Game infoDragon Warrior III, known in Japan as Dragon Quest III: Soshite Densetsu e... (ドラゴンクエストIII そして伝説へ…, Doragon Kuesuto Surī - Soshite Densetsu e..., Dragon Quest III: And thus into Legend...), is a role-playing video game developed by Chunsoft and published by Enix (now Square Enix). It is the third installment in the Dragon Quest series (known as Dragon Warrior in North America at the time of its original release) and the first released for the Famicom in Japan and later for the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America. The game saw an enhanced remake for the Super Nintendo in 1996 and the Game Boy Color in 2001, and a port to mobile phones and the Wii in 2009 and 2011. A version of the game for Android and iOS has been announced for release in Japan in Winter 2014.
The first three Dragon Quest games are part of the same story, and Dragon Warrior III is the first game chronologically, as well as the third game that features the hero Loto. The story follows "the Hero" who is tasked with saving the world from the archfiend Baramos. Gathering a group of companions into a party, the Hero must travel the world, stopping at various towns and locations, and find their way to the Demon Lord Baramos's lair.
Dragon Warrior III expanded on the open world and nonlinear gameplay of its predecessors, and introduced features such as a persistent world with its own day-night cycle, and a class-changing system which was later used in Dragon Quest VI, VII, and IX. Dragon Quest III's class-changing system shaped the gameplay of other future RPGs, especially the Final Fantasy series. It has become the top selling Dragon Quest game ever made and Enix's breakout hit with the franchise, launching the franchise's mass appeal in Japan.