Dragon Quest VII: Reimagined - Hands-on Preview
The reveal of Dragon Quest VII: Reimagined back in September was the latest highlight in what has been a big year for the Dragon Quest series. The announcement came barely a month before the release of the Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remakes and just under a year after the release of their prequel, the Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake, all of which which brought some welcome gameplay and visual upgrades to the series’ early entries. First released on the original Playstation back in 2000, Dragon Quest VII: has been updated once before in a 2013 remake for the 3DS, but this newest iteration of the game promises to be a “rebuild from the ground up”. It has a new visual style, modern conveniences, and more ways to customise your characters – and thanks to Square Enix, I was able to spend a little time with the game ahead of its release in February next year.
It’s a big story - but a shorter one?
The tale of a young hero venturing from his home island for the first time, Dragon Quest VII is known for being one of the longer games in the series. But according to information on Square Enix’s website, the story in Reimagined has been “significantly streamlined”, with the narrative “told through a series of vignettes with an overarching narrative”. During my preview time, I didn’t get a chance to see how these vignettes work as a cohesive piece, or how they’re joined together, but I did get to experience two separate sections from the game. The first, set in a town called ‘Emberdale’, followed the residents of an island town on the eve of the ever important fire festival (not to be confused with Fyre Festival, though the vibes are similarly ominous) as they prepared to pay tribute to a Fire Spirit, all while conveniently ignoring the rumbles of the definitely-not-active-volcano Burnmont nearby. The second, set some time later in the town of Wetlock (you can see some of the elemental naming themes coming through here) joined our heroes as they investigated the mysterious disappearances of some of the townsfolk, all while ignoring the presence of a completely shady visiting musician.
Though the twists and turns of the story aren’t necessarily the most unpredictable, there’s a real charm to the writing of this game – one that has the characters speaking in an exaggerated British English that feels completely appropriate for this kind of fantasy world. I found myself chuckling out loud at some of the (admittedly, probably terribly lame) jokes, and as someone who never played the original game, am excited to see how the story of this ragtag group of heroes plays out.
We all have our special talents - and we need them to win
As well as distinct visual styles, the characters of Dragon Quest VII: Reimagined also have distinct approaches to battles, with each of them taking on ‘Vocations’ that dictate the skills they can use in battle (and now they can take on multiple Vocations – so the options have really opened up). Some are more traditional spellcasters, using elemental magic to deal damage of various types or heal their allies in combat, and others are a little more unique. The one I’m most intrigued about is Aishe, whose skills largely revolve around the fact that she’s a dancer, allowing her to charm or confuse her foes, or get her friends into the groove for a little boost to their stats. For each character to truly be effective, you have to learn how to work with their strengths. No matter how strong the urge may be to simply focus on trying to deal the largest amount of damage possible and ignore skills that provide buffs and status effects, you must resist – some foes are simply too tough to just rely on punching, and the only way to ensure victory is to find the best way to stack damage with an offensive buff.
The enemies won’t go down without a fight, but they will go down
One of my main takeaways from my time playing the Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remakes earlier this year was just how unforgiving they were. Your characters went down, and they went down fast, and it only took one wrong decision to put you in a situation where you’d have one or more of your party members travelling around the map with you in a coffin. Sadly, the coffins are gone this time around, but they are replaced with the arguably better option of ‘party members who are simply still alive’. Instead of permadeath requiring resurrection at an often distant location, the fighters who didn’t make it through the battle will come back close to death, but still able to be healed – which means grinding battles across the world is a much more pleasant experience. Enemies can also be seen on the map, so if you aren’t feeling like engaging with a particular foe, you can simply observe their movement patterns and sneak around them – it just requires a little bit of fancy footwork to evade them. When you couple these features with the ability to speed up battles and the option to assign roles to your characters to let them auto take turns without you having to control them, battling feels a whole lot less grindy. You can engage as much as you want, whenever you want, and it feels like they’ve created a really fluid experience here.
Embrace the diorama
Dragon Quest VII: Reimagined has received a huge visual overhaul – one that has the 3D world turned into a series of diorama-like setpieces, each with its own unique charm. It feels handcrafted, and is a joy to explore – and the world’s residents are appropriately adorable to match. There’s some seriously cool character design at work here when it comes to the updated versions of the game’s beloved characters, with heroes and enemies alike all channeling that Akira Toriyama visual style that the series was founded on. The diorama style adds a real sense of scale to the worlds, but also somehow makes everything feel a little more whimsical, like you’re playing out an adventure with lovingly animated and rendered toys. (Which, really, isn’t that what gaming is, at its core?) Plus, it’s accompanied by a swelling soundtrack that really inspires that sense of adventure – it’s a classic match, but really nailed here.
My preview time with Dragon Quest VII was short in the grand scheme of things, given the original game took over 100 hours to really complete. But as someone who has only dipped their toe into the series, this is the one that captivated me the most. It’s challenging, engaging, and has a gorgeous visual style that I will happily drop dozens of hours into – and I’m looking forward to its release on February 5th on Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC.
