For gamers young and old, returning to games made decades ago poses a unique challenge: to appreciate dated graphics and archaic gameplay with modern eyes. Square Enix took up this challenge by resurrecting the classic role-playing game Dragon Quest II for today’s gamers — though its preserved mechanics may turn off some players used to conventional RPGs.
It’s not for lack of trying. I got to play Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake, as it’s called, ahead of its release on Nov. 14 for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X and Nintendo Switch. It’s accurately named, with a refreshingly lush visual style that evokes nostalgia without constraining gamers to flat pixels. A tilt-shifted camera style results in depth effects that cleverly convey the size and breadth of towns and dungeons, as trees and buildings melt into the foreground and background while the player’s heroes — drawn in 2D-looking sprites — wander through.
Combined with evocative lighting and shadow that makes sunlight dapple through woods and torchlight glimmer in misty caves, the game effectively walks the tightrope of remaking an experience the way players remember the original from decades ago, while also being easy on the eyes for new gamers discovering the story of Dragon Quest III for the first time.
Despite some quality-of-life improvements added to smooth out the difficulty of the original, the same core mechanics of combat and leveling might discourage gamers used to precise control and detailed information. It’s a polarizing but understandable choice not to alter systems at the core of the Dragon Quest III experience.
Gamers who do vibe with Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake’s mechanics will find a beautiful and, by today’s standards, streamlined RPG adventure embodying the best of yesterday’s gaming with a pleasing mix of visual style and gorgeous music.
The best and worst of Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake
The HD-2D Remake is a new take on an old adventure — chronologically, Dragon Quest III is the first game in the series, a prequel to the first two installments. It tells the story of the player’s self-named hero, the child of Ortega, the legendary champion known all around the world who fell trying to take down the greatest villain of the age, the archfiend Baramos.
With a setup as classic as RPGs get, the player receives the local king’s blessing to follow in their father’s footsteps and gather a party. In a nearby tavern, I summoned followers I could customize by picking from eight classes (from your standard Warrior, Mage and Cleric to more esoteric Merchant and Fool choices) and starting stats. I also had a say in their personality, another unique quirk of the game that defines how their stats grow upon gaining levels, though this can be changed later with items. I picked three companions and was off to the adventure.
Once I stepped foot outside your starting town of Aliahan, the bombastic soundtrack heralded the start of my journey. These versions of the original game’s music first composed by Koichi Sugiyama and performed by the Tokyo Symphonic Orchestra are a treat that, like the lush graphics, elevate a simpler adventure into a joyful romp. Soon enough, I encountered my first group of monsters, kicking off the battle theme and the game’s peculiar combat style unchanged from Dragon Quest III.
By default, companions will fight automatically based on broad instructions — attack head-on, focus on healing, don’t use mana and so forth. This can be changed in the “tactics” menu at the start of each battle’s turn, and I did immediately, but some players may enjoy not having to micromanage their party.
Then there’s the game’s other unique take on combat: groups. If I fought two slimes and three ravens, I could only tell my party members to attack or cast spells on either the slimes or the ravens, and sometimes they inefficiently spread the damage around instead of focusing one foe down to elimination. More annoyingly, later encounters will scatter similar enemies so that they aren’t grouped together, making your area attack spells (which mostly target groups) less efficient. It’s irksome, but it adds to the charm and randomness of battles — on balance, a begrudgingly unique aspect of the game preserved from the original.
Otherwise, Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake has all the hallmarks of a classic RPG. I kitted out my party with new weapons and armor to boost their damage and defense, picking up unique items in dungeons that made it worth venturing down a tunnel offshoot despite the risk of random monster encounters. Later on, I found personality-altering accessories and books that, after consulting the menu appendices of different personality types, let me tailor my party to grow their stats effectively.
And like me, players who never experienced the original will find fun and surprisingly mature side stories tucked in the corners of the game. I found a town far to the north with every villager asleep, which I discovered to be under a curse from the queen of a nearby fairy village enraged that her daughter eloped with a human — and upon delving into a nearby grotto, discovered their goodbye note tearfully noting they’d taken their lives for never being accepted. Thus humbled, the queen lifted the curse.
There’s even a monster arena — again, preserved from the original — where you can bring friendly monsters you meet in the world to engage in Pokemon-style tournaments to win gear and gold. It’s fun optional content, and you may even go up against collectors among the royalty who are also moonlighting for some monster-battling enjoyment.
Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake is refreshingly old-school
After last year’s grim-toned Final Fantasy XVI and the complex politics of Metaphor ReFantazio, it’s a breath of fresh air to pick up Dragon Quest II HD-2D Remake and dive into a straightforward adventure plucked from a simpler time.
It’s clear how much care went into Square Enix’s choices of what to preserve and what to update. Veterans who played the original will adore the graphical updates, and newcomers will discover how breezy games used to be — though there’s still plenty of challenge in some of the harder areas and bosses. The game scales well as your powered-up party takes on lengthier dungeons, like the Pyramids of Ibis, which threw traps and puzzles at me and strained my adventurers to their limits.
I never played the original Dragon Quest III, but I still found the Remake taking me back to the days of Chrono Trigger and other RPGs of yesteryear. Like the Nintendo Switch remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, Square Enix picked a winning visual style that threaded the needle of making it feel like I’m playing an old-school game with just the right amount of visual flair. Though the game’s environments are 3D, they’re crafted to ensure the 2D sprite-style humans and monsters pop into the player’s focus.
As my 2D-sprite party roams over hills and up mountains while unseen clouds cast shadows on the ground, with the ocean sparkling in the distance and the orchestrated theme trumpeting on, the game’s aim is clear. It may not be for everyone, but those who want to step back in time will find that less complex adventures recrafted for modern eyes still carry the pure spirit of the original. Sometimes, heading out into the yonder to simply save the world is plenty engaging.
