If you’re looking for a classic role-playing experience, look no further than Dragon Quest III: The Seeds of Salvation. This third installment of the series is now available on Nintendo Switch!
The game features a vocation system that allows the Hero to recruit up to three party members who specialize as Warrior, Martial Artist, Priest, Mage, Gadabout, Merchant, or Thief. It also features personality traits that can drastically change the way your character grows.
Story
The storyline of Dragon Quest III is a brilliant throwback to the earlier games in the series. As a descendent of Erdrick (Loto in the North American version), your goal is to follow in his footsteps and slay the Dragonlord Zoma.
The game has some great side stories and a fantastic narrative, a real treat for fans of the genre. It was also the first of the Dragon Quest series to allow players to decide if they wanted their protagonists to be male or female and choose their job.
The game is a great example of how much the Dragon Quest series has grown and improved over time. It still remains one of the most classic JRPGs ever made, with many of the core elements still in place and a strong focus on character classes and gameplay flow.
Characters
Dragon Quest III, the third game in the series, was a huge leap forward from previous entries. It introduced a day-night cycle, an in-game bank for gold, and a monster arena.
Despite these additions, the game still suffers from a number of shortcomings. Its personality system is a particularly weak point.
A pre-game sequence in which the player answers moral dilemmas like those in Ultima IV determines your Hero’s personality. This personality affects which stat-raising seeds you give your party members during character creation, as well as which abilities they learn from special items and books later on in the game.
While the map is still primarily based on the real-world, the visuals are a much more vibrant and memorable take on the series’ traditional fantasy style. Each area looks distinct and unique from its neighbors, rather than looking resembling a European city.
Gameplay
The third entry in the Dragon Quest series, Dragon Quest III: The Seeds of Salvation takes a few big steps to improve on the gameplay that made its predecessors great. This included a vocation (class) system that would eventually become an integral part of future games, as well as an ability to recruit up to three party members who each have their own special skills and spells.
In addition, players can level their characters up to twenty levels, allowing them to unlock new classes and spells. The game also adopts the mini medal feature popularized in later entries, letting players collect valuable items by traversing different regions.
Even with all these upgrades, Dragon Quest III’s gameplay still retains a certain degree of its old-school roots. There are dungeons that require high levels to defeat, but there’s always a lot of fun to be had by exploring the world and hunting down those hidden treasures. And of course, the rearranged MIDI tracks from Koichi Sugiyama add plenty of personality to this lighthearted fantasy romp.
Final Words
During the final battle with the demon Baramos, you find out that your father was a warrior named Ortega who disappeared many years ago. Defeating the villain and escaping to another realm, you are bestowed with a title of Erdrick (or Loto in Japan) and become the Hero of the world.
Dragon Quest III: The Seeds of Salvation, titled Dragon Warrior 3 when first released in North America, is a 1988 role-playing game. It’s a ‘demake’ of the Super Famicom version of the original game, which was also released in Japan.
Sugiyama’s orchestral arrangements in Dragon Quest III were not his best work, but they do represent a significant milestone in the franchise’s music – one which is preserved well on the Nintendo 3DS release. Moreover, the composer’s creativity here is quite remarkable, as he takes advantage of a wide variety of musical styles and instruments. This diversity helps make his symphonic suites a much more diverse and interesting listening experience than the two predecessors.