Review: Dragon Quest VII Reimagined (PS5) – A Tip-Top Remake of a Once Tedious RPG

Dragon Quest 7 is known for being a very lengthy game, and while it hasn’t always been considered one of the best in the series, many believe it deserves another look – or perhaps its first for some players.

Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined updates the classic game for today’s players, focusing on making it easier to play and more accessible with improvements to the gameplay.

This remake breathes new life into a game that used to feel slow and drawn-out. It’s clearly made with love for the original, resulting in both a wonderful revival and one of the best Dragon Quest games ever made.

Dragon Quest 7 features a team of young heroes who travel through time to fix problems from the past and save their world. The game is played in episodes, with each adventure focusing on a different time period and challenge.

I’m basically island-hopping through these really messed up, forgotten worlds, trying to stop some seriously evil forces. Each island has its own story and a whole cast of characters I get to meet – it’s not just about the fighting, you know?

The game follows a familiar pattern – you visit towns, discover problems, explore dungeons, and defeat monsters. However, it’s full of classic Dragon Quest charm, and each island feels like its own self-contained fairy tale.

The game is incredibly charming and cozy, largely thanks to its beautiful, detailed environments. It’s a relaxing experience, best enjoyed when played at a leisurely pace.

Despite efforts to speed things up by trimming scenes and removing some subplots from earlier versions, Reimagined still unfolds at a deliberate, gradual pace.

We spent about 75 hours playing the game for this review, and while it’s a great experience, be prepared to be patient through some slower parts of the story.

Some parts of the game aren’t as engaging as others. Occasionally, the story feels slow and involves simply traveling between places to talk to a few characters. These sections drag on, and it’s unclear why the developers didn’t shorten them.

And on top of that, the backtracking that haunted the game on PS1 and 3DS still mostly exists.

After fixing problems on an island, the game will often ask you to revisit it to see how things have improved. This usually means going back to the same locations – towns and dungeons – but with updated conversations and new items to discover.

It feels a little outdated compared to modern games, but this kind of issue doesn’t happen often. For the most part, you’ll find worthwhile things to uncover, and it’s always compelling to see how your previous choices affect the world and its inhabitants now.

Traveling between different time periods is now much easier and more enjoyable with the help of useful maps and clear markers showing your objectives. Unlike the original game, which could be confusing because it didn’t clearly show what you needed to do, this updated version guides you towards completing quests.

You can get advice from your teammates by simply talking to them – just press the circle button. While making things simpler isn’t always better, Square Enix has successfully addressed some of the pacing issues that sometimes made the game feel confusing.

The game has been enhanced with several features, such as monsters appearing directly in the game world instead of through random battles, a faster combat mode, and options to adjust the game’s difficulty.

We think adding the ability to boost experience and money earned is a really big deal. If you’ve played Dragon Quest 7 before, this feature will almost completely remove the tedious level grinding that might have stopped you from playing again.

You can customize how much damage enemies and you deal, and even set full health recovery after every battle. This lets you create a difficulty level that’s perfect for you, which we believe is a great feature for a game inspired by classic designs.

Okay, so the battles are turn-based, which is pretty standard for Dragon Quest. But honestly, this version has a really slick and clean interface – it makes choosing what to do in a fight surprisingly smooth. And I love that you can mark your favorite spells and abilities so they’re always right there when you need them – super handy!

The game offers a huge number of abilities, as the skills you learn depend on the roles you choose for your characters – which the game calls ‘vocations.’ To help manage this, the game lets you customize each character’s skillset by assigning them a specific class, offering a bit more control and variety.

The game’s character system is straightforward. Your core stats depend on your chosen class, but things like gear are unique to your character. Ultimately, you’re choosing which spells and skills you want to use.

Even with the changes, there’s still plenty of room to try new things. Reimagined eventually allows you to give each hero two different jobs, which basically lets you create your own unique character classes.

The game lets you create unique characters, like a magic user who’s skilled with a sword, or a powerful fighter who can summon monsters to help in battle. While there aren’t a ton of different character classes to choose from, finding a special role for each character is one of the most fun parts of the game.

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2026-02-02 18:07