Dragon Quest III – 30th Anniversary
Every Major Video Game Anniversary in February 2018
Dragon Quest III released on February 10, 1988 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and pretty much blew the doors off the Japanese games market. It became so widely played that it actually spawned an urban legend that the Japanese government banned publisher Enix from releasing the series on the weekdays thereafter, lest it enticed too many people to skip work or miss school. Indeed, Dragon Quest III was the one entry that transformed the series to the omnipotent cultural icon it is today.
Once started, the game is just impossible to put down. Featuring a streamlined story that leaves enough open for the player to explore, you’ll oftentimes find yourself with a simple task at hand, but with little or no direction on how to actually complete it. Talking to NPCs and searching for information on your own is very much part of what makes Dragon Quest III so immersive, as it doesn’t shy away from thrusting you into its world from the get-go. Seeing as how the game requires you to sink in a good amount of time in order to understand it, it’s not hard to see where that urban legend came from.