At this point, Dragon Quest shouldn’t need an introduction – it’s a legendary series renowned for its gameplay innovation, adventurous spirit, and characters full of heart. One of the entries that exhibits these qualities the absolute most is Dragon Quest VII, which, shockingly, definitely does need an introduction. On the apparent only island in the world, a group of restless youth discovers that they aren’t alone in this world of endless ocean. A mysterious shrine containing stone tablets holds the truth of the world. Once put together, they lead to the past, where countless nations are plagued by darkness.
The original PlayStation release often touted playtimes of around 100 hrs. It’s an absolute beast of an adventure, and you’d be hard-pressed to find another PS1 game with a depth of content to this extent. It’s nothing short of a grand adventure, for better and for worse. Despite the sheer ambition on display, the game didn’t quite click with many players, especially outside of Japan, where many criticized the presentation and slow pacing. Over 10 years later, Japan received a full 3D remake of the game on Nintendo 3DS. However, yet again, while the game quickly became a million-copy seller in Japan, it only allegedly sold 300,000 copies upon its worldwide release.
Nearly a decade after DQVII on 3DS, the DQ series is in a different state, with DQ games receiving positive reception and good sales worldwide. Now, can the series underdog, Dragon Quest VII, rise above its past stigma with a truly modernized remake with Dragon Quest VII Reimagined? This time, the graphics and presentation are jaw-droppingly gorgeous, and the entire game has been streamlined while retaining and enhancing the core experience.
Could these efforts possibly be what puts oft-forgotten Dragon Quest VII on the map? Join us today in our Dragon Quest VII Reimagined review for a deep dive on the upsides, downsides, and every other side of this monumental undertaking of a remake.
A Dust-Covered, Gleaming Medal!
Before we set our sights on the present, let’s take a look back to establish what made the original release of Dragon Quest VII, all the way back in 2000 on the PS1, so special. Of course, Dragon Quest games are an absolute behemoth in Japan, with many entries ranking among the top-selling games on pretty much every console they released on. DQVII was no different, but it had a lot more riding on it than the previous entries, as it came out nearly five years after DQVI. While that sounds like nothing in today’s gaming climate, that’s an absurd amount of time in the 90s world of development. Fans may have received an ample amount of spin-offs during that time, but they ultimately, as all fans do, wanted the next main entry. However, they were waiting for a good cause! And that’s because Dragon Quest VII was going to be the ultimate Dragon Quest game and an adventure of a lifetime.
I will come out and say that it’s not exactly untrue that the original Dragon Quest VII is a slog, but I’d argue that when viewed through a certain lens, you see the reasoning behind it. Yes, the player may have to involve themselves in quite a bit of tedium, but the depth of the writing, systems, and world is more than enough make up for this as long as a slow, appreciative pace is taken. The rotatable 3D environments actually do a great job at keeping the player on their toes when exploring, because, quite often, a hidden treasure or progression point could be a camera turn away. Searching for the titular Fragments of the Forgotten Past is certainly a challenge that could frustrate less vigilant players.
While the time-consuming revisits and combings of areas can be arduous, the story-reactive NPCs and Party Chat functions amazingly ground the world with joyous chitter-chatter. Just about every time something happens in the story or an NPC has something interesting to say, your party members will have something to comment on! From relevant information to expression of character traits, things are always changing. Heck, even the battles have chats in this particular version.
It also may take a while to kick in, but the slow-burning vocation system, where you retain the skills of mastered classes, is extremely rewarding to those willing to put the time into it. And while it’s not unnecessarily true that just any JRPG or Dragon Quest fan will love this particular approach, there’s a lot to love here, and there’s nothing quite like this from its era or any other, really.
Bringing the Past to the Present
Of course, the first noticeable upgrade to this remake is the complete overhaul of the graphics. The original Dragon Quest VII utilized 2D sprites on 3D backgrounds, much like the HD-2D games. And while this isn’t the first time we’ve seen these long-lost island realms presented in full 3D, this is the first time Dragon Quest VII has breached HD detail. In fact, while yes, this is sort of standard with a remake, a big part of this revamped art style is due to the doll and diorama aesthetic. The creation process of making real-world wooden dolls with actual fabric clothes and using them as a base for the in-game character models is touted in promo material for the game. This, on top of the genius move of updating the original area maps to resemble dioramas, resulted in not only attractive modern graphics but a visually distinct game that retains an iconic art style sturdily.
‘Graphics’ were a key design pillar in this remake, and this particular vision is also a reason for the ‘Reimagined’ moniker. While all of the polygons, lighting, and texture maps are all in order, the presentation itself has a lot to compete with, and it nails it for this style of game. There’s more camera control than ever before in gameplay, with some added angles and an option for close and far camera distances. The story scenes also have more to work with due to a more versatile camera at your disposal. Important scenes are highlighted with additional pans, zooms, animations, and cinematography not possible in normal gameplay. This gives a sense of dynamicism not found in the original game. At the end of the day, no matter how great or unique the graphics may be, they’re ultimately the most superficial aspect of any game – the cherry on top.
What typically ends up holding a player’s attention beyond the aesthetics are the gameplay and story within the games they play, and it just so happens that these are the other two focus areas of this project. The team aimed to streamline this massive experience while retaining the essence of what makes Dragon Quest VII beloved by its fans. This process would involve implementing elements found in newer releases of the series, adding extensive QoL updates, and condensing some of the extended journey down to the essentials. One of the standout pieces of QoL on display is the extensive Difficulty customization menu. Using this, you can increase or decrease variables such as EXP, Gold, damage taken, and more. It’s not too bad being able to make things a tick tougher or easier where you need it.
As far as the updates to combat go, harken back to Dragon Quest XI and the recent HD-2D remakes. In XI, the turn order in combat was determined entirely by the order in which each participant would act, meaning that you don’t input all of your commands at the start and watch them go. This more modern take on Dragon Quest’s turn order is injected into DQVII Reimagined to great effect, making battles feel more reactive than ever. Absolutely zero wasted turns! While this changes the flow of battle, there are also smaller additions like the item bag being consolidated and the addition of a single-press auto battle. Now, every battle item and piece of usable/equippable equipment is freely accessible by everyone, making strategy more flexible on one hand, while reducing item and build management on the other.
Auto-Battle itself, being tied to a button, doesn’t sound all that impressive, especially since Dragon Quest has had extensive auto-battling mechanics with its ‘Tactics’ for decades. However, pressing the start button and triggering auto-battle turns on the fastest speed and sets everyone to the Fight Wisely Tactic. This easy flick of a switch is surprisingly handy when you just wanna slam out some grinding or easy battles. Not having to alter my party Tactics more than necessary is rather nice. Beyond these minor alterations, the next major shakeup that alters the gamefeel is the class system of the game Vocations.
While the baseline changes affect the skeleton of battle, the real meat comes from the Vocations being stacked onto it. In the original, characters retained the abilities learned from a mastered Vocation. Along with secret skills and monster hearts, the original game has a huge amount of variety to experiment with freely. The 3DS remake mostly retained this with some alterations to how monster hearts and advanced skill retention work. Plus, the 3DS version features vocational-specific outfits for a lot of extra added flair! Nice! Well, here in DQVII Reimagined, Vocations have seen a severe retooling. Now, each party member can have two classes at once; however, at the cost of not being able to use any skills outside of these two classes.
Monster hearts have also been altered, being somewhat useful accessories, with monster classes no longer available. This is the biggest alteration to the overall combat, as the way it’s handled and approached is different in terms of building and executing. It’s more of a simplified yet different flavor than an outright improvement, but it’s still solid and lends itself nicely to the ‘Reimagined’ aspect. Aaaaand the outfits are… gone. It’s disappointing to say the least, especially with the 3DS text remaining in the game that brings mention to them. Well, generally speaking, these changes to combat do make the game more accessible in ways and open the door to tackling battles in new ways. It’s a lot more focused but a little less intriguing as a result.
So, how does the story and progression fare? Well, the good news is that the overall main scenario is still here in its relative entirety. All major story beats are here, alongside some new scenario additions. Luckily, that means that the core DQVII is here and better than ever in some respects. Tablets have been redistributed in order to allow players to have some freedom in the order of how they tackle islands, although this doesn’t really change much in the grand scheme of things, beyond making the experience more satisfying to some.
The voice acting, combined with the updated presentation, really lends itself to some of these scenes, recreating many memorable and emotional moments all these years later with an additional layer. In terms of how this particular aspect is handled, it’s exactly what any fan would want and expect from a remake. However, it is extremely unfortunate that some of the islands and little extras that made the original special were gutted from the experience. This is the real catch-22 of Dragon Quest VII Reimagined.
Forgotten Fragments…
What we have here is a pretty good remake by most metrics. The graphics, music, presentation, and additions are all clear crowd pleasers. But the thing is, the general perception of remakes with significant alterations is more highly scrutinized than ever, as they rightly should, I might add. What this means is that there will be fans of the original or new players who are interested but put off by how the content is handled. Sadly, I think this is a situation where a needle may have been threaded, making Dragon Quest VII Reimagined a double-edged sword of a remake. Admittedly, I quite love some remakes that are complete reimaginings with entirely different elements, cough Final Fantasy VII Remake, cough. The issue here for me is that some of the changes hit way harder with this remake being so generally faithful. Some of the original release’s soul was lost in the transition, I feel. Yes, the excellent DQVII is still here; however, it feels like it was reimagined to be more like its brethren. And the reason that this came to pass is this game’s infamous reputation.
Every facet of the original has been made more palatable or easier, more or less. Tablets are automatically placed, no more jigsaw puzzle solving, Zoom is unlocked from the beginning, and more. Why were three islands cut? Because they weren’t deemed important enough to the overall narrative, and to cut down on time. Oh, more time needs to be saved? Party chat is significantly pared down. Some small side areas and insignificant pathways were removed. It doesn’t affect much, but was it really necessary?
Vocations and battles received interesting changes that make for a new experience, but part of this is missing the appeal of the more free-form, planning-heavy party building of the past. It also sucks that gambling is gone, but that’s Europe’s fault. At least Lucky Panel was saved. I know this sounds like a list of grievances, but, to me, it’s the little devil in the details that matters in Dragon Quest. I can’t help but feel that Dragon Quest VII is a little diluted here, and really, it’s because the story that history told us was that DQVII was a heavily flawed game that needed changes.
A Sanded-Down Fragment of the Past
Dragon Quest VII Reimagined is still as grand an adventure as it was 25 years ago… mostly. The ‘Reimagined’ moniker bleeds down to the refined art style, remixed combat mechanics, and streamlined main quest. All of these, plus ample amounts of Quality of Life updates, make for a fun and modern experience that stands tall even next to recent installments.
However, all of the bells and whistles look a lot less shiny when you realize that they came at a cost, with content being cut. Losing islands, side content, and countless lines of dialogue just doesn’t sit right. No amount of sprinklings of extra content really rectifies that in a satisfying way. All of the ideas displayed here are executed well and create an enjoyable, streamlined experience. It’s just unfortunate this was done in the service of making the game more palatable.
Dragon Quest VII Reimagined is an excellent remake that’s held back from being truly great by rejecting its past, shedding its “flaws”. It goes down smooth and is still Dragon Quest at its core; its identity is just filed off a bit.
Disclaimer: Square Enix provided a PlayStation 5 copy of Dragon Quest VII Reimagined for review purposes.
