Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake (Switch, 2024)

 

Funny coincidence here: In the past I played Dragon Quest 3's SFC remake at the same time as Romancing Saga III, and now history is basically repeating itself with me playing this while writing about RS2. In any case, this just came out for a bunch of systems, and I'm playing it on Switch. DQ3 is probably my #1 NES game of all time*, which is a pretty high accolade from me, so let's see how this remake turned out.

* - While DQ4 is a better game overall, I give this one the nod because you have more control over your party. Between that and the classes, this is the one I'm more likely to go back to.

First off, this game is really good-looking for a 2D game. Like really good-looking. Hard to believe this was an NES game.

Our hero Archie (short for Archibald Mortimer Cunningham III) is greeted by a disembodied voice that grills him on a bunch of personality questions, as is tradition.

Some of these questions are pretty weird. "Do you find pleasuring to be more of a chore or an adventure?" would be an interesting question to pose for most people.

Enough of the DAMN QUESTIONS, BARBARA WALTERS!

In the desert, our hero finds Will Ospreay (full name Wilbur Ospreay).

His friend is dying and if he tries to carry him back to civilization, chances are they'll both die. Your job is to give him advice, which is the latest test from the disembodied voice. I advise him to try carrying his friend back, even though it's illogical. From the point of view of the friend (who, quite frankly, most people are more likely to be in this scenario), being left behind would be awful.

Okay Will, I gotta go.

For real though, I've got little doubt that this guy is a Will Ospreay reference, given that New Japan Pro Wrestling has always been upstream from video game culture over there.

The disembodied voice continues psycho-analyzing, concluding with a bizarrely-astute observation that a lot of people have felt threatened by my strong personality in the past. That's a little spooky.

Now it's telling me to soften up so I get along with people better. WHAT IS THIS GAME AND HOW DOES IT KNOW THINGS

Many great RPGs start with your mom waking you up. It's our hero's 16th birthday, which means it's time for everyone to start bothering him to get married!

::holds earpiece:: Nevermind, this isn't DQ5. Hey, imagine if they do the whole series in this style. While we already got pretty decent remakes of 4 through 7 and 8 deserves a full DQ11 style remake, DQ9 would be really cool to see get 2D-HD'd once they're done with the Erdrick Trilogy. That game being stuck on the island of DS with antiquated visuals is kind of a crime.

Next, our hero goes to meet the King, who explains that Baramos is trying to take over the world with his legion of minions and Ortega died trying to stop him. Ortega is of course the hero's dad and local hero. There are some great dads in this series. Ortega, Pankraz, etc. Most of the time in media the hero's dad just turns out to be evil, so good on the DQ series for being more optimistic.

Patty's Party Planning Place sounds like a location from a Dr. Seuss book.

"I was in the room. You literally came flying out with a popping sound. Ortega had to catch you like a hockey goalie."

....is Patty flirting with the hero? Of course she is, in these games every female in the world is attracted to your character. Just like real life!

You get WAY more character appearance customization than expected...for your recruited characters, but not your main, weirdly enough. Not only can you choose from multiple appearances, you can also change the hair color. Which is very useful in my case since my characters will have specific hair colors.

My first recruit is Betty: A Thief (later to become a Fighter). It does the thing the later remakes of DQ3 do where you can dole out 5 stat seeds immediately. That means up to +15 to stats if you roll all 3's. This can make your level 1 recruits SUPER strong, especially if you drop them all in Str. Again, the recruits fare better than the main dude.

Archie and Betty go out for a romantic walk. Everything is super nice between them without any competition around.

They battle slimes, and...wait, why is the menu covering up the hero? Not the best choice there.

Their romance doesn't last long, as soon Veronica shows up in town. So much for Betty, Archie is now very distracted.

That or they'll all just get along over a milkshake.

Going Monster Wrangler for Veronica, and she'll probably stay in that class since it's new and I want to see what it has to offer.

Hmm, am I forgetting someone?

I think I'm forgetting someone...

::the doors to Luisa's Tavern fly open and Cheryl walks in::

Oh yeah, Cheryl. She's a redhead and a goof-off. So basically this is a spot-on Cheryl.

With everyone's hair color properly set up and the hero hidden behind a censored bar, we're off to the races. While Veronica's Monster Wrangler outfit is poofy and bizarre, the other outfits have got it going on. Especially Betty's female thief outfit, with the skin-tight pants.

Enjoy the view while it lasts because the battles are in first-person once commands are entered; no battle animations here. Which seems to be a bone of contention for a lot of players, they were hoping for animated battles. And having played this now, I can actually understand why, it feels a bit like they cut corners since you've got the characters visible during command-entering. AKA didn't want to make animations for them, rather than a purely stylistic choice. Either way it's in line with earlier versions of the game.

So far Monster Wrangler is pretty underwhelming, but it does have those weird licking abilities DQ games often have. Veronica is licking everyone! It's a MAD HOUSE!

The map for this first island. While the overworld parallels the world map of Earth, this place doesn't sync up with any known real lands. Incidentally it does fall in the area of the mythical "Lost Continent of Mu" which also made an appearance in Illusion of Gaia. Some theories say that Easter Island might have been the eastern tip of the place before it went under, but no one knows. Underwater mapping of the Pacific Ocean does show a bunch of large landmasses under there.

Speaking of lost things, this guy lost his sack.

First he lost his clothes, now he's lost his sack!

When arriving in a new town, you get these nice pan-overs of the area. Reeve is the second town and it's got a much better selection of equipment than the first, so it makes more sense to grind for this stuff if you're going to grind.

Did the math and it's like 2300 G to get all the upgrades for everyone. At about 8 G per fight, that's just 230 fights! .....yeah I don't think I'll be finishing this grind or filling things out.

This game has a secret weapon in its arsenal and it's a secret weapon the game shares with Elden Ring: Usage of light and light sources. They make masterful use of light beams and glows and it makes the game really stand out.

Also, Veronica is a LICKING MACHINE.

Monster Wrangler has a tough start, and seems to take more damage than everyone else. For the first few levels it's kind of a useless class (then at level 6 it suddenly explodes in usefulness when it gets a low-MP group heal that might break the game for a while). Those first few levels though...it levels slower than the other classes, and dies more.

I journey out and start facing some tougher enemies, like the (formerly known as) Magician.

STOP KILLING VERONICA

There are times of day in this game, just like the NES original. Loved how that game pioneered time of day changes. Here, things look pretty damn awesome during sunset, so it's a good time to go into town and walk around.

Veronica really falling behind on levels here.

We FINALLY get her to level up after what seems like an age. It was a team effort that took everyone.

More sunset exploration. Everyone's talking about this "wrecking ball" for some reason, so it's safe to say I need to find one.

Item shops often have armor as well, especially hats (which tend to be missing from the armor shop). So this adds even MORE upgrades I need to somehow save up for.

Editor's Note: I never did save up for any of this stuff and it's just not doable in this version...or necessary. Get a Chain Sickle or two and be on your way.

Next up, the hidden cave that leads to the island tower west of Aliahan. This is basically one long hallway.

Rummaging in a random pot, our heroes find some "strong medicine". This is definitely safe to drink!

Dragon statues herald our arrival at the tower. This place is home to the Thief Key, the first big item of the game.

At level 6, Veronica goes from boring to roaring. This ability is so overpowered at this point that it's kinda ridiculous. Interested to see what else Monster Wranglers get, as they're said to be really OP early-game and taper off a bit later on (unless, presumably, you wrangle the right monsters to keep them competitive...still not sure how that works yet but we'll see).

At the top of the tower is this guy who has been up here waiting for the arrival of the prophesized legendary hero. How does he survive up here? Does someone bring him groceries?

There are also TV news networks and youtube political rage-bait that can change your whole personality.

It's pretty good advice...that nobody takes.

This completely-missable view from the tower pinnacle is a sight to behold before leaping off the tower to our deaths to land harmlessly in the overworld somehow.

All anybody cares about is this "wrecking ball" thing! Is nobody going to address the elephant in the room and help that guy find his sack??

Betty gets a special attack that hits twice. Melee classes aren't just attack-bots like in the NES version, they get a whole range of abilities to use.

Elsewhere, we stumble upon the home of Walter White. Maybe this is the source of all that "strong medicine" we're finding in pots.

Thanks to having the Thief's Key, I can get the Wrecking Ball, which leads to...

...shattering this wall that leads to a teleport off of this island. It's a very short island and functions as a tutorial zone more than anything else. People who want to hang out here for a while have plenty of farming to do to get all the equipment, but I think I'm going to head on out.

This guy isn't kidding. The rest of the world is huge.

There's one more dungeon to go through to get to the (new) world map, and it's a long one. For this early stage, anyway. At least I get some equipment upgrades, since I totally skipped the shops.

This floor in particular is confusing, with a bunch of stairwells and pit traps. The key is to go north all the way, then clockwise around the map to go out the western exit.

Arriving out in the world, I've now got access to a multitude of locations. Here's Romaly, aka Rome.

That's right, this is indeed Italy. Doesn't that map look familiar? Let's zoom out:

Yep, DQ3's world map...is the Earth. We can see Mu right where it'd be in the real world. Plus a weirdly tiny Antarctica. Baramos' domain is located right around Mount Kilimanjaro.

Romaly has been redubbed Romaria in this version. This center courtyard bears a resemblance to the castle courtyard from Berserk. Now that I've reached the mainland, that'll do it for now, but so far I gotta say this is a very nice version of the game. Interested to see what new things are added, and hopefully there's quite a bit. Especially postgame content to challenge min-maxers like me who might change class multiple times. New things are the main thing I'll be focusing on here. We'll see how much went into it.

I mentioned that DQ3 is probably my #1 NES game. Here's a quick top five:

5. Mega Man 4

4. Dragon Quest 4

3. Super Mario Bros 3

2. Final Fantasy 1

1. Dragon Quest 3