Dragon Quest III: HD-2D Remake PS5 Review. I love the Dragon Quest franchise. It’s my favorite gaming series, so I was ecstatic that Dragon Quest III would finally come to modern platofrms. Dragon Quest III is a fan favorite for a lot of die-hard fans, having introduced unique mechanics to the franchise, such as Vocations and a day and night cycle, changing the monsters you faced and the people and quests you could tackle.
That said, Dragon Quest III not only keeps the spirit of the original alive in every aspect but improves on it with quality-of-life additions that any franchise fan would be thrilled to receive.
Dragon Quest III: HD-2D Remake PS5 Review
Lack Of A Narrative With Fun Party Customization
Dragon Quest III isn’t like other RPGs. Released in 1988, it changed things regarding its party and storytelling. You won’t find that here for those looking for a dynamic story and party to fall in love with and connect with.
The story follows a young hero as they head off to defeat the evil fiend Baramos; a task your father failed to, who went to stop the villain alone but never returned. Unlike your father, you head off with a party of essentially mercenaries you can choose from.
You are presented with four party members with their classes, but if you don’t want these four, you can go in and request a custom party of your own. You choose their name, their Vocation from Mage, Warrior, Theif, or a brand new Vocation for this Remake, the Monster Tamer.
A Fun Vocation System That Encourages You To Change Things Up
You can customize them with hairstyles and colors based on a few pre-set options. The great thing about Dragon Quest III is that once your party members reach level 20, you can change their Vocation while retaining all the spells and skills they learned from their previous one. They return to level one upon doing so, but knowing as many spells and abilities as possible is worth doing.
This is your party, which you can change out as much as you like, and with Dragon Quest’s long-standing silent protagonist, there isn’t much of a story to build on. You travel the world and interact with each region’s ruler, who asks you to help their kingdom resolve some issue before giving you their endorsement, tool, or weapon to help you defeat Baramos, such as a boat to travel the seas.
It’s a shame, as the Remake had a perfect opportunity to solidify your party or add more dialogue to push the narrative, but it didn’t. Some scenes play out longer, and all the story scenes are voiced, which is a great addition, but it won’t sway hardcore RPG fans who play these games primarily for party interactions and stories.
Simple But Excellent Combat Kept Me Engaged In The Grind
Gameplay is as traditional as it gets. Combat is turn-based, and you can select what each party member will do during their turn. You can also set auto battle commands for your party members, which is a great addition, as well as speed up combat to three times its average speed, another welcome quality of life addition.
There isn’t much to combat as the game tries to keep it as close to the original as possible. Each enemy has a weakness to some ability or element; finding and exploiting that weakness is a franchise staple. Enemies also appear in groups. This limits your area of effect spells to specific groups.
For example, a battle may consist of three groups of enemies. One group can have two enemies, another can have three, and the last group will be a single foe. If you choose to use a spell that hits all enemies, it will only hit all the enemies in one group rather than all the enemies on the field.
This also applies to single attacks. You can choose a group to attack with a typical physical strike, but you cant decide which of the enemies in that group you’ll attack; that’s random.
This can lead to frustration because instead of attacking an almost-defeated enemy, the randomizer decides to attack an enemy with full health in that group.
Challenging Combat Helped Along By Quality Of Life Additions
Dragon Quest III is also a challenging game. Like other games of its time, its difficulty was high enough to extend play time, and that hasn’t changed here. Grinding is your friend, and you’ll have to do much of it, especially if you plan to change Vocations and start at level one again.
The random encounters are at a good pace so you won’t get frustrated, but sometimes you want more to level up. Once again, quality of life comes into play. The game is very generous with its auto-save, which saves the game after every battle or when entering a new zone in a dungeon or world map.
The most generous feature in the game is God Mode. If you choose to play the game on its easiest setting, God Mode is activated, meaning you won’t ever die in the game. Once your characters reach one hit point, they won’t go down after taking any more damage.
Unique Night And Day Cycle Changes Things Up
The world is alive and breathing in Dragon Quest III. It’s incredible to play the game and see how its night and day cycle affects the world. In an open world map, you’ll face vastly different monsters. Night-time monsters are twice as strong and can wipe your party after a few encounters, but they are worth fighting for the extra EXP.
The towns also change. Shops are closed, bars and taverns are lively, and many quests are available at different times. The game’s questing is also traditional for its time. You won’t have any quest markers outside the main objective, which you can check to see where you need to be on the map.
Side quests don’t have trackers to guide you. Townspeople mostly speak about these quests. You may encounter someone hoping their beloved is doing good in another town; you can find this person in said town and tell them about their significant other.
One thing that helps you along the way with these quests and essential pieces of information is a Recall function. With the press of a button, you can save the past conversation you had to recall. You can save plenty of these conversations and recall them later on.
Monster Arena And Monster Hunting Is Entertaining
The recall function is essential when it comes to capturing monsters. In Dragon Quest III, you can find friendly monsters and recruit them by sending them to a monster collector and then using them in the Monster Arena.
In this arena, you can build a party of monsters you have collected and take on a gauntlet of other people with their monsters to become the Monster Arena champion.
You run into these monsters out in dungeons and towns, but approaching them can scare them off, and they will run off. People in cities can tell you about monsters in their respective areas and give you tips and hints about capturing them using specific items or equipment equipped with particular equipment.
A Visual And Musical Masterpiece
Visually, Dragon Quest III is an absolute stunner. For every game that Square Enix has released with HD-2D graphical upgrades, they all feel like a test for Dragon Quest III. The world is expertly recreated with exceptional detail, down to the leaves that blow on the ground. I was stunned and in awe with almost every location I visited.
It’s a shame, as the original game’s Mobile and Nintendo Switch releases are the only comparisons we have. Those who have played it will love the updated looks of all the game’s locations, while the real-time shadows and lighting also add an incredible amount of detail to the proceedings.
The musical score is something that always comes up in Dragon Quest titles. Most titles in the franchise outside Japan received synthesized scores due to the franchise composer, Koichi Sugiyama, owning the rights to all his work. This means that Square was forced to synthesize his scores for international releases of their games.
Since his passing in 2021, this has no longer been an issue, as the orchestra score of Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of An Elusive Age: Definitive Edition included his original score rather than the synthesized version used in the original release. This seems to be the case with Dragon Quest III, as the game’s original soundtrack has received an orchestral remaster.
Many songs will be very familiar to the franchise fans, especially the opening and battle themes. The game has also received a hefty amount of voiced dialogue. Furthermore, as you travel to different lands, each region’s denizens speak with their own distinct accent. It’s a nice touch, even though not all the voice acting is excellent, and it’s pretty funny because the character sprites don’t always match the accent being spoken, especially when you see some of them reused in other towns.
An Absolutely Magical Remake Of A Classic
Dragon Quest III: HD-2D Remake is the remake that I wanted. Everything about it makes me smile. For a fan of the franchise since my introduction to it with Dragon Quest VII on the original PlayStation, this remake of a game that hasn’t been available on many consoles or regions outside Japan is an excellent sign of what I hope becomes a tradition of Square bringing even more dormant franchise back.
Dragon Quest III is perfect for fans; they will eat it up like a greedy kid at a buffet. For those looking to get into the franchise for the first time however, keep in mind that this remake is as traditional as it gets in terms of storytelling, combat, and exploration. Even so, Dragon Quest III is an excellent example of where this legendary franchise came from and potentially where Square Enix’s future is headed.
Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake releases on November 14, 2024 on PS5.
Review code kindly provided by PR.