Dragon Warrior III
Dragon Warrior III (ドラゴンクエストIII そして伝説へ… or Doragon Kuesuto III Soshite Densetsu e...), translated as Dragon Quest III: And Into the Legend..., was the third game in the Dragon Quest series of role-playing games published by Enix. Originally released in North America in 1991, the game was remade for Gameboy Color in 2001. Another remake for the Super Famicom was never released outside of Japan.
Prologue
The game opens with a massive battle over a volcano between a man with blue hair and a dragon. The battle rages on for several seconds until the blue haired man cuts the wing off of the dragon causing the battle to continue on the ground. The blue haired man eventually runs the dragon through, however the dragon takes hold of the blue haired man and turns and begins to walk into the volcano. The volcano erupts and there is a scream heard, the screen fades to black.
Story
The hero is awakened by his mother on his sixteenth birthday, and is brought before the king of Aliahan for an audience. Apparently the blue haired man in the opening film was your father Ortgea,the great hero of Aliahan, who had been charged with defeating the Archfiend Baramos. With the passing of your father the king lays the responsibility of safe guarding the world on your shoulders, after giving you some gold and telling you to head to the local tavern to enlist help, he sends you on your way. After getting some much needed help your party begins to explore the country of Aliahan.
Gameplay
Dragon Warrior III was the first game in the series to feature a customizable party, the Hero could recruit up to three party members including a Soldier (known as a Warrior in the GBC version), a Fighter, a Pilgrim (Cleric), a Wizard (Mage), A Goof-Off (Jester) and a Merchant (Dealer). There is also a Sage class that can only be obtained later in the game and a Thief class that was added for the remakes.
Any character could also have their class changed as long as they were above level 20. They would revert to level 1 but would keep half their previous stats and all their spells.
The remakes also introduced the first and only appearance of the Personality system in the Dragon Quest series.
Classes
Hero: This is the class that the player starts with and is the only character that cannot change class, nor can any other character become a Hero. The Hero levels up slowly but is fairly well balances, with his stats favoring HP and Defense with the rest being average. The Hero also learns several offensive and defensive spells, some of which are the best in the game and unavailable to other classes.
Soldier: This class is good at both offense and defense, getting some of the best weapons and armor in the game, and good stats to back them up meaning they can take more of a beating and deal more physical damage than any other. However they are slow and don't get any spells or MP.
Fighter: This class is like the Soldier only stronger, faster and with a high critical hit rate. However they can equip only very light armor, making them very fragile, and certain weapons, making upgrade few and far between. Like the Soldier they also doesn't get any spells or MP.
Wizard: This class has powerful offensive magic spells at it's disposal, as well as powerful attack buffing skills for your allies. Most of the time their magic can do more damage than anything else in the party, however it uses up MP quickly. They are also the most fragile, with bad defensive stats and weak armor.
Pilgrim: This class gets healing spells as well as spells and debuff monsters and buff your defense. They also get decent defensive stats and when not casting can do decent damage with physical attacks.
Merchant: This class has decent stats but gets bad armor and weapons. They can earn you extra money after battles and can tell if items have extra effects. They also get a couple spells useful outside of battle.
Goof-Off: This class is useless in battle. Not only do they not listen to commands but their stats are all low, except luck. However, a level 20+ Goof-Off can change into the Sage class without having a Book of Satori.
Sage: This class is essentially a combination of all of the good parts of a Pilgrim and a Wizard. They get every single spell the Pilgrim or Wizard gets, have better stats and can equip decent armor and weapons, making it a very powerful class. However a character can only change classes to a Sage by using one of two Books of Satori in the world, or by getting to level 20 as a Goof-Off first.
Thief: This class was added for the remakes and is the most well balanced class. They get high Agility and average stats everywhere else. They can equip some unique weapons like Whips and Boomerangs that hit multiple enemies, and gets decent armor. They can also sometimes steal items such as skill seeds after battle, and get several spells useful outside of battle.
Version Differences
Like most Dragon Quest games when it was released in North America the dialog was censored, symbols in the churches became crosses and dead party members were represented with coffins.
The remakes updated the graphics, added the Thief class, and added personalities, Tiny Medals, Monster Medals, bonus dungeons and the Pachisi minigame. The GBC remake was essentially the same game as the Super Famicom version, except with downgraded graphics to work with the GBC system.
World
Dragon Warrior III originally takes place in a world meant to look similar to Earth. Some areas are even modeled after areas on Earth like Romaly (Rome), Isis (Egypt), Jipangu (Japan) and Soo (America). Later in the game the party also travels to Alefgard which is revealed to be a world that exists entirely beneath the world the party starts in.
Spin-offs
On top of being remade for both the Super Famicom and the GameBoy Color, Dragon Warrior III also inspired several mangas including Dai no Daibouken and The Emblem of Roto.