After a few months enjoying what Dragon Quest 1+2 HD-2D Remake provided, it really does feel a breath of fresh air jumping into Dragon Quest VII Reimagined. While it is still the same Dragon Quest experience, there’s a lot of quality of life elements here that vastly improve that experience from the Erdrick trilogy. And though I love the HD-2D look of that trilogy, there’s a lot to be said for the expressiveness of the 3D models with DQ7.
The hero of this story has two friends. Prince Kiefer and the mayor’s daughter Maribel. Kiefer has dreams of discovering the lost islands of the world. A world that is nothing but sea and the island of Estard. While Kiefer and the hero try to keep this from Maribel, she knows something is happening, and intends to discover their plans. What they find across this first hour of the story are secrets that will send them to the past and all the lost islands that are in the grip of monsters.
One thing I found myself enjoying is the interactions between the three leads. Kiefer is headstrong, willing to push through with his plans despite what others might say. Especially his dad – the king. Maribel is bossy, demanding answers of the others while also delivering some fun sarcastic replies to Kiefer. And despite the hero being voiceless, I can really feel the bonds the group share.
Delving into the past of the islands puts them into danger, with each island having issues with a monster. Whether that be a war against automatons or a planned eruption of a volcano. Each island has a unique problem to solve, and a unique group of people living on it. It’s always fun to discover the residents of a new island, with the interactions had with them providing a lot of enjoyment. Especially when cutscenes are voiced. Though when it does come to voiced cutscenes, the music playing during them can sometimes drown out the voices.
This wouldn’t be an RPG without the combat, and it is here where Dragon Quest VII Reimagined also shines. The turn-based battles play out as usual, selecting an action to perform. Actions are selected when it is that character’s turn, allowing for greater reaction to events of the battle. This helps a lot when it comes to boss battles, keeping the team healthy to continue the assault.
Vocations play a large part in the building of each character’s stats and abilities, with each having a unique starting vocation. Vocations level with a second tier of experience, providing new spells and abilities to use in battle. Once reaching a certain part of the story, new vocations can be learnt to start gaining more powerful spells and abilities. The addition of a vocation ability provides a bit more thought into which vocation to choose for each character.
The abilities of vocations can’t be activated whenever, instead needing a character to become fired up after taking some damage. I can then choose to let loose to provide effects such as a protection against one hit for the entire party or sacrificing defence for improved attack and critical hit chance. Bosses also have the chance to get fired up, giving them boosts for a number of turns to be aware of.
Dragon Quest VII Reimagined does feel a great starting point for anyone wanting to get into a main game of the series. The difficulty options introduced with the Erdrick trilogy have been slightly expanded here, allowing for the customisation of each individual option. So if I really wanted, I could keep everything on normal but change the EXP growth to its fastest.
Along with those, the map screen is easy to use, providing great navigation across the three levels of it. On the local level that shows towns and dungeons in detail, chests and tablet fragments are marked. If active, a destination marker appears on all three levels of the map to show where I need to be. Such markers, along with those for tablet fragments, also appear in the world. Zooming to previously visited areas is also as simple as selecting them from the map.
As mentioned at the start, there’s a lot of expressiveness to Dragon Quest VII Reimagined. Certain scenes will play out as full cutscenes, allowing for a ground-level view of the action and the reactions of characters in the scene. For battles, action animations are swift but fluid, keeping the pace fast. Dodges are visibly seen, with attack misses being different from when they land. There’s a lot of neat details to the animations found in battles, making them a delight to be in.
Overall, the experience of Dragon Quest VII Reimagined is a great one. The structure of the game is easy to fit into small hour or two sessions, with each island providing a nice self-contained story. Stories full of great interactions and enjoyable battles. While some things have been cut or changed from previous versions of Dragon Quest VII, such makes the experience feel a lot better. Making it an experience that I can easily recommend.
Images Taken From:
Dragon Quest VII Reimagined | Nintendo Switch 2 [Docked]
