Dragon Warrior 3 Remix
Oct. 28th, 2009 12:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroHaving classes doesn’t mean I’ve had to give up video games completely, just that I’ve needed to be rather judicious with my game-playing time.
After trying the NES version and the GBC version of Dragon Warrior 3, and giving up on both less than halfway through out of frustration, I finally got all the way through the game, playing the new fan translation of the SNES Remix version of the game.
The SNES version of 3 was obviously the basis for the DS versions of 4, 5 and 6 – it incorporates many of the changes the later games included, such as the "bag" to hold excess inventory, the T’n’T board game (called "Pachisi" in this version) the one-press "idiot button" for talking and searching, etc. Most of the features that made those games eminently more playable are here, too. The GBC version of the game was actually based off of this, but had to be dumbed-down so much (and included the annoying "Monster Medals" sidequest) that it wasn’t much more playable than the NES version.
The fan translation is very nice. The plot is clear and the clues given by townspeople seem as straightforward as they can be while retaining the wander-factor of the original Japanese. The only issues I noticed were occasional wrapping errors, particularly in combat, but nothing that disturbs gameplay. No problems understanding anything, no blocks of glitchy text that I could find. Also no system problems—no freezing, graphical errors, inventory problems or spontaneous changes in character status. So props to the translators and patchers.
(If I had any complaints on that front, it would be that they used the Game Boy version translations of town and spell names, for the most part. I’m much more attached to the NES town names, especially in Alfegard, and I’ve grown used to the spell translation conventions introduced in 7 and used for the remakes of 4 and 5. But that’s a nitpick, not an error.)
It occurred to me that most Dragon Warrior/Dragon Quest games aren’t actually that difficult, as RPGs go, but you have to know how to approach them:
Learn to love buff spells - Until FFXII, you could pretty much get through any Final Fantasy game without ever casting a buff spell on your party or a debuff on an enemy (occasionally, you needed to cast Reflect or Float on a puzzle boss; that doesn’t count). They just weren’t useful. In DQ games, they’re desperately necessary for boss fights, and even some random battles, and are MP-priced accordingly. Barrier (aka Insulatle) is the only way to survive any boss that has a hit-all fire or ice attack, and that’s most of them after mid-game. In DQ3, the Increase (Defense-Up) spell is stackable, which means that you can keep casting it until physical attacks no longer hurt you at all. It’s a viable strategy against several bosses.
Abuse Infinite-Use Items - Using weapons as items, or finding items that never break, went out of style in Final Fantasy games after the NES era, and was never in the SaGa (Final Fantasy Legend) games. Dragon Quest loves it, and expects you to use it. If you get a weapon that casts Blazemore, you should never spend MP on Blazemore again, and you should be using it against every enemy that’s weak to it. In the late game of most DQs, you get an item called the Sage’s Stone that casts HealUs when used in battle...and never runs out. The final dungeons (and often final bosses) are much, much easier when you can heal your entire party every turn for free.
Learn to love the grind…but not that much - 3, 4 and 5 have 20-30 hours of gameplay, and I expect 6 to be similar; 7 is insane and 8 is about 50 hours. You need to expect about a quarter of that to be grinding, either for XP or money. Usually, that’ll be divided up into 1) The first thing you do, 2) after the second or third dungeon, 3) right after you get a boat and 4) right before the final dungeon. (If you’re clever about it, you can make it to a place where high-XP metal slimes hang out and cut grinding time by doing it there.) I had an interesting experience in 3 where I was able to handle the enemies in the (first) final dungeon with no problem, but Baramos pwned me and I needed to grind. Turns out, that dungeon (which has metal slimes running around in it) is one of the best places to grind if you need to.
I find it amusing that the Dragon Quest series has taken up so much of my gaming time the last year or two, after being mostly off the radar since my childhood.
After trying the NES version and the GBC version of Dragon Warrior 3, and giving up on both less than halfway through out of frustration, I finally got all the way through the game, playing the new fan translation of the SNES Remix version of the game.
The SNES version of 3 was obviously the basis for the DS versions of 4, 5 and 6 – it incorporates many of the changes the later games included, such as the "bag" to hold excess inventory, the T’n’T board game (called "Pachisi" in this version) the one-press "idiot button" for talking and searching, etc. Most of the features that made those games eminently more playable are here, too. The GBC version of the game was actually based off of this, but had to be dumbed-down so much (and included the annoying "Monster Medals" sidequest) that it wasn’t much more playable than the NES version.
The fan translation is very nice. The plot is clear and the clues given by townspeople seem as straightforward as they can be while retaining the wander-factor of the original Japanese. The only issues I noticed were occasional wrapping errors, particularly in combat, but nothing that disturbs gameplay. No problems understanding anything, no blocks of glitchy text that I could find. Also no system problems—no freezing, graphical errors, inventory problems or spontaneous changes in character status. So props to the translators and patchers.
(If I had any complaints on that front, it would be that they used the Game Boy version translations of town and spell names, for the most part. I’m much more attached to the NES town names, especially in Alfegard, and I’ve grown used to the spell translation conventions introduced in 7 and used for the remakes of 4 and 5. But that’s a nitpick, not an error.)
It occurred to me that most Dragon Warrior/Dragon Quest games aren’t actually that difficult, as RPGs go, but you have to know how to approach them:
Learn to love buff spells - Until FFXII, you could pretty much get through any Final Fantasy game without ever casting a buff spell on your party or a debuff on an enemy (occasionally, you needed to cast Reflect or Float on a puzzle boss; that doesn’t count). They just weren’t useful. In DQ games, they’re desperately necessary for boss fights, and even some random battles, and are MP-priced accordingly. Barrier (aka Insulatle) is the only way to survive any boss that has a hit-all fire or ice attack, and that’s most of them after mid-game. In DQ3, the Increase (Defense-Up) spell is stackable, which means that you can keep casting it until physical attacks no longer hurt you at all. It’s a viable strategy against several bosses.
Abuse Infinite-Use Items - Using weapons as items, or finding items that never break, went out of style in Final Fantasy games after the NES era, and was never in the SaGa (Final Fantasy Legend) games. Dragon Quest loves it, and expects you to use it. If you get a weapon that casts Blazemore, you should never spend MP on Blazemore again, and you should be using it against every enemy that’s weak to it. In the late game of most DQs, you get an item called the Sage’s Stone that casts HealUs when used in battle...and never runs out. The final dungeons (and often final bosses) are much, much easier when you can heal your entire party every turn for free.
Learn to love the grind…but not that much - 3, 4 and 5 have 20-30 hours of gameplay, and I expect 6 to be similar; 7 is insane and 8 is about 50 hours. You need to expect about a quarter of that to be grinding, either for XP or money. Usually, that’ll be divided up into 1) The first thing you do, 2) after the second or third dungeon, 3) right after you get a boat and 4) right before the final dungeon. (If you’re clever about it, you can make it to a place where high-XP metal slimes hang out and cut grinding time by doing it there.) I had an interesting experience in 3 where I was able to handle the enemies in the (first) final dungeon with no problem, but Baramos pwned me and I needed to grind. Turns out, that dungeon (which has metal slimes running around in it) is one of the best places to grind if you need to.
I find it amusing that the Dragon Quest series has taken up so much of my gaming time the last year or two, after being mostly off the radar since my childhood.
