Dragon Quest is one of the most beloved RPG franchises of all time, though it only received western success with the release of Dragon Quest 11: Echoes of an Elusive Age and the inclusion of the franchise's protagonist Hero in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Due to the series' long tenure as one of the pioneers of the RPG genre, fans are still playing the games endlessly to this very day, even to the point of discovering new bugs and glitches buried within the titles to this very day. This includes one Dragon Quest 3 speedrunner from Japan who has discovered that by heating up the game's cartridge, it is possible to start the game at the maximum level.
Dragon Quest 3: The Seeds of Salvation (also known as Dragon Warrior 3) originally released for the Famicom (or NES) in 1988, with a western release following in 1992. The game vastly improved upon mechanics introduced in the first two entries in the franchise such as switching party members in and out of the party and featuring a more expansive open-world, as well as a day/night cycle that effected parts of the gameplay and world.
Due to the NES' restrictions however, Dragon Quest 3 utilizes random encounters, which makes the game more or less impenetrable to speedrunners. That is until one Japanese user, as highlighted by VGDensetsu on Twitter, discovered that Dragon Quest 3's save files can be modified under certain temperature conditions, meaning that he could start the game at its maximum level by resting his Famicom on a hot plate.
While this technique has not been tried in any major speedrunning events, ones that allow the use of glitches in runs could see a surge in Dragon Quest 3 speedruns following this discovery. Especially since starting the game at level 99 makes early-game encounters end almost instantaneously. While Dragon Quest 3 is available on other platforms, it is likely this bug is exclusive to the Famicom version, so players are advised to not put their Nintendo Switches on hot plates.
Dragon Quest 3: The Seeds of Salvation is out now on Nintendo Switch.