Dragon Quest VII Reimagined

Genre: Turn-Based JRPG

Players: 1

The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference

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Review:

Dragon Quest VII Reimagined, released in 2026 on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch 2, is the second time this Turn-Based JRPG has received a major remake. The original game was released on the original PlayStation in 2001, with a remade version of the game coming to the Nintendo 3DS in 2016. I reviewed that version of the game… and I strongly disliked it.

In my review of the Nintendo 3DS version, I pointed to numerous problems that the game had: “this is a game plagued with problems – unlikeable characters, atrocious pacing, dated visuals, and needlessly restrictive gameplay chief among them”. Now, I’m not so arrogant to think that someone at Square Enix was reading my 2023 review of a 2016 Nintendo 3DS game, and made it a mission statement for how to design this 2026 remake… but if they had done so, I expect the end product wouldn’t have ended up being much different than what we got in this release. Because wow, playing this game is a completely different experience.

Let’s start with the obvious one, the graphics. Dragon Quest VII Reimagined is absolutely gorgeous. It doesn’t follow in the style of the massive cel-shaded Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age – Definitive Edition, nor does it go the route of many recent Square Enix remakes like Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake and use the HD-2D style pioneered by the Octopath Traveler series. Instead, Dragon Quest VII Reimagined takes the look of the original game and aims to up the quality of everything.

So we still have a game that’s largely played from an overhead perspective, but the 3D world they’re in has been given a massive makeover, with wonderful textures, tons of environmental detail, outstanding water effects, superb lighting and shadow, marvelous details like birds scattering as you run through them in town. The way this ends up looking is somewhat reminiscent of dioramas and scale models, and it works wonderfully for this game, making it a real feast for the eyes.

The characters have gotten a makeover as well, keeping the Akira Toriyama character designs but rendering them as those characters would appear in 3D. For most characters, this looks truly excellent, with good animation to boot. I make an exception for Prince Kiefer here though – his character design looks chunky in bizarre and unsettling ways, particularly his oversized mouth and chin. However, this one blemish aside, this is an absolutely gorgeous remake, and one that sets a high bar for other game remakes to live up to.

It’s not just the visuals, either. This game’s soundtrack has been remade with the same high level of quality. Now, I sill hold to the opinion that Dragon Quest soundtracks are consistently forgettable and this is no exception, but at the very least it has been recorded and presented with truly excellent orchestral flair here.

What’s more, this game features a good amount of voiced dialogue for cutscenes, and the voicework is really excellent, with some good acting all-around. Of course, it helps that the game’s localization has gotten a workover, and this helps to not only inject a lot more personality into the game, but also smooth out some of its more unlikeable characters. Yes, Maribel is still a huge pain, but at least this time I don’t want her to be mauled by slimes and left for dead in the wood every time she opens her mouth.

Next up in line for complaints this game addresses is the pacing. In my review of the Nintendo 3DS release, I pointed out that the early portions of the game were loaded with tedious fetch quests, and it took literally an hour and a half before I even encountered my first fight. Here, the fetch quests have been severely reduced, and it took about half that amount of time before I saw real action – still a bit of a wait, but far more tolerable.

Beyond this, the game’s structure has received numerous other changes, allowing for more freedom, multiple locations have been removed from the game, multiple quality-of-life improvements have been made such as a fast-travel option… purists may balk at some of these changes, but everything I noticed felt like an improvement over the original game.

Speaking of improvements, this remake ditches the archaic inability to target enemies that the prior version of the game stuck with. What’s more, there are added nuances in battle, such as new class-based “Let Loose” abilities, and there’s a new “moonlighting” feature that essentially allows characters to have dual classes.

When it comes to complaints, I know that some players will be irritated by the cut content, but for me I think it comes back to how simple the combat is compared to other modern JRPGs, and how limited the scope of this game is next to games like Dragon Quest XI – Dragon Quest VII Reimagined feels like more of a “quaint/cozy” JRPG than an epic one like XI.

As I type that, I realize what a minor complaint it is. And wow, what a dramatic difference to go from a game that I had a laundry list of complaints about to a game where the few complaints I have feel almost petty. Dragon Quest VII Reimagined pulled off something truly incredible here – it took a game that I hated and turned it into a game that I adore. I strain to think of remakes that have managed that sort of feat, but I can tell you that they are few in number. What we have here is a wonderful JRPG created by taking all of the best parts of that older game and making them better, while systematically addressing each and every problem that older game had. If you’re a fan of old-fashioned JRPGs, even if you hated Dragon Quest VII in previous incarnations, you should definitely give this latest one another look.

tl;dr – Dragon Quest VII Reimagined is a remake of a PlayStation and Nintendo 3DS Turn-Based JRPG that addresses all of the complaints I had about that game and adds multiple improvements to boot, as well as a stunning new presentation. As a remake this game is astounding, and as a JRPG it is a game that you should absolutely get your hands on, even if you didn’t enjoy previous versions of Dragon Quest VII.

Grade: A-

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The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference

Dragon Quest VII Reimagined (Nintendo Switch 2)

Genre: Turn-Based JRPG

Players: 1

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Review:

Let’s get one thing out of the way right from the start – Dragon Quest VII Reimagined offers no upgrade path, meaning that if you bought the Nintendo Switch release of the game, and want to take advantage of the improvements in the Nintendo Switch 2 version, you’ll need to buy the entire game a second time. Ugh. So, with this being the case, just how different is the Nintendo Switch 2 version? Let’s have a look…

On Nintendo Switch, you’ll be looking at framerates of 30FPS, which gets a bump to 60FPS on Nintendo Switch 2. The resolution also gets increased when going from Nintendo Switch to Nintendo Switch 2, but it’s harder for me to track down the numbers on that from any reliable source. However, whatever the numbers say, the actual end result is that while Dragon Quest VII Reimagined still looks outstanding on Nintendo Switch, the visuals are noticeably improved on Nintendo Switch 2, and both the increases to resolution and framerates are noticeable, making for a smoother visual presentation that makes the game look significantly better.

That’s not the only improvement though. As per usual, Nintendo Switch 2 owners enjoy a good improvement to loading times as well, with the original Nintendo Switch taking 20 seconds to get the game to title screen and 7 seconds to load a file, while Nintendo Switch 2 does all of that in 7 seconds and 2 seconds.

In other words, if you have both Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2, and you’re on the fence and aren’t sure which version of this game to get, I’d definitely recommend the Nintendo Switch 2 version, mostly thanks to the huge boost to the visuals and performance. Again, if all you have is a Nintendo Switch, that version of the game still looks great, but this is definitely a step above it.

tl;dr – Dragon Quest VII Reimagined is a remake of a PlayStation and Nintendo 3DS Turn-Based JRPG that addresses all of the complaints I had about that game and adds multiple improvements to boot, as well as a stunning new presentation. As a remake this game is astounding, and as a JRPG it is a game that you should absolutely get your hands on, even if you didn’t enjoy previous versions of Dragon Quest VII. And the improvements the Nintendo Switch 2 version gets to visuals and performance take it a step above the Nintendo Switch version too!

Grade: A-

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