This Is How You Do A Remake

My experience with the Dragon Quest franchise isn’t deep. I distinctly remember fighting my first slime in the very first game, called Dragon Warrior back on the NES, but I never got around to the following games until Echoes of an Elusive Age. I played that one, widely considered a shining gem of the series, on two consoles, but didn’t finish either playthrough. It was a time commitment, and I can have a short attention span, especially if another game pops up. To be honest, my heart always belonged to Final Fantasy. But Dragon Quest II HD-2D Remake has me wanting to go back and experience all that I’ve missed.

Good Playing With You had the opportunity to play the game in advance of its release November 14th, on the Switch, Playstation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Everything you see here has been captured on the Xbox Series X and is spoiler free.

Story & Characters

You begin by searching for your father to finish a quest he started – and never came back from – and quickly get swept into a classic “fate of the world” RPG plot. As someone who didn’t play the original, there are a few entertaining twists, even if they aren’t groundbreaking by today’s standards. I can see how some of these moments would have felt more impactful when the game first released. You have the option to turn off quest markers to experience exploration all on your own, but when the game became more open-ended, I had to turn them back on to stay focused. Without markers, I may not have been able to find the items and locations needed to complete the game. While the story is interesting and there is something here, I feel like it’s the weakest part.

Your companions have no personal backstories, and are simply mercenaries-for-hire, but their presence makes your journey less lonely. Most quests involve traditional tasks, like “go here, beat this boss, find this item, and unlock the next story segment.” The quests serve the narrative well enough, but they aren’t particularly innovative. Keep in mind, these are quests from a 30-year-old game.

That said, the world-building and dialogue in each town bring unique flavors. One standout location is a town where everyone speaks in haiku, adding creativity and personality to the game. I also appreciated the diversity of accents among the townsfolk, which helped each region feel distinct. While not fully voiced, most of the main characters you encounter are, which is so great to experience in a game with this lineage.

Gameplay

The core mechanics are rooted in traditional turn-based JRPG systems, where your characters gain spells and abilities according to their class as they level up. One of the standout features is flexibility in class selection. Fairly early in the game, you’re given the option to change the classes of your party members (except your main character), allowing for a variety of abilities and spells from different classes to be combined in each companion. Although switching classes sets characters back to level one, they retain a percentage of certain attributes like HP, ability scores, and all learned spells and abilities. This system encourages experimentation and customization, allowing for unique character builds; by the end of the game, I had a party member who was an impressive combat powerhouse, with skills drawn from multiple classes and one member who was all Wizard.

The combat itself is typical JRPG fare – these original games helped establish it decades ago, after all – with invisible enemies initiating frequent battles. Battles are structured around targeting groups of enemies rather than specific monsters, limiting strategic choice early on. However, as characters progress, they unlock spells and abilities that can target groups of monsters or even all enemies, which adds more variety and control to the combat experience. I wish they would have updated it to allow you to see your characters consistently during battles, but I understand that they probably did it to hold to the original’s style.

The overall frequency of encounters could be toned down. Traveling through dungeons and overworld areas often triggered battles every 5–10 seconds, which was excessive, especially if I was overpowered just wanted to progress through an area. However, the range of spells, abilities, and class options provided enough customization to keep the combat engaging overall. The option to run away is usually available, and abilities like Padfoot from the thief lowers encounter rates – an essential ability to conserve resources for upcoming boss battles.

The game includes three difficulty levels—easy, medium, and hard—that can be changed at any point without penalty, giving you flexibility in how you want to approach the challenge. I played on medium difficulty for most of my time, and while new areas and difficult boss battles required additional grinding to overcome, I ultimately switched to easy near the end to meet deadline. Easy mode made it impossible for characters to die, keeping them at 1 HP. For my next playthrough, I’ll try hard mode to see how decreased rewards and upped enemy difficulty changes the way I tackle the game.

Inventory management is pretty straightforward. There’s an endless supply of storage space, but players can only bring a select number of items into battles, making it necessary to choose them strategically. While the UI could benefit from quick-action improvements, it does include a convenient "heal all" button that automatically restores your party with one press—a feature that every RPG could benefit from (and some already have, thank you Metaphor ReFantazio).

I would be remiss to not also mention there’s a whole game-within-a-game here for finding monsters and using them to battle in arenas, Pokémon style, that I had a lot of fun with too, and is tied to a brand-new class.

Sound & Music

The soundtrack in this game is exceptional, enhancing the atmosphere and connecting deeply to the Dragon Quest experience. If you’ve played Echoes of an Elusive Age, many of the tunes here will be familiar, though I can’t vouch for if they originated in that game or have deeper roots in the series. Regardless, the music feels steeped in the 8-bit heritage of classic JRPGs. The soundtrack was performed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony and, wow, does that quality show through. As someone who doesn’t usually notice game music, the fact that it stood out so vividly here should speak volumes.

The voice acting is impressive, especially the fact that there IS voice acting, bringing personality to characters and breathing life into the game’s various towns. Each region has distinct accents for its inhabitants, adding to the diversity and immersion of the world.

Overall, the sound design and music played a significant role for me in enhancing the game’s atmosphere.

Graphics and Art Style

Visually, this game is phenomenal. Square Enix has crafted a vibrant and colorful world that feels fresh while honoring the style of the original. Stunning battle backdrops of detailed and varied environments capture the essence of each region. The cities are also a standout. Not only are they beautifully crafted, but each seems to have a unique architectural style – and those regional accents for its citizens add that extra layer.

The use of lighting here is gorgeous. There’s a day and night mechanic, with your character pulling out a lantern to explore in the dark, and it looks great to walk around and see the changes the light makes in some areas. It’s these small visual details that elevated the game for me and helped to make exploration a pleasure.

The game offers two modes—performance and graphics. Performance mode keeps everything running smoothly with great visuals, while graphics mode unfortunately had me seeing noticeable performance drops without any apparent improvement in visual quality. Given this, I highly recommend sticking with performance mode, as it maintains both the look and fluidity of the game.

Replyability and Overall Impressions

The game offers substantial replayability, thanks largely to its flexible class system and some hidden content. With the ability to change classes for each party member, you can experiment with different class combinations and create some fun builds. I even discovered a secret class after leveling a few others, and it left me wondering if there are additional hidden classes waiting to be unlocked.

Beyond the main storyline, there’s also endgame content available after the credits roll. While I didn’t dive too deeply into this, it’s a nice addition for players who want to keep challenging themselves.

Exploration is consistently rewarding, with items hidden in barrels and pots across various environments, encouraging thorough exploration. Valuable items, ability seeds (which increase ability scores), or expensive equipment often appear in unexpected places, so don’t feel bad about tromping into some rando’s house and stealing them blind. Inflation here is real and buying equipment at shops is pricey, so finding a new, more powerful weapon in someone’s flower pot is always exciting. In the overworld, sparkle points and Secret Spots contain loot, reinforcing that sometimes the longer route is worth it. The game’s attention to detail makes even the simplest side paths rewarding, giving players plenty of reasons to wander off the main trail.

Overall, Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake is an exceptional experience that strikes a solid balance between nostalgia and fresh visuals. While the story may not stand out as the game’s strongest element, the stunning world, intricate class system, and engaging exploration make it a memorable journey. The replay value is strong, especially for players who enjoy experimenting with character builds and exploring every corner of the world. For fans of classic JRPGs and newcomers alike, this title has plenty to offer, leaving me excited to jump back in for another adventure and especially to check out the next two remakes for Dragon Quest I and II releasing next year. And for those reasons, I give this game a 9 out of 10.

What Worked For Me

Gorgeous graphics and art style

Incredible Music

Really Fun Class System

What Didn’t Work For Me

Oppressive Encounter Frequency

Serviceable, But Not Stellar, Story