It is funny, if someone brings up Dragon Quest, my mind goes to the Builder series, until those games, I really had only had an acquaintance with the series. However, thanks to Builders and then Dragon Quest 11, I find myself enjoy more games in the series, which is why I have been eagerly awaiting the release of the Dragon Quest III - HD-2D. While it may have taken a while to get a release date, with that now locked in place, we were lucky enough to get some hands on and I really enjoyed what I played of it.

The build that we have access to, did not start at the beginning, so all the characters in the party had a decent start to them, they at level 14 and we were in the middle of Romaly. The main quest required us to pass through a checkpoint, into a new region and then finally down to the town of Portaga. However as that land is full of dangerous monsters, only those with a special key can access the passage between the lands. Of course, we did not have that access and had to obtain it, which was easier said that done, but there was a target in mind. The King of the Romaly, had their crown stolen and we were tasked with retrieving it, the completion of that task would reward us. So with a goal set, it was time to get out of town and try to find the bandits, now if I was smart I would have looked at the map to the marker and realised where I needed to go, instead I wandered around the world, eventually discovering another town.

This town of Norvik was nothing special, but it did have a few folks talking about rumours that they had heard, one such rumour was about a town that is asleep all the time. So I decided to go there and find out what was going on, turns out that the town has fallen victim to some fairy magic and upon finding the town of the fairies, they admitted they were the cause and would not lift the spell unless their precious relic was returned. Now there is a whole story as to why it is missing, but I won’t say here to avoid spoilers, I know the games story is decades old, but still. After completing the quest, I turned my attention back to the original quest and finally found my destination, which was a ruined tower. Clearing out the enemies and taking out the boss at the top resulted in my recovery of the crown and upon returning it to the King, he quickly decided that I was now the king and he ran off.

So, all of that sounds like it may have taken 20 minutes to get through, but nope, that was a little under an hour of gameplay. For the sake of not spoiling things, I sped through the gameplay, which was made all the easier by some of the improvements that the team have added to the game. I know this might sound weird, but being able to run in towns, on the map and even in dungeons was a real blessing. Another addition to the game, a dedicated flee button, well ok the option is still there in the menu, but having that button means that the moment you get into a fight and you want out, you don’t have to do anything except press and hold that button. It seems speed was a key design feature, because the third change is that you can speed up battles. When it is your turn, you can select a battle speed, there is normal, fast and ultra-fast, with the best example I can think of between normal and ultra-fast being when you turn off attack animations in Pokémon games. I made good use of the first and third changes here, but only really started to flee when I lost two of my party in battle, which resulted in my dragging little coffins behind me, both on the map and even into battle.

Speaking of battles, something I enjoyed there was the game stuck with the same viewpoint as the original release, just looking a lot shinier. The start of the battle shows the enemies in the rows they are on, something you can’t tell when you are looking front on. Something else I appreciated, when I selected attack, they all just attacked, no having to manually select an attack and then the enemy to target for each member of the party. This could be a setting that was turned on in the build I played, or it could be the default, but I like it, it makes everything feel more approachable.

In fact that is probably what I felt coming away from my time with it, almost all of the old school JRPG tenets have been removed, in order to make a game that is fun to play, no matter your RPG fondness. The game of course looks stunning, the camera being lower to the ground, gives you more of a distance view, rather than the traditional top down. The sprite work for your party, NPCs and even enemies all look phenomenal, plus combine that with a world that looks just as stunning, you are in for a treat. While I have only ever played Dragon Quest 3 in bits and pieces over the years, I am very much looking forward to experiencing the start of the legendary series when Dragon Quest III HD-2D releases this November.

Dragon Quest III HD-2D is set to release on November 14 on Switch, PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S