At the beginning of the summer, Square Enix took me to a secret preview session where we got to try out Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake before the official announcement. A test that was more of a short technical presentation than a detailed test of the concept and raison d’être of this reinterpretation of the 1988 classic. Then I was able to take a look at some of the new features (almost all of which were obvious) in the game. But I knew that if the publisher wanted to write a new chapter of Dragon Quest for a new generation of players, it would take more than just a good story facelift. And after spending many hours immersed in his fantasy world over the last few days, I think I can accept the decision with joy and a certain satisfaction, without losing sight of the fact that this is one of the founding games of what we all know today as JRPG.
Dragon Quest is the unchangeable in the catalog of Japanese role-playing games. Its iconography, themes, monsters and aesthetics have changed little in its 38-year history. In today’s Square Enix, advanced innovations and experiments can happily move on to Final Fantasy (a franchise born precisely as an approximation of Dragon Quest), since it would be unthinkable (at least in the eleven title installments to date) to play this series is already one an integral part of Japanese popular culture without causing a social earthquake in the country. But at the same time, after so long, younger viewers find it increasingly difficult to identify with it, and of course there is the problem of international projection. How to renew the series and satisfy long-time fans? Luckily, the studio and publisher found the perfect solution a few years ago: HD-2D. A proprietary technology that allows these two-dimensional scenarios of the older JRPGs to be reconstructed and reconstructed with current graphics, animations and more careful cinematic scenes, a three-dimensional vision and greater depth.
The international projection was no mere editorial flourish. Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake is, especially if you live in Europe, a debt that’s almost 40 years old. Apart from an almost unnoticed mobile version in 2014, Square Enix never released the first installments of Dragon Quest in our region, although it did in North America. So if, like you, you decide to take this journey and haven’t gotten your hands on NTSC copies yet, this was my first journey through the Kingdom of Aliana and the world beyond its borders. And what a journey.
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Our adventure begins the day we turn 16. Our hero (or heroine, since we can choose between a boy and a girl) is the son of a brave, missing warrior named Ortega. The King of Aliana tasks us with continuing our father’s mission and defeating the evil that threatens the world in the form of the archenemy Baremos. So, with the king’s blessing and a ragtag group of fighters recruited from the local tavern, we set out to find our destiny. The story in Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake remains virtually unchanged from the original, although the spatial and narrative distances between the various milestones have varied a bit.
First, the prologue, in which the hero meets the goddess in his dreams, has changed his development, although the process and his words are similar. In addition, more background information about Ortega has been added and the scene dialogue is now voice controlled and dubbed in Japanese or English. This is just one of the title’s small quality of life improvements, but not the only one. We also have the fortunate ability to speed up combat by up to two additional levels of speed, making your level farming sessions a little more enjoyable.
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Additionally, although the map has a similar layout, it has been stretched so that the duration of a few minutes in 1988 (or 1991 in Super Famicom) is double or more here. This is by far the best addition in the Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake. The depth of the artistic style is, as I mentioned in my first impressions, a gift to the senses. Due to the use of light sources, reflections in the water and shadows, all places appear full of life and details. There will be times when you put aside your actual task and devote yourself to exploration, looking for a point of interest or hidden treasure, simply for the pleasure of seeing how the day and night cycle lengthens the shadows on your characters, or watching the evening sun gradually fall on the calm waters of a river. If you enjoyed the technical leap between the first Octopath Traveler and its sequel, you’ll notice here a new leap forward in what HD-2D can bring to the video game. But we must not forget that this Dragon Quest III HD 2D remake is a classic JRPG, so we will spend a lot of time fighting between one mission and the next in the story.
In combat we have another of the main novelties of this Dragon Quest III HD 2D remake. Regardless of whether battles are more or less fast-paced, all enemies now have on-screen animations that attack or fall when defeated. All attacks and magic also have their own visual identity with colors, adding dynamism and immersion. The UI has also been overhauled in and out of combat to make navigating the item and equipment menus more intuitive, and something called “Evoke Memories” has been added to help you keep track of the story and what you’ve accomplished so far , can keep in the menu tab. In short, they’re little improvements here and there, stacked on top of each other to improve the whole.
And you will appreciate all the help you can get because Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake is a tough and demanding game. You’ll quickly learn not to waste a single healing item, and you’ll want to risk reaching that distant chest in search of a hopefully better weapon or armor. Every step away from the safety of a village is a challenge due to the severity of the battles and the saving of Magic Points (MP), which become the most valuable treasure. An obvious tip is to try to use weapons or damaging spells on groups of enemies to avoid giving them more turns in combat. Despite all possible precautions, it may happen that the party is defeated and you have to spend your precious gold going to a church of the Goddess to revive your companions or recruit and improve new ones. However, if you find that this difficulty level is too much, you now have the option to set the game to easy. The most important change is that your characters will always have one life point remaining, no matter how many times they are hit. And if you’re crazy enough to want to sweat blood, there’s also a difficult mode to get back to this Dragon Quest III HD 2D remake, which one server says is impossible.
This will hardly come as a surprise to veterans of the Dragon Quest series. What does this HD 2D remake offer you? If you are a completionist, you will surely want to have all the monsters for the Romaria Arena and all the mini medals. But what you will enjoy most is the music. The newly orchestrated soundtrack by Koichi Sugiyamaa timeless masterpiece of video game history, reaches its climax here with a beautifully played orchestral arrangement. Its translation since 1988 makes it one of the best video game soundtracks you’ll hear this year, and perhaps those you’ve heard in previous games as well.
I don’t have much to complain about this Dragon Quest III HD 2D remake. I completed the game in version 1.0.0 on Nintendo Switch and did not experience any lag or bugs. The only downside you can find is that it is Dragon Quest III. If you’re not used to this type of game, which requires you to spend a lot of time fighting to level up in an ever-lengthening loop of hours, this may not be for you. However, if you want to get to know the myth and be carried away by a classic story with unparalleled graphics, then Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake is your entry into the series. Welcome to adventure.
