With the release of Dragon Quest III: HD-2D Remake, there is a whole new reason to start the Dragon Quest series. Dragon Quest may not have the same feel of a modern JRPG in some ways players are accustomed to these days. Due to that, I wanted to make a guide on how to best engage with Dragon Quest as a series that will help you understand the best way to play.
Grinding
First I want to give a disclaimer. Become comfortable with grinding. Random encounters happen in Dragon Quest. This helps you understand your characters’ strengths and weaknesses and gives you the experience points you need to level up. If you are having difficulty with a group of enemies and it is kicking your butt, maybe try finding an area with weaker enemies to fight. If you feel you should be stronger in this region, look for towns with weapon stores or item stores. There are a lot of lessons with these random encounters you can learn. Who needs to be protected the most because of weak defenses? Who needs to deal more damage in your party? Is there something that annoys you with your party, like not enough magical coverage? These are lessons you will need to learn before you get to the bosses and random encounters will help you with that. Become comfortable learning through grinding.
Your Party
In Dragon Quest, you get a limited party size. You also have to become smart with money and managing equipment. It is for this reason that it is important to understand the party and characters to which you have access. I will give you a small synopsis that will help with each vocation.
Warrior – These have the best base stats for physical combat. You will get good resistance, strength, and HP. They can be slow but you generally don’t have to worry when this class of characters takes a hit. Due to that, the abilities they learn can help take the damage away from the other vocations in your party. If you get seeds that help their HP and resistance, it is worthwhile to use those seeds on this party member.
Mage – These characters have high MP and wisdom. They also learn a lot of spells, both single damaging spells and Area of Effect spells. They are good at dealing with a group of enemies especially enemies with high defense.
Priest – High MP and Wisdom but less offensive spells. Priest however has the best healing spells and learns them quickly. Having a Priest and then changing to Mage after you hit level 20 is a recommended change if you want someone who can do both, however, there is a vocation that is better suited for that.
Sage – Has High MP and Wisdom with better resilience. Sages learn a ton of spells that range from offensive to healing. Sages however require you to only be able to change as a second vocation too. Sage also has higher luck so status spells are more likely to hit. Also, the resurrection spells have a higher chance of being successful.
Martial Artist – Has High HP, Strength, and Agility. This class has abilities that increase their critical hit chance. Limited in what armor they can wear so getting equipment for them can be annoying.
Thief – Gets luck and agility. Useful for the diverse abilities and can steal items at the end of a battle to get the party more items to use. Good for beginning the game to get extra items from encounters.
Merchant – Unique weapon sets can make it hard to equip merchants but their big pull is the extra money you get from everything while they are in the party.
Gadabout – Extremely high luck stat. Their entire kit is dependent on luck. Often does critical hits due to this when they can attack. Their other stats are so woefully low though that it is not worth it unless you are building them for high-luck Sage vocations.
Monster Wrangler – High agility stat, has a very diverse kit that ranges from Area of Effect attacks to healing allies. In Dragon Quest III: HD-2D remake their stats do get higher when you find more monsters for the monster arena.
You only get to choose three of the vocations to join you in your adventure. It is wise to have a good balance of magic, physical damage, and healing abilities. Note that some classes are good at the beginning a game and others are better for the end game.
Managing Encounters
One thing that can frustrate a player while playing Dragon Quest is how often random encounters happen. Especially if you are in an area where you don’t get a lot of experience points. Some items can help with aiding that frustration. Holy water reduces the rate at which encounters happen. You can also use the spell Holy Protection to make it so you won’t run into any enemies that are at a lower level than you.
Exploration is a huge point of Dragon Quest. Grinding shouldn’t just be going in circles and fighting through safe areas. Look for secret spots, look for treasure, look for shiny things on the map that can house items. This is a good way of grabbing items and weapons.
Alltrades Abbey
There is an area you will probably see early on called the Alltrades Abbey. You will see this and forget it almost immediately due to going through your exploration. Don’t. This is an important way to change vocations. Once one of your characters reaches level 20, they will be able to change their vocation. When a vocation is changed you retain all the abilities of the former vocation but the stats go down. This is a fantastic way to get multiple vocations abilities.
I would recommend waiting til level 25 to change vocation to get some of the best abilities before changing. Or you can wait til you learn all the abilities of your current vocation though it can feel a little long to level up without the change. Either way, use the Alltrades Abbey. It is a game-changer.
Final Tips
Before boss fights in Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake, make sure to move your inventory around so that your characters have healing items in case of the worst-case scenarios.
Try to get to as many towns as you can. This is done best by using signs all around the overworld. They will often have directions to towns that you are nearby.
Dragon Quest III HD-2D has a lot to love and this title will have a lot to offer you as you engage with it. Learn what spells you have access to and what they do. Also, debuffs are very useful against bosses. Use them. Decrease their defense and attack power.
Dragon Quest III: HD-2D Remake is available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S|X, and PC. Read our review before you buy.
