Dragon Warrior III

The hero turns sixteen and his mother sends him to the king to continue the work of his lost father, Ortega. So begins one of the most ambitious classics of the genre, an epic that unfolded an adventure of gigantic scope on the little Game Boy Color.

Dragon Warrior III, known in Japan as Dragon Quest III, is a legend already in its original Famicom release from the late eighties. It introduced an elaborate class system, in which the player assembles their own party from various classes such as warrior, mage, or priest, and can change them over the course of the game. This freedom and party-building was extraordinarily progressive for its time and became the foundation on which the series continued to build.

The game is a top-down turn-based JRPG with battles against random enemies, gathering experience, and gradually strengthening the party. The story is famous for its scope and especially its concluding twist, which cleverly links the third installment with the very beginning of the whole series, turning the trilogy into an elegantly closed whole. The music was composed by Koichi Sugiyama and the characters designed by the famous artist Akira Toriyama, author of Dragon Ball, whose signature gave the series its unmistakable visual style.

The Game Boy Color version was released as a remake of the original game and brought color graphics, quality-of-life improvements, and additional content, including a new dungeon and minigames. It was a comfortable way to play this key classic on a portable device in a form that respected the original while modernizing it at the same time.

Culturally, the significance of Dragon Quest, especially in Japan, can scarcely be overstated. There the series ranks among the national treasures, and the third installment is often placed among its peaks. For the Western player, the Game Boy Color version presents an opportunity to get to know the roots of the entire JRPG genre in a playable and digestible form that can be carried along.

Why play it: The roots of the JRPG genre with a timeless class system and design by Akira Toriyama. A key classic in a convenient portable form.