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Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake is hands down the silliest title I’ve ever heard for a game…this year. I get why Square Enix went the route their did, but it seems so awkward. A bit too on the nose. Despite that, it’s still one of my most anticipated games of the year.
I managed to give it a spin at the Tokyo Game Show (though only for 10 minutes, as I had to leave for Capcom’s Monster Hunter Wilds demo) and it quickly captured my interest with its look that reminded me of Octopath Traveler.
After some loooooong months of waiting, it’s finally here!
So what do I think of Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake?
What is Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake?
Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake is a remake (duh) of Dragon Quest III (duh again), in HD 2D (duuuuuuh). Seriously, it’s right there in the title. I don’t think I can explain it any more on point than that. Co-developed by ARTDINK and Square Enix, and published by Square Enix, the game is available right now on the every platform.
Our copy was awesomely provided by the super folks at Square Enix! Thanks so much!
Originally released in 1988 on the NES, Dragon Quest III (or Dragon Warrior as it was called in the English versions), has seen a couple of enhanced versions throughout the years. This is the first overhaul of the game though.
It’s also the first game in the Eldrick trilogy (which is why Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake is coming next year), and is the prequel to the first two games.
As heir of the legendary warrior Ortega, you (the Hero) have been tasked by the King to defeat the Demon Lord, Baramos. That was a task for the father, but since he be dead, it now falls unto you to do what he could.
That’s it.
That’s the plot for the game.
What comes next is your by-the-numbers JRPG journey. You traverse the land, helping those in need, visiting towns one by one as you move across the world map. You’ll delve into dungeons, climb towers, even storm a pyramid…all in the quest to rid the world of Baramos.
This unfortunately, doesn’t make for a very interesting game and the remake doesn’t do anything to change this. In short, this remake isn’t really out to hook new fans.
It’s for old fogeys (like me) who grew up playing JRPGs with similar plots to this.
In that sense, the game succeeds brilliantly. The game smacks of old school game design. That also means that it’ll turn off a ton of modern gamers.
Then again, if you’re thinking of getting the game, chances are you’re an old school gamer too.
The Hero isn’t going on his journey solo, but unlike other JRPGs of that era, who comes along is up to you. It’s up to you to create 3 other characters from the handful of classes, name them, assign their looks, give them their personalities and starting attributes.
In a nice twist, the Personalities that can be assigned to a character actually dictate how fast certain stats grow when they level up. Obviously you can use it to complement the best stats for the class. Of course, you can also go off on a tangent and make a Mage who isn’t a spellcasting powerhouse, but have tons of HP or can dish out melee attacks as powerful as their spells.
I actually spent a ton of time fiddling around with this. It was really fun!
In the end, I went with a Mage, a a Priest and the new Monster Tamer class.
Speaking of new, the most significant new additions to the game are the Monster Arenas and the Monster Tamer class (which is the class that the protagonist was in Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince). There are also new story elements that talk about Ortega, secret areas in the world with new rewards, sparkling treasure caches you can find on the world map and voice overs for certain characters.
Now don’t go thinking the Monster Tamer makes this a Pokemon game though…you get more monsters by meeting them in towns or secret areas. You just talk to them and they’ll join your cause. The recruitment method is basic, but I did have fun hunting down the friendly monsters.
You can get clues on their locations by talking to the townspeople so it now gives you incentive to talk to everybody you meet and not just blaze through towns. The day and night cycle even plays well into this. Some monsters only appear at certain times of the day, which is a nice touch.
The Monster Tamer class also unlocks new Abilities at certain amounts of monsters joined, so the more you get on your team, the stronger the class gets.
To be honest, the early skills are weak, but some of the mid-tier and later skills are incredible. They can hit whole parties (though random targets), so you can lay the smackdown very fast.
The monsters that join you can also fight, but only in Monster Arenas.
You can’t give them direct orders but you can assign them generic ones like ‘Focus on Healing’ and the like. They don’t level up with the fights, but only when you get more of the same type. That actually incentivizes you to hunt for monsters constantly, because the Arena matches quickly get tougher (sometimes unfairly so) as you rank up.
That’s also an issue present in the main game sadly.
There are significant difficulty spikes throughout that means you can be cruising around one area and then getting pummeled merciless in the next. Some enemies are dangerously unbalanced, with them getting multiple attacks in a single turn or have moves that do massive damage. Some even have both! You can be severely hurt or even killed from full HP in a single turn with these guys.
They’re not special bosses or anything, just regular enemies you can encounter randomly. That’s just frustrating game design no matter how you look at it. Party wipes are a regular occurrence every time you explore a new area.
There’s also an issue with damage ranging.
Sometimes the damage you deal to a group of enemies can vary massively. One guy could be hit for 50 damage, another 60 damage and another get 10 damage. I don’t know why there’s a potential for an insane damage gap range but it’s in the game.
It just makes it super frustrating when you know an attack should’ve wiped out a whole group but didn’t because of this. It’s just bad game design no matter which way you look at it. If I wanted to gamble, I’d go to a casino, not play a game.
As an old school JRPG, Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake has random turn-based battles up the wazoo. Every few steps you take, you get thrown into a fight. That’s honestly fine, since it’s part and parcel of the genre. What is an issue is the insanely high EXP requirements to level.
Even getting to Level 10 for your characters is a chore, requiring hours of grinding.
Square Enix should’ve foreseen this being an issue and added in optional concessions like it did to some of its other RPGs that got remasters (Final Fantasy VIII – Remastered for example). Multiplying the EXP gained would’ve done wonders to cut down on the grinding, and giving a toggle to turn on and off random battles would’ve been much appreciated too.
The constant battling also meant that there really should’ve been an auto-battle feature built-in.
Right now, there’s no way to make sure the party keeps attacking automatically till the battle’s over. It always asks for your input after the turn’s over. It’s a severe annoyance if you’re grinding (which is almost always) because you can’t just do something else while you’re slowly slogging through the battles to get stronger.
I definitely think that the battles should’ve been given an overhaul like the rest of the game. The battle UI remains largely unchanged. The enemy and player sprites look much nicer and there are new special effects now, but by and large, the battling is still basic and barebones. This is fine back then, but touch up
Death is a major annoyance too.
If you die, there’s no way to resurrect unless you have a rare resurrection skill that’s only available on some classes or an even rarer resurrection item. The only other way to bring back a dead party member is to go to a Church in town and pay a fee for the priest to raise them.
It is hilarious to drag three other coffins on-screen the first few times, but the hilarity quickly gets old.
It actually goes the same for the music though not as bad.
I’ve mentioned how the Dragon Quest series tends to reuse a lot of the songs from other games in the series and this one’s no difference. If you’re a series regular, be prepared for the return of a boatload of tunes. There are a couple I don’t think I’ve ever heard before but they’re definitely not as prominent as the reused ones.
The good news is that while the music’s reused, they’re not bad. Some of the tunes are still as incredible as before. There’s just something that gets the blood riled up as the title boots up and the recognizable Dragon Quest fanfare gets going.
It’s not at all unlike playing a Final Fantasy game and the familiar Crystal theme plays.
The hairs on your arms start to stand up, you feel all warm and fuzzy inside and you know you’re in for a grand time!
The game also has select voice acting now too. Your characters grunt and shout in battle and certain important characters in-game have voices. They’re nothing worth writing home about, but nice to have nonetheless.
However, it’s worth noting that the visuals are worth noting.
Square Enix obviously learned a lot from developing Octopath Traveller (and its sequel) because Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake looks exactly like those game, though with a much more vibrant color palette. The heavy use of bokeh and depth of field, the lavishly animated sprites, the semi-static camera views.
That doesn’t detract anything from how the game still looks absolutely gorgeous.
Certain locations are brilliantly done and the game’s day/night cycle makes sunsets and sunrises look spectacular. The water sparkles, there’s the lighting slowly growing brighter…it all comes together into a brilliant scene. I never get tired of watching the sun go up and down in the game.
It doesn’t take much to run the game, even with all its features turned up. That’s why the game’s such a perfect match for the ROG Ally X. On 1080p, with all the settings on their highest, I had zero issues running the game.
It flowed as smoothly as it did on my desktop, which ran the game at 4K. The framerate was rock solid, the loading time quick and the controls spot on. Sure, the game has its issues, but none of them were the fault of the ROG Ally X. If you’re wanting to take the game with you on the go, there’s zero need to worry on its performance, even on the ROG Ally X’s lower power modes.
The Bottom Line.
Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake is a brilliant remake.
The updated visuals fit the game perfectly and the new additions to the game does enhance the experience.
Unfortunately, Square Enix didn’t do much to attend to the game’s underlying problems.
The main one being the massive amount of grinding needed to level up and the uneven difficulty. Just having an EXP multiplier alone would’ve fixed these issues so I’m really puzzled why that wasn’t even an option given how many quality of life improvements the game has.
Other problems like the repeated music, inability to go full auto for battles and the lackluster plot also contribute to hold down the remake too.
Despite that, the issues are all relatively minor in the grand scheme of things. If you grew up playing an oldschool JRPG like this, chances are you’ll enjoy the experience despite the annoyances.
TLDR:
Oldschool JRP that’s been remade very well, but still needs more QOL improvements.
The Good:
- Visually impressive.
- Class and personality system.
- Solid battle system.
- New additions are cool.
The Bad:
- Repeat music from other Dragon Quest games.
- No EXP multiplier.
- Generic plot.
- Difficulty spikes and unbalanced enemies.
Salehuddin Husin, EIC
Sal's been in the industry since the early 2000s. He's written for a ton of gaming and tech publications including Playworks, Hardwarezone, HWM and GameAxis. Recently, Sal served as a juror for the Indie Game Awards at Taipei Game Show 2020. A geek and hardcore gamer, Sal will play everything, on any platform.
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