As a belated Christmas present, Dragon Quest VII Reimagined arrived the day before yesterday in the form of a demo for PS5, Xbox Series S/X, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2 and PC, as an appetizer ahead of its February 5th release.
This demo allows us to play the first stages of this great adventure, covering about the first three hours of the story, with the possibility of transferring our progress to the final version of the game. It differs from the demo that Square Enix let us try last November, so you can check out the first impressions with DQVIIR to discover even more details if you didn’t at the time.
So this is a demo for all target groups, and I absolutely enjoyed it. Thanks to this first taste of everything this “reinterpretation” of Dragon Quest VII has to offer, we can familiarize ourselves with the combat system, story and mission progression, as well as the puzzles and challenges we can expect to find in the final product. My impression of this demo is very positive; it’s a very good preview of everything the final game has to offer.
What stands out the most is the game’s artistic style and visual finish. Graphically, it’s simply beautiful, with scenes that look like they were taken straight out of a diorama and realistic elements, masterfully blended with the character designs of the beloved Akira Toriyama. This leaves behind the pixel art style of the original game from the first PlayStation release in 2001, and differs from the cel-shaded remake released on Nintendo 3DS in 2013 in Japan and in 2016 in Europe and the US, Fragments of the Forgotten Past. It also sets a new precedent for remakes of the Dragon Quest series, as Dragon Quest I-II-III were recently released as HD-2D remakes, in the style of the Octopath Traveler series. On a personal level, I have to admit that after the announcement of this game I thought the character models were downright ugly, but after trying this demo I realize I was wrong; they work really well and look great in motion, especially in handheld mode on the Nintendo Switch 2, as if you’re carrying them around in a little box with a window.
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As for the progression structure, it has various quality-of-life elements to prevent players from getting lost, such as access to a map showing interesting locations to advance in the story or a difficulty selector, with an “Easy Mode”, as well as the ability to customize various elements to suit any play style. The battle system is turn-based, as we are used to from the traditional titles in the series. We can see enemies and allies at all times, and a lot of attention has been paid to attack animations and monster reactions. It also has a job system that determines each character’s abilities, using classic archetypes: balanced character, character focused on physical attacks, character focused on magical attacks…
The demo of Dragon Quest VII Reimagined reminds us that this is a title that right from the start radiates care and attention to detail. The key lies in the small details that are revealed as soon as you start playing: from the interaction with all the dogs and cats you meet, to the ability to destroy barrels and vases to find hidden objects. Another detail that this version retains, reminding us how special the first JRPGs were, is the ability to talk to any NPC, who will always offer some dialogue or advice, and to enter practically any building we come across, which almost always hides an object to be found. Less important elements also stand out, but they also add something extra to the experience, such as rotating the camera to see the beautiful landscape of the title from almost any angle and thereby finding secret entrances to buildings. One detail I didn’t like is that the tutorial screens use a smaller font than the menus and dialogs, making them difficult to read compared to the rest of the text in the game. But based on what I’ve seen in this trial, I think that whether you’re new to JRPGs or the Dragon Quest series in general, or you’re already a slimeslayer veteran, Dragon Quest VII Reimagined will win you over. We will confirm whether or not this is the case in our review in just a few weeks.
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