I love the Dragon Quest series, but I confess it's a taste I've only acquired in recent years. After playing the original Dragon Warrior on NES, I didn't touch the series again until Dragon Warrior VII arrived on PlayStation a decade later. And, in all honesty, I kind of hated what I played of DQVII. It felt slow, tedious, ugly, and incredibly backward. The gorgeous Final Fantasy X was slated to hit the U.S. a few weeks later, so DQVII seemed like some sort of weird relic of a bygone age. I played a couple of hours, got bored, and wandered off.
Since then, I've come to realize my mistake in writing off the game so hastily. My tastes have changed since then, and so has my appreciation for the good, old-fashioned game design ethos Dragon Quest represents. Needless to say, I've been looking forward to the new 3DS remake of DQVII with great anticipation; it's not so much an occasion to give the game a second chance and see if I'll like it -- I'm sure I will -- as it is a chance to finally play the thing, period. As my tastes have changed, so has my freedom to enjoy a 100-hour RPG experience, and the prospect of having such a slow burn of an adventure on a portable system makes me a lot more likely to play all the way through it than I would in its original console form. (Thank you, San Francisco Municipal Transportation System, for my 90 minutes of quality gaming time each weekday... or 150 minutes if you're having one of your all-too-frequent system meltdowns.)
At first blush, the 3DS version of DQVII is precisely what I'd hoped it would be. Developer ArtePiazza (the same guys responsible for the trilogy of Dragon Quest remakes for DS) has reworked the game's world in vibrant polygons that wonderfully capture designer Akira Toriyama's lively character, NPC, and monster designs. DQVII has always had some of the least interesting-looking party members of the entire series, but the new visual style makes them a lot more appealing. The lush monster sprites featured in the PlayStation game have been abandoned in favor of polygonal models, which seems a shame from the perspective of old-world artistry, but to their credit the new monster visuals carry forward the look and feel of their hand-drawn counterparts nearly as well as the newly cel-shaded bestiary of Etrian Odyssey IV.
I particularly appreciate the way the game's battle system unfolds. It's not afraid to go old-school, with turn-based combat that depicts the enemies in a first-person perspective. However, the visual flamboyance of the more recent mainline Dragon Quests -- VIII through X -- is nowhere to be seen. Rather the swooping around the battlefield to show off the battle from dramatic angles, the camera pulls back once you've input your commands for a round to a perspective swiped straight from one-time Dragon Quest rival Phantasy Star. You see the parties trade blows from directly behind your protagonists. It's more visually stimulating than the rigid first-person perspective, but without the slower pace a more dynamic camera style inevitably brings.
At heart, of course, it's still essentially the same game so many people played more than a decade ago, with the same characters, plot, and (essential) mechanics. Surprisingly, though, ArtePiazza has radically changed the opening hours of the game. Perhaps sensitive to criticism that DQVII was too slow to start, the team behind this rendition has greatly stripped down the prologue. Formerly a self-contained, Myst-inspired mini-adventure filled with puzzles and exploration (and no combat), the opening chapter of the remake plays more like a standard RPG now. The story remains effectively the same, and locales will look familiar despite their fancy new graphical style, but the nature of the intro has become more of a string of trade and fetch quests. Its former nods to the adventure genre have gone the way of the dodo.
Fortunately, word from those who have played further into the game suggests that the later portions of the adventure haven't lost nearly so much of their complexity. Additionally, many of the more arcane systems that never quite gelled the first time around (such as the nearly superfluous Monster Heart system) have been woven far more effectively into the fabric of the quest. And the need to collect magic tablet shards to unlock the world -- a maddening FAQ-selling endeavor the first time around, blocking off progress by leaving players unable to access new areas until they managed to find the NPC or unremarkable pot in the middle of a dungeon that hid the single fragment they needed to move forward in the story -- has been made far less frustrating.
Now, tablet shards will appear as a sort of radar image on the map that occupies the lower screen, pulsing when players draw near. I got a taste of this feature toward the end of the prologue: The fragments in the opening island's hub temple appeared on the lower screen, pointing the way to their exact locations. Not that there was much ambiguity about their placement in that tiny space, but I can see where this addition will make the game far less maddening further out. Additionally, players can swap tablet pieces through Street Pass and -- in a welcome concession for those of us who don't live in Tokyo -- through the Internet as well.
The game's new quality-of-life features, improved visuals, and stunning new orchestrated soundtrack would seem to make this the definitive edition of DQVII. Yet I find myself disappointed by the changes to pacing and overall design. I have a lot more patience for a lengthy, slow-moving RPG these days; I've come to realize over time that there's more to an RPG than battles and flashy cutscenes. Dragon Quest excels at building involving worlds and likable characters, and I find a lot of appeal in Yuji Horii's dream of breaking from genre tradition by drawing heavily on adventure games. The recent popularity of equally slow-to-start titles like Persona 3 and 4 suggests I'm not alone. Thus, seeing a portion of what made DQVII stand apart in the first place lost to the larger industry trend of streamlining comes as something of a letdown.
That being said, I don't think this is a case of throwing out the baby with the bathwater. DQVII reportedly includes lots of improvements to the original version, and it's still a huge and involving RPG. This time, though, that time won't be spent puttering around empty dungeons trying to find that one elusive pot that holds the fragment you missed the first time around -- so losing some of the game's unique features in the process shouldn't completely negate its appeal. And besides, now that I've tasted this new version of DQVII, I feel an urge to go back to the original and see what I missed the first time around. Given the lethargic timeline on which Dragon Quest localizations happen, I'll probably have plenty of time to complete the PlayStation version before a U.S. release is announced... if it ever is, that is.
I played DQVII all the way through back when it came out. And I hated almost all of it. But I didn't have any more money for another game that summer so...yeah. It's REALLY grind-ey, like 2-3 hours of grind per area. Classes don't become availible until about 12-15 hours into the game, which is unbearable since that's how you get USEFUL abilities, and until then you're just wasting your time because you aren't gaining JP or anything that will help you level your actual Classes. The fragment collecting hub system, which seemed to imply that there were different paths and ways through the game was a lie: there was only one way through the game, with only one or two times where you had actual options as to which place to go to. So yeah...if they want to fix the things that are broken about it...go ahead. It needs it.
My tastes have slowly come to where I can only truly enjoy--and not just tell myself I'm having fun while playing--handheld RPGs. Even though I typically just sit outside or on my couch and play them, I still like knowing I, and my game, are portable. That's why I want a 3DS so friggin' much.
I'm ashamed to say that I own 5 different Dragon Warrior tiltes and haven't played a single one. I thought this would make me feel better by saying it outloud but I'm still waiting for the relief. Any minute...
I'm still struggling with time to devote to DQV, last December I got a copy of DQVI, and well know I'm all over this one of the 3DS. What will I do with my refined taste for old RPG and little time to play?
Even though the cutscenes (shudder) and the in-game graphics were kinda painful to look at for extended periods of time. The only thing that sucked was that I ran into a boss that I just couldn't seem to take down, and the only way to overcome him seemed to be grinding for hours on end. I couldn't bring myself to do that, and surprisingly enough, it's the first time in a Dragon Quest game that a boss has stumped me so hard (except for DQ IX and VI's final bosses, but that's forgivable). I really hope that they have included a Casual mode or something along those lines, for people who don't want to grind their butts off. And to people who say, "But it's not a DQ game without insane amounts of grueling grinding!" - fuck that shit! Just because it's kind of a tradition, doesn't mean it HAS to be that way, at least give the option of a lower difficulty mode, and PLEASE take out those fucking random battles! But even if the grinding requirements stay the same, I would still LOVE to try this out. I really adored IV, V and VI.
By the time DQVII got released in the US, everyone was into the PS2. There was not much hype for this game even though I raced out and grabbed it. I really enjoyed the game, but I do have to agree that it took along time to get to the meat of the game with the class changes. The thief was a must if you wanted to find everything (nose for treasure). While DQVII was the thinking man's game, FF10 was the game for those that were looking for the next big graphics and faster pace.
I'm excited to play it. I have it on PS1 and was about to start it when this version was announced.
I know what you mean, I love when remakes have a kind of "classic mode" which hews closer to the original form, as well as a "remix mode," so those of us who might just want a prettier looking and sounding version with the original mechanics can bang our heads against the original, if more obtuse, design.
I still have the PS1 version. I may have to give it another go. I would have been so excited to get DQVI for the SNES but this is a series I've kind of allowed to pass me by. I also still have DQ8 and havet to say it looks terrific in HD.
I vaguely remember what happened in those first few hours, but I know I enjoyed it at the time. I didn't even notice that I didn't even have a battle until 3 hours into the game. It seemed like a refreshing departure from the Dragon Quests I'd been playing before that (I'd loved and burnt myself out GBC remakes after II and III turned into grindfests in their back-25% - Note to self, don't play 4 Dragon Quest games back-to-back-to-back-to-back).
Dragon Quest VII actually lost my interest once it cut me loose and turned into the grindfest.
Honestly, what I think the Dragon Quest VII needs is a tweak like the first Dragon Warrior/Quest got on the SNES/GBC. The GBC port gives more gold and XP, so you don't spend as much time grinding. A 10-15 hour NES game takes about 7 hours.
This video gives a good explanation of the GBC port.
I was hoping that Dragon Warrior VII would have altered the gold/XP drops to streamline the grinding, and whittle it down to about 40 hours without any story sacrifices.
Maybe the completionist in me forced me to talk to everyone the first time around and explore every dungeon thoroughly, but I never had a problem finding the map pieces. I don't think I ever had to revisit a dungeon after beating it.
I am really looking forward to this despite the changes. The beginning was preeeetty boring as I recall, so I don't mind it being stripped down a bit. I just hope the censors don't mess with the ending too much. It just wouldn't be Dragon Quest VII unless (spoilers) you kill God at the end.
I never finished it, but I did appreciate how willing it was to go slow. I'm also a fan of pixel art, so all the way around I'm not sure if I like this new one. And I don't really have time for a 100 hour RPG... but then again, I never finished this. I don't know what to think! Should I play this or not!?!
"...a maddening FAQ-selling endeavor the first time around, blocking off progress by leaving players unable to access new areas until they managed to find the NPC or unremarkable pot in the middle of a dungeon that hid the single fragment they needed to move forward in the story..."
That original game sounds absolutely awful, and I'm amazed it has the following it does. I actually own it--still sealed somewhere--and I'm kinda glad I left it that way. Glad to see that the new version irons out some of those old wrinkles, although the drastic change done to the game's prologue does seem like a controversial decision. Is it a true remake if entire sections of the original are excised completely? That would be like reediting and then republishing a book, but removing its first three chapters in the process.
I felt that statement was a bit exagerated. I never had any trouble tracking down shards. But I have to admit the super slow pace and aged graphics even for a end of gen game made this one a hard sell. Admittedly I have been playing this one on and off for years and have still not beat it yet. If this version comes stateside it could deffinately make me consider getting a 3DS