Dragon Quest VII Reimagined Goes Further Than the HD-2D Remaster
Blog Andrew Joseph 19 Nov , 2025 0
I like to think of the main storyline of the Dragon Quest series as a donut. The top of the donut may be dusted with powdered sugar, glazed, or knotted, depending on where you get it from, but essentially, you know what to expect when you bite into the donut. You know you're going to get a delightful serving of fried dough, sweet, and usually covered in something else, and with Dragon Quest you know you can expect a harrowing turn-based RPG, Akira Toriyama's unique design, and the annoyance of trying to kill smiling blobs of metal. The familiarity is comforting and the difference is exciting, all at the same time. The same is true for “Dragon Quest”, even though nearly 40 years have passed, even the latest work after all these years feels like a DQ game. After I was obsessed with the upcoming Dragon Knight VII Reimagined, slaying slimes and solving mysteries, this latest game seems to retain the same DQ goodness.
Dragon Quest VII Remastered marks the third iteration of Dragon Quest VII, Japan's best-selling game, following the 2001 original released on PlayStation before the PS2 and the 3DS remake in the mid-2010s.
In the dreary village of Wetlock, where my demo took place, I ran around and took a closer look at Dragon Quest VII Remake's new art style. Moving away from the elf-based goodness of the HD-2D Erdrick Trilogy remakes of Dragon Quest I and II, it's a wonder to see this new handcrafted style. Thanks to the highly detailed puppets produced and scanned, the use of real-world materials as textures for the main characters' clothing and gear gives this version of DQVII and Prince Kiefer's wide chin a unique atmosphere and feel.
In an interview with Reimagined producer Takeshi Ichikawa, he explained that this stylistic shift was made to better capture the unique proportions and style of the characters in Dragon Quest VII. “They're shorter than the other mainline Dragon Quest characters. So we wanted to take advantage of that. We explored a lot of visual style ideas that took advantage of the cuteness and lovability of these short characters.”
My reverence for sprite-based games aside, Reimagined's new style is impressive, but it took some getting used to, at least for me, and I'm not entirely sold on it yet. As you'd expect from a DQ game, Akira Toriyama's unique art is masterfully rendered in this new way, but through the representation of real-world materials, like the weaves that make up Bag O' Laughs' enemies, or the more obvious scales, it feels… weird? It's hard to describe, but there's that “alien” feeling you get every time you see a more realistic version of your favorite cartoon or anime character, like when you see Goku's actual hair. Okay, maybe that's not that weird, but you know what I mean.
I also noticed that the colors seemed rather subdued compared to what I've come to expect from these games and Toriyama's Dragon Quest titles. The green of the hero's little hat and clothes, the vibrant spring green I'm used to, looks more like the color of a cape – like something a sneaky elf ranger might wear when trying to be spotted in the bush, for example. I'm also a little sad that we lost the opportunity for party members to change their appearance based on the class they're equipped with (a feature in the 3DS version), but I imagine it would have taken quite a bit of time to create so many outfits for the puppets and then scan them into the game, so I'm willing to forgive that.
reduce fat
Square previously mentioned that for Reimagined, the team removed non-critical storylines and other content, including Grondal, El Ciclo, Providence, the Casino, and more, to simplify the experience and make it more approachable. One aspect the team focused on in particular was the first few hours, which, speaking from experience, do drag, with you not encountering a slime for the first time until nearly three hours later. It was a hurdle that even led Mr. Ichikawa to give up on the game when he first played it in elementary school. Thankfully, he promises that this time you'll kill your first critter within an hour of launching the game.
I realize hearing terms like “streamlined” or “more approachable” – as well as mentioning deleted content – may make some people uncomfortable, and even make some worry that Reimagined will be a “slimmed down” version of Dragon Quest VII. Obviously, the little snippets I tried didn't give me much insight into how editing and tweaking narrative content affects things. At least from a gameplay perspective, Reimagined feels like what a Dragon Quest game should be, with new mechanics and features that feel right at home.
get a second job
Dragon Quest VII is part of the Small Exclusive Club series, and like games like Dragon Quest VI, Dragon Quest IX, and Dragon Quest III, there's a job system that lets you swap jobs, thus changing the abilities of your party members. Reimagined expands on this further, introducing Moonlight, which allows each character to have not just one job, but two jobs, with the ability to choose and upgrade, reminding me of Final Fantasy XII: Age of the Zodiac. I'll admit that I'm a job-system-sick person, and while a lot of the work is still locked and hidden in the clips I play, I could easily spend my entire time tinkering with different combinations of characters and seeing how they play with each other. I appreciate that Reimagined also clearly lays out the requirements for unlocking new careers, meaning I'll be able to actually target the career I want when Reimagined releases!
After the battle, I gain career points, which serve as experience and can be used to upgrade any gear I have equipped. It looks like Reimagined borrowed a page from the 3DS version of Trade School, as my characters could only use the job skills they were equipped with. Careers also come with associated “perks” – special actions they can take when certain criteria are met, essentially pushing the envelope. These can be huge attacks, heals, or buffs that can help you turn the tide on a particularly nasty boss fight, and Dragon Quest games have never been short of them.
looking for fragments
In Reimagined, I'm most interested in seeing how the latest version will handle magic shards, which are undoubtedly the most defining mechanic in Part VII. Collect these artifacts and stick them together like Legos to reveal new places to visit, but finding them can be a real pain. The previous 3DS remake had a special viewfinder on the bottom screen of the system that alerted you when someone was nearby, and really took away the frustration and headache of tracking suckers, so I'm really curious to see how this new game will address that issue.
This time, the shards will only appear on your minimap. As you collect them, they appear gray and have a support system with a strange guardian next to them, and the position of the pesky tablets has been adjusted to make the whole hunt easier. I do hope there will still be some challenges in finding the clips in the final version. I don't need to feel like Indiana Jones discovering a long-lost and forgotten artifact, but I also don't want to feel like a kid picking out squares from an assortment of circles and triangles.
adjusted for you
There are a few other handy little tweaks and additions that help me find missing townsfolk around Whitlock. I stumbled across special goddess statues that can be saved and healed, which makes them a more attractive place to do some level and job grinding. Reimagined brings some of the helpful options found in the HD-2D remaster, such as the ability to toggle full healing as characters level up and adjustable difficulty settings, to help bring this story into the modern era and meet modern expectations. Unfortunately, Ichikawa-san and his team were unable to resolve the issue, which was that it would be a good way to use the lizard gecko creature in this new game, but it never made it past the early discussions about how to utilize the creature. But at least our favorite critter has made a triumphant return in the hero's character art after being completely absent from the 3DS version.
When Dragon Quest VII first came to the West in 2001, a year after the PlayStation 2's release, its outdated 3D background sprites were competing with the evolutionary leap in RPGs made in that same year's Final Fantasy X. The 3DS version went through a similar, albeit less troubled, situation in the U.S., arriving on the aging handheld six months before the Switch conquered the world with mini-games like Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Super Mario Odyssey, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, redefining what was possible on a handheld gaming device. Dragon Quest VII Remake marks the first time the story is told from a perspective that was already outdated in the West.
At the end of the 45 minutes, I had successfully solved the mystery of the missing residents of Wetlock, climbed to the top of the tower to escape the devastating flood, and defeated the monster behind it. All in all, a typical day in the life of the Dragon Quest hero and his friends. While many aspects of Dragon Quest VII Remastered remain a mystery, all those special little qualities and personalities that have kept the series going for nearly 40 years are still on display. I'm eager to see everything this new version has to offer, and how removing some story beats and adding new ones affects the overall campaign, and what the new gameplay mechanics bring to the Dragon Quest DNA. 2026 could be the year the rest of the world truly sees what makes Dragon Quest VII the best-selling game in Japan, and gives it the stage to finally shine.