Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined

Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined was provided by Square Enix for review. Thank you!

When I think of the best JRPG series around right now, Dragon Quest is towards the top. While there haven't been new releases in the series, there have been remakes of older games. It has been great to play through all of them in a new light, with improvements to their visuals, gameplay mechanics, and even some new content here and there. Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined continues this trend in an interesting way, remaking the game from the ground up, and it largely succeeds in creating an enjoyable JRPG experience worth playing through.

Right off the bat, Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined’s most noticeable difference comes to bat: the visuals. Square Enix decided to take the diorama route for the style instead of the PS1’s 2D sprites or 3DS’ models, and it fits perfectly. The sense of scale and detail illuminate the world, making each set piece fit wonderfully with the landscape. Characters have a great combination of detail and obvious expression, while also keeping the signature style that the late Akita Toriyama is known for. Despite some bland color schemes on some islands, each sight across the world is a joy to behold.

The story has had some big changes to it as well, making it more streamlined, while also cutting out fat that didn’t need to be there. We follow the hero and his childhood friends, Maribel and Prince Kiefer, as they go out on a journey to see what else is out there away from their own island. Throughout their journeys, they will visit the past and bring the islands back after solving their individual problems.

I would consider the story a little on the generic side; it didn't feel as impactful, but it is definitely an improvement over the original. It will still take a while to finish the game, with my playthrough going above 35 hours, but the content is much more interesting and focused on the best elements the game has to offer. I also enjoy the extra personality given to some of the characters, including Maribel and Kiefer, who feel more like actual friends than companions who are just along for the journey.

I also love how each island kind of feels like its own little mini adventure. They don't all last long, but they feel varied. On one island, we have to deal with humans that have been turned into animals, and we have to save them, while another is filled with autonomous robots going berserk. It was enough to keep me interested in what I would find next, and it was definitely more of a motivator than the overarching story.

The gameplay itself has seen a lot of overhauls that we have seen in the more recent Dragon Quest games and remakes. The turn-based combat is still familiar, and will see us controlling each of our party members one at a time, attacking with our weapons, using abilities or items, or defending to kill monsters and get experience to level up. The traditional system works as well as it usually does, and I have no qualms with it.

Still, there's some nice depth here. Each character has a vocation that they can rank up 8 times, giving more stats and new abilities as it ranks up. All the Vocations are similar to jobs, and each has its own abilities and stat boosts that come with it. The fact that abilities are tied directly to vocations, along with the equipment system with gear that has secondary elements like extra crit or evasion chance, adds a nice amount of strategy that can help a lot with boss fights and rounding out your team.

We also have some added accessibility settings to make combat and grinding go quicker. We can adjust the battle speed, go through auto battles, and choose specific tactics for the team to follow. It makes leveling up and getting more gold much easier, and options like this are much appreciated for larger JRPGs where grinding is essential. I also appreciate being able to kill monsters in the overworld immediately if they are significantly weaker than our party.

However, Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined felt significantly easier than other games in the series. I never got a Game Over in my entire playthrough, and I flew through boss fights without much issue. It was a little disappointing. I didn't find myself changing vocations for any reason other than to unlock more complex ones, which made strategic choices for battle feel far less important than they could have been.

I also found it sometimes difficult to find all the puzzle pieces needed to unlock new islands. To travel and unlock new islands, we will need to find fragment pieces to place on their respective pedestals. There are usually markers showing where we need to go next, and sometimes shows us where more fragments are. But some aren't marked, which means going back and forth to the islands to find them. There were a few that felt impossible to find, and I wound up going from island to island just to find one or two fragments.

Despite the grievances and the difficulty, this was a fun experience. I had a great time running through the gorgeous, diorama-filled environments and fighting the enemies in flashy combat. Watching as I leveled up and went through the mini-adventures on each island.

Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined - Steam Deck Performance

Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined is a fantastic experience that is perfect to play on portable devices, and that includes the Steam Deck. I expected good performance already, since it is also releasing on the Switch 2, but there are a couple of changes I would make to make the experience much better.

推奨設定

The game defaults to the lowest settings to optimize for performance primarily, and it makes the game look awful. It's surprising because with one change, we can play Dragon Quest 7 at 60 FPS with near-max settings. By setting everything to max and just changing the rendering resolution down to Medium, we can play at 60 FPS with all the lighting and shadows that make the game pop. Compared with how it looks on the default, it's a night-and-day difference.

And it comes at little cost to performance. For the little change that makes the game look slightly less sharp, we can get a solid 60 FPS throughout the whole game with a very low battery drain of around 8W - 11W. Some of the slight shadows are gone, and there are some spots where it looks a little blurrier, but it still looks fantastic in the end.

I would consider this the best way to enjoy Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined on the Steam Deck. The fantastic visuals, solid 60 FPS, and low battery drain all work together to make this a worthwhile experience on the go.

品質設定

However, we can play at the highest possible settings with resolution scaling set to high if desired, but it has a compromise. The game won't be able to stick to a stable 60 FPS with the highest settings, but by setting the framerate to 45 FPS, we can get a stable rate throughout the whole game. And, with us using a 90Hz refresh rate, it still feels smooth.

However, battery drain is going to be much higher than the recommended settings. In spots where we are getting 10.5W with the recommended settings, the quality settings will be upwards of 15W - 16W. This isn't exactly what I would call enjoyable, but it's possible and playable.

アクセシビリティ

In the settings, we can change the confirm button, change dash controls, change shortcuts, autoplay event scenes, change camera distance and speed, toggle battle speed, and change brightness. We also have support for Deuteranopia, Protanopia, and Tritanopia color blind support. And we can toggle some accessibility settings to modify the game's difficulty, including damage dealt, experience earned, gold acquired, and monster strength.

このゲームは16:10の解像度をサポートしていないが、クラウドセーブとコントローラーをサポートしている。HDR設定はない。

結論

Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined is a fantastic remake of the original that addresses many of its problems. The story has been streamlined with some great additions to make the other characters stand out more, while the combat has the accessibility settings and adjustments that the most recent games benefit from. It does feel a little too easy at times, which makes the strategic elements of battle feel less necessary, but it never fully detracts from the experience enough to regret playing.

It's also a joy to play on the Steam Deck. After changing the resolution scale to Medium, it will run at 60 FPS with extremely low battery drain, while still getting all the bells and whistles of the high-quality settings. It's a fantastic JRPG for portable play, and could be one of the best this year.

このレビューはPC版に基づいています。

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