Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake has been in the works for quite some time, and it took a few years since its announcement to get a first proper look at the very first entry in a series of remakes that will allow players to experience the entirety of the Erdrick trilogy on modern gaming hardware. With the game right around the corner, Square Enix offered us a chance to try out the game during Gamescom in a short session that did not fail to show how the game is setting out to be among the best HD-2D games ever released.
The Gamescom 2024 demo threw players a few hours into the adventure into the town of Romaria, specifically in the Monster Arena, which has been overhauled for the remake to allow players to have a more active role in monster vs monster combat. Winning matches will provide the hero and his companions with some useful items, so I expect more than a few players will be spending quite a few hours here trying to get all the rewards.
Once I was done with my business at the Monster Arena, I had the chance to explore the town of Romaria, and speak with the king, who enlists the hero to recover his crown from the thieves that stole it. After accepting the task, I explored the town a little more, stocking on supplies, purchasing better weapons and gear for my party members, and appreciating the excellent recreation of the town in the HD-2D style. The game as a whole looked lively and positively vibrant, especially on the Nintendo Switch OLED, where the colors really looked incredible.
Despite having accepted the request of the king, I decided to wander around and see what else the Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake demo had to offer. I ended up exploring a few dungeons briefly in the surroundings of Romaria and fighting against a few enemies. The original game’s turn-based combat system has been left virtually untouched, though now the characters appear on screen when choosing commands. Some welcome additions include the ability to speed up combat, which is sure to help the game’s pacing considerably, though I found the encounter rate to be fair, for the most part, and the ability to set up tactics and change auto-battle settings, which should make random encounters even faster to complete. As one of my party members came with the new Monster Wrangler vocation, I was able to briefly try some of its abilities out, and it felt powerful enough. Difficulty, in general, was on the low side, but that was most likely caused by the leveled-up characters that were provided for the demo. The final game will feature multiple difficulty settings, so players will easily be able to tailor the general difficulty level to their skill level.
Having only played through Dragon Quest III years ago, I really can’t say if there have been big changes to locations, treasure chest locations, and the like in the remake, but even so, it is undeniable that Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake is likely going to set a new bar for faithful remakes of classic JRPGs. Thankfully, it won’t take much longer to be able to delve deeper into the story of Ortega and his child, as the game launches in just a few months, on November 14th on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and Nintendo Switch worldwide.
