Dragon Knight III

~ DRAGON KNIGHT III ~

Elf / NEC Avenue

Super CD-ROM

1994

This was the final stop I made during my experiences with the Duo's glorious Dragon Knight trinity, and the journey ended in fine fashion. DK3 is a third-person RPG, whereas its predecessors are first-person dungeon crawlers. This change in style made me a little apprehensive coming in, but the game turned out to be excellent.

Random battles occur frequently, but the fights proceed extremely quickly and give you lots of XP and gold. The battle system is very smooth and simple, and the enemy army consists of a great mix: lots of DK2-style girl-fiends occasionally accompanied by cool-looking dragons and ghosts and whatnot. The enemies are animated, and there are gorgeous backdrops for each rumble.

Plus, there are some fun fights to be had with crazy boss characters.

It's like they took the best elements of the first DK's scrums and the second DK's duels and put them all together to present fast, great-looking, rewarding combat scenes.

Not to be forgotten are the cool tunes that play during those battles. In fact, all of the music is good, with one of the best tracks coming at the very end: You go around visiting friends as a ROCKIN' victory tune (the work of T's Music) celebrates your accomplishments.

Also very appealing are the visuals outside of battle. The artists went with plenty of light colors and pastels this time--quite a departure from the gritty browns and grays of the previous games--and it really paid off.

They also paid attention to little details. Your party members' appearances change as they don new equipment--a minor element, perhaps, but one that always makes for a nice inclusion.

In addition to the wonderful aesthetic aspects and sweet combat, you get plenty of humor. Takeru (the hero) gets jumped during the opening moments of play...

...and has to wander around the first town... naked.

That's just the beginning of Takeru's bumbling and stumbling, as the crazy antics continue up to and all the way through the entertaining end credits. The game isn't all about silliness, however. As was the case with DK2, the climax is shocking and exciting.

And one of the best parts for me was revisiting towns from previous episodes. DK2 is one of my favorite games, so returning to the town of Phoenix and catching up with old friends was a joyous experience (kind of like when you get to romp through the realm of the first Ys in Ys IV, just to give you an idea if you're an Ys fan--and you'd better be).

Along with recruiting old allies, you'll need to enlist the assistance of some cool new characters...

...as you deal with your evil adversaries.

And, of course, there are the girls!

Well, DK3 doesn't provide enormous dungeons or taxing puzzles or a super-long quest. But it does present great battle scenes, lots of humor, pleasing aesthetics, and a fast-paced adventure that should leave most everyone satisfied.