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Guide Review  Dragon Warrior 3  
- By Michael Loewer

Welcome to the Guide Review for Prima Games' Dragon Warrior III. If you've already read our review on DWIII for the GBC, then you know it received exceptional marks in all areas. Upon searching the web, you'll find most other sites gave the game similar high praise.

The guide, however, is not perfect--but close.

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Maps:

The maps of the DWIII guide are exceptional. Every town, castle, and dungeon are perfectly rendered down to the smallest detail. Following the maps through multiple floors is made easy with Prima's simple labeling system. Connecting stairways are denoted with letter tags, for example. If a stairway on the first floor led to a certain stairway on the second floor, both would be labeled with the same letter. Treasure is easy to recognize as well. Each item is given a number, then that number corresponds to a "Treasure List" off to the side of the map.

Hints and Tips:

As far as I can tell, this guide lists just about every possible special tip in the game. Hidden entryways into homes and dungeons are clearly labeled with with written instructions AND screenshots. Enemy fighting strategies are extensive, including listed weaknesses of all monsters and detailed base stats so you know just what you're up against.

Item/Weapon Descriptions:

This is probably the most fun and interesting part of the whole DWIII guide. The list of weapons, clothing, and items goes on for fourteen pages, detailing (I belive) every item you could possible to attain. Each item description lists the use, attack/defense bonus, equipable classes, and the buy and sale values.

I'd say that magic attacks fall under the "weaponry" section, so I'll talk about them here as well. The spells are divided up into different categories, such as fire, ice, healing, etc., with individual spells listed underneath. Information given includes the spell name, required MP, targetable characters, usage limitations, spell effects, and which classes learn it and at what levels.



General Writing Quality:

The level of grammatical accuracy in the text is excellent. Instructions are generally written formally, and are easy to understand. With the wordiness that naturally accompanies RPGs, this is a blessing for the reader.

Flaws:

As I stated before in this review, the guide isn't perfect, as there it does contain one major flaw: walkthru continuity. While individual quest segments are explicitly discussed, they are not always connected in a linear manner. There are times when the guide seems to simply assume you know how to get from one castle to another, without showing you any directions whatsoever. At times, the guide told me to "complete mission A," and when you're done, "come back and result B will occur." The problem is that sometimes "mission A" couldn't be completed until several quest segments later, and yet you're not initially told this. It's as if the walkthru was broken into peices and slightly shifted, so that you may end up searching for a while to find the needed information.


Senior Editor Michael Loewer, signing off.
Shameless Plug: The Necessity

 

The Lowdown on  Dragon Warrior 3 Maps: Awesome Hints and Tips: Very Good Quality of Item/Weapon Descriptions: Awesome General Writing Quality: Very Good Continuity: Average Overall: Very Good! "A Quality Guide"