The DRAGON QUEST III HD-2D Remake is best described as an embodiment of what the HD-2D visual style was created to achieve. This is not merely a nostalgic RPG reimagined - this is a recreation of the DRAGON QUEST that your child’s eye watched in your bedroom at 11pm at night back in the 1990s.
Square Enix are a company enveloped by their legacy, defined by their classics and lineage almost moreso than many other companies in the industry. Whether you’ve played the games or not, you know FINAL FANTASY, you know DRAGON QUEST. For both Squaresoft and Enix and the company that rose from their ashes, RPGs are their DNA, and they’re happy to embrace that legacy by reimagining this history through remixed musical arrangements, remakes and more.
Yet if FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE is a bold expansion and reimagining of a classic on modern hardware, retelling and transforming its story for modern audiences to such an extent it must split into three titles as a means of containing its ambition, DRAGON QUEST III is far more conservative. Indeed, I couldn’t tell you a single thing gameplay-wise that changed between the original NES classic, later SNES and Game Boy releases, and this new release.
The story begins the same, as you’re quizzed on what it means to be a hero before beginning your quest to avenge your father in your hometown of Aliahan. You visit the king who sets you to meet your party in the tavern before entering the wilds. Enter battle and you will encounter slimes and other creatures. Enter a dungeon and you will come to face a fearsome boss at the end as you search for answers and revenge in equal stead. All told with precise, beautiful pixel-art sprite work that embodies the designs of the late Akira Toriyama.
So far, so similar. This faithfulness to the original vision is a point of pride for this remake, chronologically the first in a trilogy encompassing the first three interconnected titles in the mainline DRAGON QUEST series (HD-2D remakes for the first two games that act as chronological sequels will be released next year). Yet if FINAL FANTASY PIXEL REMASTER was merely an attempt to adapt the original titles to modern hardware, this tries to elevate its visual splendor to the wild, innocent, expansive imagination of a child.
OCTOPATH TRAVELER, the first game to introduce Square Enix’s HD-2D engine to the world for how it blended flat 2D sprites in a 3D landscape that blends blocky polygons with traditional pixel art of the SNES era, had a vision. For those who gave this unique RPG a chance, they were treated to what was designed as an all-new modern 16-bit RPG, not as it looked in the 90s but as your mind pictured it to be. When I reminisce wistfully on CHRONO TRIGGER, I think of lush woodlands and clifftops when revisiting prehistoric times, I sit in fear of the creature at the end of the world towering over me. The reality is more tame, albeit no less impressive for its craft in pushing the SNES to the limit.
If this game attempted to make those wild fantasies you imagined from pixel art to life, that’s what DRAGON QUEST achieves. Suddenly the castle stands just that bit taller, the world feels just that bit more grand. In those opening moments when you walk towards the edge of the cliff and enter your name to begin your adventure, this is the 90s equivalent of what it felt for Link to overlook Hyrule in Breath of the Wild, finally brought to life as it was always imagined to be.
This won’t convert the non-believers. It’s arguably a tough sell to those without nostalgia for the early days of DRAGON QUEST, as this is only offering a few minor quality of life features to differentiate it from the random and simplistic turn-based battles of that original title. This is a stubborn old man in a dress suit: pretty, endearing, and if they’re family or you give them time and get to know them I’m sure you’ll love them too. But don’t expect anything more.
If this demo is representative of DRAGON QUEST III HD-2D’s final release later this year, this is the game you knew and loved all those years ago. For better and for worse.
