Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake Review - Nostalgia Bait
I’m a sucker for a classic JRPG, I outlined some of that background when I assembled my preview of Dragon Quest III HD-2D a few short weeks ago, and there are millions of players out there who are just like me. Some have played Dragon Quest III, many other have not though, making this remake the perfect temptation for JRPG players of all vintages. A game that is retro to its core, appeals to a new audience, while stil retains the decades-old traits of the game’s original release is a rare sight to ssee. Despite pushing its lukc in a range of areas, Dragon Quest HD-2D rmake thrives as one such elusive releases.
Despite being the third franchise release, Dragon Quest III actually takes place before the original two games. Your player character is the child of the legendary hero Ortega, and on your 16th birthday are summoned to the castle by the King Of Aliahan, only to be given the daunting task of destroying one of the world’s greatest threats, Baramos, who was thought to be killed by Ortega many years prior but has re-emerged. A few cliche narrative twists later and you’ll come to learn that besting Baramos is only the tip of the iceberg as the gravity of the plight you’ve found yourself in grows even greater. Despite having some moments that would have been beloved in 1988, but are a bit “been there, done that” in 2024, the storytelling of Dragon Qust HD-2D is quite superb, and there have also been some appreciated reworkings of some elements, expansions and trimmings of other sections, all in service of helping the plot, and the personalities of the various characters encountered along the way, stick a bit better. To assist players in keeping track of tasks, the game gives you the ability to recall key pieces of information with a single press of a button following a conversation with someone. This may be about a key location of person to discuss, that might otherwise have been lost in the shuffle – it’s a handy mechanic that certainly saved me having to grab out a notebook to document what I’d learned along the way.
In terms of gameplay, what you see with this HD-2D is essentially what you got in 1988. Fairly slow, turn-based combat is the core of the combat experience, while your party can be added to with relatively random fighters who you have the ability to recruit while on your travels. These additions can be levelled up and decked out with new gear, just as the hero can be, but constructing a team that complements the hero themselves is the primary trick for the player to get right. Wit the game featuring several difficulty modes, this challenge can be scaled up or down quite significantly, but with money being a premium from several bouts of level grinding, thinking through your parties loadout will be important no matter which difficulty level you’re playing at. As characters level up they can begin to splice their skillset wth the abilities of other classes, creating greater customisable depth for the player to explore, and all these years on, I really appreciated diving into the intricacies of that system.
In the combat space, HD-2D adds some speed-up boosters for combat to help push things along somewhat. While helpful, there are times that even with the game at full-speed, the combat still felt a bit slow at times, with the player issuing instructions to the hero only to then waiti as the other three party members launch their moves as well. Players have the ability to customise the combat approach of the other party members, rather than directly control each move of each turn which does help speed things up a touch, but comes with the sacrifice of watching on as a party member doesn’t conserve MP as they should have willy-silly casting Sizz across a whole opposition when a simple smash over the head of their staff would suffice. Random encounters throughout the open world and even specific visitable locations are quite plentiful so this throwback element will certainly have its nostalgic audience in 2024, but might be a bit much for newer players, and the various new systems added to speed things up simply don’t do enough to make the sometimes plodding combat encounters feel much spicier.
Visually, Dragon Quest HD-2D retains the stylings of the original release, but with a beautiful 2024 HD-2D sheen. Tired, old environments look wonderfully new with this new version of the game, while the Koichi Sugiyama composed score still rocks in the present day with iconic Dragon Quest themes doing much of the heavy lifting. The HD-2D release oozes nostalgia, but with a presentational charm that needs to be experienced by any classic JRPG fan who still enjoys classic JRPG world design in 2024.
Dragon Quest III HD-2D, put simply is the Dragon Quest III of old, and while the game was lauded for its brilliance in 1988, there are certainly some aspects that don’t hold up as well with parts of the modern audience. For some, this is the retro content that will fill your heart with joy to immerse yourself in once again, while for others, the old turn-based systems and relative lack of hand-holding in terms of objective signposting, might just be too much of a deterrent. It is Dragon Quest III through and through, with a gorgeous new coat of paint.a
Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake was reviewed on PS5 with code kindly provided by Bandai-Namco Australia on behalf of Square-Enix.
