Dragon Quest III HD-2D Hands-On Preview
I love Dragon Quest, but I was also quite late to the Dragon Quest party. I was born in 89’ and so by the time I was old enough to properly understand a Dragon Quest game, five of them already existed and their presence in the West wasn’t as prominent as Final Fantasy. I was a Final Fantasy fan from VI, and I had ready access to many others from the back catalogue and the many legendary titles to come, but Dragon Quest didn’t enter my orbit properly in the end until Dragon Quest VIII on the PS2. As a lover of the classic turn-based fare, Journey Of The Cursed King was a revelatory experience for me. Many of my favourites were transforming before my eyes but Dragon Quest was stubbornly traditional, I loved it for that, and finally, a decade later than it should have, a love affair with Dragon Quest was born. With very few legitimate ways to access the classics available, the announcement and release of Dragon Quest III HD-2D and the broader revitalisation of the Erdrick Trilogy, is quite timely. Thanks to Square-Enix and Bandai-Namco Australia, I’ve been checking out the first few hours of the HD-2D remake, and it’s fair to say that the love affair with Dragon Quest is still going strong.
While remaining true to the original release in a host of ways, there are many other, very obvious ways that Dragon Quest III has been modernised. From the moment you launch the game the visuals shine, the newly added character appearances, and then, something that was a completely surprise to me, was the fourth-wall breaking moment where the game picks into my personality traits asking some questions that could leave some feeling quite vulnerable. While the personality quiz was there in the original as well, the modern audience is far more emotionally aware than gamers of the late 80s and early 90s ever were, and so I found myself quite invested in the questions and then the conclusion that the game came to based on my responses. Difficulty modes have also been added to this release, Dragon Qust mode being normal, with Dracky Quest (easy) and Draconian Quest (Hard) surrounding it.
As a gameplay experience, what I’ve seen from the few hours I’ve played so far echoes of the classics, with a beautiful modern lens layered across it. Enemies show signs of the damage they’ve taken now, and while the health bar still tells you all you need ot know, this visual indication adds to the immersion somewhat. Otherwise, the standard turn-based fare is at play, with players selecting the move for the party leader (your hero), while other NPC party members can be programmed to assess combat scenarios according to your preferences. It’s hardly a revolutionary idea, and the formula has certainly been refined in the years since, but given the constraints of the original Dragon Quest III, the feature returning in essentially the same capacity with the HD-2D remake works very well.
The HD-2D looks great, and the game seems to be coming along incredibly well so far. It’s hard not to feel extremely confident in the future prospects of the title, but we’ll have to wait a few weeks yet to see how Dragon Quest III HD-2D shapes up.
Time Until Launch (November 14, 2024)
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