Dragon Quest III

Dragon Quest III: Soshite Densetsu e (Japanese: そして伝説へ…, lit. And Into the Legend), originally released as Dragon Warrior III in North America, is the third installment of the popular Dragon Quest series, first released for the Famicom in Japan, or NES in the United States. The game later was ported as an enhanced remake on the Super Famicom and Game Boy Color.

Plot summary
Dragon Quest III is set many years before the original Dragon Quest in a world bearing great similarity to the real world. A wicked fiend, Baramos, threatens to destroy the world. The hero, son or daughter (you can choose to be either male or female) of the legendary Ortega, recruits up to three travelling companions and sets out to defeat Baramos, only to find later that Baramos is merely a disciple of Zoma, the fiend who rules the Dark World below. The hero then travels to the Dark World, which is known as Alefgard in subsequent installments of the series, and restores light. For his bravery, the hero receives the title of Erdrick (or in later versions, Loto).

The flow of the game is as follows. The hero travels from his home country of Aliahan to explore the world and acquire two of the three keys needed to open doors throughout the game. After saving two people of the town of Baharata from the rogue Kandar, he receives Black Pepper, which he trades for a sailing ship at Portoga. With the ship, the hero acquires the Final Key and the six mystical orbs which are used to revive the legendary bird Lamia. Lamia takes the hero to Baramos' castle. After a ferocious battle, the hero's celebration is cut off as Zoma attacks and opens the pit to the dark world. In the dark world, the hero acquires the Stone of Sunlight and the Staff of Rain. These items create the Rainbow Bridge, which leads the hero to Zoma's castle for the final confrontation.

Dragon Quest III is noted for greatly expanding upon the original Dragon Quest and Dragon Quest II. Dragon Quest III adds a class system, in which each character has a certain class. While the hero always keeps the Hero class, the other characters can choose among the following: Soldier, Fighter, Cleric, Mage, Dealer, Jester, and Sage. The choice of class greatly affects the character's stats and spells he or she can learn. Furthermore, upon reaching level 20, a character may change classes at the temple of Dharma. Another innovation is an arena where the player can place bets on the outcome of monster battles. Dragon Quest III features a much larger world than its predecessors, as well as a much larger array of items, equipment, magic, and enemies.

Both remake versions of Dragon Quest III offers many new features, including a mini game called Pachisi (called Suguroku in Japan) from which the player can win items, monster and attack animation in battles, a new Thief class, two challenging bonus dungeons, a monster medal collection, new items, the small medal system seen in later Dragon Quest games, individual personality types for the members of your party which determine which stats increase when they level up, a pre-game sequence in which your Hero's personality is determined based on your answers to moral dilemmas similar to that in Ultima IV, and many other small changes. The Game Boy color version is based on the Super Famicom version, which is currently being fan translated.

Popularity
Dragon Quest III has the distinction of being the very game that caused in 1988 the Japanese government to outlaw further releases of Dragon Quest games on school days; a law still in effect today. A survey conducted by the magazine Famitsu in early 2006 among its readers placed Dragon Quest III as the third best game of all time, being preceded by only Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy VII.

As is the case with other North American releases of the series, Dragon Warrior III did not come close to meeting the success of its Japanese counterpart. The NES version of Dragon Warrior III sold fewer copies than both Dragon Warrior and Dragon Warrior II, though it sold more copies than Dragon Warrior IV. The GBC version did not sell well in North America either, nor did it sell as well as the original version did in the same region.

Soundtrack
As with every Dragon Quest, Koichi Sugiyama composed the music and directed all the associated spinoffs. Here is the tracklisting of the Symphonic Suite:
 * 1) Roto (1:41)
 * 2) Prologue (3:58)
 * 3) Rondo (2:59)
 * 4) Around the World (Around the World ~ Town ~ Jipang ~ Pyramid ~ Village) (6:48)
 * 5) Adventure (3:09)
 * 6) Dungeon ~ Tower ~ The Phantom Ship (5:34)
 * 7) Distant Memories (2:52)
 * 8) Requiem ~ Small Shrine (3:11)
 * 9) Sailing (2:53)
 * 10) Heavenly Flight (2:44)
 * 11) Grueling Fight (4:05)
 * 12) Zoma's Castle (3:30)
 * 13) Fighting Spirits (Battle Theme ~ In Alefgard ~ Hero's Challenge) (5:41)
 * 14) Into the Legend (3:01)