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Above: Dragon Quest III saw a number of remakes. Here is the Japanese cover art for the SNES version, and the US cover art for the GBC version

Dragon Quest III

As the series gained in popularity, Enix really started pumping out the Dragon Quest games in Japan. Barely half a year after the first game, a sequel was swiftly released to great acclaim for how much of an improvement it was over an already great game. Then, a little over a year later fans were already being treated to a third installment in the series, and this one yet again proved to be a big leap forward for Dragon Quest, not only for providing an even bigger world to explore, but for introducing a class system to the series.

Dragon Quest III marked the final outing taken by Enix in the Loto trilogy (aka the world of the hero Erdrick). Interestingly, though, was that this game actually took place far before its two predecessors in the trilogy's time line. Adding one more twist is the fact that the game starts off on an entirely different world than those games as well. Players start out creating their hero or heroine (this was the first time that players could choose the gender of the main character), who happens to be the child of a great hero named Ortega. Upon reaching the ripe old age of 16, the hero was sent to visit the King of Aliahan, who asks him to defeat a horribly evil creature by the name of Baramos, whom his father had failed to destroy. To help him on his journey, the hero takes three more adventurers with him

Above: Box Art for the US and Japanese NES versions of the game

This leads to the party of adventurers traveling the globe by land and see in search of keys that will allow them to get to Baramos, and confront him. In time, this is accomplished, and the group handily defeats the beast. Unfortunately, while they're partying it up for a job well done, Baramos master attacks, and opens up a portal to his own domain, the Dark World. Of course, the hero and his companions give chase, and upon entering this world players quickly realize that they are in Alefgard, the world of the first two Dragon Quest games. Here players find themselves collecting familiar objects from the first game like the Rain Staff and the Sun Stone, as well as saving the sage Rubiss, namesake for the Charm of Rubiss needed to defeat Hargon in Dragon Quest II. In time, the party eventually makes it to Zoma, and defeats him. For doing all this, the hero is bestowed with the title of "Erdrick", and fans of the series collectively said, "Woah."

Above: (Left) In-game shot of the original NES version of the game; (Center) In-game shot of the spruced up SNES version of Dragon Quest III; (Right) Title screen for the GBC version of the game

As mentioned earlier, Dragon Quest III marked the first time that a formal class system was introduced to the series. The hero is in a class unto himself that no other character can use, so players can opt to recruit Fighters, Soldiers, Merchants, Goof-offs, Wizards, Pilgrims, and Sages. At this point it is probably easier to break down the classes in point form.

Fighters:
A very skilled individual in melee fighting, specializing in hand-to-hand combat, thus they are able to forego equipping weapons. Moreover, they also tend to land far more critical hits than any of the other classes.

Goof-offs:
The jester of the game, they don't really serve a hugely practical purpose compared to the other classes. They seem to be present mostly just to provide a bit of a change of pace while playing.

Merchants:
Just like the jester, merchants aren't a particularly useful class in the game. They seem to be present mostly to fulfill a quest in the game where players need to leave a merchant in a city they discover in order to get its economy off the ground. Other than that, the class' only other usefulness comes in being to find extra gold after battles, and appraising items that players find during their adventures.

Pilgrims:
These are the healers of the game, an absolutely vital class for keeping your party alive and well.

Soldiers:
As the heavy melee combat class, soldiers can equip all of the most powerful armor and weapons in the game. These guys are the work horses of Dragon Quest III, always putting themselves in the thick of things.

Wizards:
As you can probably guess, these are the offense-oriented magic users of the game. Their spells pack a wallop, but they aren't the toughest physically.

Sages:
This class is being mentioned last because it is a special on in the game, as players can only ever have one of them, and only after one of their characters reaches level 20 can he / she be converted into a sage. These are essentially a hybrid class that takes up everything that both a pilgrim and a wizard can do. Told ya they were special.

Thieves:
These guys were only added in the Gameboy Color remake. They had extra agility, and could equip special items like whips and boomerangs that allowed them to strike multiple targets at once, as well as stealing from enemies.

After reaching level 20, characters could switch to a different class. What made this extra neat was that they would retain what they learned as their previous class, making for some powerful hybrid adventurers.

Like the first two games, Dragon Quest III was a roaring success, selling 3.8 million copies. It was also eventually remade for both the SNES and GBC, with mini-games and a new thief class being added. This certainly allowed the game to end the Loto trilogy on a high note.