The Dragon Quest series usually makes minor changes from game to game while keeping the same general style. Looking at the third and first games, you can see how much the series changed in a few short years. It is fun to see where things started and how things have changed.
The setting and story for these games don’t change all that much in the first three games. I keep trying to think back to the first time when I played Dragon Quest III. It was cool to see how it tied into the series. The first game in the series did a good job of laying a foundation that was expanded on in the next few games.
I’m going to do my best not to bash the first game. Both of these are good games. What I’m going to do is hopefully highlight the improvements made to the series.
Game Descriptions/Overviews
Both games are high fantasy adventures, and they happen to be parts of the same story. If you made it this far, then that shouldn’t surprise you. On the surface, there are a few differences that can be explained as a development team learning how to get the most out of the NES hardware.
Dragon Quest is a high fantasy RPG where you play as a single protagonist. Your goal is to gather key items, save a princess, and eventually defeat an evil dragon. This is a turn-based game and has cartoonish graphics.
Dragon Quest III is a high fantasy RPG where you go on a quest to defeat an evil wizard. This time, you’re following in the footsteps of your father, and after beating the bad guy, the real threat appears. This is where you go to another world, which happens to be the same one from the first game.
Those are brief overviews of each game, and there is more to them. They both have some good things in them, and I enjoyed playing both of them. Let’s go over the major differences between them, and then get into their core mechanics.
Main Differences
There are a few major differences between these two games. They have to do with the party system, setting, and story. Let’s take a look at those areas, and hopefully, I don’t think of too many other things to tack onto this.
The party systems are extremely different. Dragon Quest has a single protagonist who has to take on every role in the party. The third game has you take control of four characters, and you can create more party members if you so choose. This lets you have some customization options for how you want to play.
There are some differences between the settings. While both games are high fantasy settings, they take place on different worlds for most of the games. Dragon Quest III starts in a different world, and then has you travel to the world of the first game.
Dragon Quest III has a more complex story than the first game. This is something you might expect from the third game in a series of video games. It has one big twist and a few things that would end up being used in other RPGs.
Those are the major differences that I could think of. There are more, as well as some minor differences that I’ll get into in the next section. Let’s move on to the core mechanics of these two games.
Comparing Core Mechanics (Combat, Story, Visuals, etc)
The core mechanics of these games aren’t all that different. The combat and graphics are mostly the same, but the stories and storytelling are different. Much of this is due to the two of them being in the same series and made by the same people.
Dragon Quest and Dragon Quest III are both turn-based RPGs; they use a first person perspective on the combat screen and have similar graphics. On the world and town maps, things also look similar. There are some minor differences, but the art style is largely the same.
The stories and the way the games tell them are different. Dragon Quest has a very simple story, and there isn’t much flash in how it is told. The few cutscenes aren’t much to write home about. The third game has a few twists in its story, and there are more cutscenes.
The biggest difference in the core mechanics has to do with the party systems. In the first game, you only control one character. With the third game, you have four party members, and you can swap them out if you want to. There is more room for customization as you can recruit new party members and select a class for them.
Enix didn’t tinker with the mechanics too much. The stories evolve as the development team learned how to better use the NES hardware. More party members and enemies were added, which made combat better. The one big thing that didn’t change much had to do with the graphics. Let’s get into what each game does better than the other.
What Does Dragon Quest III do Better?
Dragon Quest III does a lot of things better than the first game. I’ll try to keep it to the three things that I think are the biggest improvements from game to game. The story is better, it is more cinematic, and I like having a party of characters more than a single protagonist.
I really like this game’s story more than the first game. The developers did a good job of connecting this story to the other two games. Having two worlds is a great twist, and the reveal that this is a prequel was a nice surprise. I keep thinking back to the first time I beat the game, and how I thought about it.
To go along with the story, this game is more cinematic. You can tell that the developers learned a lot between this game and the previous one in the series. The way this game tells its story is a big step forward from the other games.
The gameplay is better in Dragon Quest III, and much of that has to do with having a party of characters. The first game has a solo protagonist, which worked for that game, but wasn’t as good as having a party of characters. You also fight more than one enemy at a time, which leads to more strategic battles.
Those are the three things that came to my mind first. There are a lot of other things I can point to, but I want to try and keep this brief. There were so many improvements made between the third game and the first.
What Does Dragon Quest do Better?
There isn’t too much to talk about here. Dragon Quest has a lot of archaic game mechanics and a fairly simple story. The only thing I can think of has to do with the battle screens.
While the battles in the first game are simple, the battle screens look much better than those in the other games on the NES. They’re much brighter and more colorful than the plain black screens of the third game. This is the only thing that I can think of when comparing the third game with the first.
There were a lot of improvements from game to game in this series. The one thing that got worse was the battle screens. I guess the development teams put their efforts into improving other parts of the game.
Which is Better Overall and Why?
Dragon Quest III is the better game. It has a better story, the graphics are a little better, and the gameplay is better. Within those three areas, there are a bunch of little things that this game does better than the first game in the series.
I like how the story evolves over the course of the game. It starts fairly generic, with you having to defeat an evil wizard who is trying to destroy the world. Then the second half of the game starts with another evil guy, and a second world to explore. This all ties into the first game, as it is revealed that this is a prequel. It is a nice way of doing things.
While the graphics aren’t a big improvement, they are better than those of the previous games in the series. The third game is more cinematic than the other two games. I like cutscenes and some of the changes made to the character and enemy sprites.
The gameplay is much better than the first game. There is more to do; you have more party members, and the battles require more strategy. Dragon Quest III is what you might expect from a console RPG on the NES. I also like that you have a customizable party of characters.
Other things make this game better, but I don’t want to beat a dead horse. Comparing games in the same series can be a little hard because you would expect improvements from game to game. The third game in the series feels like a more complete RPG.
Which Would I Rather Play?
Dragon Quest III is the game that I would rather play. While I like the first game, it isn’t one of the RPGs I would like to revisit. Many of the problems I had with the first game were corrected by the time the third game was released.
The third game feels like a more complete game. It has a fun party system, the story is fun, and I love the graphics. This game was more fun to play.
The first game is just an archaic game that can be fun from time to time. The third game is more fun, and it is the game I would want to revisit. There isn’t anything wrong with either game; I simply prefer the third game.
Conclusion
This wasn’t very close. I like the first Dragon Quest, but it has a lot of archaic gameplay elements, and it isn’t as good as the other games in the series. The third game has things that I don’t like, but it is more fun for me than the first game.
Dragon Quest III has a very cool party system. The game was originally released in 1988, and this party system was different from the other console RPGs. By 1992, when it was released in North America, it had been done before. There is only one spot where you have to use a specific class, but for the rest of the game, you can experiment to find what works for you.
Comparing anything to the first Dragon Quest can be a little difficult. It is a simple RPG in just about every way. I like the game, but there are so many others that I would rather play. It will be interesting to see how the other RPG’s that I’ve played stack up to Dragon Quest III.
If you liked this post, please check out the other entries in my vs series. These include Dragon Quest vs Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest vs Phantasy Star.