Dragon Warrior III

"An RPG with exploration...what is the world coming to? Something amazing, of course!"

I wouldn't be surprised if I asked 10 people if they knew what Dragon Warrior was, and I heard 70% say no. Dragon Warrior has never been too big over here in the US, but in Japan it is one of the best selling series'. So if you are one of those people who haven't played Dragon warrior, you better open your eyes past those FF games, and prepare for one of the best RPG games ever.

One of the many reasons people love Dragon Warrior is because the hero of the story is just, plain and simple, you. You make all the choices for the character, and you choose what the characters' personality is like. In Dragon Warrior III, it is even more intense then most other Dragon Warriors. In this game, you can choose the sex, personality, and just about everything else about the character. You can even change the characters' base stats by changing the personality. A character more intellectually keen will obviously be stronger magically then a brash, act-on-instinct character. And this is only the beginning.

Dragon Warrior III starts off like the previous Dragon Warriors. You are the son (or Daughter, even if a tomboy daughter) of the countries hero. The hero, now dead, is a legend in the country, and you are expected to be his heir. When the country and world is in turmoil, you are sent to protect it. Since that time is now, you need to find companions, and do your job!

Parties are done differently in Dragon Warrior III then they are in the past, as well. You will always have your main character, of course, but the rest of your party is not permanent. Of course, there is a total lack of character development, but that doesn't matter. You can go to a ''character shop'' and choose your characters, and their classes. You can also choose their personality, by feeding them certain seeds to increase their stats. And, even better, depending on the actions your characters take in battles, you can change the characters personality.

A characters' personality is a major part of Dragon Warrior III. Since each character in the game has a class, you obviously needs a personality to fit that class. A Mage with a brash personality is obviously going to grow wrong. Brash personalities tend to be more physical. And when I mean more physical, I mean that the characters' stats grow differently depending on the characters' personality. So a Mage with a intelligent personality will have his Magical stat grow faster then his physical stat when they level up. So obviously, having a magical character physically attack often is stupid, as it will lower the amount their magic grows each time they level up. There is a lot of thinking involved when it comes to developing your characters.

Even better in character development is the Job Class system. This system allows your characters to learn different skills by changing their job class. Each job has a set skill total, like a Cleric is meant for healing and defensive skills, a mage is meant for attack magic skills, and a fighter doesnt usually use spells. Depending on the class, you learn new skills as you level up. And even better, after a certain point in the game, you can change character classes. When you change character classes, a few things happen, and here adds more and more to the character development.

When you choose to change a character class, you have to be past a certain level. After getting past this certain level, you will be able to go to Dharma temple and change classes. Here, you have a choice to make. You can either stay the same class, and continue until you master the class, or you can change classes. When you change classes, your level is brought back down to One (yes, level 1), and you retain the skills you had from the previous class. Your stats will be halved from what they were at the class change. You can then build the character up from scratch at this point, with the same skills as before. So if you had a Cleric turn into a Fighter, your Fighter would be able to use healing magic. Of course, changing your classes is a double edged sword. That one party member will be weaker for quite a while, because of the lower levels.

Also, you have to remember, the Dragon Warrior series has always been one of the more difficult RPG series' in existence. So this means you have to always prepare yourself for a challenge. I will not complain about the challenge of a Video game, unless it it far too easy. And the challenge of Dragon Warrior III is just about right. Of course, people who are new-age Final Fantasy fans will have trouble with it.

One thing I have always loved about the Dragon Warrior series is the free roaming. You can go almost anywhere at any time, once you have cleared the initial town. The same is with Dragon Warrior III. In this game, you can skip a dungeon and go onto the next town, or just wander around as much as you want. You HAVE to go through some dungeons, obviously, but you can go other places before you are required to take these dungeons on. Of course, if you go too far into a new area, you could be wiped out by strong enemies, but that shouldn't stop you from free reign exploration. If you want a non-linear game, this is the game for you.

Another big plus of Dragon Warrior III is its multitude of side-quests. From the original, you can find ''Tiny Medals''. These tiny medals can be found all over the world. And when you find enough of them, you get a prize. But of course, to get that prize you have to find, and talk to the medal king. Another fun, and very addicting side quest is collecting ''Monster medals''. These monster medals are found when a monster drops one. Some enemies take forever to drop medals. But there is a Gold, Silver and Bronze medal ranking, meaning it can take a LONG time to get every medal in the game. Of course, this does get repetitive quite fast, battling the same monsters over and over, and it doesn't do anything too good for you. It kept me busy for hours upon hours, though. There are also ways to gamble, and of course, thats always fun.

There are of course, flaws in this amazing game. Some may find it a little too difficult, and they may not enjoy not being told where to go next. So if you are one of those types of people, you won't like this game. Also, there is not too much of a story. There is one, but it isn't as intense, as say Xenogears, Star Ocean, or Final Fantasy. Dragon Warrior III is meant for gameplay, not story.And because of the generic party members, there is little, if no character development at all. So if you are a huge fan of stories and characters, this isn't the game for you.

Dragon Warrior III is an amazing game. If you have never played a Dragon Warrior game before, I suggest you start with this one. it is deep, and actually requires thinking when developing your characters. It is also difficult, quite different from most modern RPG's. If you are a fan of anything I said, then you should go out and buy this game. Buy it now!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 06/25/03, Updated 06/25/03