Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined is making masterful remaster choices

When writer Enix took the Dragon Quest role-playing game series from Nintendo platforms to the unique PlayStation some 25 years in the past, it did so in an enormous means. Maybe too large. Dragon Quest 7, launched in 2000, is notorious for its gargantuan size and plodding story. Throughout two discs of content material, it may simply take gamers 100 hours or extra to finish the principle quest.

Even Takeshi Ichikawa, the producer on subsequent yr’s Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined, acknowledges that situation. His crew at Sq. Enix is streamlining that sport with the Reimagined remaster, which can make some large cuts and different pacing decisions. It’s an vital and private alternative; Ichikawa himself gave up on the unique Dragon Quest 7, due to its laborious first act.

“Again after I performed the OG launch on PlayStation, I used to be in elementary college,” Ichikawa informed Polygon in an interview at a hands-on occasion for Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined, “I do not forget that it took a really very long time to get to the very first battle within the sport, and to be sincere with you, I type of gave up. Due to that, for this remastered launch, I needed to be very conscious about this. I did not need individuals like me, after I was a younger child, to surrender very early into the sport. The start components of the sport have been among the areas that we have been actually particularly cautious with and phrases of re-imagining and streamlining the expertise.”

Defined Ichikawa, “Even with the 3DS version of [Dragon Quest 7], the story was nonetheless fairly lengthy. So we got here to a call that we needed to streamline the story, [and] make this expertise for contemporary audiences.”

Ichikawa stated that narrative moments that “had little or no direct correlation or direct impression to the principle situation of the story” can be minimize, or introduced as elective aspect tales in Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined with that streamlining in thoughts.

Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined is being designed to refresh extra than simply the sport’s story, its battles and its visuals can even be considerably up to date, Ichikawa stated.

Graphically, builders are taking inspiration from throughout the Dragon Quest franchise. The sport’s forged of important characters are rendered in a doll-like model that hews intently to artist Akira Toriyama’s authentic designs. Builders even made actual bodily variations of these characters in doll kind, and 3D scanned them to create new in-game fashions. The sport’s environments appear like dioramas, drawing some inspiration from the HD-2D look of different Sq. Enix RPGs.

Having performed the PlayStation 5 model of Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined myself for a brief spell, I really like the look of the brand new tackle the basic. The principle forged of heroes all have a tangible, toylike look to them, and monsters and spells are spectacularly rendered. It’s simply the best- trying Dragon Quest sport thus far.

Gameplay and battles have been totally streamlined, identical to Dragon Quest 7’s story. By way of new additions, heroes can now have two vocations — a core vocation and a Moonlighting vocation — so as to add some selection. And a few vocations (like Pirate), are getting further consideration in Reimagined.

“Once we have been engaged on the event of the Reimagined model, I did have some private needs that I needed to make to the event crew, particularly in regard to the Pirate vocation,” Ichikawa stated. “Again within the authentic launch and 3DS model, it was type of a fairly unlucky vocation. I personally appreciated it, however it was a bit completely different from the opposite vocations the place [you can rank up]. If you happen to grasp particular vocations — for instance, the Gladiator or the Paladin — it will definitely leads you on to a better rank of vocation. However Pirate, mastering that one did not particularly provide you with something, so lots of gamers ended up skipping over it.

“However given the general storyline, the situation, and the worldview of Dragon Quest 7, it does make you are feeling such as you need to be a Pirate since you journey all world wide on ships. However once more, the unique releases and the 3DS model did not actually make the Pirate rewarding. So that is the one half I requested that the crew work on to make it extra rewarding for the gamers in order that they really feel like they need to turn into a Pirate within the sport.”

One other large change is the power to rapidly change one’s vocation in Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined. Somewhat than having to trek again to Alltrades Abbey, a significant supply of backtracking in earlier iterations of the sport, gamers can change job roles with the press of a button to entry the Profession Sphere.

Whereas battles in opposition to monsters in Reimagined nonetheless comply with the turn-based construction of earlier Dragon Quest video games, the developer is working to streamline a lot of it. For one factor, some battles in opposition to lower-level monsters could be accomplished within the overworld, with out having to interact in turn-based battles. Must you see a pathetic Slime bouncing round, and your crew is able to simply dispatching it, you may whack it whereas in exploration mode and rapidly dispatch it. Heroes may also get “labored up” in battle and “Let Free” highly effective strikes, each offensive and defensive, in a vogue much like Remaining Fantasy’s Restrict Breaks or Dragon Quest 11‘s Pep Powers.

Moreover, there are alternatives to calmly program your teammates to behave to your directions (type of like Remaining Fantasy 12’s Gambit system) or go absolutely computerized, letting the AI management your crew whereas turn-based battles play out. These computer-controlled battles transfer at lightning velocity, and an enormous boss struggle in opposition to the merman monster Gracos throughout my hands-on time glided by in mere minutes whereas I watched. That is probably not the best, most strategic method to play a Dragon Quest sport, however typically you’ve simply had sufficient.

Whereas I solely bought to spend a brief period of time with Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined myself, I’m trying ahead to its launch subsequent yr — much more so than the current HD-2D remakes of the Erdrick Trilogy, and perhaps even sufficient to sink 100 hours into the remastered and reimagined RPG, for the best causes this time.

Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined can be launched on Nintendo Change, Nintendo Change 2, PlayStation 5, Home windows PC, and Xbox Collection X on Feb. 5, 2026.