Dragon Quest 3 back in the 80s was considered a revolution in Japanese role-playing gaming due to its class system and its unique plot that takes place way before Dragon Quest 1 and 2. Even before Final Fantasy III went nuts with the system, Dragon Quest 3 did it early and was considered quite a pioneer in that regard. So when Square Enix announced a HD-2D remake of the classic, most old-school JRPG fans were excited at this prospect.

We had a go at the old-made-new Dragon Quest remake, and if you really want an old-school adventure but in a prettier dress and fancy makeover, this one might do it for you.

Our 20-minute demo session at Tokyo Game Show 2024 had us running around Skyfell Dungeon, where I had to find the bandit leader Robbin’ ‘Ood and his dastardly band of thieves who reside at the top. Our objective? To retrieve the stolen royal crown from him.

The encounter rates are random and frequent, and the enemies do hit hard. Luckily, my band of warriors have spells and group attacks that hit hard. Your main hero has sword attacks and a flame strike spell, while your other warriors and spellcasters deal additional damage and can heal when needed. Flame spells, wind spells, massive heals, the works. I left the game to its default setting to see how the party AI fare; they’re pretty smart and do heal and counter when needed, so I didn’t need to do a lot of micromanaging. Having said that, finding extra herbs and mana potions in the dungeon did help in sustaining them in the long run.

After climbing many stairs and ascending through many floors, we encountered Robbin’ ‘Ood and after a few slapstick moments, initiated battle with him and his cronies. My party played it smart and safe as his troupe hits pretty hard. After a few well-placed spells and hits, and some healing, they went down for the count and we got our prized crown to deliver to the king.

While it maintains tradition, it at least gives players the option to speed the combat up to high levels, as well as have you play the game on easier difficulty. Of course, if you felt that the original NES title wasn’t that tough, you can bump it up to Draconian Warrior mode – the toughest of the difficulties.

That’s the key thing about this Dragon Quest entry: it feels like it’s tailored for both old and new players. Imagine your high school crush, now in her 40s but looking so much better than her younger self, and available. That’s Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D in a nutshell so far, and hopefully the rest of the game can carry on being this old-school, faults and all.

Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake will be out on 14th November for Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series, and PlayStation 5. The PC (Steam) version will be out on 15th November. For more on the game, check out series creator Yuji Horii and his thoughts on the recent changes needed for its characters.