In a year already full of excellent remakes like Reload Persona 3 AND Paper Mario: Millennium Doorit’s impressive that I can still call Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake one of the best games I’ve ever played. Not because it aims to redefine the 1988 NES original like Square Enix did Final Fantasy VII Remake AND Revivalbut because of how it strikes a near-perfect balance between faithfully sticking to the dice of Dragon Quest III while adding state-of-the-art quality-of-life upgrades and a pretty fresh coat of paint that makes exploring and fighting in this game more fun than ever surprisingly dense world. Dragon Quest III is the true godfather of the RPG genre, and this incredibly satisfying story clearly explains why it is one of gaming’s most crucial works.
HD-2D Remake is essentially the same adventure that Dragon Quest III always was, and it’s demanding not to be surprised at how well its original plan still holds up in 2024. This is as classic as JRPGs can get – the genre boiled down to the absolute basics of solid turn-based combat, atmospheric caves and dungeons filled with monsters and treasures, and a uncomplicated story of good versus evil that requires you to fill in a lot of the gaps with your imagination. It does the best job of making you feel nostalgic for a bygone era of video gaming while proving that it still has something to offer in fancy, state-of-the-art RPGs.
Despite its unashamedly old-school design, it manages to pull this off feel fresh with revamped graphics and Dragon Quest and pioneering HD-2D style Octopath Traveler they are an absolutely perfect combination. The enemy design is amazing, with highly detailed sprites and animations that are a joy to look at. The slow Akira Toriyama’s signature style is brilliantly realized here, and battles become more animated with vibrant attack and defense animations for each enemy. The cities are stunning to explore, with magnificent castles, houses and shops that are breathtaking when viewed from the outside and charming when explored inside thanks to the great attention to detail. All the dungeons look great too, especially with the mood lighting from your hero’s lantern. Finally, traversing the entire world feels great, and it’s all backed by an orchestral soundtrack that perfectly suits the carefree, adventurous mood of Dragon Quest.
HD-2D Remake not only looks great, but it also has great combat and class systems. Apart from the Hero, whose class and place in the party are locked from the beginning, the composition of the other three places is entirely up to you, including their classes, names and appearance. I equipped my team with a Thief, a Priest, and my personal favorite: the all-new Monster Slayer, who became stronger as I found and recruited genial monsters around the world, further encouraging exploration. Building a team of heroes is a lot of fun, and I’m honestly considering a full replay where I try something completely different considering the number of classes I didn’t apply. There are also opportunities to change classes later in the story, retaining all the skills your character has learned thus far while adding even more crucial decisions to consider.
It’s just a shame that your party members’ personalities are still, blank slates as a result of this mechanical flexibility. This is the same as the original, but makes the RPG journey focus more on character building, combat and exploration rather than relationships, camaraderie and story. It’s completely understandable that Square Enix would stick to the elderly school style on this one, like almost everything else, but it’s demanding not to miss the great personalities of my team in Dragon Quest XI or the Party Chat feature seen in most of the series’ state-of-the-art entries for comparison. But as someone who much prefers a uncomplicated story to an overbearing one, I still really enjoyed Dragon Quest III’s focus on directly engaging with its RPG systems.
To that end, the battles themselves are fast-paced, fun, and quite challenging at times. Make no mistake, this is still a hardcore NES-era RPG, and to defeat some of the toughest bosses in Dragon Quest III, you’ll need to apply a balanced mix of forceful attacks, healing spells, and buff/debuff abilities. There are some really gripping moments, especially later in the campaign, and I loved using unconventional strategies to barely squeak by in fights I probably wasn’t ready for yet. Random encounters both in the world and in dungeons are a constant factor, but they are always enjoyable and give you the necessary experience points and gold that you will need as much as you can to make it to the end credits.
However, if you don’t like stressful turn-based battles, you don’t have to worry. I’m extremely impressed with the flexibility of HD-2D Remake as a whole. In addition to three difficulty options that you can switch between at any time (including a Dracky Quest option where your characters essentially can’t die), there are plenty of ways to tailor the adventure to your specific playstyle. During combat, you can speed up battle animations to beat skirmishes faster, or watch them at normal speed to really enjoy the detailed enemy animations. You also have full control over your team’s behavior: In classic Dragon Quest style, you can give individual orders to all four team members or choose strategies to execute on your own, such as focusing on healing, conserving magic, or going all out against a arduous opponent. It’s really relaxing to set your whole party up for an auto-battle while gaining experience points before regaining control for the massive boss fight. Options like these ensure that great combat stays fresh throughout the roughly 30-hour adventure, even with multiple grinding sessions.
This is partly because the Dragon Quest series is quite good at gaining experience points in fun ways, and this remake is no exception. If you’re a fan of the series, you know that Metal Slimes are the key to leveling up quickly: Enemies with a low spawn rate that lose significantly more experience points than the average bad guy. Exploring areas of the map where Metal Slimes are more likely to be found is electrifying, and the adrenaline rush you get when you see one appear in a random encounter never gets elderly – like pulling a uncommon card from a Pokémon booster pack.
Otherwise, aside from the occasional level grinding session, Dragon Quest III’s pacing is impeccable. You are always guided from one fresh location to another, constantly exploring fresh towns and dungeons, encountering fresh enemies from a huge set of over 150 enemy types. It rarely replays any of its stages – except for one particular recurring boss that I won’t spoil, which admittedly rears its ugly head a few too many times.
This remake also goes to great lengths to ensure you never get lost or stuck. The Zoom spell allows you to escape a sticky situation and relax at the inn at almost any time, while objective markers clearly indicate what you need to do next to progress through the sometimes confusing and stale main quests. However, if you want to experience the classic Dragon Quest III, you can turn off these quest markers and discover everything for yourself by exploring and talking to the townsfolk. It’s a great system that makes this aging RPG more accessible and playable than ever before, while maintaining the original style for those who want it. It’s the perfect way to return to a beloved adventure. I love the pace at which this enormous world slowly reveals its secrets to you, piece by piece.
While overall I was a massive fan of the old-school feel of Dragon Quest III combined with the state-of-the-art improvements of HD-2D Remake, there are a few places where it could have gone a few extra steps. Inventory management is clunky because each of the four party members only has access to their individual item bags during combat, which means I spent a lot of time in the menus moving items from the overall party inventory to their individual pockets. Equipment management presents a similar hassle, where seeing how equipment will affect each character’s stats is a bit more arduous than it should be. I’ve finally gotten into the groove of tinkering with these antiquated menus, but this is one place I’d like to see more updates. (There are also just a few enemy designs that haven’t aged particularly well and would probably be better left in the past.)
