RGR Game #009: Dragon Warrior III

About time, eh?

Exciting four-character party action!

All right, now we're back on track. Next up is the third installment in the outrageously-popular-in-Japan-but-not-quite-so-popular-in-the-US Dragon Warrior series, Dragon Warrior III. The game begins in the castle town of Aliahan, on the morning of your sixteenth birthday. As the son (or daughter; yes, you can choose!) of the brave warrior Ortega, who died fighting a dragon on the crater of an active volcano, the time has come for you to follow in his footsteps and make some tacos pop. Or maybe fight against the forces of evil. Yeah, that sounds more likely.

Once your mom finally manages to drag you out of bed and send you off to the castle, you meet with the king, who informs you that you've been approved to go out and fight as his successor. He then gives you a hefty quest: to seek out and destroy the Archfiend Baramos. He gives you 50 gold to get started, which I can only assume he happened to have found in his pocket, and tells you to go form a party and get going.

Having played through two Dragon Warrior games already, I think it's safe to assume Baramos will wind up not being the real final bad guy. Call it a hunch.

Mom, you're embarrassing me!

Jeez, I just turned 16!

Isn't it early to be talking about keys?

I feel like I'm being led somewhere...

Before forming my party, I went around and talked to everyone I could get to, and immediately started learning about some key called the Thief's Key made by a thief named Bakor. It turns out he's already in prison, and his key was stolen by an old man in a nearby tower (ugh, not a tower... I had my fill of towers with Faria), and I could get to the tower through the Cave on the Promontory. Looks like that'll be the first leg of my adventure.

I then headed to Luisa's Place, a little local eatery where potential party members gather, to recruit some help. For now, I decided to stick with the default party members waiting for me (Brindar the soldier, Theron the wizard and Viron the Pilgrim). You can also create your own party members, which amounts to selecting a name, gender and class; I made a few extra members, but I'll hold off for now, since I think these guys balance the party out pretty well.

That's a lot of slimes.

Apparently, Viron's a robot.

Once we've upgraded our equipment a bit and gained a few levels, we'll be heading out to the cave to get that key. Let the adventure begin!