My second playthrough of Dragon Warrior 3! This time the SNES version, and it plus DQ1+2 SNES look
Hi everyone, well I just recently done the two Kingdom Hearts games as well as my first playthrough of the SNES version of Chrono Trigger and even Super Mario RPG!! All that being said I wanted to share with you guys my initial thoughts about Dragon Warrior 3 which I'm working on now
* (I can't believe I overlooked this at first when typing this) Isn't it cute how the world map in DW3 looks kinda like, well the real world map?
* The graphics seem to have gotten a MAJOR overall compared to DW2...or maybe it's just me? And I know those who are more used to how more recent games look may not understand this, but having the enemies against a plain black background helps a lot in making them look more detailed and I understand they got some really nice looking big detailed ones coming up later.
* For my team, I went with the standard(?) Hero (myself, Estil), female Soldier (Denise my wife), male Pilgrim (no not John Wayne, my kitty Jamiee!), and female Wizard (my dearly departed Tweetie ). I must say they did a good job on the sprite's details considering how tiny they are (standard 8x8 pixel squares?)
* The whole day and night thing is quite clever...and the AVGN will be very happy to know it doesn't slowly type W...h...a...t...a...h...o...r...r...i...b...l...e...n...i...g...h...t...t...o...h...a...v...e...a...c...u...r...s...e
* The line up of weapons, armor, and so on is way more complex and you have to really pay attention to who can equip what...I just hope for the sake of all the players who did this game when it first came out pre-Internet that the game with damn good maps and reference cards and so on. And I'm guessing they probably had to also make their own maps and notes as they went along right?
* I very much appreciate the fact that now you can warp to whatever town you visited at least once...especially handy when dealing with the vault...speaking of which how many items can the vault hold?
* (I can't believe I overlooked this at first when typing this) Isn't it cute how the world map in DW3 looks kinda like, well the real world map?
* The graphics seem to have gotten a MAJOR overall compared to DW2...or maybe it's just me? And I know those who are more used to how more recent games look may not understand this, but having the enemies against a plain black background helps a lot in making them look more detailed and I understand they got some really nice looking big detailed ones coming up later.
* For my team, I went with the standard(?) Hero (myself, Estil), female Soldier (Denise my wife), male Pilgrim (no not John Wayne, my kitty Jamiee!), and female Wizard (my dearly departed Tweetie ). I must say they did a good job on the sprite's details considering how tiny they are (standard 8x8 pixel squares?)
* The whole day and night thing is quite clever...and the AVGN will be very happy to know it doesn't slowly type W...h...a...t...a...h...o...r...r...i...b...l...e...n...i...g...h...t...t...o...h...a...v...e...a...c...u...r...s...e
* The line up of weapons, armor, and so on is way more complex and you have to really pay attention to who can equip what...I just hope for the sake of all the players who did this game when it first came out pre-Internet that the game with damn good maps and reference cards and so on. And I'm guessing they probably had to also make their own maps and notes as they went along right?
* I very much appreciate the fact that now you can warp to whatever town you visited at least once...especially handy when dealing with the vault...speaking of which how many items can the vault hold?
Comments
* The graphics seem to have gotten a MAJOR overall compared to DW2...or maybe it's just me? And I know those who are more used to how more recent games look may not understand this, but having the enemies against a plain black background helps a lot in making them look more detailed and I understand they got some really nice looking big detailed ones coming up later.
DW2 DID have enemies against a plain black background. It was DW1 that had the area-specific background graphics in combat.
I thought DW2 had enemies (and overworld) graphics that were a BIG step up from DW1.
It also introduce more "spacious" caverns compared to the original, that seemed to stay as a standard in DW3 and 4 (as well as adding better town and "big" castle graphics in the overworld)
DW3 had some more elaborate bosses, but the overall enemy graphics were pretty similar to DW2, including the black background during combat.
Expect to do a lot of grinding in this one because it is "very" grindy......also your party is pretty squishy (Some might disagree) later in the game you have the option to turn a Pilgrim into a Sage which starts them back at level 1 however can learn all of the Wizard spells essentially combining two characters into 1.
Starting out with a Wizard and Pilgrim might pose a big challenge as your part can be wiped fairly easily if you have not played the game before.
The vault can hold enough stuff that you probably won't need to worry about it and just a little trick....if you put something in there that costs a lot of gold to get back you can simply just take a spare character out, put an item on them and return them back to the back-up roster.
http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Dragon_Warrior_III/Parties
And apparently the way promotions work in DW3 is also more complex than in FF1?
Yeah I noticed that grinding thing myself but I already learned from FF1 and DW1 and DW2 that especially for 8-bit RPGs, you just gotta suck it up and get used to it. And what was wrong with a Wizard and Pilgrim into my team? That's what was recommended as the "standard party"...though it's a bit more complex than FF1...with that it's Warrior as your QB (in DW3 they make you have a Hero as your QB), (toss-up), White Mage, Black Mage. I chose Thief because he gets a greater improvement with the promotion (and that is in fact the recommended team in the PS1 and GBA versions).
http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Drag...
And apparently the way promotions work in DW3 is also more complex than in FF1?
There is nothing "wrong" with it by any means but down the road you can turn a character into a Sage class which combines a Pilgrim and Wizard into a single class.
And what was wrong with a Wizard and Pilgrim into my team? That's what was recommended as the "standard party"...
Nothing, in particular, it's just a question of how much you want to grind to make the party durable enough.
I think in DW3 it's more common to do Hero / Soldier / Pilgrim / and then either a fighter, merchant, or thief
All 3 of those options are hardier than a Wizard, who doesn't get "good" spells until a higher relative level.
Any party is survivable, though, so I wouldn't worry about it. Just play the game how you want.
Pilgrims are savage as hell and reserved for only the bravest and most handsome heroes.
Is that why John Wayne loved to call people "pilgrim" all the time?
Another thing is is that when you are going through dungeons you don't have to manage MP as much....once you run out of MP (and you will) that Wizard just becomes a liability more than anything.
This village reminds me of Kowalalaland from that Nozzles anime/cartoon from 80s Nickelodeon, they don't want anything to do with humans, and in fact in Kowalalaland IIRC they will jail a human on sight just for being there! Talk about strict illegal immigration enforcement!!
Getting ready to take on that Cave of Dreams south of that Elf Village...is levels 12/13/13/13 about right for this part?
This village reminds me of Kowalalaland from that Nozzles anime/cartoon from 80s Nickelodeon, they don't want anything to do with humans, and in fact in Kowalalaland IIRC they will jail a human on sight just for being there! Talk about strict illegal immigration enforcement!!
Are you dying a lot? If not then it should be okay....if you feel like you are getting rocked, grind a bit.
Yeah that cave was a bit tough but I managed. I'm gonna grind some around Noaniels so I can also earn enough for that Cloak of Evasion (I already got the Wizard Wand for Tweetie my Wizard...hopefully she can put up a bit better fight now!)
Should help a lot really, one of the best armors in the game.
Am I the only one here who is quite impressed at how complex and big even 8-bit RPGs can be?
I would hope not! This stuff is absolutely nuts for the time.
That said, it's a classic. Probably the best of the NES offerings, even if the first is more popular.
As Toxie said, there's very little in Dragon Warrior 3 that can't be solved by grinding, except for a couple of the somewhat opaque fetch puzzles.
And on that note I'm about to take on the $25,000(?) pyramid and go for the Magic Key...I probably won't find this inside that pyramid though right?
So DW4 isn't like that?
DW 4 introduces the King Metal Slime which gives you 30,000 experience points if you defeat it. Not only that,but more than one can appear at a time so you can find an area where they pop up and level up pretty quick if you are patient.
So DW4 isn't like that?
I thought DW4 was actually really well-paced, and considerably less grindy than any game in the Erdrick/Loto trilogy.
(and as Guts points out, there are even-more-potent "metal" creatures for power-leveling, should you need it -- you get some kind of dragon-breath attack that instant-hits and can consistently kill the metal characters before they run away, as well -- in the other games, (DW1/DW2/DW3) it is MUCH less consistent to actually secure a kill against those kinds of enemies)
I guess by the 4th game they sorta knew what they were doing more. Isn't it odd though that not only did the 5th and 6th games not make it to the US but the first three got SNES (or Super Famicom I should say) upgrades but not DW4?
I was amazed we got the GBC remakes. The 1/2 combo cart is of the few games I got release day.
I guess by the 4th game they sorta knew what they were doing more. Isn't it odd though that not only did the 5th and 6th games not make it to the US but the first three got SNES (or Super Famicom I should say) upgrades but not DW4?
I don't find it particularly odd, since it's a matter of timing.
The first three together are a trilogy, so they'd all get upgraded to SNES together, presumably.
The fourth came out in 1990 in Japan, and 1992 in America, so it was pretty much concurrent with the SNES, so probably wouldn't get the upgrade treatment.
And if it took them TWO YEARS to localize DW4, you can see why they might not have done the same for 5 and 6, since then you're getting past the life of the SNES by the time they would have made it to market here. (dragon quest 6 was released in 1995 -- so 1997 is getting pretty far out there for an SNES release!)
They make "more" than enough money even without localization,. Dragon Quest is "massive" in Japan and I mean "MASSIVE" like it is one of the biggest things over there when it comes to video games. (during the NES/SNES days especially).
I am pretty sure they had to release the games on weekends because it would cause masses of people to call in to work when one would come out.
There is a reason why you can literally buy boxed Famicom and SFC versions of the games for next to nothing, I bet they can't even give them away for free over there.
I just stopped by at the Oasis town/kingdom called ISIS!?!? and in the castle there's kitties!! SQUEE!!! ^^
I really need to snag all the NES DW games at some point.