Dragon Quest 3 2D-HD is almost here, and we have one final preview ahead of the full launch. As someone who played DQ3 dozens of times over the years, it’s a game I’ve put a significant amount of my focus on. There are so many little touches that make this remake a treasure to me. From quality-of-life changes and difficulty options to the ability to customize your party even further than before, there’s so much to be excited about. There are some little things that are a bit frustrating, but overall, it’s all love.
Dragon Quest 3 2D-HD is everything I thought it would be and so much more. Today we’re only talking about a certain point in the game, though. Don’t worry, there will be no major spoilers either.
What exactly is Dragon Quest 3 2D-HD?
For those unfamiliar, Dragon Quest 3 2D-HD is a remake of the classic RPG from 1988. No RPG before had such a gargantuan level of success in Japan, and it proved to be incredibly popular in the West as well. Players went on a journey to defeat the evil Archfiend Baramos, recruiting some local heroes to accompany them.
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As the son of legendary hero Ortega, the player takes up the sword and shield to complete his father’s task. There are villains to slay and people to save, but you just can’t do it alone. Players can head to Patty’s Party Planner to recruit other like-minded adventurers — either the generic, pre-created ones or new ones created from scratch by players — and set out together.
It’s a huge world, and there are lots of secrets to explore and challenges to overcome. It also, interestingly enough, takes place before Dragon Quest 1 and 2. This trilogy of games, called the Erdric, or Loto Trilogy, also has roots in other parts of the series, but that’s for another day.
Dragon Quest 3 2D-HD’s early hours are a fine introduction to this classic RPG
What makes Dragon Quest 3 2D-HD so fascinating to me is that it is a perfect blend of the original game’s difficulty, while also being approachable for anyone. One thing Dragon Quest games have been known for is they are much harder than most other RPG franchises coming out of Japan.
The Famicom/NES version of DQ 3, for example, had no quest markers. If you didn’t talk to everyone, or didn’t have a walkthrough, your path was going to be a brutal, frustrating one. However, as you speak to people in Dragon Quest 3 2D-HD and reach certain points, a quest objective will update for you. You can turn this off though, if you don’t want the hints/locations pointed out to you.
The early hours of the game are pretty relaxing, frankly. It lets you get your feet wet and learn how this game plays, if you’ve never really dipped your toes in the Dragon Quest universe. Honestly, if you’ve never played a DQ game, this is going to be one of the easiest ways to dive in.
You can make whatever party you want, and take on some fairly easy missions, as you begin your hero's journey. Even the very first things you do in Dragon Quest 3 2D-HD are important - they teach you to talk to everyone and explore everywhere. This is even more important in this version of the game, thanks to some of the new features and changes.
What’s new and exciting in Dragon Quest 3 2D-HD?
There are some great new features and quality-of-life changes in this game - some of which made me deliriously happy. One of the best new features you learn about early in the game if you take the time to explore, is Secret Spots. Occasionally, you’ll see tree and rock formations that just look … different.
Exploring these can reward you with useful items, or even help you find friendly monsters. This is great because Dragon Quest 3 2D-HD has changed how the Monster Arena works. It’s no longer just random gambling on monster packs. Now, you can recruit friendly monsters to your team, by finding them in the wild.
They can show up in the most unlikely places — towns, dungeons, or even in the Secret Spots. However, it can be frustrating to locate them all. Some of them will go along with you no matter what, but some need a Monster Wrangler to be convinced.
You use these in the various monster arenas in the world, by making a team of up to three monsters and letting them fight for you. There are some great gold/item prizes for doing it, plus - who doesn’t like catching ‘em all?
Another new feature that I want to highlight is the Recall function. If an NPC says something important, you can highlight it, and recall it later at any time. This is great for when you see something you need to check out later — such as an NPC suggesting a monster has been somewhere nearby.
Quality-of-life changes are noteworthy in Dragon Quest 3 2D-HD
Was Dragon Quest 3 a nearly flawless game? Of course, it was. But it wasn’t completely without flaws. One of the biggest changes was that when you level up, you receive a full HP/MP restore. As a game with very few MP restoring items, this was such a great change. However, this is something that was changed as well.
These items were pretty scarce, but it felt like there were way more of them than in the original release. Not to mention, you can get them much sooner, and without having to spend gold on them. They still break - but I had more than enough of them for the beginning hours of the game.
Speaking of making the game a bit easier, the Zoom spell (teleport) can teleport you to more than just towns! You can teleport to dungeons and even miscellaneous places that you normally only go to once. I love this change, particularly with the friendly monster stuff, but also to return to level-grinding places to hunt for Metal Slimes.
There is another change that’s going to potentially divide people, but let me assure you — it’s not a big deal. Dragon Quest 3 2D-HD features variable difficulty. You have three difficulty options, to make things as easy or challenging as you’d like. The easiest difficulty, Dracky Quest is incredibly easy, and that’s perfectly fine. Play however you want to.
In fact, I think there are benefits of lowering the difficulty to Dracky Quest while level grinding/gold grinding. You cannot drop below 1 HP in the lowest difficulty. That makes leveling stress-free. You don’t have to play that way, though. If you want the typical Dragon Quest 3 difficulty, the standard is fine in Dragon Quest 3 2D-HD. But you can go a step beyond that, too.
In my experience, the early hours on Dragon Quest difficulty were incredibly easy — but I’m already quite familiar with the game. You can change difficulty in the settings at any time, so if you aren’t happy with how it feels, by all means, change it up!
The last quality-of-life change that was added was Abilities. It may not seem like much, but the original game had spells, and that was it! Classes that don’t cast spells can use a variety of useful, incredible abilities, including the new class: Monster Wrangler.
The new Monster Wrangler is 100% worth using
While my first party in Dragon Quest 3 2D-HD was Hero, Warrior, Pilgrim, and Wizard, I eventually tried out the Monster Wrangler as well. I have to say, it’s a whole lot of fun. Not only does it let you recruit monsters more easily, but they also have some ridiculously powerful abilities!
They have an awesome look, deal incredible melee damage if built for it, have an AOE heal, and several overwhelmingly powerful AOE attacks. They have saved my bacon in so many situations. If you weren’t sure about the Monster Wrangler, trust me, it’s worth having on the team.
Final Thoughts - DQ3 2D-HD lives up to the hype
Everything about the first moments of Dragon Quest 3 2D-HD filled me with joy. It’s all I wanted it to be. The only real complaint I had up until this point is tracking down some of the friendly monsters can be miserable until you can change the time of day and have more movement abilities.
The visuals are gorgeous, the gameplay is smooth, and the turn-based combat is solid. I loved the voice acting in the game, too — it’s something I didn’t know that I needed until I started hearing it. From the lighting and the quality of life changes to the actual gameplay itself, Dragon Quest 3 2D-HD has been incredible.
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