The Dragon Quest III HD-2D posts were over a year ago, but I'm going to go ahead and add to the stack. That's right, I've been revisiting DQIII to do the platinum trophy and (hopefully) dominate the endgame that gave me quite a bit of grief the first time.
Have a score to settle with King Hydra, and a wrong to put right for Ortega.
RIP Jesse Jackson, 1941-2026
"If you fall behind, run faster."
First time I played this was the Switch version, now I'm playing the PS5 version. I played both games on the Switch to begin with, then had to bail on DQ1+2 due to hardware issues* and that led me to also redo DQ3. Now they're both platinum runs.
* - The Switch 2 has some weird issues, like sometimes it refuses to start and I have to hold the power button down for extended amounts of time, usually a couple times, before it'll just randomly pop on. So it's usable, but there's definitely something wrong with it. I thought it was completely dead when I ended my first DQ2 run and switched systems. I should probably send the Switch 2 out and get another one before more time goes by.
The quest to find Ortega is one of the high points of the series, which is why I don't at all mind replaying this just to get another platinum. Here's the actual place and timeframe that we flashed back to at the end of DQII. It's true what they say, you don't know what you've got until it's gone. Sometimes long gone. Something will hit you way later than you expected.
I've heard that it can be interesting to try a solo character run of DQIII. Treat the game like DQI and just go out with the hero and no party members. It would definitely make the game a lot more challenging, and battles would probably be tedious dogpiles a lot of the time. This hero is pretty comparable to the DQI hero, a well-balanced character rather than the heavy meleer of DQII.
I'm guessing a solo run is pretty doable in previous versions of the game, but not this version. The overtuned endgame bosses would be a problem with a solo hero. Even at level 99, getting past King Hydra would be ass.
In any case, I'm going to go ahead and form a group:
"I was in the room. I actually caught the baby. How you flew!"
I went with the old standby of 3x Goof-Offs that can be turned into 3x Sages. The plan was to max out Sages and then turn them into Monster Wranglers to beat the game. The first time I played this, the endgame turned into a mess because I didn't have any Monster Wrangler abilities, and the endgame is completely tuned around them (because they're so OP)
However, I was thinking of this like a normal DQ3 run, where I'd class change a couple times. Unbeknownst to me but knownst to us, I would need to class change a bunch more than that by the time it was done in order to get the platinum.
3x Goofs is a real handicap, no doubt, but it gets a lot better once you get 3 of this whip. They're not bad at all once they have this, and do a lot of damage (when they actually attack). Once a character gets Goof to level 20, that character can turn into a Sage whenever they want for the rest of the game, so it's just a quick rite of passage to get it out of the way. (In previous versions, I think they had to go straight from Goof-Off into Sage, now it's just always unlocked after that)
The reason I keep them all the same class is so that their ability lists don't get shifted from one another (having everyone's spells and abilities in the same spot is underrated, and I like to keep that going as long as I can, though it's less interesting than having a group composed of multiple classes)
Alternatively, one could play something better until Alltrades Abbey. 3x Merchant* is my suggestion, for an early HP boost since they seem to have a lot of HP in this version, and also for the extra gold intake they give you which is crucial early on. Then buy 3 of these whips and switch to Goofs to grind to level 20 in that section of the game in 30 minutes or so. Tower of Transcendence works really well.
* - Merchants are actually good in this version. Maybe they always were and they just flew under the radar? At least how it appeared to me, they SEEM to get a ton of HP growth compared to everyone else. More than Warrior, even, which is the only class close to them. Merchant also gets a very powerful ultimate attack, Call to Arms, at level 36 or so. It slowly burns through your gold but it wrecks lategame bosses. So they made Merchant actually good.
That Merchant idea would have been better than slogging through the first few chapters of the game with the 3 Goofs, no doubt. The Pyramid was a particular problem. In any case, I got the 3 Sages done. I can't even remember the last time I played with a Wizard or a Priest early on instead of just going for broke. Probably the NES version. In that version you actually kinda do need a healer early.
Man, I love Mur. What a gorgeous town this is. Just a legitimate delight to look at.
So in short, to have the easiest time beating DQ3, if you don't mind keeping everyone uniform and in a tightly-wound class ball:
1 - 3x Merchant until Alltrades Abbey - they'll be 20+ by the time you get there, unless you Holy Protection a LOT, in which case they might need a few more minutes, but you want to fight a lot early to build up extra gold, which Merchant helps a lot with as well
2 - Grab 3 of that whip, then go 3x Goof-Off to 20 at Tower of Transcendence
3 - 3x Sage, go through the game until you reach Alefgard (get them to 40 for their final spell)
4 - 3x Monster Wrangler, can powerlevel them northwest of Rimuldar in a very short amount of time by then, and go around collecting 50 monsters to get everyone Wild Side. Then you have 3 very tough characters that can move twice per turn and cast every Sage spell. Nothing will stand up to your onslaught of Kabooms, while double-Multiheals will fix all your damage.
5 - If Platinuming the game, you'll need to change things up quite a bit more after beating the game, which I'll get into later.
If this were an old DQ game, in the past, I would talk about how our heroes then had an orgy in the queen's bedchamber, and the maid ended up joining in.
However, this is a new era, and we Yuji Horii has more tact now, so the game actually refrains from anything spicy happening and thus I'm not forced to report on it.
Since I'm going for platinum, I make it a point to grab every Mini Medal along the way... which means following a list. This game has quite a bit more of them than DQ2 did (110 medals altogether), and the platinum overall takes about 20% longer than DQ1+2 combined did. Woodus' list is the one I went with and it worked really well. It follows (mostly) the exact order they're accessible during the game. There were only a couple outliers where it was a place I couldn't get to yet and I had to make a note of which I skipped before moving on.
I did have a lategame snafu where I finished the list and had a missing medal - all I knew was that it was somewhere between #75 (when I last sync'd the list up) and #110, but I lucked out and it was the first one I went back and checked.
The Magic Bikini and Blessed Bikini are useful for classes that have very unappealing outfits (coughMonsterWrangler). Assuming you went with 3x chicks like I did. Given how gorgeous the female Sage is in the artwork for DQ3, I don't think I've gone for male characters since the very first playthrough on the NES.
More gorgeous graphics, as I get into Monster Wrangling. It can be done without the titular class, you just need to use specific items and abilities. Once a monster runs away from you, reload the autosave and use the right item.
If it hears you - Use the Thief ability Padfoot (this one was the biggest issue because I didn't have a Thief until late, so I just kept a list of these until I could get them)
If it picks up your scent - Use Musk so that you smell nice and attract it
If it sees you - Use a Fading Jenny or the spell Fade to be invisible
Dusk is the prettiest time of day to wander around in this game, no doubt. Unfortunately it's a very short amount of the day/night cycle. Once Dusk hits on the overworld, you can go into a town and it'll stay in Dusk as long as you want. Sometimes I let this happen on purpose just to make the towns exponentially prettier to walk around in.
One of the many cool things DQ3 does is the New Town where you drop off a merchant and he builds a town from basically nothing. With his bare hands!
Good on Taloon for losing weight since DQ4. However, not sure how he's going to get women all over him now that he doesn't have his...Taloon-ness.
...and the first thing he thinks of is building a club for dancing bunny girls. Shouldn't we focus on, I don't know, arable farmland?
Well Taloon, you're the boss, I just hope you know what you're on about.
Uh oh! The people have decided to revolt! And by "the people", I mean these three guys. The other 90% of the city just sort of went along with it, after these three studied Rules for Radicals and then spent 20 years demoralizing the populace.
"Attack people, not institutions!"
"Seize the means of production!"
Taloon meanwhile doesn't even notice any of this because he's busy building a giant ballroom made of gold! With gold toilets and everything!
Well, long story short, Taloon got overthrown and put in the county jail for a short while and I got the Yellow Orb.
Another thing I started knocking out is the Monster Arena. There are a few of these, with 11 ranks altogether. Recruited monsters get sent into battle and you hope for the best (the only control you have is via Tactics). I wait until late in the game before doing this so that I actually have strong party members. Like this overleveled slime and his two heavies. He's basically a mafioso.
The Ghost Ship is zipping around on Tesla Autopilot. The wheel turns by itself, it's crazy.
Looking out over Baramos' Lair and the thick miasma that it emits. It's quite a vista.
The fight with Baramos. Since this guy is built up as the big bad of the game for so long, he seems like he's on the level of most of the other big bads in the series, and could have been the final boss in a different game.
Once I reach Alefgard, things get very purple. With the four Sages over level 40 (their last spell), this is where I switch to Monster Wrangler to finish farming Wild Side for everyone and beat the game. Levels fly in Alefgard while I go around finishing the last few phases of the story.
And now, I arrive at the final battles, as Zoma delivers a great line. This version of the game is really no problem up until this point. The problem is that these last four battles are heavily overtuned, and expect you to have Monster Wrangler abilities / Wild Side, etc.
Which...I do this time, so it goes MUCH better than it did a year ago when I had to turn on invincibility to beat the game. Now I can actually beat this game for real. Behold, the King Hydra battle going the way it SHOULD go.
Even with an entire game of preparation, this guy still put up a fight. He doesn't just keel over the way he does in previous versions of the game. They still wildly over-tuned the King Hydra fight, to say the least, and I guarantee I'm not the only one who had their first run at this remake blown up at the 11th hour by this boss. And bear in mind that I was using status effect resistance accessories for the specific things he was using; it didn't help a whole lot.
The last three boss fights, after that, were easier. I pushed through and made heavy use of Wild Side, and victory was never in any real doubt at any point. They're solid fights, and I always really liked this game's final battles.
With the game beaten, focus turns to the trophies and getting the platinum. These four trophies are the main things to worry about in the postgame (along with the bestiary, but that tends to wrap up on its own without much issue if you aren't repelling everywhere).
It's time to switch classes around somewhat so I can work on the "get all abilities" trophy, which means...
...I had to dink around a bit with getting classes leveled for their abilities. Merchant was no problem to level to 36 for Call to Arms, and I ended up doing that with all three characters eventually. However, dragging a Goof-Off to level 45 to get their final ability was a real chore, and I only did it with one character. This caused my character ability lists to be out of whack, as well. Why couldn't that class max at level 33 or so like some of the other classes?
Getting all the other classes their main skills was fun and didn't take long, but that "Goof-Off to level 45" requirement was an obnoxious thing to do. I killed off half the party and basically just had a Merchant powerlevel the Goof-Off. Double exp, and the Merchant was enough to take out Metal Babbles somewhat reliably.
Leaving the Hero ded was a good way to quickly level my class-based characters. Might be able to stash him at the Planning Place, not sure. Surprisingly you can leave coffins there.
Northwest of Rimuldar you can get characters to 38ish in no time flat. It starts slowing way down after that. Using the Sage spell Puff! is how I'd deal with the Metal Babble swarms, since it's a guaranteed one-shot... to whatever doesn't flee on the two actions they get before it fires.
The Queen of Outworld has spoken.
Now Sonya is licking Kitana! I thought we agreed these new games would be G-Rated, Horii!
Lot of licking going on here, while Erdrick is dead in the corner. Basically how most throuples end up.
This is a fine-looking party as I get the postgame dungeons underway. The first one is basically a cavern, and the enemies are nasty.
Re-leveling classes is fun because you get to see their levels rocket upwards from just regular fighting. This also means they're constantly getting their MP restored and can go all-out in every battle.
The postgame dungeon (well, the first of the two) is a Square Enix style mish-mash of random areas from the rest of the game. Much like the postgame dungeon in DQII. This is still my least-favorite type of postgame dungeon. At least the lava sections look cool.
Swarms of Metal Babbles are what I like to see. Unfortunately, I still lack any really concrete way to take these guys out immediately, and they flee A LOT. A pack of five like this, I'm lucky to have two left at the end of turn one and then lucky twice over to have one left at the end of turn two when Puff! goes off.
Assassin's Stab works well against them, and Puff! is still the screen-clearing go-to if any stick around for the two turns needed. Have one character Puff! while the other two use the Stab, if they have it.
Martial Artist gets Critical Claim at 47, which is a guaranteed kill.
Things get sexy again as Sonya tries on festive Christmas leg-warmers.
Eventually I finish leveling 3x Thieves for their last abilities (low 30's, but I went up to 40ish for the stats) and switch to my final party: Warrior/Monster Wrangler/Martial Artist. With 3x Thieves as the penultimate class, everyone's speed is through the roof. What really counts are the last two classes you run (and how high you get them). Everything before that is squished down to a minor power increase on stats, along with many useful abilities across the board. Call to Arms (Merchant) is a really solid attack for anyone to use, even now, and does more damage than most other moves.
Another trophy to hit is the "Wake up the people of Norvik" trophy, where you have to do a sidequest with the Faerie Queen to break the sleeping curse on that town. Interesting that this isn't a required part of the main story, considering it's a significant amount of content and so early in the game.
As for what the people of Norvik have to say now that they're awake... not much, they mostly just talk about their meth habits. Well, they're probably desperate to not fall into any more deep sleeps.
This is basically how every interaction I've ever had with a traffic cop has gone. I'm clearly not drunk, I keep my hands visible / on the wheel, I usually just immediately admit I was going a little too fast and apologize, and they usually go "welp, have a good one". Don't be drunk, don't be a suspicious weirdo, don't hide your hands, don't start an argument, don't be a hostile Karen. There, just avoided 99% of problems. Not just with traffic stops, but with conflict with others in general.
This guy gives me a Meteorite Bracer, which is a MASSIVE speed boost. Along with the other Meteorite Bracer from the Monster Arena, you can make two characters faster than anything except Metals (or one character faster than Metals by doubling them up). Once you spend some time in the Thief class, especially if you do it late (second to last class you do is my suggestion), your characters will have enough speed that ONE bracer is enough to outspeed Metals, meaning it's possible to have two characters go ahead of them. If both are Martial Artists with Critical Claim...well, that's two guaranteed Metal slays per round, which means huge levels.
Unfortunately I can't go that route because I need to keep one Monster Wrangler for the seemingly-endless monster hunt, but I CAN bring up one Martial Artist as a Metal-slayer.
Look at the UTTER DECIMATION with two characters that are both faster than Liquid Metals. Critical Claim always downs one, Assassin's Stab works pretty often for the other.
All of that said, at this point I found that flipping on Invincibility and just mindlessly grinding 3x King Hydra in the postgame dungeon was a faster way to level than worrying about Metal Babbles. At this point my characters are so powerful and high-statted from their class changes that I can autobattle these things and eventually win. Yeah, it's kind of shocking after the way one of them thrashed my first, Wrangler-less party.
Getting through the postgame dungeon gets me to Cloudsgate Citadel, where I find...
...Xenlon, that magnificent bastard. He's a postgame boss again here, and again the point is to win as fast as possible (rather than the victory itself being the goal, because he's not that bad).
Here's the actual fight, four turns and all. Considering he gives you like 35 turns to win...this is no problem.
As for the rewards...there are a bunch of wishes, again.
I have to defeat this guy a total of seven times to get all of his rewards and get the trophy. Which seems like a lot, but it really isn't when you can steamroll him like this.
There are a few huge things to unlock from this. The Monster Arena gives you access to the last tiers of Monster Arena (located down the well in Jipang), which gets you the second Meteorite Bracer. Can also ask him for a mighty weapon and get Rubiss' Sword, which is devastatingly powerful (especially on my new Warrior). Among other things, including reviving Ortega, which is the last thing I'll get. I'll finish beating this guy up later, right now I've got a few other things to deal with.
What your characters read changes their personality (sort of like people's media consumption in RL). Guns n' Buns here turns a female character into a Vamp. It's probably the least useful of the wishes he's got.
There's also More Guns n' Buns, which lets anyone turn into a Sage at any time without needing to ever bother with Goof-Off. Which does absolutely nothing for me at this point and isn't that useful in general considering that Goofs permanently unlock Sage now. However, I have to unlock ALL of these wishes to get the platinum.
The main thing to unlock from Xenlon to progress is the blank slot in the list, which makes the second (and final) postgame dungeon appear in the sky near Aliahan.
Fly into this thing and we arrive at the Temple of Trials...one of the worst things in DQIII HD2D.
One of my two big goals is down: I defeated King Hydra and the final bosses for real. Next is finishing the postgame. Whenever Sonya and Kitana stop licking each other, I'll head into the Temple to finish this game off. We've got one more post to close out the Erdrick Trilogy entirely, forever, and finally move on past the first six DQs. Four games remain to finish this series once and for all...five if I find a way to reliably play Dragon Quest X single-player version.
TO BE CONTINUED.
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