Dragon Quest VII Reimagined Preview: HD-2D takes a backseat in this fabulous remake

The Dragon Quest series is a fascinating one because in many ways it was the precursor JRPG, the one that laid the foundation for so many others to follow. For years throughout the 80s, 90s, and 2000s, Dragon Quest continued to be an immense hit, delivering countless instalments across a variety of platforms, but then as is the case with all modern games, the release cadence began to slow down, which enabled rival series to rise up and claim its throne. In late 2025, if you asked the average gamer when they last played a Dragon Quest game, the answer would likely either be a spinoff such as the Builders series or perhaps even the excellent HD-2D remakes. The point is, the essence and wonder of Dragon Quest has somewhat been lost to time.

Thankfully, Square Enix is doing something about that by giving its older titles new life and in the spirit of this we find Dragon Quest VII Reimagined. Now, we know what you're thinking, "yet another HD-2D remake?" Nope, this game is more akin to the kind of Dragon Quest you will be more familiar with if you've kept up to date with the JRPG series over the past 20 or so years. It's 3D, it features stylised but recognisably human characters, and it plays from an isometric perspective, all to serve as the medium to retell the fabulous story of this game that debuted as far back as in the year 2000. So, if you don't recognise much about this game, fear not, you're not alone.

If you do remember the original, you may wonder why Square Enix didn't go down the HD-2D remake path once again, as it would have suited the game. After playing almost two hours of Dragon Quest VII Reimagined, I can tell you with good authority that the shift to a full-scale 3D remake is a welcome one, not because the HD-2D style isn't fantastic, but because a bit of variety is always appreciated. And on this front, I'd also say that this is a really beautifully sculpted remake that makes you realise why the Dragon Quest visual aesthetic coined by the late and great Akira Toriyama continues to excel.

Anyway, onto the gameplay. This is a remake but it's also a very familiar example of a JRPG and a Dragon Quest game. You're popped in small diorama-like levels and you spend a great deal of time communicating and speaking with locals and quest givers to piece together the wider narrative. The large majority of the less important dialogue options are delivered in the form of text you have to read, but the more significant story beats are voiced with strong performances from a diverse cast. It's a great boon for the storytelling and makes your far more invested and immersed in the overall narrative that the game is looking to convey.

Beyond this, we're talking about a fairly familiar JRPG in its gameplay setup. There are dungeons to explore with several floors packed with enemies to fight and secrets and goodies to collect. You wander around each of the small levels and progress up and down the layers of the dungeon by using staircases, with each dungeon having various possible avenues to explore to locate chests filled with useful items. When you're ready for a fight, you can either sneak up behind an enemy to surprise them and begin the fight on the front foot, or if you lose focus, an enemy might do the same to you, and thus we find ourselves in turn-based combat.

Again, if you've played a JRPG before or even a Dragon Quest game, you'll feel right at home. Your team is composed of various characters with different abilities and playstyles, and you can either command each and every ally of your own volition or use a Tactics mechanic to have them act in a specific manner. You might want a supportive character to simply heal and buff allies, or perhaps a character with low mana to conserve energy, and both of these are Tactics you can employ before starting a fight. Likewise, for those (like myself) who have the attention span of a toddler, you can adjust the battle speed so each turn and attack happen at a much faster pace, or likewise vice-versa if you want to savour the combat. Then comes battles where you can attack with basic hits that require no resource investment, defend to reduce the damage of incoming hits, consume items to keep your team healthy, or use skills and abilities to cast magical spells and attacks. The aim is to simply defeat each array of opponents with as little impact to your team as possible, and the best way to achieve this is to pay attention to the element types and how each attack affects each enemy. This way you can deal big damage with minimal cost and ideally win a fight before an enemy gets to fight back.

It's not a combat system that looks to surprise or catch you off-guard with unique mechanics, it's turn-based combat as you know and love it, and thanks to the adjustable battle speed and the simplistic UI, it's a very fulfilling process to face and overcome enemies. Of course, you're often rewarded for your actions in the form of experience that over time will see your heroes increase in level and improve their core attributes, but from my experience with DQVII Reimagined, this isn't a quick process and you will be spending a considerable amount of time improving the potential of your various characters.

So yes, there are regular rank-and-file enemies that look like mashed-up monsters and then there are also powerful and difficult to overcome bosses. In the preview session, I had the luxury of facing two examples, with one being an incredibly tough stone head known as the Glowering Inferno where you had to bide your time until it was angry to dish out serious damage at the risk of taking hard-hitting attacks too. The secret was to use supportive abilities and moves while it was essentially immortal, to prepare for a damage phase where you could attack without fearing the consequences. As for the second example, this was a sea monster called Gracos that had drowned the world in an immense flood, and this was a more traditional boss fight where you mostly had to pay attention to its changing elemental status to get the most out of your attacks. Both were fine examples of boss encounters, and in typical Dragon Quest fashion, neither were easy to overcome...

As the preview session mostly focused on navigating two different dungeons to reach these bosses, I can't add much further about the wider experience, but I can inform you that there's an overworld to more easily traverse between the different points of interest around the world, and it's also served up in peak Dragon Quest style with you playing an oversized humanoid in a physical open environment.

In many ways, Dragon Quest VII Reimagined is exactly what I would have expected from another Dragon Quest remake, but at the same time I'm completely fine with that, because the original game is of such excellent quality that a graphical, UI, and modernised update is all that it needed to become relevant again. It seems like Square Enix's endeavour to remake its Dragon Quest series has another hit on its hands.