Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake was originally announced all the way back in 2021, but now we’re finally close to the release of this highly-anticipated remake of a beloved legendary JRPG.

Let The Quest Begin

Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake opens up really fast but preserves the classic experience. The visuals really look amazing and breathtaking, especially when you compare them directly to the graphics of the original SNES game or even any of the previous modern re-releases, it’s like night and day.

In the first few hours of the game, the gameplay is classic Dragon Quest. However, some of the classic Dragon Quest titles are notoriously difficult from the beginning of the game but Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake feels almost relaxing when you embark on your journey. It only gradually gets harder but there are some difficulty spikes later, which is where the grinding comes in.

There’s enough happening to keep you propelling to the next objective and one of the best quality-of-life improvements in Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake is the game now clearly telling you where to go. Sure, you can turn it off if you want to preserve the classic experience of figuring it out yourself, but this is a huge time-saver for players who want to avoid headaches. In addition, there’s a Recall mechanic where you can check out important tidbits of information you’ve received from NPCs in a neat list.

While the game still features old-school mechanics like annoyingly frequent random encounters and enemies that can kill you in just a few hits, there are also other quality-of-life improvements such as an easier ‘story mode’ difficulty called ‘Dracky Quest’ for players who just want to enjoy the story without the stress of the combat. Grinding is also made easier and faster because you can turn on ‘Ultra Fast’ mode for battles, which I turned on from the very start and never turned off ever again (because why would I want slower battles?).

Another new addition I like is the new Monster Wrangler class. It’s a unique class that will be an interesting one to explore further as my Monster Wrangler levels up (his name is Arcana and I love him). In addition, finding monsters in the wild, recruiting them and using them to fight in the Monster Arenas are fun. I’m sure fans miss this mechanic, which wasn’t in the most recent entry in the franchise (Dragon Quest XI Echoes Of An Elusive Age), but was a huge part of Dragon Quest VII Journey Of The Cursed King (which is now a whopping 20 years old!).

These mix and combinations of the old and new are what make the Dragon Quest franchise still so iconic and relevant to this day, and Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake continues that tradition. I’m looking forward to playing the rest of this game and reaching the end of this grand hero’s adventure. It will surely be an epic one, so stay tuned for our full review!

Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake launches for the PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch and PC on 14 November 2024.

In the meantime, check out the trailer below: