Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake Review — A Classic Reborn

Dragon Quest is an iconic series, one that might immediately come to mind when broaching the topic of JRPGs. With plenty of games in the franchise, both mainline and spin-off, it’s a wonder how there are people out there who haven’t played a single title. Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake is my very first entry into the Dragon Quest series, with no knowledge of JRPGs in general, I jumped right in to get my hands on this remake to see what the rave was about.

Immediately, I found myself floored by the art direction brilliantly blending 2D and 3D together, ala Octopath Traveler. The HD-2D remake breathes life into this classic with vast and beautiful vistas spanning the overworld, while clearly maintaining the original inspirations of old with detailed 2D sprites and limited animations.

The soundtrack is also perfectly complementary, uplifting every moment of the game. Orchestral pieces add magic to every dungeon and field you walk through, while the epic battle theme brings excitement to every encounter.

Something that stuck with me more than the OST, however, was the voice acting throughout the HD-2D Remake. While minor sound bites like your hero’s grunting and shouting spells as they cast are a nice addition, it is the conversational dubbing that is the major highlight. It’s difficult to capture accents through straight text, adding voices to these conversations makes a load of difference. Characters like Robbin’ ‘Ood were given even more personality with the addition of a voice box.

This wasn’t all positive, however, with certain regional dialects being uncomfortably stereotypical — something that became very apparent once I had hit Baharata. It’s one thing to be faithful to the original dialogue of Dragon Quest 3, but this felt like something that could’ve been revised a little.

Quality-of-life additions like combat speeds, mini-map, and the ability to auto-battle make this remake more approachable for newcomers while remaining true to form for seasoned players who want the barebones experience. Similarly, for heroes who are averse to quest markers being plastered on their world maps, the new memory system is a great way to retain information in case you need to refer to it.

I personally needed every advantage I could scrounge at playing through this for my first time. Luckily for me, HD-2D remake includes new difficulty options for all levels of play and the game’s easy mode “Dracky Quest” allowed me to learn the game in the beginning without the risk of wiping every 10 minutes.

After looking up some guides to the original and playing around with my party constitution, I felt like I had a grasp of what the game demanded of me. The remake’s new vocation, Monster Wrangler, felt like it slotted into the game nicely and only grew more powerful with each monster I recruited. Searching out mobs in the world also served as a nice reprieve from the more grindy sections of Dragon Quest 3.

Faithful to the original Dragon Quest 3, the HD-2D remake features some decisions that will grate players who are unfamiliar with older JRPGs. Aside from the dredge of a grind you’re forced to deal with between towns, certain boss and enemy encounters are just simply gruelling time wasters.

Enemies can spawn endless copies of themselves, or multiple enemies will hit you with three different spells in a single turn.  Multiply that by five or more enemies on the screen at once, and you can expect to be there for a while. While this personally turned me off playing quite a bit, even with Ultra fight speed, I can appreciate the team behind the game didn’t want to dumb down any of this iconic game’s DNA.

Where I would have liked them to spruce things up a little is the UI. The archaic, confusing inventory system that separates equipment, items, and character inventories pulled me out of the game for large chunks of time whenever I wanted to equip new gear. The town’s vendors only allowed me to sell one measly item at a time, and I had to confirm my selection thrice just in case. The unskippable tune that played every time I won an enemy encounter, only to be replayed when someone inevitably levelled up. All these small details that grinded me down and made the moments in between a drag.

As a new JRPG player, there was a lot that didn’t gel with me in Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake, so while I could probably recommend the game to people familiar with the franchise and even say that diehard fans will love this remake — I’d pass over this entry for something a little more modern and friendly in the genre if you’re new to it.