Remakes?

[Vireo Gilvus]

The SFC version was released in 1996. There was also a Game Boy Color version released in 2001, which was mostly the same as the SFC version, but with scaled-down graphics and audio, a second bonus dungeon, and a Monster Medal-collecting side quest.

[Warlock]

I picked this one up a couple weeks ago, and I've been playing through it ever since- just beat Kandar (now "Robbin' 'ood") for the second time, and I'm heading back to get the ship.

It does in fact use the visuals from the SNES version, though there's enough changed about the interface that I'm guessing it's a remake without redrawn graphics rather than the SNES version running in an emulator (as some ports- EG the iOS version of Shin Megami Tensei- pretty clearly are).

I kinda like the idea of personalities as an addition to make your chararcters more unique, but I'm not sure how well it works with the general randomness of DQ3's level-ups. The game feels a lot easier than the NES version, but as with the Arte Piazza remakes, I'm not sure how much of that is actual difference and how much is faster combat making grinding easier. The addition of whip and boomerang-type weapons definitely makes life easier eventually, though...

- HC

[Vireo Gilvus]

I mostly disregard the personalities, although I will say that the best ones are those that emphasize Wisdom/Intelligence (for higher MP growth). In my opinion, MP is the most important stat in DQ3. That's why I always have the hero answer "Yes" to all the questions in the beginning survey, so I can play the "Monster" scenario, at which point I kill all the villagers and start with the "Logical" personality. Yay for wanton violence and destruction!

The iOS version of DQ3 sounds intriguing, although I do wish they could've put in another minigame to replace Treasures & Trapdoors. That, to me, was one of the funnest parts of the Super Famicom and Game Boy Color versions.

[Warlock]

I forgot how I answered the questions (but I'm pretty sure I got at least one of them twice, weirdly enough), but I ended up with the meet-the-old-man-in-the-forest scenario. I pushed his stupid boulder for him, and still got the "lazybones" personality. Luckily you can change it in fairly short order. :)

Thinking on it more, I like the personalities in theory- I'm all for separating stat growth from character class- but there's neither enough information ingame to see how they'll affect stat growth nor enough difference made by them to really make them useful. I mean... It's great that I have a "daredevil" personality and all, but looking in a FAQ is the only way I figured out exactly what that would do for me. Most personalities also only change your growth on each stat by under 20% in either direction, which adds up over time but is neither that visible before you've gained lots of levels nor distinct from the noise of the 'natural' randomness of stat gains. Maybe if there were, I dunno, a fortune teller who'd give you enough of a blurb about each personality which gave you a better idea of what they were good/bad at or something...

I mostly gave my dudes personalities that seemed to fit (Hero -> Daredevil, Martial Artist -> Paragon, Theif -> Slippery Devil, Cleric -> Genius) and stuck with it that way.

I just hit the renamed Shrine of Dhama and did my first couple class changes... I made my Cleric a Sage, and my Theif a Cleric for now (though I expect after he learns Multiheal, I'll make him a Thief again). I probably could have planned this party out better. :P

I'm not sure if anything's actually new from the GBC version save the SNES-quality visuals and the removal of T&T, so you may be better off replaying the SNES version if there's a fanslation, honestly.

- HC

[Vireo Gilvus]

Yeah, the game could've done a much better job explaining what personalities did, and how they affected each stat. But that's what GameFAQs is for, eh? (This FAQ for the GBC version has a section on personalities and their effects, while this page has the name changes for the personalities in the GBC and smartphone versions.)

And yes, the SFC version was fully translated back in 2009. For more information, visit this webpage: www.dqtranslations.com/node/16

[Warlock]

Two things I've noticed that appear to be new, but may date to the SNES/GBC versions:

- Sages now get a superset of the mage/priest spell trees- my memory from playing the NES version many moons ago is that they originally had a unique spell set that included both mage and priest spells but didn't include exactly the same spellset at exactly the same levels.
- With the addition of the Bag, they've removed item storage from the bank. The most notable fallout from this is that the Golden Claw now only increases your encounter rate in the Pyramid itself rather than everywhere. This is kind of an interesting change, as it makes the Golden Claw a much more useful weapon (AFAIK it's better than any of the buyable Martial Artist weapons; there are eventually better ones, but I think they're rare drops in the last dungeon and/or postgame-only.

- HC

[Warlock]

Man, Baramos is a lot tougher than I remember. :/

- HC

[Vireo Gilvus]

I recommend staying away from Baramos until you're in your mid-thirties and have learned Insulatle, Multiheal, and Kazing. They put Liquid Metal Slimes in Baramos' castle for a reason! (Of course, that's just one conservative RPG player's opinion.)

[Warlock]

Took a couple tries, but I eventually bested him around level 30- it's kinda a matter of luck at that point, though. Insulate and Multiheal would have helped a lot. I suspect he uses the same sequence of attacks every time, which also means that if you memorized that, you may be able to use Bounce to reflect his very painful Kaboom spells...

I'll grant that I've only played through this game once before, and it was a long time ago, but I remember Orochi being hard and Baramos being a pushover on the NES version; this time, my experience was basically exactly the opposite. Maybe I tried to take Orochi before I was really ready back then.

Now in Alefgard farming Muddy Hands for exp- it's a pretty reliable way to do it, and the results are competitive with hunting Liquid Metal Slimes. It's not actually hard, but man, it takes forever to get anywhere in this place because normal battles take so long. :)

- HC

[Vireo Gilvus]

Feb 17, 2015 6:24:41 GMT -5 Warlock said:

Now in Alefgard farming Muddy Hands for exp- it's a pretty reliable way to do it, and the results are competitive with hunting Liquid Metal Slimes. It's not actually hard, but man, it takes forever to get anywhere in this place because normal battles take so long.
- HC

Good luck! It's all fun and games until Stone Guardians start showing up unannounced, which is why I never liked that method.

Congratulations on beating Baramos, and enjoy reaping Alefgard's rewards!

[Warlock]

I've found a couple reasonably good ways to deal with Stone Guardians- Snooze works very well on them, and if I've buffed myself and only one pops up at a time I can kill them as fast as they appeare. Maxing out everyone's defense also makes their attacks do a lot less damage, too.

I racked up about 50k exp while I was waiting for the train this morning that way, so there's that. It should be noted that I also don't have anyone who can equip the Poison Needle and only just learned Puff, so my options for actually killing Liquid Metal Slimes are limited. :/

- HC

[Warlock]

Finished the 'normal' quest earlier this week; had my first win against Xenlon today, but it wasn't fast enough to get the last 'story' bonus. Will probably grind a little and try again.

Dragon Quest 3, in a lot of ways, represents a high-water mark for NES RPGs- there's a lot to like about the game on a lot of different levels. The difficulty curve, even on the NES, was pretty reasonable compared to a lot of its' contemporaries; the combat is simple, but setting up your characters and strategizing was involved enough to keep things fun. It definitely had the best version of the Dragon Quest class system; simple enough to be intuitive but still fun to mess around with. I also really like the large, 'open-world' section after you get the ship, when suddenly you've got a bunch of goals that can be tackled in most any order and a huge new world to explore... The world's small enough that it's easy to discover things, but it's big enough that it's fun to explore and find everything in. It's a very different approach from the "go to town, solve problem, open way to next town" pattern of the later games in the series, which started with DQ4 and became pretty much standard in 5 and later.

(also, one of my pet peeves in RPGs is when you get some amazing-seeming new mode of transport... that can only take you, like, one or two places. You know what I mean; you get a ship, but you can only land in ports- and there's only one port you haven't been to already. You get an airship, but it can't go over mountains- and wouldn't you know it, there's only one new town that's not ringed by them. The NES Final Fantasy 3 was a pretty egregious example of this, if you're looking for one.)

It's an awesome game, and the port's really solid. Strongly recommended if you're looking for a Dragon Quest game to play on a mobile device. :)

- HC

[Vireo Gilvus]

Congrats on beating Xenlon! Too bad you couldn't finish the battle quickly enough. Here's a helpful tip: unlike most bosses, he's vulnerable to attack spells, and Kafrizzle (formerly Blazemost) seems to work the best.

I enjoyed your review of the game, and I have a request for you. When you manage to win against Xenlon in the "proper" amount of turns, can you tell me what the possible "wishes" are? In the SFC and GBC versions, he could unlock a new T'n'T board, and in the GBC version, he could give you a bunch of rare and/or inaccessible monster medals. However, the mobile version doesn't have T'n'T or monster medals.

[Warlock]

My one big complaint is that the items you need in Alefgard often seem to be hidden in kind of arbitrary locations that aren't really clued- there isn't a lot of guidance on where to find the Fairy Flute or Sun Stone in particular.

I think I mostly need about 3-4 more levels for everyone; I'm not fast enough that my casters can reliably go before Xenlon, which is a serious liability. Maybe if I make my hero into an honorary healer and switch the Meteorite Bracer over to him... Hmm.

I believe the first wish is to revive Ortega, and subsequent wishes are changes to the 'best' personality types. Which... Honestly seems kinda useless at that point in the game, frankly.

- HC

[Warlock]

Yep. Beat Xenlon in 35 turns or under, and you get a choice of bringing Ortega back to life... or getting an issue of "Guns and Buns", which gives the all-around best female personality or a pretty good male one.

I'll leave determining what sort of document "Guns and Buns" is as an exercise to the reader. :P

Took me 27 turns with all my characters at level 50+... You can get more wishes by beating him in 25 turns or less, but I'm not gonna bother.

- HC