Review: Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake gives a modern take on a classic RPG

For gamers young and old, returning to games made decades ago presents a unique challenge: appreciating dated graphics and ancient gameplay with modern eyes. Square Enix took on this challenge by resurrecting the classic role-playing game Dragon Quest II for today’s gamers – although its conservative mechanics may put off some players accustomed to traditional RPGs. canceled

Not for lack of trying. I got to play Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake, as it’s called, ahead of its November 14th release for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X and Nintendo Switch. It’s aptly named, with a refreshing visual style that exudes nostalgia without boring gamers into smooth pixels. A tilt-shift camera style results in immersive effects that cleverly convey the size and scope of cities and dungeons, as trees and buildings melt into the foreground and background as heroes the player – drawn in sprites with a 2D appearance – passes through.

Combined with attractive lighting and shadows that make sunlight pass through forests and torchlight shining in misty caves, the game effectively steps forward to recreate the experience of how players reminiscent of the original from decades ago, and at the same time easy on the eye for new gamers to discover. Dragon Quest III story for the first time.

Despite some quality-of-life improvements that were added to smooth out the original’s difficulty, the same combat and leveling mechanics may deter gamers used to detailed control and detailed information. It’s a polarizing but understandable choice not to change systems at the heart of the Dragon Quest III experience.

Gamers who vibe with the mechanics of Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake will find a beautiful RPG adventure that, by today’s standards, includes the best of yesterday’s games with a pleasant combination of visual style and beautiful music.

The Best and Worst of Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake

The HD-2D Remake is a new take on an old adventure – according to history, Dragon Quest III is the first game in the series, a prequel to the first two installments. It tells the story of the player’s self-proclaimed hero, the child of Ortega, the legendary champion known throughout the world who fell trying to the greatest villain of the age, the mayor Baramos, to bring down.

With a setting as classic as RPGs can get, the player gets the local king’s blessing to follow in his father’s footsteps and gather a party. In a nearby pub, I summoned followers that I could customize by picking from eight classes (from your usual Warrior, Mage and Cleric options to the more esoteric Merchant and Fool options) and starting stats. . I also had a voice in my personality, another feature of the game that explains how their stats grow upon gaining levels, although this can be changed later with items. I chose three companions and went on the adventure.

As soon as I stepped foot outside the starting town of Aliahan, the booming soundtrack heralded the start of my journey. These versions of the original game’s music originally composed by Koichi Sugiyama and performed by the Tokyo Symphonic Orchestra are a delight that, like the lush graphics, elevate a simple adventure into a romp happy Soon enough, I encountered my first group of monsters, starting the theme of the battle and the unique fighting style of the game unchanged from Dragon Quest III.

By default, allies fight automatically based on broad guidelines — attack head on, focus on healing, don’t use mana and so on. This can be changed in the “tactics” menu at the start of each battle turn, and I did so immediately, but some players may like not having to micromanage their party.

Then there is another unique aspect of the game on combat: factions. If I was fighting two squires and three ravens, I could only tell my party members to attack or cast spells on the squires or the ravens, and sometimes they ineffectively spread their ‘ damage around instead of focusing one enemy down to be eliminated. More rarely, later events will scatter similar enemies so that they are not clustered together, making your area attack spells (which usually target groups) less effective. It’s humble, but it adds to the charm and randomness of battles — on balance, a unique begrudging aspect of the game retained from the original.

Otherwise, Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake has all the hallmarks of a classic RPG. I issued new weapons and armor to my party to boost their damage and defense, picking up unique items in dungeons that were worth tunneling despite the risk of random monster encounters . Later, I found personality-changing resources and books that, after consulting table appendages of various personality types, allowed me to design my party to effectively grow their stats.

And like me, players who haven’t experienced the original will find fun and surprising side stories in the corners of the game. I found a town far to the north with all the villages asleep, which I found to be under a curse from the queen of a nearby fairy town, angry that her daughter had been shunned by a man — and when she went into a nearby grotto, I found them saying goodbye tearfully that they had taken their lives for not being accepted. So humiliated, the queen lifted the curse.

There’s even a monster area — again, retained from the original — where you can bring friendly monsters you meet in the world to engage in Pokemon-style competitions to earn gear and gold. It’s a fun optional content, and you can even go up against collectors among the kings who also light the moon for some monster fighting fun.

Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake is refreshingly old school

After last year’s dark-toned Final Fantasy XVI and the complex politics of Metaphor ReFantazio, it’s a breath of fresh air to pick up Dragon Quest II HD-2D Remake and dive into an adventure. simple plucked from a simpler time.

It’s clear how much care went into Square Enix’s choices about what to keep and what to update. Veterans who played the original will appreciate the graphical upgrades, while newcomers will discover what smart gaming used to be like – although there’s still plenty of challenge in some of the areas and the most difficult bosses. The game scales well as your power party takes on longer dungeons, like the Pyramids of Ibis, which threw traps and puzzles at me and pushed my adventurers to their limits.

I never played the original Dragon Quest III, but I still found that the Remake took me back to the days of Chrono Trigger and other RPGs of yesteryear. Like the Nintendo Switch remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, Square Enix chose a successful visual style that put the needle on the needle to make it. feeling like i’m playing an old school game with just the right amount of visuals. Although the game’s environments are in 3D, they are designed to ensure that 2D sprite-style people and monsters come into the player’s focus.

As my 2D-sprite party moves over hills and up mountains while invisible clouds cast shadows on the ground, with the ocean shimmering away and the orchestral theme playing forward, the goal of the game is clear. It may not be for everyone, but those who want to step back in time will still find less complicated events reimagined for modern eyes. carrying the true spirit of the original version. Sometimes, going out to the island to save the world is attractive enough.