Thanks to the invitation of SQUARE ENIXlast week I flew to Milan to the offices of PLAION to preview the highly anticipated DRAGON QUEST III HD-2D Remake. After its announcement, which took place way back in 2021, the software house did not release many updates for the game and thanks to this test I was able to better understand what we can expect from this remake. The title will not only offer players a completely renewed technical sector, but also many improvements in terms of gameplay and content not present in the original.
In this article I decided to collect my first impressions of DRAGON QUEST III HD-2D Remake, revealing what struck me and what left me with some small doubts about it. However, I remind you that the version I tested is still in developmentwhich is why all elements may undergo changes before the game’s release.
Ready to take on the role of the Hero again?
This is my first experience with DRAGON QUEST III HD-2D Remake Unfortunately, it only lasted an hour and I played during my test on Nintendo Switch in portable mode. Despite this, I noticed that the graphics sector performs particularly well on the console from the Kyoto company, with the exception of some small frame rate drops in some specific scenes of the game. However, not only must we keep in mind that this problem could be smoothed out before the release of the game, but also that once connected to the Dock of our console the performance will be greater.
One of the aspects that struck me the most is without a doubt the game worldthe software house has managed to masterfully recreate it using what, in my opinion, is one of the most interesting animation styles seen in recent years. The 2D-HD fits perfectly with the classicism of the titlethe developers themselves declared in a video message shown to members of the press before testing how the power of current platforms has allowed them to best recreate the settings, giving them that sense of uniqueness that was somewhat lost in the original given the few possibilities of the hardware. And from the few areas I was able to visit I can assure you that the company seems to have succeeded in this endeavor.
The gameplay of DRAGON QUEST III HD-2D Remake although it maintains its classic format, it has undergone notable improvements thanks to the introduction of different elements capable of make the quality-of-life of the game more balanced. One of the factors that, especially in the long term, I am sure will make all players happy is the possibility of accelerate the speed of animations in battle. Considering how grinding is an important element in the first chapters of DRAGON QUESTbeing able to face enemies faster will in fact allow us to halve the time and level up our team faster.
Furthermore, although my test only lasted an hour, I seemed to notice an improvement in the game’s balance. I remember well how the third chapter of the franchise was a bit too precise in certain aspects, but it seems that for this remake the software house has decided to smoothen the difficulty slightly to give players a more balanced experience. Despite that the game’s challenge rate still remains onventuring into certain areas without having improved our party’s equipment or without having leveled them up will in fact prove to be a fatal move even for the most expert of players.
Another aspect of the technical sector that really struck me was the Italian translation of the texts. The game will in fact be entirely localized, thus making it more accessible to those who are not familiar with the English language. For the first time the game it will be fully dubbed in both Japanese and English, and we will be able to freely choose which of the two dubbings to use during our adventure. Furthermore the beautiful soundtrack of the third chapter has been improved and masterfully rearranged by the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestraand from what I have heard we are faced with a truly excellent sound sector!
Overall I was really impressed by it DRAGON QUEST III HD-2D Remakewhich promises to be a title capable of intriguing both old players and new recruits who perhaps know little about this franchise. The graphic style really does justice to the original title and, although I encountered some small drops in frame rate on laptop, my test on Nintendo Switch went beyond my expectations. And I can tell you that after this hour of gameplay I’m really looking forward to playing it once it’s available worldwide.
I thank SQUARE ENIX and PLAION again for the invitation to preview DRAGON QUEST III HD-2D Remake.
© ARMOR PROJECT/BIRD STUDIO/SPIKE CHUNSOFT/SQUARE ENIX
© SUGIYAMA KOBO
℗ SUGIYAMA KOBO
All images and screenshots are from a version of the game still in development.
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