Game review: Dragon Quest VII Reimagined (Switch 2)

The original Dragon Quest VII was released back in the year 2000 for the old PSOne console. Despite releasing on a console capable for producing 3D graphics, the game still featured 2D style visuals more akin to the Super Nintendo generation. 

However, fans at the time did not care about the simplistic visuals because the game was a 100+ hour masterpiece. 26 years later, Square Enix has decided to finally remake Dragon Quest VII, releasing Dragon Quest VII Reimagined in 2026 on all modern platforms. 

The first big change fans will notice about Dragon Quest Reimagined is that the graphics are now fully rendered in HD and in 3D for the very first time. The game still retains Akira Toriyama's iconic character designs, but the cutscenes and environments are much more detailed this time around. 

The other thing Dragon Quest VII Reimagined retains is the top-down isometric camera point-of-view of the original game. This is unlike the recent Final Fantasy VII remakes that ditched the fixed camera viewpoints of the original for a more modern over-the-shoulder camera. 

Another welcome change to the game's presentation is that most major dialogue and cutscenes have full voice-overs in multiple languages. Not all dialogue in the game is recorded, but the voices do give life to the bubbly characters featured in DQ VII. 

Aside from the modern visuals and presentation, a lot of new features have been added to Dragon Quest Reimagined to make the game more accessible for newer players who might not be good at playing turn-based video games. 

First of all, Dragon Quest VII Reimagined has multiple different difficulty settings to choose from, so you can make the game as easy or as hard as you want. This means you can increase the number of gold or experience points you earn to make grinding less tedious than before. 

You can also attack enemies on the field, and if they're way weaker than your party, you can kill them instantly without engaging in battle. If an enemy is stronger than you, striking them early also allows you to decrease some of their HP, so you get an upper hand in the battle from the start. 

If you find grinding slow and boring, you can increase the battle speed so fights are much faster than before. Not to mention, an auto-battle setting is also included in this game if you're too lazy to fight on your own. This setting might also be helpful if anyone out there is struggling to beat a certain boss. 

Outside of battles, Dragon Quest VII Reimagined also includes helpful quest markers to allow you to know where your next destination is. I have to admit, this was really helpful for me because sometimes the dungeons are quite huge and it's easy to get lost since there are so many different paths to take. 

The game also requires you to collect tablet fragments in order to travel back in time to visit new islands. In the original game, these hidden fragments were hard to find, but now the remake gives you clues on where to find them, which is super helpful!

One major change to the game that might upset original fans is the amount of cut content in this remake. In order to make the remake more manageable for newer players, the total time to finish the game is now around 50 hours. This is far shorter than the 100-hour playtime that is required to finish the original Dragon Quest VII on PSOne. 

It is also worth mentioning that people who hate turn-based combat in RPGs might not like this game either. Sure, the game does not have annoying random battles, but enemies can still hit you with powerful attacks or status effects that will drain your party's HP really fast. 

Sadly, Dragon Quest VII Reimagined does not add a dodge or parry attack, so you can avoid enemy attacks altogether. Most modern gamers loved playing Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 because parries and dodges ensured you didn't have to get hit by the enemy every time it was their turn to attack. 

That being said, Dragon Quest VII Reimagined might be my favourite Dragon Quest game of all time because the user-friendly quality-of-life changes made the game far easier than previous entries in the franchise. I never felt too bored having to grind all of the time because I was always at a high level enough to defeat any bosses at the end of dungeons. 

While original fans might dislike some of the changes in Dragon Quest VII Reimagined, newer fans should still go out and play it. Not only are the visuals and gameplay improved, but the story is interesting with its time-travel gimmick. JRPG fans around the world should pick this game up. 

Verdict: 9.0/10