Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake really wants to help keep you on track

There are only so many ways to refine Dragon Quest 3, but Square Enix found a new one.

I’ve been playing Dragon Quest 3. That’s something I’ve been able to say six times over the course of my life, and each time I was technically talking about a different video game. Weird, right? One of the world’s most purely old-school RPGs, a champion of its sport, is also the least shy about dipping back into its own well. Even before remakes were cool, Dragon Quest 3 was out there showing up on new platforms. So, here’s another one. I’ve spent a few hours with Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake, notably the first remake of this game with a bunch of extra gobbledy-gook slapped onto the title. It’s the same game you’ve played before, but a lot shinier! That said, one new feature has stood out to me in the early days that make this version a bit friendlier than before.

If you play an old Dragon Quest game, the first thing you’ll probably notice is how often you get lost. It’s that kind of old-school RPG, the kind that expects you to talk to every NPC and pick out the hints. Otherwise, you won’t know what to do next. Even the first game, which basically walks you around its world in a geographic path, can yank you around a bit if you aren’t careful. Dragon Quest 3 has a pretty big map to start though, and it often has you going on long, dangerous hikes across its monster-ridden continents. It’s easy to get lost, especially if you take your time grinding or get side-tracked chasing the wrong objective too early. This remake understands that navigational peril, and has done everything it can to prevent that from happening.

The obvious new addition here is waypoints. These are just a normal part of video game vocabulary at this point in time, and it makes sense to implement them here. Dragon Quest isn’t really a game that benefits from the joys of discovery, like the SaGa series for example. It’s a linear path across a very traditional world map, and the only thing that happens if you stray off the golden path is getting your ass kicked by monsters you aren’t supposed to fight yet. So for the sake of players with young or aging brains (hi), having a waypoint is helpful. But that isn’t the only solution here, which is important especially because certain objectives (like finding the Magic Key, conveniently located within my “preview” boundaries) can’t be solved until you do a couple other, smaller tasks that aren’t marked the same way.

The newer, fancier feature is “Recall,” which lets you commit to memory anything a random NPC says to you with the press of a button. Literally anything can be set aside to Recall later, even stuff that’s completely useless. Which is funny, because sometimes I’d accidentally press the “start” button for no reason, Recall something pointless, then have to go into the menu to delete it because there’s limited space. Bad habits aside, I have plenty of actually useful information saved, anything from a navigational hint to tips about recruitable monsters for the new ratings system-safe gambling replacement and other potential nods to things I might need later. I was tickled to discover you can even Recall stuff written on signposts you find out in the world. It almost feels like overkill, but it’s surprisingly handy. Especially for a series like Dragon Quest!

Of course, there is a lot more to Dragon Quest 3, and even more to Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake. There are new classes, new features, new shortcuts and especially new visuals to gawk over. As much as this is the same Dragon Quest 3 I’ve grown to know over the decades, it’s a very new kind of way to experience it. I focused on something that really stood out for this preview, but in the coming weeks you can expect me to pop back into Shacknews again with a full review! Stay tuned, stay frosty, and there will be more fun and thoughtful JRPG content from yours truly. 

Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake is available on November 14, 2024 for the PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X\S. A PC code was provided by the publisher for this preview.