‘Dragon Quest III’ has been updated in a truly wonderful way.
There are few role-playing games that are as important as Dragon Quest III, so this new remake has a lot to live up to.
Originally released back in 1988 on the NES, Dragon Quest III marked the then end of the Erdrick Trilogy. However, while it was the numerical finale, it was in fact a narrative prequel and effectively set up the background story for much of the core of the Dragon Quest saga.
Now, if you’ve played and finished Dragon Quest XI and gotten the true ending, you will know that the legend of Erdrick starts a lot earlier, but I will get to that in a bit.
Anyway, Dragon Quest III is often, and I would say, rightly regarded as one of the best and culturally formative role-playing games ever made. So to remake it then is a major undertaking, and I am happy to say that this game delivers on that rather admirably.
The premise has you set out to vanquish the arch-fiend known as Baramos, who has plagued the world with his monstrous minions for years. So much so that your father Ortega was sent to dispatch him decades ago but was never heard from again.
As you have come of age, you are sent to the king of Aliahan to start your quest and rid the world of Baramos. You also get to recruit allies from the start, with this version offering even more character classes. Although, on my playthrough, I went with the classic warrior, sage, and priest line-up and stuck with that on my playthrough.
While this is a modern remake, the gameplay hasn’t really been messed with. Battles are turn-based and very simple. The original first-person view for battles is also retained, but you do get to see your team before they engage in battle.
This first-person viewpoint is very much in line with the original Dragon Quest games and was, in part, a homage to Yuji Horii’s love of the Wizardry series.
The protagonist’s father, Ortega, has his story fleshed out more in this remake.
However, while the first-person battle setup has remained, the rest of the game has had a major visual overhaul.
This is where the “HD-2D” part of the remake comes in, and if you’ve played games like Octopath Traveler and Triangle Strategy, you should know what to expect.
In that, the characters are done as adorable 2D pixel art, but the environments and other effects are in 3D. There’s also a lovely tilt-shift viewpoint to the proceedings, and it all looks very lovely indeed.
It’s noteworthy to mention Triangle Strategy, which was also developed by Artdink and used Unreal Engine. This game more of a co-production, but it’s great to see Artdink involved here
In addition to the lovely visuals, you also have orchestral versions of Koichi Sugiyama’s classic score and that is wonderful too.
Another major improvement over the original game is its voiceover. I played through the game with the English voiceover, and it was very well done, especially in regards to Ortega’s voice actor, Dave Jones.
Ortega is an important character in the original game, and he’s fleshed out a lot more in this remake with extra episodes about what happened to him. Jones’s performance is also great, as Ortega is given a burly British Northerner accent, which definitely fits the character very wwell.
The overall progression is also still quite slow initially but grabs you after the first few hours, with you scouring the world for orbs to unlock the Everbird, which then allows you to reach Baramos’s lair.
The environments in this new remake are beautifully done.
There’s an interesting stylistic choice here, as the ship you acquire earlier in the game is done in 3D, but the Everbird is a lovely 2D sprite.
The world is also scattered with glowing pickups and secret areas, which also have additional pickups as well as a chance to befriend monsters. This new monster setup is unique to the remake, and has you fight them in a new arena for prizes.
You definitely want to pick up everything you can find though, and leveling up your party is a big part of progression. Each area you move into tends to have tougher enemies, so leveling up before you tackle the various boss fights is highly recommended.
This is one of Dragon Quest’s very open secrets; in order to make the game easier, you just need to fight more battles and level up your characters. Metal Slimes are also dotted around the place, which once slain offer more experience points, but the little blighters tend to run away most of the time.
However, If you’ve already played Dragon Quest III before, you’ll also be in for a treat, as there are quite a few new surprises tucked away. Although, I won’t spoil those.
One nice and particularly lovely Easter Egg is right at the start of the game. It has your mother finish reading a book and then wake you up. This dovetails beautifully into the true ending of Dragon Quest XI, and I think this is genuinely brilliant.
Anyway, the only minor irritation amongst all of this genuine excellence is the maddening and entirely unnecessary censorship of Akira Toriyama’s female warrior design. While the pixel art means you can’t really see the changes in the game, all the official artwork shows the updated censored version.
I still don’t get why this was done. It clearly has nothing to do with age certification, as the design isn’t depicted at a high enough resolution in the game to really see what’s been changed. It is, however, there and annoying nonetheless.
Overall, Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake is probably one of the best remakes I’ve ever played. Doubly so, as it nails what made the original game so special. While some have had issues with how Japanese role-playing games work, the Wizardry lineage is also hard to ignore, so those criticisms are clearly moot and quite ignorant by this point. In any case, if you’ve never played a Dragon Quest game, then this is the one to start with.
Platform: PlayStation 5 (Reviewed), Xbox Series X|S. Switch PC
Developer: Artdink, Square Enix
Publisher: Square Enix
Released: 14th November 2024
Price: $59.99
Score: 10/10
Disclosure: Square Enix sent me a copy of the game for the purposes of this review. This review was done on a full playthrough, defeating all the bosses and post game content.
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