Dragon Quest III: The Seeds of Salvation,^[a] titled Dragon Warrior III when initially localized to North America, is a 1988 role-playing video game developed by Chunsoft and published by Enix.

It is the third installment in the Dragon Quest series and was first released for the Family Computer (Famicom) in Japan and later for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in North America. The game saw an enhanced remake for the Super Famicom (the Japanese release of the Super NES) in 1996 and the Game Boy Color in 2001, and a port to mobile phones and the Wii in 2009 and 2011.

A version of the game for Android and iOS was released in Japan on September 25, 2014,^[2] and worldwide as Dragon Quest III: The Seeds of Salvation on December 4, 2014. It was the first time the game was given an official English subtitle. Later in 2021, another remake of the game titled Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake,^[b] based on Octopath Traveler‘s style, was announced during the franchise’s 35th anniversary livestream.^[1]

The first three Dragon Quest games are part of the same story, and Dragon Warrior III is the first game chronologically, as well as the third game that features the hero Erdrick (Loto in the Japanese releases and Game Boy Color localization). The story follows “the Hero” who is tasked with saving the world from the archfiend Baramos. Gathering a group of companions into a party, the Hero must travel the world, stopping at various towns and locations, and make their way to the Demon Lord Baramos’ lair.

Gameplay – Dragon Quest III

Dragon Quest III is noted for greatly expanding upon the gameplay of the original Dragon Quest and Dragon Quest II. The game uses basic role-playing video game conventions such as leveling up by gaining experience points and equipping items.^[3][4] The battle system is turn-based like the other games in the series, though the remakes incorporate various interface changes from later titles.

These include simpler door opening, a bag to store items instead of keeping them at a bank, quick item sorting with “Tidy Item” and “Tidy Bag” command, and a “Full HP” command to automate the process of casting healing and status restoring spells. And while earlier Dragon Quest games were non-linear in structure, Dragon Quest III featured an even more open-world experience. It also allowed the player to freely swap characters in and out of their party and introduced the day/night cycle in which certain items, characters, and quests are only accessible at specific times of the day.^[5][6]