Dragon Quest III (Super Famicom) - Retroview

Review Breakdown
Battle System	9
Interface	8
Music & Sound	10
Originality	N/A
Story	6
Localization	N/A
Replay Value	10
Visuals	10
Difficulty	Moderate
Completion Time	20-26 Hours
Overall
A pretty, pretty town scene.

   Most fans of Dragon Warrior, a.k.a. Dragon Quest, are certain to be familiar with the original NES versions of the game, as well as the remakes of the Loto Trilogy games (the first three) for Gameboy Color, what with improved graphics, interfaces, and so forth. Before then, however, the Loto Trilogy had previously been remade for the Super Famicom, Japan’s equivalent of the Super NES, bearing improvements similar to those in the Gameboy Color versions. Since Enix America was closed at the time, however, these remakes sadly didn’t make it here to the States.

   Once again, the story follows our trusty hero/heroine, the child of Ortega, who fell into a volcano on the path towards defeating the Demon Lord Baramos, as he or she awakens from a personality-deciding dream and receives that particular mission from the King of Aliahan to follow in his or her father's lead.

   Our hero or heroine, of course, can recruit three pregenerated or customized characters into his or her party, all with various classes that can be changed sometime through the game, accounting for endless replayability, as does a little side quest you receive after beating the game (just the one involving the castle in the sky, as the monster medal quest isn’t present in this game).

   Though the Herculean monster medal-collecting quest is absent in this particular version of Dragon Quest III, players will most certainly be astounded by the stunning visuals, which, of course, are far better than those of the Gameboy Color. For one thing, battles actually have colorful backgrounds rather than none at all. Furthermore, the character sprites are larger and prettier, as are the vast environments of the game, including the world map, towns, dungeons, towers, and so forth.

   What’s also stunning is the music, composed by Kôichi Sugiyama, Japan’s little hybrid of John Williams and most any classical musician you can think of. Unlike in the Gameboy Color version, it sounds as though it’s being performed by an actual orchestra rather than having that blippety-bloppety-bloop quality that you get with Gameboy games and those of the dead systems before the SNES. If you think you’ve heard Dragon Quest III’s music before playing this version, you’re dead wrong, as the tunes in this port come in full bloom and beauty.

   Despite the majesty of this game’s graphics and music, I found a few flaws in the interface that I didn’t see in the Gameboy Color version. Playing of course in Japanese, some of the strange names that scenario writer Yûji Horii gave to magic spells, Hoimi being an exception (that’s his word for Heal), truly confounded me, especially given that nearly all of them weren’t traditional Katakana equivalents of English words (as is the case in a few RPGs), such as Gira for Fireball, for example.

"Prepare to be pecked, son of Ortega!"

   Furthermore, I didn’t like the setup of the Monster Coliseum mini-game, whereas in this version, you can bet on only one battle, sparking no chain of more battles for higher stakes even if you win (you can start a good chain of battles in the Gameboy Color version, thus leading to easy, yet risky, money). This frustrated me well, since money was a bit of a problem late into the game, with most weapons and armor being arse-expensive and most enemies giving squat for Gold. Still, the Pachisi boards were the same as ever, and equally rewarding as they were in the Gameboy Color port.

   The battle system, finally moving on, is as simple as ever, bearing the typical input-all-your-allies’-commands-and-let-them-go-at-it setup, and the slightly annoying the-enemy-can-kill-you-before-your-healing-gets-in flaw. Still, keeping your HP high in the first place can avert this in most situations, and like in the Gameboy Color version, attacks against dead enemies aren’t wasted, and the hero or heroine can defend, unlike in the NES version.

   Overall, the Super Famicom remake of Dragon Quest III is certainly a pretty game, and if you can read Japanese, it’s worth a gander or two. Otherwise, just stick with the Gameboy Color version, which is quite similar in most aspects, except with those monster medals added.