Dragon Quest. A name familiar to Western gamers, but one I feel doesn’t get the respect it deserves. Sitting high on most JRPG fans' top games lists, while most of the general audience has only ever heard of Final Fantasy when it comes to role-playing games.
After 2 successful launches of Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake and last year's Dragon Quest 1+2 HD Remake, Square Enix are looking to keep the momentum going with a remake of a remake in Dragon Quest VII: Reimagined.
As someone who has played bits of the series here and there, I have made it my mission to catch up with the franchise before 2026 ends. So having the seventh iteration to review was the perfect way to start off my very own ‘Dragon Quest’.
A huge cultural phenomenon in Japan, Dragon Quest hasn’t made the splash it should have on this side of the pond. Outside of perhaps DQ8 - which came bundled with a demo for Final Fantasy X - and DQ11, sadly, most releases get overlooked in favour of the Square Enix goliath, Final Fantasy.
To say that the audience isn’t right for the game and art style here would be untrue, as there are legions of both RPG and Dragon Ball fans hungry for more content. The fact that the DQ franchise has never really shone here has always baffled me.
That being said, Final Fantasy never really took off here in the UK till the release of Final Fantasy 7 on the original PlayStation. That launched JRPG into the mainstream, but still never pulled its stablemate up to the top with it.
Yet here we are at the start of 2026 with yet another Dragon Quest remake, with Dragon Quest 7: Reimagined. Well, truth be told, this is a remake of a game that's already been remade. See, Dragon Quest VII first launched on PlayStation in Japan 26 years ago, on August 26, 2000 (wow, that really makes me feel old), and the game had its first remake in 2013 on the Nintendo 3DS in Japan: Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past. So even the initial remake is now a decade old!
For me, Dragon Quest VII is a brand-new experience despite its age. As someone who has played a few of the mainline games until recently, I have many hours of adventuring to experience fresh. And that's a good thing.
I love finding a game that's beloved or held in high regard and has remained spoiler-free for me in every way, that I can just sink my teeth into.
This long JRPG (80-100 hours) is deceptive. It has a ‘pocket-sized’ feel about the proceedings from its small not-quite-chibi-anime character designs to the small blocks that are the towns and villages you can explore on the map - it feels almost like you are playing on a diorama rather than an epic feeling open world. However, despite its initial small appearance, you soon get caught up in a time-hopping, world-rebuilding adventure with two of your childhood friends.
Starting off, you dream of leaving the island you have lived on all your life. As a fisherman's son, you yearn to explore and discover new lands. Your task here isn’t unfamiliar to anyone who has played a JRPG before: travel town to town, speak to NPC’s, and advance the plot till you save the world or die trying.
Luckily, in DQ7, it respects the modern-day gamer's time. While the options still remain to make the game a grindathon slog - you can turn off and alter options in the menu to streamline the entire experience to suit - for purists, this may be a no-no, but for those who just can’t commit to such a lengthy investment, DQ7 is here to help.
Options-wise, the game is great. Even in-game options like tactics that have been used in other DQ games and battle speed can truly quicken the trademark RPG walk through the mud to get to the point.
Speed isn’t the problem with the game at all - it’s the structure. See, while the plot revolving around rebuilding the world map continent by continent, is a novel way to do the old traditional RPG tale - it feels fragmented. Sure, in other Dragon Quest games, each town or village has a unique flavor, but here they feel like self-contained mini episodes rather than part of a whole narrative until near the end.
Some of the stories don’t land as well as others. While I don’t want to give away the plot at all, as there will be many like me who have not played this one, the story with the wedding and poison betrayal was a particular low point in the overall narrative. Each place you visit is inspired by a real-life location, like Europe or the Middle East, and the natives and dialects are varied to reflect the unique nature of each point of interest.
I did not find the need to explore much outside of the main quests here. It just isn’t that sort of game. But I did love travelling through time to see the changes my actions in the past had created.
Hopping through time is a key element here as you work to restore the world map by finding stone tablets and returning them to the Shrine of Mysteries. Thank goodness for the Zoom spell to fast travel, as there is a lot of backtracking and revisiting areas several times throughout the adventure.
While the cast is ok, I really did feel like the surrounding NPC’s you meet just aren’t that interesting/won’t really matter as they are from the past. While the main party is just fine, I don’t think the main character is as iconic as the hero from DQ8 or 11; he is just kind of there. When you spend time in a lengthy RPG, you would hope to bond a bit more with the main protagonist.
The story really feels chopped due to the nature of the main plot. Visiting each new island and helping the residents out is self-contained, and it's very close to the end before the main villain properly reveals himself, leaving you with what feels like a bunch of mini-adventures that don’t always satisfy in the way a long build plot does.
For a game that started life on home consoles, Dragon Quest VII feels very much like an episodic portable entry to the franchise rather than the epic tale that you would expect. The isometric viewpoint of a diorama-like world adds to this mini-adventure feel, and while it may have worked in earlier titles with shorter playtime, it doesn’t sit well with me in this game.
That said, the graphics are beautiful here on Switch 2, both handheld and docked; the game is gorgeous. It just gives it a smaller feeling world, especially as each village feels like it is within its own bubble when you enter it on the overworld. This may just be personal preference, but I felt that, combined with the aforementioned compartmentalization, it makes a massive adventure feel bite-sized.
Fantastic yet micro graphics aside, combat is truly great in DQ7, from streamlining everything with a set of tactics to customising your party using vocations/jobs to change up abilities to suit your playstyle - there is something for everyone. Mixing up vocations to find the perfect combo was great, as you can have a second vocation that levels up alongside your main one, making trying out different jobs way more fun than games where you have one or the other and level from zero.
The perks from each vocation can turn the tide of any fight, too, as characters become worked up and can cast buffs on the party or unleash a mega attack - sometimes both. Having the option to automate any or all battles is also a nice touch found in more recent games, making things more appealing to modern audiences.
Another modern RPG touch added here is having monsters on the overworld rather than random encounters. Yes, while at sea, you will still get attacked at random - the majority of the game, you can judge when to save before heading into the next dungeon or town.
All in, the game is an example of top-of-the-class performance when it comes to RPG tropes. Sure, the series may be way more quirky than its far too serious brother in arms, Final Fantasy, but there is something about that cutesy charm that is just so endearing, even to an unfamiliar Western audience. The amazing soundtrack that accompanies you on your journey is worthy of awards and enhances the experience tenfold, both Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest make it or break it on the back of a good score - and DQ 7 does not disappoint.
There are times when the segregated stories of each continent don’t quite hit a home run in the big picture; the main threat also takes way too long to properly come into the frame. The main party, at best, is just okay and isn’t quite a selling point either. That aside, the graphics are beautiful, and the customisation you have for almost every gameplay aspect is praiseworthy. Having such a dreamlike a sweeping soundtrack accompanying you on your journey, is just the cherry on top.
Dragon Quest VII: Reimagined may be an oddity when compared to other entries in the franchise, but it is one that I can recommend to newcomers and veterans thanks to its robust masterclass of JRPG gameplay combined with gorgeous graphics, great customisation, and a phenomenal musical score spliced throughout.
