dragon quest 3 is truly deserving of its legendary status! this game hit all the right spots for me, and i loved every second of it. admittedly, a lot of my enjoyment for this game is pretty subjective, and i just really, really vibe with the atmosphere, world, design, story etc. but even looking at it objectively, it's astounding to think that the granddaddy of RPGs did so many things right so early. hell, as an adventure game, i feel like there are only a few games that match its quality, like BOTW. every single thing you do on the side as you explore somehow ends up tying into how you tackle the main story, and i've never felt more off-rails playing an RPG-- yet, it still doesn't fall into the frustrating hole of being TOO cryptic, because everywhere you go has just enough nuggets of information about other places or secrets to find. in my opinion, even 33 years after its release, dragon quest 3's near-perfect balance of conveyance and blind exploration has yet to be matched by any adventure game that has ever come after.

with it being so old, though, it's impossible for it not to show at least SOME age, and it becomes obvious through things like the encounter rate, some dungeon designs, and small quality of life aspects that are usually addressed in more modern RPGs. i played this on snes9x, and while i usually try to avoid using the speed-up function for any game to get the intended experience, i will admit that there were several times during my playthrough where i ended up fast-forwarding through small frustrating/boring sections.

despite its flaws, i can confidently say that dragon quest 3 won my heart ten times over. i wholeheartedly believe that its pros vastly outweigh its cons, and it's definitely going down as one of my favorite games of all time. 5/5. anxiously awaiting the hd-2d remake!

(p.s. backloggd pls add a "played on super famicom" option)