Dragon Quest. A series so iconic, it’s been solidified as the true pioneer of RPGs since the beginning. Over the last four decades, countless games have been directly inspired by the iconic series, with brands like Final Fantasy even directly created as a result. And after what feels like many, and I mean MANY years, we’ve finally arrived at the long-awaited release of Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake.
Until now, the only mainline Dragon Quest game I’ve played was the definitive port of Dragon Quest XI on the Nintendo Switch, as well as side games such as Dragon Quest Treasures and the Dragon Quest Heroes Musou game. Today, I have finally had the opportunity to play the first game of the Erdrick trilogy, now remade in the gorgeous HD-2D style.
The Third Game Is Actually the First
First things first, we have to set one thing straight: why is this called Dragon Quest III? Is this the third game in the series? The short answer is that the timeline that spans Dragon Quest I, II, and III, which has now been retroactively called the “Erdrick Trilogy,” actually begins from III, according to Yuji Horii.
If you’ve never played a Dragon Quest game, you don’t necessarily have to wait until the release of the HD-2D remake of I and II just to come back here and play III. This isn’t much of a problem, but if you have absolutely no knowledge of the series, you’d be forgiven for going by the order of the number.
A Tale You’re Meant to Insert Yourself
With that out of the way, Dragon Quest III’s story begins with you (yes, you!), a hero who sets out on a journey to defeat the Archfiend Baramos, doing what your father, Ortega, failed to do once. Ah yes, I just turned 16, and now I have to defeat the demon king. Wait, that’s a really good title for an isekai novel.
The story and its narrative heavily rely on you being able to heavily self-insert yourself, which was a bit tough for me to get behind at first. This is partly due to how I had expectations that I would get attached to my party, similar to how most JRPGs of the modern era do it, but the party members don’t interact that much with the story narrative besides maybe a cutscene or two. They sometimes felt like dolls to me.
Just so I’m clear, that doesn’t mean I don’t like this kind of approach for a narrative. Still, as someone who comes from a more modern mainline title like Dragon Quest XI, where every single party member has a distinct personality and trait, this is something that takes some getting used to. And considering just how I think XI introduced a lot of people to the franchise, there’s a chance that I might not be alone in this.
What did feel great about this type of storytelling is the absolute freedom that Dragon Quest III gives you. While I did enable the assist that told me where the story would take me next, that didn’t stop my curiosity from just going off course and visiting corners in the map that I was curious about. And instead of being stopped, I just…wasn’t. Quite the opposite, in fact, as I randomly stumbled upon a side story and got rewarded with a trophy for my troubles.
And even then, I have many memorable cutscenes that I’ve experienced, with some that even left me dumbfounded. In the interest of not spoiling the experience for anyone, I urge you to let that inner curiosity out! You’ll be surprised by what you’ll discover in this vast world. I wouldn’t go as far as to say this is an “open world,” but it does feel quite good not to feel linearly bound to the story. As I explored the world, I sometimes lost track of time while playing, and whenever an RPG reaches that point, that is a surefire sign that you’re in for a good time.
The Famicom Soul Has Been Reborn
Dragon Quest III has seen lots of ports over the years ever since its original release, spanning multiple console generations. For this HD-2D remake, Square Enix has packed a plethora of quality-of-life improvements. And one of them involves the battles. Combat animations can now be sped up all the way up to Ultra-Fast, and the Tactics menu from later entries in the series makes its way here, where you can either select to give orders individually to each party member or simply ask them to use them automatically.
Furthermore, the game adds a new Recall option, where by pressing the Options button (on a PlayStation controller), you can save the last dialogue you’ve heard from an NPC to your memory and then play it back as many times as you’d like through the Recall button on the main menu. This is extremely useful because it allows you to save important clues that NPCs will give you regarding how you’re supposed to progress.
Another change is the addition of the minimap. Honestly, it is shocking how we take such a feature for granted in recent JRPGs. While it pains me to admit this, I am very directionally challenged at times, not being able to tell east or west apart, but thanks to the minimap, I barely had to worry about that, especially in the dungeons that appear later in the game.
The Grind is Still There, But More Doable
The original Dragon Quest III was perhaps notorious for being extremely grindy, requiring hours upon hours of constant battling in order to properly level up your party. It is to be expected, though, given its age. However, Square Enix has made sure that this remake will be accessible to anyone, regardless of skill level, so there are three difficulty options: Dracky Quest for Easy, Dragon Quest for Normal, and Draconian Quest for Hard.
The Dracky Quest mode is especially interesting because not only does it increase the amount of damage you deal to enemies, but it also applies a safety net, where no matter how much damage your party takes, they will never die. There might be an argument here as to whether this is a good way to play the game, but I’m actually going to play devil’s advocate here and say that it’s a great difficulty that allows players to experience the story, without being overwhelmed by the groups of mobs the game throws at you.
If you wish to go for the grinding route, I’d say that even that is made much easier, thanks to the speed-up function I mentioned. There’s also the auto-attack mode, but I’ll admit that calling it that is a little misleading. Instead of a button that has your party members automatically attack, it really means that the Tactics system, which only made its debut in the later titles, has been implemented in the HD-2D remake.
And I must say that oftentimes, putting my party in the default “Fight Wisely” mode was interesting to watch. It really felt like the auto commands were keeping a great balance between offense and defense, and sometimes, when enemies would overwhelm the party, it still managed to get through the combat as best as it could.
A Plethora of New Features
Besides the main story, this version of Dragon Quest III offers a plethora of new content to discover and explore. Scattered across the realm are “Secret Spots,” which can give you items, and gosh, talk about a way to make you want to explore every nook and cranny of this vast, and I mean VAST, map. You truly never know what that odd spot in the corner is until you go to check it out for yourself.
In addition to the existing classes, there’s a new class on the block: the Monster Wrangler. This class ties into a new mechanic where you can find monsters that are docile to the player across the underworld and have them go over to Monty’s Monster Arena to turn over a new leaf. The more you find, the more you’ll understand their lifestyle, which, in turn, unlocks some special skills for the class.
I really enjoyed having a party member as a Monster Wrangler because of their sheer versatility. When some areas and monsters tried to seal spell usage, the class shrugged it off because they do not use Spells but Abilities. Is it the most overpowered class in the game? Maybe. Maybe not. But I’ll leave that to the min-maxers because I sure am not one of them.
The story has also seen some changes, with the addition of extra cutscenes to better illustrate the connection of Dragon Quest III to the other mainline games of the Erdrick trilogy. These cutscenes add some much-needed clarity to the overall story while still retaining the original idea from Yuji Horii.
HD-2D At Its Absolute Best
Now, let’s talk about one of the biggest points of the game, which is the graphics. It’s no surprise to anyone that Square Enix has been improving the HD-2D art style ever since it was introduced in Octopath Traveler. And as someone who sort of disliked the excessive bloom (which tired my eyes at the time), I would argue that Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake is where we are seeing this art style at its absolute best.
The shadows and colors are vibrant and very beautiful to look at, and a majestic soundtrack accompanies all of this. I may not have a high-end TV, but even so, this is pure eye candy, and it doesn’t tire your eyes, even after an extended play session. Furthermore, every single cutscene in the game got what I can only describe as a massive glow-up, making it much more immersive to watch.
The soundtrack is also great. While there isn’t a way to swap back to the 8-bit sounds of the Famicom, I’d say the Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra did a great job translating the sounds of Dragon Quest III into more modern instruments. But let’s talk about the thing that matters the most to me as a designer: The UI.
The UI retains the original’s blocky aesthetic, but instead of a pixel font, the remake uses a serif font, which is perfectly legible, even from a distance. Although, amusingly, I did spot a typo during gameplay, where the game would say, “The enemy are defeated”, and a small mistake with an NPC’s dialogue, but they were such minor things that I believe will be addressed with the day one patch.
And speaking of the day one patch, I didn’t encounter any bugs or crashes, though even if the game crashed, it autosaves so frequently that I feel even if I encountered one such instance, it wouldn’t take long for me to resume from where I was.
Paging Through the Journey Once More
As a side note, on the PlayStation 5, Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake is about 16 gigabytes, give or take. It’s ironic, considering that means this remake would require hundreds of thousands of Famicom cartridges to hold all of its data. Still, that’s not an exorbitant amount of space, and it makes sense when you consider all of the content that’s in the game.
On average, Dragon Quest III will take about 20 to 25 hours to clear the main story, though I can’t estimate it. And that’s because two playthroughs are never the same. For my playthrough, it took me roughly 23 hours to complete the game, and that’s even accounting for the time I spent wandering and grinding levels, especially after so many new areas opened to me after I progressed enough in the story.
Another fun thing to note is that if you’re someone who is starting their journey in the Japanese language, then I would highly recommend that you try playing Dragon Quest III in Japanese. The series has long been used by both beginners and veteran students alike, with its story containing relatively easy to digest dialogue, and the text is also spaced out so you can understand how each of the bits connect.
There are two modes when you switch the game to Japanese. The first enables furigana, which displays the readings of the given kanji on top of the character. As for the second, the dialogue box expands a bit, and all kanji characters turn into Hiragana. If I had to recommend one or the other, I would definitely go for the Furigana option because you’ll be immersing yourself effectively while still learning all three major Japanese writing systems simultaneously.
An Epic Tale Now Reborn for Modern Consoles
If you ever needed an excuse to finally play Dragon Quest III, then now’s the time. The team at Square Enix poured their absolute best into making this the best experience ever, and it shows, especially with its quality-of-life improvements and absolutely vibrant HD-2D style. Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake is the best way to play this legendary RPG.
Personally, my only gripes with it had to do with just how grindy it felt at times, and I think the story could’ve had a bit more depth to it, but those are largely a result of its aging Famicom soul. After all, you can only do so much to it without making it lose its essence, and Square Enix played it safe here, providing much-needed quality-of-life improvements and even added new content. There is no doubt that this is the definitive way to play Dragon Quest III, whether you’ve played the original or if this is your first time with the series.
Thankfully, our time with the world of Dragon Quest in HD-2D has not finished yet because the journey continues in the Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake coming next year, and I can’t wait to see the Erdrick trilogy finally remade in its full glory. I’m sure Akira Toriyama would’ve been proud to see that Erdrick’s story is now being retold to the modern audience.
Disclaimer: Square Enix provided Final Weapon with a PlayStation 5 copy of Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake for review purposes.
