Dragon Quest VII (3DS) – value for money is not an issue

One of the lost classics of the PS1 era finally comes to Europe, but is Dragon Quest VII just too long for its own good?

We’ve never understood the resistance some people have to the term ‘hardcore’ gamer (or indeed ‘gamer’ itself). Maybe they just don’t like labels, but clearly some people take their video games-playing a lot more seriously than others. For example, the sort of person that’d spend upwards of 100 hours playing a game like Dragon Quest VII. That’s a huge commitment for a game that was already considered old-fashioned when it first came out 16 years ago, and yet its length is one of the key appeals of this new remake.



Although the series has never enjoyed any real success in the West, Dragon Quest is the most popular role-playing franchise in Japan – way ahead of Final Fantasy and the rest. Exactly why is often hard to understand, as the games are always deeply conservative old school role-playing games. Or at least they were up until Dragon Quest IX on DS, with which this games bears almost no resemblance.

Dragon Quest VII was first released in Japan on the original PlayStation in 2000, and a year later, as Dragon Warrior VII, in North America. By that point the PlayStation 2 had already been launched and the game never ended up being released in Europe. This 3DS remake has made the trip though, which is no less than it deserves considering the amount of effort that’s gone into it.


Despite the length of the game the basic story is fairly straightforward. You start out as a simple villager on the small island of Estard, whose inhabitants assume themselves to be the only civilisation in the world. The discovery of a map fragment suggesting otherwise leads to a time-travelling adventure to restore the lost continents, and an eventual showdown with the bad guy responsible for their original disappearance.

But the game isn’t really about the overall plot and for the majority of the time it’s pushed firmly into the background, as you instead concern yourself with the more specific problems of each individual island. That makes Dragon Quest VII feel more like a long collection of side quests than a single tale, which is both a main part of its draw and a key reason its detractors can’t be bothered with it.

It’s certainly true that some story elements drag on for far too long, which causes you to wonder whether the whole experience wouldn’t have been better off being edited down to something considerably leaner and more focused. But that’s not the game the original developers wanted to make and it’s not hard to admire their unwillingness to compromise.

Dragon Quest VII (3DS) – of course these guys would be in it

No matter what you do it’s at least two hours before you even get to your first fight, and believe it or not that’s significantly sped up from how it worked in the original version. But given its size the script is impressively good, and manages to keep your interest until things hot up. Although the attempts to portray different island accents often comes across as rather cringe-inducing.



When you do get into a scrap it proves to the be usual line-dancing, turn-based grind. It’s at this point in the review where, if this was the original PlayStation version, we’d go on to say that although your combat options increase as your team-mate’s weapons and abilities improve (and, after more than two dozen hours, they learn specific job classes) they can never keep pace with the relentless stream of random battles. But the 3DS remake does away with all that, and enemies appear on-screen and can be avoided.

We’re surprised that Japan allowed such a change, but the truth is this is an extremely well thought out and executed remake. Rather than just preach to the converted, attempts have been made to modernise the game where possible, while still maintaining the original’s charm and central appeal.

Even the graphics have been notably improved upon, and although there’s still many more attractive games on the 3DS this isn’t as embarrassingly backwards-looking as the original. Although the way non-player character models are constantly reused, even for quite major characters, is hard not to notice.

The old school text interface is still a chore to use, but unfortunately that seems to be one of the things Dragon Quest fans consider sacrosanct. The combat is also rather easy for the most part, a reflection of the game’s family friendly target audience. But the 3DS version tries to address that as well, by offering up harder optional dungeons that are unlocked via StreetPass.


Considering how hard it will be to convince non-believers to even consider the game, it’s impressive how much effort has gone into making Dragon Quest VII more accessible and attractive. It seems an unlikely subject, but this must go down as one of the best remakes of recent years, and a surprisingly successful mix of old and new.

Dragon Quest VII: Fragments Of The Forgotten Past In Short: An excellent remake of a game that represents one of the logical extremes of Japanese role-players, and yet remains surprisingly endearing despite its flaws. Pros: A huge story, with a near endless range of quests and challenges. No random battles and faster intro. Greatly improved graphics and a generally good script. Cons: Most quests go on far too long, and the game as a whole is just too big to be practical for many players. Simplistic and overly easy combat. Repeating character models annoy. Score: 7/10

Formats: 3DS

Price: £34.99

Publisher: Square Enix and Nintendo

Developer: ArtePiazza and Heartbeat

Release Date: 16th September 2016

Age Rating: 12

Email gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk, leave a comment below, and follow us on Twitter