Dragon Warrior III

Dragon Quest III is noted for greatly expanding upon the gameplay of the original Dragon Quest and Dragon Quest II . The game uses basic role-playing video game conventions such as leveling up by gaining experience points and equipping items. The battle system is turn-based like the other games in the series, though the remakes incorporate various interface changes from later titles. These include simpler door opening, a bag to store items instead of keeping them at a bank, quick item sorting with "Tidy Item" and "Tidy Bag" command, and a "Full HP" command to automate the process of casting healing and status restoring spells.

And while earlier Dragon Quest games were non-linear in structure, Dragon Quest III featured an even more open-world experience. It also allowed the player to freely swap characters in and out of their party and introduced the day/night cycle in which certain items, characters, and quests are only accessible at specific times of the day. Classes Dragon Quest III features a class system, in which each character has a certain class. At the start of the game, the player begins as a single male or female hero but is able to recruit members at the local tavern.

While the Hero always keeps the Hero class, the other characters can choose to be any of the following of either gender: Soldier (Warrior in the GBC version), Fighter, Pilgrim (Cleric), Wizard (Mage), Merchant (Dealer), Goof-Off (Jester), Sage, and Thief and Monster Wrangler which are available only in later versions. The choice of class greatly affects the character's stats and spells he or she can learn. Furthermore, upon reaching experience Level 20, a character has the option of changing classes at the temple of Dhama, found halfway through the game. A character who changes classes has their stats halved and restarts at experience Level 1, retaining their spells and, in the remakes, their personality.

This allows a player to create a character that knows Wizard spells but has the defense of a Soldier. Unlike most Dragon Quest parties, aside from the Hero, the party is not made up of characters involved in the story. Although only four characters can be in the party at a time, extra members of the party can be kept at the tavern, allowing room for new recruits. Another innovation is an arena where the player can place bets on the outcome of monster battles in order to win more gold.

In the remakes, after selecting a character, the player can change the character's starting abilities with five magical seeds, given at the tavern. Also, each character has a personality trait which affects the growth rate of their abilities. The Hero's personality is determined by the player's choices and actions during a dream sequence at the start of the game, while other characters' personalities are determined by their status at the end of the character generation process. Most personalities are available to both male and female characters, while a few are exclusive to male or female characters.

A character's personality can be temporarily changed by equipping certain accessories, or permanently changed by using certain consumable books.