Video summary
The recent reimagining of Dragon Quest 7 has sparked significant controversy among fans due to its drastic departure from the original game's design philosophy and content depth. While the developers aimed to modernize the title for a new audience by simplifying various aspects, critics argue that this approach fundamentally undermines what made the classic RPG special. The most glaring issue lies in the aggressive cutting of story elements; entire chapters and scenarios deemed irrelevant have been removed to accelerate pacing, which sacrifices essential world-building and character development. Instead of enhancing an already beloved narrative with new content like previous HD remakes did, this version strips away lore that helped players immerse themselves in the journey, effectively prioritizing accessibility over artistic integrity and fan appreciation.
Beyond the narrative truncation, the game's core mechanics have been severely simplified to a point where player agency is largely removed. The original title was renowned for its mystery-driven exploration on Estard Island and complex puzzle dungeons that required logical deduction rather than guided hints; however, Reimagined replaces this investigative freedom with flashing exclamation marks that dictate exactly where players must go. Furthermore, the game's handling of death has been altered to eliminate consequences entirely by removing coffins and automatic revivals, negating the tension and strategic planning inherent in party management. Even inventory systems have been overhauled to allow unlimited access to items during battles from a single bag, stripping away the tactical necessity of managing limited personal inventories for each character before entering combat.
The quality control issues extend into user interface design and gameplay balance, creating an experience that feels amateurish despite being produced by Square Enix. Basic elements such as chests now look identical regardless of their contents or lock requirements, status screens are cluttered with redundant information, and the party AI behaves inconsistently, often healing itself when it should not during specific scenarios. These technical and design flaws suggest a lack of thorough playtesting, contrasting sharply with the high regard for detail seen in recent HD-2D remakes of Dragon Quest 1 and 2. While these newer titles expanded worlds and increased difficulty to honor their predecessors, Reimagined does the opposite by removing beloved characters, unique monster classes, and entire map areas like the casino, resulting in a hollowed-out version that lacks the soul of the original franchise.
Ultimately, this project represents a troubling shift in direction for the Dragon Quest series under new leadership that views the game more as a business product than an artistic work. The producer behind Reimagined admitted to never finishing the original due to finding it boring and set out to "fix" what he perceived as flaws without understanding their value to the experience. Although there are some positive aspects, such as smoother character controls and improved dungeon layouts that prevent unfair monster spawning, these minor improvements cannot outweigh the cumulative effect of removing depth, mystery, and challenge from a game defined by its complexity. The video concludes with a strong warning that if this simplified, content-stripped approach becomes the standard for future entries in the series, it could lead to significant problems for one of gaming's most cherished franchises, urging developers to learn from these mistakes rather than continuing down this path of regression.
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Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined. When they
first announced a second remake of the
very ambitious DQ7, I'll admit I was a
bit apprehensive. While the game looked
amazing visually and promised all sorts
of modern quality of life features, the
developers also announced that they
would be cutting out major parts of the
story to supposedly make things flow
better. The original game on the PS1 is
one of the longest RPGs of all time and
has developed a bit of a polarizing
reception over the years due to its
mysterious, confusing nature, which
provided an intriguing setup to some and
an annoyance to others. So, years later,
they made a remake of the game on the
3DS that addressed a lot of these
complaints. But apparently, that wasn't
enough because now they have remade the
game for a second time, promising to
reimagine it for a new audience. Which
brings up the question, did they pull it
off? Well, I'm here to tell you that
this game does a lot of dumb [ __ ] I
really wish the changes stop at just the
story. It wouldn't have been ideal, but
I could have lived with a sort of a
bridged DQ7. But no, that's not what
they did. In their quest to make the
game more appealing to a wider audience,
the developers have gone back and
simplified nearly every single aspect of
the game, from the exploration to the
gameplay, dulling down the entire
experience. For every good decision this
game makes, there's at least two bad
ones in the mix. And I'm worried the
future Dragon Quest games will repeat
these same mistakes. So I have to bring
attention to this and why these new
changes are bad for the series as a
whole. So obviously we need to talk
about the story. When they first
announced this remake, the developers
were very open about how they would be
shortening entire story chapters and
cutting whole scenarios from the game
that didn't seem relevant to the main
plot, framing it as a positive change,
something that would make newcomers more
receptive to the title. And I've always
had my issues with these constant
attempts to shorten DQ7 [music] story.
Yes, the original game is very long, but
it used that time for world building. It
helped you get to know the characters,
the lore of the world. All this aid and
foreshadowing events to come and
immersing [music] the player in this
journey. I am just against cutting
content from the game on principle. The
whole thing feels counterproductive to
the idea of making a remake. To me,
remake should only add content, [music]
never take things away that people
liked. It feels to me like they care
more about the opinions of people who
didn't like DQ7 over the actual fans of
the game. And what we're left with is a
much much faster paced game that rushes
a story. It doesn't really let you get
lost in this world that they've built.
And with this idea of rushing the
player, they've also made changes to the
exploration to make things a lot easier.
The original game was really great when
it came to letting players explore and
figure things out for [music]
themselves. You would have to really
think about where to logically go next
and where to find a solution for
whatever problem you're trying to solve.
Reimagined is not like this. DQ7
Reimagine completely removes any kind of
player investigation in favor [music] of
putting flashing exclamation points
exactly where you're supposed to go.
Yeah, they totally [music] Ubisoft this
game. And before you ask, no, you can't
turn them off. I tried. They are just
there no matter what, even on the
hardest difficulty. This completely
ruins the entire sense of player
exploration. You don't figure out
anything for yourself in this game. It's
like all the answers are just spoonfed
to you. And that really is a bad
decision in a game that hinges on its
mystery. The original DQ7 starts you off
on Estard Island, the only island in the
entire world. Right away, the game
presents you with this huge mystery of
what happened and why the world is like
this. And the intro section was
extremely engaging, having you do a ton
of investigation around the island,
eventually leading you to the shrine of
mysteries, this forbidden temple that
might just hold the answers you're
looking for. And what ensues is a
complex, multi-layered puzzle dungeon,
somewhat akin to '90s adventure games.
The dungeon had challenging puzzles,
riddles, and waterways to manipulate
across various rooms and floors, making
for a massive, mysterious labyrinth for
players to get through. And it was only
after clearing this section that you get
to travel through time to piece together
a world forgotten. And this entire
section has been gradually getting cut
down more and more with each remake. The
3DS version already completely
simplified the puzzles, basically
removing any way to actually fail them.
And now reimagine straight up removes
practically the entire temple with the
only actual puzzle leading up to it
being insultingly easy. This is it right
here. You move two square blocks into
two square holes. That's it. There are
literal toys for infants more
complicated than this. This is what
Square Enix thinks of you. They
literally think you are dumber than a
baby. And we're just accepting this. You
don't even rotate and place the pieces
of the tablet fragments anymore. Even
that's automated. And this example is
just a symptom of a bigger issue. They
are simplifying almost everything in
this remake, even the gameplay. The core
gameplay of DQ7 Reimagine modifies so
many staples of the franchise that have
been here for years, making things way
too easy and even breaking entire
mechanics that work perfectly fine
before. For starters, they've completely
changed the way the game handles death.
Ever since Dragon Quest first introduced
party members, they've dealt with your
characters dying in battle by putting
them in these coffins that you have to
drag around. This was a good example of
Dragon Quest morbid humor, and more
importantly, it made death very
punishing. The main ways of reviving
your party members were either using a
mid-game spell or visiting a priest in
one of the towns and paying a hefty fee.
This added tension to the overall act of
exploring a dungeon. You'd have to
monitor MP levels and make sure your
healer is safe. It made one of your
party members dying into an absolute
death sentence. You'd have to plan
escape routes and try to survive. So,
how does this new beginnerfriendly DQ
handle death? By removing it. They have
removed coffins from the game. Now, when
one of your party members dies, they
don't actually die. Instead, after the
fight is over, they're automatically
revived with one HP, just like in other
RPGs like Final Fantasy or Persona.
There's no coffins. The priests don't
revive you anymore. The option is just
not there. I have such a big issue with
this. This isn't how Dragon Quest does
things. It's too damn easy. It makes
death have no consequence. And then you
have how weirdly inconsistent this
difficulty is. For some reason, when you
get beaten by a boss and try to rematch
them, it cuts your gold in half, which
means players will instead want to
reload their auto save right before you
talk to the boss. meaning you'll have to
watch the boss cutscene all over again
just to not lose your money, which is
such a dumb oversight. And don't even
get me started on the actual battle
system. One of the most baffling changes
in the game is how it handles
inventories. Previous DQ games had a
simple way of handling this. You had a
bag with unlimited space for all the
stuff you collect, and each player had a
limited inventory space on their person.
So, in battle, you'd only have access to
items on your person. You couldn't
access the bag. This made it so you
would have to think about what each
party member would bring into battle,
whether it be items, equipment, or
consumables. It added another layer of
strategy to the fights. In DQ7
Reimagined, they have simplified this by
removing player inventories. Now, you
only have the bag with unlimited space
in battles. There's no more player
inventory. This means that you can
potentially have access to hundreds of
consumables in battle, and it also means
that players can't use special items
unless they're equipped. They're taking
away options when fighting, making the
battle simpler and easier at the same
time. There's just so many strange,
baffling decisions like this that don't
work well at all. It feels amateur-ish,
like they barely play tested the game.
It boils down to a lot of little things
that you wouldn't notice at first, like
how all the chests look the same, even
the ones that require special key to
unlock, or how stat scenes don't have
RNG values anymore. Also, the party AI
barely works as intended. The show no
mercy option has party members healing
for some reason, which isn't supposed to
happen. And this is especially bad since
now they can use items from the bag that
you might have wanted to save for later,
and then you have issues with this brand
new UI they're going with. [music] It
looks nice at first, but when you
actually play the game, it feels weird.
It's really strange how everything's
organized. There's elements that feel
like they're in the wrong place and are
hard to find. Like, why is the option to
change equipment in battle hidden under
the tactics menu now? And why is there
an entire window just to look at status
conditions when there's already symbols
telling you all this? These are just a
few of the many basic UX issues present.
The more I play this game, the more
little problems I keep noticing. They
just keep piling up. This is the kind of
thing I'd expect from an amateur dev
studio that never put out a game before.
Not the creators of Dragon Quest. And
what's so bizarre to me is how this game
comes right off the heels of the Dragon
Quest 1 and 2 HD2D remakes, which was
just an excellent collection. Those two
games showed a genuine love for the
originals while also vastly expanding
their game worlds, adding [music] more
content and even more challenge. Here
they went in the complete opposite
direction. For example, DQ2 added a
whole egg drizzle quest line complete
with a brand new area to explore, while
DQ7 removed the entire egg drizzle part
along with its island. And most
noticeably, the DQ1 and 2 remakes are
fairly difficult games that demand a lot
of strategy when it comes to character
builds and boss battles, while this game
is much simpler in comparison. The HD2D
games added [music] to the experience,
whereas this one just cuts so much from
the original and barely offers anything
new. This game removes beloved
characters. There's dozens of monsters
missing from the original. They also
remove the monster classes. The unique
vocation outfits from the 3DS version
are gone. Entire story segments are cut
and entire parts of the world map are
missing, including the casino. This
whole reimagining is just so baffling,
especially releasing mere months after a
very good remake. So, what gives? Well,
it's important to know that this game
was developed by a completely different
team than the H2D games, being headed by
a brand new producer, [music] Teeshi
Ichiawa. this young upstart who is
serving as producer for the first time
ever, with his job being described as
prioritizing the game as a business
product rather than a work of art. He
admits in interviews that he never beat
the original DQ7 as a kid because he
found it boring, not even managing to
get through the game's intro section,
and that he means to rectify the game
because of that. So, you see, this
remake isn't being made from a place
[music] of love. It's being made by
people who don't like the original and
see it as something that needs to be
fixed. All while ignoring how a lot of
these original elements gave the game
its unique identity. And it is [music] a
shame because there's a lot I like about
the game. Presentation wise, it looks
fantastic with this amazing handcrafted
style they're going with that really
invokes a sort of warm vibe that Dragon
Quest is known for. Controlling your
character feels much more smooth and
responsive. And dungeon crawling is way
better than the 3DS version with wider
passageways so monsters don't just spawn
right on top of you. And even though
they're removing a lot of characters and
events, the characters that are left
over are actually a lot more fleshed out
and given way more personality,
motivation, and backstory. But it's like
I said earlier, for every good decision
this game makes, it also makes two bad
ones. This is just really frustrating
because people often ask me what version
of the game they should play. So, what
am I supposed to say here? Am I supposed
to recommend people play the PS1 version
when this one is so much more
accessible? This is going to be the
version people play in the future. and
it just sucks because it's not the
complete Dragon Quest 7 experience. My
main takeaway is that I really hope the
Dragon Quest team learns from this whole
situation and doesn't make these same
mistakes in the future. If these changes
represent the future of the series, we
could [music] have some serious problems
soon. I hope you found this video
helpful. If you want to hear more about
Dragon Quest, you should check out this
video right here. I think you'll
definitely enjoy it. I'll see you there.