GamerEscape

During our time at PAX West 2024, I was able to sit down with a build Dragon Quest III HD-2D on the PlayStation 5. The game serves as a beautiful response to players who were fans of the HD-2D aesthetic from games like Octopath Traveler, and wanted to see classic titles updated in this newer, but still pixel-based style.

As I began the demo, which put me at the beginning of the game, I was immediately struck by just how good this game looks. Granted, the HD-2D style that Square Enix has created in recent years might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I quite enjoy it. Where games like Octopath Traveler had a more dark or earthy pallet of colors, Dragon Quest III HD-2D isn’t afraid to let loose with its vibrant range of colors.

In a lot of these remakes or remasters of older RPG titles, its not uncommon to see developers add some quality of life options like the ability to skip cutscenes, or some kind of fast forward option. In Dragon Quest III HD-2D, you’re able to fast forward the dialogue cutscenes by holding down a button. And yes, of course, you can set a few different battle speeds as well.

One feature of the original game, “Recall” has been greatly improved in this version. Previously, using “Recall” would allow you to save up to three NPC conversations in order to look back at them to reference various types of information you may have been told. In this new version, the game lets you store up to 30 NPC conversations while also showing you a screenshot of the time you used “Recall” and also showing the dialogue choices (if any) you selected. I also stumbled upon another wonderful option that alleviates my gripes with some older RPG titles, a “Handy Heal All” menu that lets you easily heal up the party.

I was able to load up a secondary save that was prepared that let me check out the Monster Arena. Here, you can select a party of monsters to battle it out against…well, other monsters. You don’t control them directly, and instead assign tactics like “Focus on Healing” or “Fight Wisely.” After I did a series of fights here, I ventured outside and got to experience the world map.

When someone thinks of an old-school RPG, they might think of the top-down world map. After all, it was practically a staple of the genre. In Dragon Quest III 2D-HD, We get a more angled camera, and the addition of some geometry, ranging from small hills, to large unpassable mountains. The map also appeared to have a day and night cycle as well, with screen growing dimmer as I explored.

My small sampling of the battle system here was where I was most disappointed. Specifically, where the camera angle shifts to a first-person POV after selecting your actions. I would have loved to have seen the camera stay back and let us see these gorgeous sprites in action. That having been said, that first person viewpoint is how the original did it. And they do give us at least a brief look at the characters before that camera shift, so I can’t really fault the game too much here since it just comes down to my personal preferences.

While my time with the game was short, about 30 minutes, my eyes were very happy with the visual feast in front of me. There’s just something wonderfully charming about the HD-2D style that hits all the right chords with me. I think fans of the original will have a lot to look forward too with this entry.

Dragon Quest III 2D-HD releases on November 14th for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC via Steam and Microsoft Store.