A fantastic continuation of the first 2 Dragon Quest games with how it not only expands into new ideas, but refines the pre-existing ones into something far more compelling, culminating in an experience that feels far more grandiose and finely tuned. The sense of player hostility that the first 2 games revelled in remains a constant here but is shifted in such a way to make it fit the narrative of DQ3 more cleanly. Structural changes with how the player progresses further contribute to the game feeling far bigger and more richly detailed, demonstrating more than just escalating difficulty as a means of engaging the player. Rather than a world wrought with hopelessness that has already accepted its fate, Dragon Quest 3 revolves around the birth of a legend and their rise to this status, with a level of power fitting of being perceived as such.
The game still remains quite challenging, but the player is also provided with enough tools to comfortably overcome all opposition with relative ease, as long as they know what they’re doing, both due to the mechanics feeling more evenly balanced to make turns where the enemy is capable of party wiping far more infrequent, but also by making your entire party actually have the capabilities of effectively helping out in a fight. Dragon Quest 2’s party was comprised entirely of characters that would rigidly conform to their roles without any flexibility to accommodate to situations that deviated from their main skillset, which led to a dynamic that often would only allow one character at a time to meaningfully contribute to a situation, and this rigidity was the most transformative element of the game that was altered to make Dragon Quest 3 feel more balanced in the player’s favour. The way that the increased party flexibility is limited is what makes the game especially intriguing however, as hitting the point where this all becomes relevant takes time and careful planning. At their base level, classes still largely fit into specific niches, but have been given tools to allow them to contribute to a wider variety of obstacles, with healers having enough physical attack to let them still deal serviceable damage in the early game, and wizards having access to certain buffing spells, so even if you’re up against something that resists magic, they can make your attackers stronger instead of being dead weight.
This alone is already enough to make the moment-to-moment decision making feel more dynamic, but it’s the ability to change classes later on that really elevates this decision making process by giving the player a lot of agency in how they want to approach immediate situations while also planning for the future. The system essentially lets you change character classes while allowing that character to retain traits of what they previously were, leading to situations such as warriors that are able to cast spells, or healers that have more bulk to them than average. This mainly is used to bring more versatility to a team while still allowing them to be total powerhouses in other areas, and while not strictly necessary, it makes the 2nd half of the game considerably easier when you’ve got your army of physical attackers also blasting your enemies with huge group magic damage or keeping everyone topped up on HP, feeling like you’ve become a truly formidable party by the end, rather than perpetually feeling on the brink of death. I don’t really prefer one approach over the other in this case, since both are handled so well, but it’s an interesting difference to note.
The ability to become so much more inherently powerful also does wonders for the game’s pacing, as while there is still some degree of grinding (it’s an NES RPG, so of course there would be), it’s infrequent enough that it won’t completely halt the pacing outside of a few key moments that warranted things being more challenging to truly feel climactic enough. The other aspect of the game that makes everything feel as if it’s moving along at a more typical pace is how the storytelling no longer solely revolves around the heroes trying to track down a single antagonist with everything else being there to propel this one goal forward. A lot of towns have their own plotlines that you have to become involved in now, and while most of them result in you gaining another key item to continue pursuing Baramos, the main villain of the game, the plotlines themselves often have little to do with him beyond the towns potentially feeling threatened about the prospect of being destroyed. The world feels far more richly detailed as a result of this decision, being more akin to actual towns in a world rather than just a tool for the player to use and pass through in their singular quest. The game does a far better job of properly orienting the player in the world as well, not just with Zoom now actually letting you to choose where you warp, cutting down on a lot of tedious backtracking, but more regularly pointing you in directions you could potentially go, dodging the aimlessness of DQ2 by giving you a lot of direction. The aforementioned changes in how different locations have been written also make the orb hunt a far more enjoyable process than it could’ve been, especially since most of them are either tied to their own little narratives, or feel climactic to grab in their own right, making them feel more rewarding to pick up instead of just thinking “yeah that was just on the ground, ok next one.”
I can see why Dragon Quest 3 is often considered to be the first great game in the series, as for as much as I appreciate the charming simplicity of the first game, this takes a lot of the same framework and expands upon it in ways that make it feel utterly massive for the system. The entire final act is also fantastic in how it’s able to recontextualise a lot of pre-existing elements in ways that make it feel entirely new, yet familiar. Playing the NES of this is what truly got me to appreciate just how cool this game was for its time, even though I already thoroughly enjoyed it beforehand, and while the SNES version is definitely still the one I’d return to if I decided to play this again in the future, there’s something incredibly cool about seeing this game in its roughest, most unforgiving form as well.
The game still remains quite challenging, but the player is also provided with enough tools to comfortably overcome all opposition with relative ease, as long as they know what they’re doing, both due to the mechanics feeling more evenly balanced to make turns where the enemy is capable of party wiping far more infrequent, but also by making your entire party actually have the capabilities of effectively helping out in a fight. Dragon Quest 2’s party was comprised entirely of characters that would rigidly conform to their roles without any flexibility to accommodate to situations that deviated from their main skillset, which led to a dynamic that often would only allow one character at a time to meaningfully contribute to a situation, and this rigidity was the most transformative element of the game that was altered to make Dragon Quest 3 feel more balanced in the player’s favour. The way that the increased party flexibility is limited is what makes the game especially intriguing however, as hitting the point where this all becomes relevant takes time and careful planning. At their base level, classes still largely fit into specific niches, but have been given tools to allow them to contribute to a wider variety of obstacles, with healers having enough physical attack to let them still deal serviceable damage in the early game, and wizards having access to certain buffing spells, so even if you’re up against something that resists magic, they can make your attackers stronger instead of being dead weight.
This alone is already enough to make the moment-to-moment decision making feel more dynamic, but it’s the ability to change classes later on that really elevates this decision making process by giving the player a lot of agency in how they want to approach immediate situations while also planning for the future. The system essentially lets you change character classes while allowing that character to retain traits of what they previously were, leading to situations such as warriors that are able to cast spells, or healers that have more bulk to them than average. This mainly is used to bring more versatility to a team while still allowing them to be total powerhouses in other areas, and while not strictly necessary, it makes the 2nd half of the game considerably easier when you’ve got your army of physical attackers also blasting your enemies with huge group magic damage or keeping everyone topped up on HP, feeling like you’ve become a truly formidable party by the end, rather than perpetually feeling on the brink of death. I don’t really prefer one approach over the other in this case, since both are handled so well, but it’s an interesting difference to note.
The ability to become so much more inherently powerful also does wonders for the game’s pacing, as while there is still some degree of grinding (it’s an NES RPG, so of course there would be), it’s infrequent enough that it won’t completely halt the pacing outside of a few key moments that warranted things being more challenging to truly feel climactic enough. The other aspect of the game that makes everything feel as if it’s moving along at a more typical pace is how the storytelling no longer solely revolves around the heroes trying to track down a single antagonist with everything else being there to propel this one goal forward. A lot of towns have their own plotlines that you have to become involved in now, and while most of them result in you gaining another key item to continue pursuing Baramos, the main villain of the game, the plotlines themselves often have little to do with him beyond the towns potentially feeling threatened about the prospect of being destroyed. The world feels far more richly detailed as a result of this decision, being more akin to actual towns in a world rather than just a tool for the player to use and pass through in their singular quest. The game does a far better job of properly orienting the player in the world as well, not just with Zoom now actually letting you to choose where you warp, cutting down on a lot of tedious backtracking, but more regularly pointing you in directions you could potentially go, dodging the aimlessness of DQ2 by giving you a lot of direction. The aforementioned changes in how different locations have been written also make the orb hunt a far more enjoyable process than it could’ve been, especially since most of them are either tied to their own little narratives, or feel climactic to grab in their own right, making them feel more rewarding to pick up instead of just thinking “yeah that was just on the ground, ok next one.”
I can see why Dragon Quest 3 is often considered to be the first great game in the series, as for as much as I appreciate the charming simplicity of the first game, this takes a lot of the same framework and expands upon it in ways that make it feel utterly massive for the system. The entire final act is also fantastic in how it’s able to recontextualise a lot of pre-existing elements in ways that make it feel entirely new, yet familiar. Playing the NES of this is what truly got me to appreciate just how cool this game was for its time, even though I already thoroughly enjoyed it beforehand, and while the SNES version is definitely still the one I’d return to if I decided to play this again in the future, there’s something incredibly cool about seeing this game in its roughest, most unforgiving form as well.
The final entry in the Erdrick/Loto trilogy, and quite the sendoff. It takes everything the first two games did and cranks them up to 11. A stronger narrative, a customizable party, larger world, the environmental storytelling telling us what cutscenes don't, just a lot going on.
What you see is what you get, and that's fine, because what it set out to do, it did a great job at it.
What you see is what you get, and that's fine, because what it set out to do, it did a great job at it.
este juego mejoro casi casi todo lo del dragon quest 2, aumento los mienbros del equipo, puedes tener otros en bacan, cambio de clase, mas objetos, mas jefes, mas zonas, mas historia, mas magias, mas de todo, mejor incluyendo cosas nuevas etc etc
solo pienso en cosas positivas con este juego, el pedo es no se quien fue el terrorista lunatico psicopata homicida que programo el ratio de encuentros con monstruos porque vergacion, es mucho mayor al segundo juego
muchas veces daba 1 paso y me atacaba, 2 o 3 veces seguidas, eso puede frustrar un poco, es solo un defecto, pero uno muy serio ya que de eso consiste el nucleo jugable del titulo, sin embargo mas alla de eso no cambia el hecho de que es un JRPG muy genial
solo pienso en cosas positivas con este juego, el pedo es no se quien fue el terrorista lunatico psicopata homicida que programo el ratio de encuentros con monstruos porque vergacion, es mucho mayor al segundo juego
muchas veces daba 1 paso y me atacaba, 2 o 3 veces seguidas, eso puede frustrar un poco, es solo un defecto, pero uno muy serio ya que de eso consiste el nucleo jugable del titulo, sin embargo mas alla de eso no cambia el hecho de que es un JRPG muy genial
Really cute, i love to see how this game's DNA was worked into DQIX (my favorite entry in the series)
The overworld being a scuffed version of the earth is neat. FF1 is better.
The longer you play Dragon Quest III, the more you really come to appreciate just how far the game took the burgeoning JRPG genre. The class system is great with long-term payoff. Having stats be halved when changing classes is especially genius, giving real weight to that decision. There are much more unique and interesting scenarios in each town, and the main story overall feels more involved with some awesome, even emotional plot twists. And of course, the graphics and music are really nice.
It's still an 8-bit RPG, which means it's still grindy (but not nearly as bad as DQ2 by the end) and lacking QoL features that became common sense in the 16-bit era. Remakes address this, but the fundamental game design still has some cryptic moments later on, even with all the NPC hints in mind. I couldn't fully relax and fall in love with DQ3, but it's still quite an inspired game. The endgame was especially great, and further elevated this game as something special. Maybe the Super Famicom version of Dragon Quest III is where it's really at.
It's still an 8-bit RPG, which means it's still grindy (but not nearly as bad as DQ2 by the end) and lacking QoL features that became common sense in the 16-bit era. Remakes address this, but the fundamental game design still has some cryptic moments later on, even with all the NPC hints in mind. I couldn't fully relax and fall in love with DQ3, but it's still quite an inspired game. The endgame was especially great, and further elevated this game as something special. Maybe the Super Famicom version of Dragon Quest III is where it's really at.
As much as its new class system makes it significantly more enjoyable, combat is still egregiously bland due to its repetitive, mind-numbing, crude turn-based structure. Now more than ever before, what saves Dragon Quest 3 is the exceedingly entertaining journey it takes the player on. The world, a fantastical caricature of our own, unfolds with every inquisitive step of the player as a sprawling, diverse mosaic of charming stories, mysterious legends and surprising scenarios brimming with whimsical creativity, as the series really defines its playful, epic narrative identity.
No shit it's the most beloved Dragon Quest in Japan, or that people skipped work to play it; DQ3 was revolutionary back then and still serves as a gold standard for the genre to this day, putting JRPGs that released console generations ahead of it to shame with its scope. It's full of firsts for the genre, series, and video games as a whole, and playing it today I'm just astonished by how much shit (really good shit, mind you) they put into an NES cartridge, especially after DQ2.
Once you get the ship it's practically an open-world NES game, which sounds like a recipe for disaster - except NPCs actually tell you where to go. Shocking for the time, I know. Just sailing around looking for new towns creates this sense of adventure and discovery that honestly might be unmatched even by later DQ entries, and it's even cooler that you get to explore with self inserts of you and your friends. It actually feels like a world that's lived in, at least as far as NES JRPGs go, with NPCs singing praises of Ortega's exploits, living in fear of Baramos, talking about their lives. Yeah, NPC dialogue serves to do more than just tell you where to go next - another rarity for the time. Couple all of this with its surprisingly deep class system and you might just have a near perfect DnD/tabletop-like JRPG. Insanely good all around, not just by NES standards. JRPG fans should be obligated to play any version.
Once you get the ship it's practically an open-world NES game, which sounds like a recipe for disaster - except NPCs actually tell you where to go. Shocking for the time, I know. Just sailing around looking for new towns creates this sense of adventure and discovery that honestly might be unmatched even by later DQ entries, and it's even cooler that you get to explore with self inserts of you and your friends. It actually feels like a world that's lived in, at least as far as NES JRPGs go, with NPCs singing praises of Ortega's exploits, living in fear of Baramos, talking about their lives. Yeah, NPC dialogue serves to do more than just tell you where to go next - another rarity for the time. Couple all of this with its surprisingly deep class system and you might just have a near perfect DnD/tabletop-like JRPG. Insanely good all around, not just by NES standards. JRPG fans should be obligated to play any version.
The third Dragon Quest is one that I'd be - for the most part - likely to recommend. The sense of adventure in this one far surpasses what Dragon Quest 2 had, and feels incredibly special. It eases you in through a linear start, before opening up the biggest world yet available to you, modeled after Earth itself. Utilizing an online map, you can see all the possibilities, all the different locales you can visit, and you can do it in any order you please. Ticking off each area, solving the problems within it, and getting closer to obtaining the 7 major McGuffins that unlock the final area. it's an incredibly satisfying gameplay loop.
The gameplay has also seen improvements in complexity. Upgrading from the three playable characters of Dragon Quest 2, you can now wield a total of 4. On top of that, they're no longer predetermined classes. Instead, you choose which classes you want. This leads to a considerable amount of customizability that lends itself to replay value. There is, of course, the classic setup that you're most likely to go with (warrior, white mage, black mage, tank...) but you're free to select multiple classes of the same type, or other odd combinations in order to challenge yourself. And, best of all, if you don't like what you get, you can change it by going back to the tavern until you land on something you like.
I'd like to say that this is the best Dragon Quest so far (and it is!), but... the reason why I said I could mostly recommend this one, is because as you approach the end of the game, it runs into a similar problem to Dragon Quest 2 - the difficulty spike. Once again, enemies obtain spells that are liable to instantly screw you over through the roll of the dice.
The one that instantly kills you is not too horriffic if you've got the means to just revive them back to life, but then there's the one that completely removes a character from your party. Just, poof, they're gone, can't revive them because they're not there anymore. They're all the way back in the tavern, of which there is only one, so, you can either try to push through the dungeon without them, or, leave and backtrack all the way there, numbnuts. I just... don't like that. It's such a massive inconvenience, and one that I don't feel like I can do anything about.
Still, if you're willing to push through some of the more shitty enemies this game has to offer, and as long as you're using a map (and maybe a wiki so you can see what items do), I can definitely see why people like DQ3 so much. It's a very relaxing RPG, that scratches that "number go up" itch well. Its world is expansive, but not meaningless. Play it for the adventure, but, if you're still hesitant about jumping into an NES RPG, then wait for the HD remake that's coming up.
The gameplay has also seen improvements in complexity. Upgrading from the three playable characters of Dragon Quest 2, you can now wield a total of 4. On top of that, they're no longer predetermined classes. Instead, you choose which classes you want. This leads to a considerable amount of customizability that lends itself to replay value. There is, of course, the classic setup that you're most likely to go with (warrior, white mage, black mage, tank...) but you're free to select multiple classes of the same type, or other odd combinations in order to challenge yourself. And, best of all, if you don't like what you get, you can change it by going back to the tavern until you land on something you like.
I'd like to say that this is the best Dragon Quest so far (and it is!), but... the reason why I said I could mostly recommend this one, is because as you approach the end of the game, it runs into a similar problem to Dragon Quest 2 - the difficulty spike. Once again, enemies obtain spells that are liable to instantly screw you over through the roll of the dice.
The one that instantly kills you is not too horriffic if you've got the means to just revive them back to life, but then there's the one that completely removes a character from your party. Just, poof, they're gone, can't revive them because they're not there anymore. They're all the way back in the tavern, of which there is only one, so, you can either try to push through the dungeon without them, or, leave and backtrack all the way there, numbnuts. I just... don't like that. It's such a massive inconvenience, and one that I don't feel like I can do anything about.
Still, if you're willing to push through some of the more shitty enemies this game has to offer, and as long as you're using a map (and maybe a wiki so you can see what items do), I can definitely see why people like DQ3 so much. It's a very relaxing RPG, that scratches that "number go up" itch well. Its world is expansive, but not meaningless. Play it for the adventure, but, if you're still hesitant about jumping into an NES RPG, then wait for the HD remake that's coming up.
I have now played almost every Dragon Quest game, and yet there are only two that I actually want to play again. DQ3 perfectly captures the tabletop adventure feel that I want from an 8-bit RPG, and happily sits next to Final Fantasy 1 in my mind as one of my go-to games for that fix. When I want a buggy, beautiful, charming mess, I go for FF1. When I want to play something similar that has gotten cleaned up and put its life together, I reach for DQ3.
Dragon Quest III successfully synthesized a litany of RPG systems into an incredibly polished game with few real issues.
The core game is basically a second upgrade to the first two games, yet again featuring a bigger world, more spells, and a fourth character in your party. For any sequel of this day, that would have been enough, but that was just the beginning here. On top of these iterative enhancements, the game added a job system that worked far better than Final Fantay II's skill grinding system, a day/night cycle that I think was more interesting than Ultima V's, unique quests that allowed you to do one-off things (like being a king temporarily) and quality of life improvements to systems like fast travel and quest reminders to keep the game moving along.
From a technical standpoint, they just absolutely nailed it here. My only personal qualms are minor in that I still dislike the first person view of the combat, and I felt that the story, just like in the first two existed primarily in service to the gameplay.
To summarize, at the time of its release in Japan, I think it can be argued pretty easily that this was the best RPG around due to the size, scope and successful execution of its many game systems.
The core game is basically a second upgrade to the first two games, yet again featuring a bigger world, more spells, and a fourth character in your party. For any sequel of this day, that would have been enough, but that was just the beginning here. On top of these iterative enhancements, the game added a job system that worked far better than Final Fantay II's skill grinding system, a day/night cycle that I think was more interesting than Ultima V's, unique quests that allowed you to do one-off things (like being a king temporarily) and quality of life improvements to systems like fast travel and quest reminders to keep the game moving along.
From a technical standpoint, they just absolutely nailed it here. My only personal qualms are minor in that I still dislike the first person view of the combat, and I felt that the story, just like in the first two existed primarily in service to the gameplay.
To summarize, at the time of its release in Japan, I think it can be argued pretty easily that this was the best RPG around due to the size, scope and successful execution of its many game systems.
for better or worse, it’s dragon quest.
Game #66 of my challenge
This game took me a lot of time to beat, but I finally able to pass through it. This is the third installment of this series and a lot of this game is similar to the others.
The plot of this game is that there's an fiend named Baramos is menacing to destroy the world (this is not the same world as in the first two games). You, a descendant of a hero named Ortega, is called by the king to create a party to stop that enemy. There's a nice change regarding the Hero of this game: You can choose if you want to be a boy or a girl. This is the first game that I've played yet that you can choose what you want to be. Also, almost every character that you will interact with will also consider the gender that you are. The party will need to find 6 orbs and when you collect them all, you will be able to go defeat that final boss. Once you beat it, you need to go back to the castle and get the Reward from the king. However (Spoilers from 1988), the ground starts to shake and there's an actual final boss revealing his identity. For the time, having a fake ending is something nobody did before (or that I know). This added a whole bunch of gameplay to it, which is great for those who loves that type of game.
The visual of the game is extremely similar to the two previous ones. There are some new sprites, but that's about it. There's not much to talk about here. The Music is also really good in this game. I wasn't tired of hearing them during my playthrough. The songs were really fitting with the environment that your characters were .
The gameplay is really similar to the other 2 games, so I will simply highlights the changes or things that they added to this game. First of all, you can choose your party that will accompany you during your quest. So you can create a party of 4. You can choose on each created character the gender, name, and class that they will have, which is great. Not only that, but you can switch mid quests since you can recruit and stored them whenever you want. This is really impressive for the time. Also, another thing that is really impressive for the time, is that there's some side quests in the game. Doing some side quests will give you items that are not mandatory to the story, but will help you during your quest. Lastly, they put a lot of funny items in it that makes the game really flavorful.
Saying all that, I really had some fun with the game, but I'm starting to be burned out by old school RPG 100% based on luck. At least in my list, I will not see one until a little while, so it will give me a break from them.
This game took me a lot of time to beat, but I finally able to pass through it. This is the third installment of this series and a lot of this game is similar to the others.
The plot of this game is that there's an fiend named Baramos is menacing to destroy the world (this is not the same world as in the first two games). You, a descendant of a hero named Ortega, is called by the king to create a party to stop that enemy. There's a nice change regarding the Hero of this game: You can choose if you want to be a boy or a girl. This is the first game that I've played yet that you can choose what you want to be. Also, almost every character that you will interact with will also consider the gender that you are. The party will need to find 6 orbs and when you collect them all, you will be able to go defeat that final boss. Once you beat it, you need to go back to the castle and get the Reward from the king. However (Spoilers from 1988), the ground starts to shake and there's an actual final boss revealing his identity. For the time, having a fake ending is something nobody did before (or that I know). This added a whole bunch of gameplay to it, which is great for those who loves that type of game.
The visual of the game is extremely similar to the two previous ones. There are some new sprites, but that's about it. There's not much to talk about here. The Music is also really good in this game. I wasn't tired of hearing them during my playthrough. The songs were really fitting with the environment that your characters were .
The gameplay is really similar to the other 2 games, so I will simply highlights the changes or things that they added to this game. First of all, you can choose your party that will accompany you during your quest. So you can create a party of 4. You can choose on each created character the gender, name, and class that they will have, which is great. Not only that, but you can switch mid quests since you can recruit and stored them whenever you want. This is really impressive for the time. Also, another thing that is really impressive for the time, is that there's some side quests in the game. Doing some side quests will give you items that are not mandatory to the story, but will help you during your quest. Lastly, they put a lot of funny items in it that makes the game really flavorful.
Saying all that, I really had some fun with the game, but I'm starting to be burned out by old school RPG 100% based on luck. At least in my list, I will not see one until a little while, so it will give me a break from them.
O sistema de classes e o mundo mais vivo torna esse terceiro jogo da saga só Roto muito melhor que seus antecessores, o sistema de batalha continua a mesma coisa do segundo e usando o mesmo gráfico, a história é legalzinha e os personagens NPCs são até que charmosos, principalmente um dos teus personagens que tu cria para ser um mercador e coloca ele para comandar uma cidade, o final dele é bem 😅 das idéias.
Despite being told by everyone how amazing this game is and how groundbreaking it is, playing it in retrospect is pretty difficult. It has all the problems of the other Dragon Warrior tiles on the NES (terrible story, progression), but it kind of pioneers the whole job system that would later go on to be used to great success in Final Fantasy III and Final Fantasy V.
I really can't recommend playing this one when those other 2 games exist, though. Especially Final Fantasy V, which is just an objectively better use of your time.
I really can't recommend playing this one when those other 2 games exist, though. Especially Final Fantasy V, which is just an objectively better use of your time.
8-bit. One bit per melatonin tablet I take during play sessions. Where did the freaking graphics go?
Not as compelling a start as DQ1 and DQ2, though I bet it gets better as it goes. The first DQ game I've tried recently that didn't totally grab me within an hour of starting.
What a gem of a game. I didn't think a GBC game could make me cry like 3 times but here we are. I got really sucked into this game, and played like 12 hours a day. I started taking notes, I lost sleep thinking about the world. Overall a wonderful experience. Fem!Erdrick for the win.
Limp, devoid of swag, frictionless. A Japanese player might be forgiven for liking it out of comforting familiarity, but anyone in the West who claims to is motivated by boyish contrarianism or, worse, an admiration for Tim Rogers.
This review contains spoilers
The moment when JRPGs got good.
This is a five-star rating more as a legacy pick than me really rating it that way as an experience today (where I think it's probably more four to four and a half). I rate the original Legend of Zelda as a five and the only meaningful difference in the quality and archaism of both for me is that I grew up with Zelda and not this, and I don't want to be that unfair.
It's hard to overstate how much of a leap this is from Dragon Quest II, really Final Fantasy is the more appropriate comparison, and this game came out only two months after that one. There's only one idea in it that I can think of as having probably been influenced by Final Fantasy, riding the dragon for a brief period at the end of the overworld before the fake-out final boss.
Yuji Horii's idea of a meaty RPG really adapting, not just aping (again, looking at Final Fantasy there) the D&D-style experience for the Famicom, really comes to a head here. You can roll and re-roll characters however you want, you can re-class them and start them at level 1 with all of their old powers if you want, there's a prestige class in the Sage. The open world (for most of the game, anyway) is based off of the real world map and gives a great intuition for where stuff is.
And most of all, beyond all the mechanics, this is the oldest JRPG I've played that really exudes lots of charm, dumb sex jokes (some of which I'm surprised got past the Nintendo of America censors, even if the puff-puffs didn't), silly names for things, comedic characters. The game acknowledges its silliness while still allowing for serious moments and plot twists that are, if not shocking, at least enough to get a notice out of someone on a console known for its bare excuse plots.
JRPGs before Dragon Quest III were mildly interesting but grindy experiences that were mostly just the best way to get a lot of time out of limited NES cartridge space without making a game controller-throwingly hard. JRPGs after Dragon Quest III would go on a decade-long run, culminating in Final Fantasy VII, as the definitive way to tell stories in this medium.
This is a five-star rating more as a legacy pick than me really rating it that way as an experience today (where I think it's probably more four to four and a half). I rate the original Legend of Zelda as a five and the only meaningful difference in the quality and archaism of both for me is that I grew up with Zelda and not this, and I don't want to be that unfair.
It's hard to overstate how much of a leap this is from Dragon Quest II, really Final Fantasy is the more appropriate comparison, and this game came out only two months after that one. There's only one idea in it that I can think of as having probably been influenced by Final Fantasy, riding the dragon for a brief period at the end of the overworld before the fake-out final boss.
Yuji Horii's idea of a meaty RPG really adapting, not just aping (again, looking at Final Fantasy there) the D&D-style experience for the Famicom, really comes to a head here. You can roll and re-roll characters however you want, you can re-class them and start them at level 1 with all of their old powers if you want, there's a prestige class in the Sage. The open world (for most of the game, anyway) is based off of the real world map and gives a great intuition for where stuff is.
And most of all, beyond all the mechanics, this is the oldest JRPG I've played that really exudes lots of charm, dumb sex jokes (some of which I'm surprised got past the Nintendo of America censors, even if the puff-puffs didn't), silly names for things, comedic characters. The game acknowledges its silliness while still allowing for serious moments and plot twists that are, if not shocking, at least enough to get a notice out of someone on a console known for its bare excuse plots.
JRPGs before Dragon Quest III were mildly interesting but grindy experiences that were mostly just the best way to get a lot of time out of limited NES cartridge space without making a game controller-throwingly hard. JRPGs after Dragon Quest III would go on a decade-long run, culminating in Final Fantasy VII, as the definitive way to tell stories in this medium.