Hyrule Chozo

Review - Dragon Warrior III (GBC, 2001)

A grand adventure dressed in 8-bit, turn-based clothing

In the early 2000s, Japanese developer Enix decided to re-release three classic 80s RPGs from their popular Dragon Quest series (known as Dragon Warrior in North America) on the Game Boy Color, gussied-up with improved visuals, streamlined gameplay and additional game modes.  The result was two excellent GBC cartridges, Dragon Warrior I & II and Dragon Warrior III.  I played and loved the former (you can read that review here), and much of this review can be boiled down to “like that, but more.”

This is very much an RPG in the old-school style, and the extent to which you can appreciate that will determine how much you get out of the experience.  There are no flashy cutscenes, no active-time battle system and no voice acting - in short, nothing you would call “pizazz.”  If what you come to RPGs for is high-fidelity visuals, high-energy combat, or deep character development, you will probably be disappointed here.  However, if what you want is exploration and discovery, wrapped in charming visuals and solid mechanics, Dragon Warrior III may just do the trick.

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soapy-illusions replied to your post: Summer “reading” list:

Curious to know how many DQ games you’ve gone through so far? I’ve finished…4 so far. Currently working on DQVI and the original DQ. Apparently I can’t get sick of these games.

So far, I’ve only played the first three.  I am on a self-imposed quest to play every numbered entry in the series, and so far I am loving them.  It probably says something not so complimentary about my personality, but the turn-based battles and grinding progression really appeal to me.  I should have a review of the third game up soon, and you can read my review of the first two here.

[NES] The Legend of Zelda

zenofgamedesign:

Some design docs for the original Legend of Zelda, one of my favorite games, and one of the few games I have great nostalgia for that also happens to be objectively good.

imposternostalgia replied to your post: Summer “reading” list 

I’m curious, why the dislike for Madworld? I haven’t played it so I can’t say anything of it. Just wonderin.

It is basically just a bunch of quick-time events and context-sensitive actions, strung together with a pretty stupid plot.  Gameplay-wise, there’s just nothing there.  It’s all just one big quick-time event.  Go here, press the button they tell you to, repeat.  The motion controls are also really sloppy and, as with most motion controls, are completely unnecessary and would have been much better with traditional controls.  There are also some EXTREMELY racist and sexist character portrayals, so much so that it’s difficult to watch, and I began turning off the sound during cutscenes.

nigomonster replied to your post: Summer “reading” list 

It’s a shame, I’m of the opinion that Madworld is a good fun game, with its own charm…not a masterpiece of course, but certainly one of those games that can be mindlessly fun.

What they seem to have been going for, which can be really fun, is a sort of “mayhem simulator,” where the player gets to try out and discover all kinds of different and interesting ways to cause carnage.  That sort of thing is not usually my bag, but I understand the appeal.  But as I said above, the developers limit your involvement so much that it just feels like you are watching a really stupid movie that occasionally asks you to flail your arms around.  The visual design is really cool, but there isn’t much more positive I can say about it, personally.

Hmm that’s going to be pretty tough to find cheaper then that since that game is such a GC classic. We recently picked up Super Smash Brothers Melee and could barely find that anywhere. When we did it was 19.99 still after all these years haha.

I know.  There’s just something about first party Nintendo games that they never seem to come down in price.  I’ve bought canonized classics like Silent Hill 2, Half-Life, Halo, Psychonauts, Okami, and Ico, and never paid more than $10-15, usually much less.  But whenever I look at Mario or Zelda games, it’s like they’re still on the shelf, even if it’s been 20 years.