Dragon Warrior II. Thank God for the Mute Button.

+ Replay Value
Lots. You have a Tiny Medal Quest, a Monster Medal Quest, a Bonus Dungeon, the Pachisi Minigame and some sidequests. Oh and fooling around with the Personality system is always fun.

+ Plot
The plot is more indepth than Dragon Warrior I+II and there are some cool plot twists thrown in aswell. The only drawback is that the hero doesn't have much a personality even with the personality system thrown in. If the hero and the others would speak and act according to their personality then the plot would be much better.

+ Fun
Dragon Warrior III was a total blast. Dragon Warrior finally becomes Fun. Everything from the Minigames to the Personality system to the Class system to the Tiny and Monster Medals are great. Gamespot says that DW3 is only for the hardcore but I don't think so. Casual RPG Gamers would grow to like this game too. I hated irritating games that really tried your patience myself, but I didn’t have this problem with DW3.

GAMEPLAY- 10
GRAPHICS- 9
SOUND- 9
VALUE- 9
FUN/ENJOYMENT- 10

OVERALL- 9.7(rounded to 10)
Dragon Warrior is alive again. After eight years with no US Release, The Dragon Warrior series looked like it would be finished for good but Enix hasn't given up yet. Dragon Warrior III GBC Remix is a remix done the right way and I hope we get to see some excellent results from the Dragon Warrior IV Remix on the Playstation. If you want to take my word for it, don't waste your money on the Dragon Warrior I+II Remix and get Dragon Warrior III. The Gameboy Color RPG Library may not have quantity but I can assure you that it has some quality with a game like Dragon Warrior III. I urge all RPG fans to get it. And thats the bottom line!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 08/31/01, Updated 08/31/01