Dragon Quest VII Reimagined is a worthwhile remake — with some concessions

Dragon Quest VII Reimagined is probably some of the distinctive online game remakes I’ve ever seen.

It takes the eponymous 2000 PS1 RPG, which is one thing of a black sheep within the sequence for its slightly grueling 100-hour runtime, and goals to dramatically streamline the expertise. It’s additionally the second time Sq. Enix has made such an effort, following 2016’s 3DS remake of VII, and the place that model introduced the marketing campaign size to about 80 hours, Reimagined knocks it right down to a relatively brisk 50-ish hours.

After all, making an attempt to carry extra folks into Dragon Quest is an comprehensible endeavour, however it’s led to fairly a little bit of debate. Certainly, it’s been fascinating to see the response to Reimagined to date, with some welcoming the removing of bloat, whereas others arguing that too most of the edges have been sanded off within the course of.

In the end, my opinion falls someplace within the center. As somebody who’s lengthy felt that video games are sometimes overlong and tedious, particularly within the RPG house, I admire trimming the fats on one thing like Dragon Quest VII. I’ve by no means performed the unique recreation, and so Reimagined is, in principle, the proper place to begin for me. And whereas I don’t have a deep understanding of the numerous modifications which were made, RPG Web site‘s Adam Vitale affords in-depth perception into all of that as somebody who’s performed the earlier variations of VII. Suffice it to say, it seems like many good tweaks have been made throughout the board, from the removing of a number of pointless backtracking to the power to hurry up battles and even skip others fully should you enormously out-level the enemy. I’m all for that, because it permits for a tighter expertise.

On the identical time, although, Reimagined cuts down just about each different level of friction, particularly in terms of the RPG methods, which is unlucky. As an illustration, lifeless social gathering members routinely revive after battle, eradicating each that ingredient of problem and the amusing picture of their literal coffins following round surviving characters. Markers litter the maps to inform you precisely the place to go, and social gathering members and NPCs present frequent clues. Key gadgets are routinely utilized in the appropriate spots. There are frequent statues all through the world that absolutely heal your social gathering.

All of which means that Reimagined is now the other of grueling: it’s simply plain straightforward, and that detracts from the in any other case strong jobs (Vocations) system. To be clear, I’ve lengthy supported having decrease issue settings in video games to provide gamers choices. However the issue right here is that just about none of those components of Reimagined are elective, and it looks as if a transparent resolution would have been to easily make them as such. I definitely would have appreciated a possibility to mix-and-match a few of these settings, particularly since there are already some modular issue choices to tweak elements like harm dealt, expertise earned, and monster energy.

With all of that mentioned, I do form of see what they have been going for. Apart from making it extra approachable, eradicating a number of that friction does, in a way, hone in on VII‘s core whimsical spirit. The sport follows a boy named Hero, his finest pal Prince Kiefer and co. as they go away their cozy little house to study extra about why they’re the one remaining island on this planet. It’s a rollicking, time-travel-fuelled journey that’s additional conveyed via Reimagined‘s beautiful, dioramic visuals, which carry a surprising sheen to the entire expertise.

Admittedly, I don’t love that the primary character is, like many different Dragon Quest leads, a generic, speechless individual named Hero. (One of many causes I’ve at all times most popular Ultimate Fantasy to Dragon Quest and even the guy Akira Toriyama-drawn Chrono Set off is that the majority of these video games have clear, well-defined protagonists, versus silent avatars for the participant.) And so, I initially discovered the same detachment in Reimagined, and that didn’t assist with the slightly sluggish (and nearly fully combat-free) introductory hours or comparatively uninteresting bigger supporting forged.

However ultimately, I got here to understand what’s the actual narrative spotlight of Reimagined: the world itself. Certainly, your journey to uncover the secrets and techniques of the world offers the sport a refreshing brief story construction. Basically, you’ll go to a spot in trendy time after which revisit it up to now to study what occurred to it. This helps condense the still-meaty expertise right into a extra manageable and compelling anthology, of kinds, the place every island has its personal narrative hook.

Ultimately, that’s what makes Dragon Quest VII Reimagined a hit for me. Though I do want there weren’t so many necessary settings and options that oversimplify components of the expertise, the storybook presentation and intriguing worldbuilding make it value testing.

Dragon Quest VII Reimagined is now obtainable on PS5, Xbox Sequence X/S, Nintendo Swap, Nintendo Swap 2, PlayStation 5, and PC.

Picture credit score: Sq. Enix