I bailed on Dragon Warrior 7 hard. In the West, Dragon Quest was formerly known as Dragon Warrior before its 2005 rebrand. It was a bloated mess in 2001, and the only game in the series I’d ever bailed on. The 3DS remake improved the game’s flow by cutting content and speeding up the pace. It still took me around 80 hours to finish the remake, and I can only recall one section that I struggled to push through. Square Enix’s remake is all gas and no brakes, even with a slew of cut content and expanded story content added for Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined.
In 2026, hot off the heels of Dragon Quest 1 & 2 HD-2D Remake, one of the most beloved games in the series is getting a third chance to showcase why it is considered a favourite for many. Despite the 3DS remake trimming some fat, the story was still bloated and long. Thankfully, Square Enix agrees and decided to retool the seventh Dragon Quest title for today’s audience.
Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined’s Complete Makeover
Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined is a complete makeover of Dragon Quest 7: Fragments of the Forgotten Past. In that game, the protagonist gains the ability to travel back in time. The world used to have many continents and a vastly different landscape than it does today. The hero and his party are asked to save each continent in the past. Each continent has a distinct story separate from the others. With each fragment collected by the party, more of the world is unlocked. That’s the basic premise for a good chunk of your runtime before the dots begin to form and the bigger picture comes into focus. In all honesty, the format works well; it isn’t your typical narrative, but the characters and the locations you visit make it work.
The character designs by Akira Toriyama have been reimagined in a new 3D art style using real-world dolls. Environments and dungeons are brought to life with hand-crafted, diorama-style aesthetics. If there’s one thing that immediately caught my attention during the September reveal, it was the new artstyle. Coming off the Erdrick Trilogy HD-2D remakes, I’m impressed by the shift to 3D graphics, specifically the hand-crafted 3D art style reminiscent of miniature figurines. It’s hard not to see a connection to Hironobu Sakaguchi’s Fantasian, which uses a similar art style to bring its world and characters to life.
Cut Content
The elephant in the room is cut content in Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined. We know that three islands, Grondal, El Ciclo, and Providence, have been removed. Purists online are not exactly happy that Square Enix cut three islands, but in a game where there are already a lot of islands you’ll visit, it makes sense that something has to give. The original had a plodding structure that was hard to parse because it inevitably felt bloated the longer you played. Even with the content removed, I still finished the story with over 75 hours of gameplay, so I don’t feel like the removal was a total loss. The stories experienced in each of these areas are, by and large, filler, but you do lose out on some of the Yggdrasil story introduced in the original, and there’s a crossover with characters you meet in Providence showing up later in El Ciclo.
The removal of the casino and the Excellence Grading Organization will also hurt purists, but the fact is, the casino is a time sink that lets you earn better gear. I can see why Square would remove it, given that it would likely change the age rating. In the end, it’s not a big deal. The same can be said about the Excellence Grading Organization, a place you visit to register to compete in contests around your stats to unlock powerful items. Now, items are found in the Coliseum, where you’ll find some of the toughest end-game content alongside the best weapons and armour in-game.
I will say I do miss having Immigrant Town available to consume. Previously, this area was where you could send people from around the world who were tired of their hometowns and yearning for a new start. Effectively a town management simulator, you could recruit people and animals, and it would provide you with an assortment of items in return, like new fragments, mini medals, weapons, and gear.
The vignette narrative style lets each island feel unique
Dragon Quest 7 begins with a thirst for adventure as the protagonist explores Estad Island in a bid to see what the bigger world offers. It then shifts into a larger narrative about restoring lost civilizations across time as you work to bring various islands and continents back to life. Each time your party travels into the past, they encounter a community on the brink of collapse. It begins with your first experience saving Ballymolloy, a small fishing island where the town never showed up to support the lone hero Bally against a dragon. The village is decrepid, the villagers are hungry, and you’re tasked with restoring the village to its former glory.
You encounter a community on the brink of collapse, often due to corruption, despair, or supernatural influence. The act of saving these places becomes a metaphor for healing wounds, mending broken societies, and confronting the consequences of neglect or cruelty.
This is where Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined sets itself apart from any other game in the series. Rather than telling an overarching story, you and your party head out to collect tablet pieces, bring the pieces back to a shrine, then head back into the past. Every time you enter the past, you’re essentially experiencing a contained vignette. One might task you with discovering what’s at the bottom of a volcanic pit, another might task you with learning why a village has been turned into animals, but these stories all add to the search for the Demon Lord.
The present‑day world slowly fills in as you progress, reinforcing the idea that compassion and effort can rebuild what was lost. Because the story constantly shifts between past and present, it underscores how actions ripple across generations. In some instances, you’ll meet people and do something, a kindness, which is felt by their ancestors when you return, and they recall your good deed as being a catalyst for the change their region needed.
Vocations Return in Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined
After the Erdrick trilogy’s moment in the spotlight, Square Enix’s shift to Dragon Quest 7 means vocations return in a big way. The earlier games either had no vocations or rather basic ones. Now, there’s a major shift to incorporate them in a big way. Every character begins with an innate job, like the hero’s fisherman, which comes with a series of skills you’ll master in the early hours. As you continue on your journey to restore the world, the Alltrades Abbey opens to you to begin selecting new roles for your characters.
Now, instead of focusing on levelling up a role at a time, you gain access to a job orb, which lets you Moonlight, a mechanic that allows you to equip multiple vocations at once, and keep your master vocation while focusing on the proficiency level of the new role.
Providing this system to players is particularly exciting because it lets you experiment with builds. Should I assign the hero as a Warrior and a Mage, or focus on assigning the Shepherd instead? As enemies and boss battles ramp up, you’ll need to focus on utilizing the right job for the right enemy.
One of the later game vocations, Monster Master, is one of the best jobs you’ll discover. Ruff in particular, is the ideal starter for this vocation. Monster Master’s powerful and, in this remake, features one of the best skills: Positive Reinforcement. As you level the job, you gain the ability to summon monsters in battle and it ranges from slimes to zombies to beasts. When matched with the Burst Mode’s ability to summon stronger monsters, you gain access to the most powerful monsters in-game to help face enemies. The damage output is insane when you’re fighting later stage enemies which are a potent match for your party and can easily shift the tide in your favour.
Reimagined Combat
Speaking of battles, the iconic round-based combat earlier Dragon Quest games are known for, is gone. Instead, combat is fully turn-based, providing you with more opportunity to strategize, and you reduce a lot of the time you’d otherwise spend in menus, but things like healing take a turn, so the trade-off is the busywork of party management. Older games in the series rely heavily on stats, and battles feel slower, but there’s more flexibility to address situations. Reimagined’s combat is heavily updated to modern tastes, which favour turn-based play. Battles can turn catastrophic in an instant because enemies can and do hit hard. However, you have breakable items and unlockable skills that provide a safety net to bounce back and come out on top.
Plus, there’s the Burst system, this game’s version of the Pep Powers system, which adds a suite of powerful buffs like having the ability to heal the entire party, revive them and cure any status in a punch, summon a herd of sheep, buff your party, and dozens of other boons.
For example, the Shepherd’s power, Raging Sheep, lets you summon a herd of sheep to attack enemies. Or the Pirate’s Canon of the Sea buffs your health and magic each time you attack enemies. The Paladin’s Guard skill buffs your defence and reduces incoming damage. Every vocation has its own version you can use as you deal damage.
An issue the newer remakes seem to share is that the default battle speed is absolutely dreadful. Attacks take ages, spells and abilities even longer, and enemies’ reactions are akin to ice melting in winter. Despite trying to stick it out for the first few hours, I couldn’t manage to experience the game at the default speed, and bumping it up to 2x, sometimes even 5x, makes a vast difference if you’re trying to get as much of the game’s story in before heading to bed.
As we’re seeing a resurgence of turn-based combat in the mainstream, I understand why the decision to move from round-based combat was made, as battles feel a lot snappier. Games like Baldur’s Gate 3 and Persona 5 prove that deep turn-based combat can achieve worldwide success and garner numerous awards and recognition.
A Reimagined World
While not everyone will agree with me, the new doll-like art is stunning. It’s another facet of the retooled Dragon Quest 7 experience that pulls inspiration from the game’s original art style. These incredibly detailed dolls were crafted exclusively for the game and then scanned to create assets for it. Environments also undergo a similar shake-up, using a diorama style that is a joy to explore.
However, for all that I love the new look of these characters, it comes with concessions. By scanning real dolls into the game, we lose much of the characters’ expressions. Kiefer, as lovable as he is as a character, also feels like a puppet, and compared to a game like Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, you lose a lot of the nuance and expression that it provides.
See, environments benefit greatly from shifting their viewpoint, adding depth while reducing the need for a larger overworld that might be cumbersome to explore. You no longer have to travel long distances with little to do. Instead, the world feels truncated but brimming with things to do and enemies which can be eliminated in an instant as you grow more powerful.
There are still some secrets off the beaten path, but I haven’t encountered any hidden forests as the HD-2D remakes hide in plain sight. With that said, the pacing is broken up spectacularly because the landmasses aren’t interconnected as continents normally are. Each area you visit has an assortment of enemies moving around, which you can take on directly or eliminate with a swing of your sword once your level surpasses their level in a bid to streamline how much fighting you’re doing against weaker enemies.
Monster Vocations are gone, now replaced by equippable monster hearts as you encounter vicious enemies on the world map. Previously, you would find the heart, then give it to a party member to unlock a job. Now, the hearts add passive abilities you can use in battle.
You’ll discover that there have been many under-the-hood changes to Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined. There is no longer a limited inventory; it has been replaced by shared inventory, making items easier to access. You can also turn on the ability to heal after every battle, but that’s not necessary, as healing statues are widely available. If you die, you lose 1000 gold coins. If you seek a bank, I can’t say I’ve ever come across one; I searched every location for one, making the decision to lose coins and try again deliver minimal impact.
Ultimately, what matters in Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined is the journey. Every character you meet, every party member you recruit, has a tale you want to experience. Maribel’s transformation from a sarcastic, reluctant party member into someone genuinely curious about the world beyond Pritchard Bay, or Kiefer’s decision to leave his position and choose his own path, resonates with anyone who has lived in the shadow of their family.
Every town you step into has rituals, quirks, and enough identity to feel unique. Meeting the locals and helping them with their problems, whether it’s a monster attack, a fire festival, or something as simple as carrying items to a location, you, as the protagonist, leave an indelible mark on the world.
Despite losing some of the magic from the original, Reimagined is a good entry point for Dragon Quest. It might not be the same as the PlayStation version or Fragments of the Forgotten Past , but this remake has sanded off the rough edges and streamlined the experience. You can always go back and revisit those games, and I wouldn’t fault you for doing it. Picking up the latest remake isn’t wrong either, though and it’s justifiably a fun game.
Verdict
Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined is an exceptional game, one which excels in its storytelling and personable cast. While it wasn’t my favourite game in the series before the remake, it has quickly jumped into the top three. There are so many small details that make this version the one you have to play, from the reworked script and revised score to the incredible cast guiding us across a world’s fragmented past. By piecing together the threat of this world one island at a time, you learn more about the inhabitants and how each contrast to the others meaningfully. Combine that with a shift from round-based battles to turn-based, and the control you’re given to make the right choices warrants the profound changes this game has undergone.
[The publisher provided a copy of the game for review purposes.]
Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
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Author: 360 Technology Group
