In a 12 months already chock-full of wonderful remakes like Persona 3 Reload and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, it’s spectacular that I can nonetheless name Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake among the best I’ve ever performed. That’s not as a result of it units out to redefine the 1988 NES unique like Square Enix did with Final Fantasy VII Remake and Rebirth, however due to the way it strikes a virtually excellent stability between faithfully sticking to the bones of Dragon Quest III whereas including trendy quality-of-life enhancements and a wonderful new coat of paint that make it extra enjoyable than ever to discover and battle throughout its surprisingly dense overworld. Dragon Quest III is a real godfather of the RPG style, and this immensely satisfying retelling so clearly spells out why it’s certainly one of gaming’s important works.
HD-2D Remake is essentially the identical journey Dragon Quest III has all the time been, and it’s laborious to not marvel at how nicely its unique blueprint nonetheless holds up in 2024. This is as basic as JRPGs get – the style boiled all the way down to its absolute necessities of rock-solid turn-based fight, atmospheric caves and dungeons stuffed with monsters and treasure, and an easy story about good versus evil that asks you to fill in plenty of the gaps together with your creativeness. It evokes nostalgia for a bygone period of video video games in the very best methods whereas proving it nonetheless has the stuff to hold with the flamboyant, trendy RPGs.
Despite the unabashedly old-school design, it does handle to really feel new because of its overhauled graphics, and Dragon Quest and the HD-2D type pioneered by Octopath Traveler are an absolute excellent mixture. The enemy design is wonderful, with highly-detailed sprites and animations which are a pleasure to have a look at. The late Akira Toriyama’s signature type is splendidly realized right here, and battles really feel extra dynamic with every enemy’s full of life animations for attacking and defending. Towns are pleasant to discover, with beautiful castles, homes, and outlets which are breathtaking to have a look at from the surface and lovable to poke round on the within because of sharp consideration to element. The dungeons all look nice, too, particularly with the moody lighting emitting out of your hero’s lantern. Finally, the overworld feels grand to march throughout, and it’s all backed up with an orchestral soundtrack that matches Dragon Quest’s lighthearted, adventurous temper to a tee.
HD-2D Remake doesn’t simply look beautiful, because it has nice battle and sophistication techniques to match. Apart from the Hero, whose class and spot in your celebration is locked in from the beginning, the composition of the opposite three spots is totally as much as you, together with their courses, names, and appearances. I outfitted my celebration with a Thief, a Priest, and my private favourite: the all-new Monster Wrangler, who grew to become stronger as I discovered and recruited pleasant monsters internationally, which additional incentivized exploration. It’s a ton of enjoyable developing your band of heroes, and I’m truthfully contemplating a full replay the place I attempt one thing totally totally different given what number of courses I didn’t reap the benefits of. There are additionally alternatives to reclass later within the story whereas retaining all the talents your characters have discovered to this point, including much more vital choices to think about.
It’s only a disgrace that the personalities of your celebration members are all silent, clean slates on account of that mechanical flexibility. That’s the identical because it was within the unique, nevertheless it makes for an RPG journey that’s way more about character builds, fight, and exploration slightly than relationships, camaraderie, and story. It’s utterly comprehensible that Square Enix would follow the previous type on this occasion, because it did with virtually every part else, nevertheless it’s laborious to not miss the great personalities of my celebration in Dragon Quest XI or the Party Chat function seen in most trendy entries of the collection by comparability. But as somebody who vastly prefers a barebones story in comparison with an overbearing one, I nonetheless totally loved Dragon Quest III’s concentrate on partaking instantly with its RPG techniques.
To that finish, the battles themselves are fast-paced, enjoyable, and sometimes fairly tough. Make no mistake – that is nonetheless very a lot a hardcore NES-era RPG, and you have to use a balanced mixture of robust assaults, therapeutic spells, and buffing/debuffing skills to beat a few of Dragon Quest III’s hardest bosses. There are some actual nail-biting moments, particularly afterward within the marketing campaign, and I liked utilizing unorthodox methods to barely squeak by fights I most likely wasn’t prepared for but. Random encounters in each the overworld and dungeons are a relentless issue, however they’re all the time pleasurable and drop important expertise factors and gold, which you’ll want as a lot of as you will get to succeed in the tip credit.
But if nervewracking turn-based battles aren’t your factor, there’s no want to fret. I’m extremely impressed by how versatile HD-2D Remake is as a complete. Apart from three problem choices you possibly can change between at any time (Including the Dracky Quest choice, the place your characters basically can’t die), there are a ton of how to tailor the journey to your particular playstyle. In fight, you possibly can velocity up battle animations to get by way of encounters sooner or watch them at regular velocity to essentially benefit from the detailed enemy animations. You’re additionally given full management over how your celebration behaves: In basic Dragon Quest style, you can provide particular person orders to all 4 celebration members, or select methods for them to execute on their very own, like specializing in therapeutic, conserving magic, or going all-out in opposition to a troublesome foe. It’s truthfully stress-free to set the entire celebration to autobattle when grinding for expertise factors earlier than taking management again for your self forward of an vital boss struggle. Options like these guarantee the good fight stays contemporary throughout the roughly 30-hour journey, even with a number of classes of grinding.
That’s partially as a result of the Dragon Quest collection is fairly good at making grinding for expertise factors entertaining, and this remake is not any exception. If you’re a fan of the collection, that Metal Slimes are the important thing to leveling up quick: Enemies with low spawn charges that drop far more expertise factors than the typical unhealthy man. Discovering areas of the map the place Metal Slimes usually tend to seem is thrilling, and the frenzy of adrenaline that kicks in once you see one present up in a random encounter by no means will get previous – like pulling a uncommon card from a Pokémon booster pack.
Plus, other than the occasional degree grind session, Dragon Quest III’s pacing is impeccable. You’re all the time being ushered from one new location to the subsequent, continually exploring new cities and dungeons whereas encountering contemporary foes from the massive set of over 150 enemy sorts. It hardly ever retraces any of its steps – aside from one particular recurring boss I gained’t spoil that admittedly rears its ugly head a couple of too many occasions.
This remake additionally goes to nice lengths to make sure you’ll by no means get misplaced or caught. The Zoom spell allows you to escape a troublesome state of affairs to relaxation at an inn just about everytime you need, whereas goal markers clearly label what you have to do subsequent to progress by way of the often unclear and outdated primary quests. However, if you need the basic Dragon Quest III expertise, you possibly can flip these quest markers off and uncover every part for your self by exploring and speaking to townsfolk. It’s an ideal system that makes this aged RPG extra approachable and playable than ever, whereas additionally preserving that unique type for individuals who need it. It’s a great option to revisit a beloved journey, and I really like the tempo at which this huge world slowly reveals its secrets and techniques to you piece by piece.
While I used to be usually an enormous fan of Dragon Quest III’s old-school nature blended with the HD-2D Remake’s trendy enhancements, there are a few locations it might have gone a couple of additional steps. Inventory administration is clunky, as every of your 4 celebration members solely has entry to their particular person merchandise baggage in fight, which means I spent a ton of time in menus transferring gadgets from the celebration’s total stock to their particular person pockets. Managing gear comes with related annoyances, the place it’s only a bit more durable than it ought to be to see how equipping one thing will affect every character’s stats. I ultimately obtained right into a rhythm of the way to fiddle with these outdated menus, nevertheless it’s one place I want had gotten extra updating. (There are additionally just some enemy designs that haven’t aged particularly nicely, and possibly would have been higher left previously.)
