Folks, it’s finally here. Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake will release on November 14th of this year. I had the chance to spend 45 minutes exploring the early part of the game at Summer Game Fest’s Play Days, and at the end of that time I had tears in my eyes. Not just because I got to play a new version of a game that means so much to me, but also because it’s clear that so much loving care has been put into this remake to make it palatable to modern audiences and still remarkably faithful to the classic that Dragon Quest III is.
See the video version of this preview below to see the game in action!
For those unfamiliar with Dragon Quest III, in many ways it’s the start of the series narratively. I won’t go into why because I don’t want to spoil you, but I can say you play as the son of Ortega, a hero who tried to conquer a great evil many years before, but failed. On your 16th birthday, you’re summoned before the king, who sends you on a quest to finish the job your father couldn’t: defeat the evil shrouding the world and restore peace. After that, you head to the local tavern to recruit three people to join you on your quest — each with their own chosen job class — and you’re off.
That’s where we picked up the hands-on. The first thing that struck me was that early Dragon Quest is just downright perfect for the HD-2D look. The beautiful town simply popped against the (purposefully) pixelated character models. When I walked out into the field, I was surrounded by rolling hills and lush forests, and when I entered combat, the monster models were a little pixelated, too, with a lot more detail than they could have possibly included on the NES. Put simply, Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake looks amazing, and we’ve certainly come a long way since the first Octopath Traveler.
I was confident Square Enix would do a great job with the look, but updating some of the NES mechanics and game design for a modern audience seemed like a tall task. They address my concerns in a variety of ways. Anyone who has played the original Dragon Quest games, or even the updated versions they’ve released over the years, knows that a large portion of the gameplay loop is talking to townspeople to figure out where you’re supposed to go. It can often be opaque and difficult to figure out, though they were starting to make it a little easier by DQIII. And what about level grinding? In the original, you needed to spend a fair amount of time knocking out the monsters around town if you wanted to have any chance to progress through that dungeon out there in the distance.
Luckily, the developers have done a ton to lower the barrier of entry into the world of Dragon Quest III. First, you have both a larger map and a mini-map of every field area and dungeon you traverse. There’s also a marker showing where you need to go next. Additionally, they’ve added a “memory” system, where you can press a button to commit what the last person told you to memory. You can remember up to 30 things people have said and delete them if your memories start to fill up. Luckily, if you want something more akin to the original experience, you can turn these features off. Even for this old man, I appreciate the convenience.
They’ve also added three difficulty settings: Drakky Quest for a difficulty-free experience, Dragon Quest for normal difficulty, and Draconian Quest. I played in Dragon Quest mode and didn’t need to level grind at any point to progress through the first couple of dungeons of the game, but there was still a fair challenge. When I have more time, I’m confident I’ll turn that difficulty up if for nothing else than that I miss level grinding in old-school RPGs and I want that experience, but luckily, I don’t think it will be required on the normal difficulty.
That’s good, because there are plenty of enemies out on the world map. And, if you want to find all of the little items and secrets, you’ll be fighting them a lot. Sparkling resource points are dotted around the map, which give you healing items like herbs and antidotes, and cash. There are also larger areas on the map you can enter that will usually have an NPC and a chest containing something much more useful, like a weapon. These are just a few more ways the HD-2D remake is looking to alleviate the experience for newcomers. For returners like me, it re-incentivizes me to explore the map I’ve already explored over 30 years ago.
Outside of all the little details that make this game more approachable, this is still Dragon Quest III through and through. While the developers claimed they’ve added new story content to make the world a bit richer, the story and opening moments played out how I remember. Go to a town and chat with some people, and they direct you to a tower to grab a key. Go grab that key from the top of the tower. Drop off (if you know you know) that tower to head back to the town and open up a door. Many of the NPCs have voiced dialogue, and while that certainly changed things a little, I still felt like I was playing Dragon Quest III, and I couldn’t ask for anything more.
That same feeling extended to combat. Sure, things look a lot better, and there’s no black background, but combat feels just right. This time, you flip between a third-person view while selecting commands and the classic first-person view while the round plays out. You can assign AI commands to party members to make things go a little quicker. It’s nothing new, but it’s sure a whole lot flashier, and that’s exactly what I want.
One thing I didn’t have a chance to test is the job system. The original Dragon Quest III presented one of the first significant job systems in the genre, and during our playthrough, the PR reps said that things have been tweaked to be more robust. However, in the early going I didn’t get to see anything beyond a little icon next to the character’s names to indicate what job they are.
So, thankfully, yes, Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake is still Dragon Quest. Is it exactly like you remember? No. But that’s for the better. And if you’ve never had a chance to check out Dragon Quest III, or the entire series for that matter, before? This is the perfect place to do it. It retains the soul of the original while making it accessible to everyone, and it looks gorgeous while doing it. Truly, it looks to be a triumph, and well worth the long wait since it was first announced over three years ago.
Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake releases on November 14th for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. Be sure to stay tuned to RPGFan for more news on this exciting remake as we approach release.
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