Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined Review: A Good Remake with Mixed Appeal for JRPG Fans
Author's Note:The author was provided a PlayStation 5 code by the publisher for the purpose of this review.
I want to preface anything else I write for this review with the following: Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined is not a bad game. In fact, it's a good game. However, after a 43-hour playthrough (yes, it is about half the length of the original 2000 release), I'm struggling to identify the audience of this game. I think hardcore Dragon Quest purists will be unhappy with how much of the game has been streamlined. I think casual JRPG fans will enjoy the game but find it overly simplistic, and I think hardcore turn-based JRPG fans will appreciate the game for what it is, but also find issues with the game's story, pacing, and jarring cuts from the original game that do make the game more approachable but also hurt the game's narrative impact. Overall, it's a good game that has no idea what it wants to be.
A Shallow Main Plot Driven By Mini Short Stories
Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined is a remake of the original game. Players control the self-named Hero character and his eventual band of friends and party members on what at first is just seemingly a random bunch of adventures to slay monsters or find items on a lone island in what seems to be an endless ocean. Eventually, the party discovers stone fragments that open up portals to the past and transport players to other islands, during which players must help the local citizens solve a problem (usually killing a monster that's ravaging the land) to bring that island back to fruition in the present. You then return to the present, visit the newly restored island, collect new stone fragments, and open the next portal.
That is the game's core narrative structure. Because of how repetitive it is, the game can feel like a slog to play through at times, as all of the islands are treated more like independent short stories instead of contributing to an overall narrative. I found myself, more than once, forgetting why I was on this new island, but thankfully, the new map and objective marker will tell you what to do next if you get stuck.
The individual stories of each island are not created equal, either. Some of them are quite interesting, others are grossly forgettable. Because of that inconsistency, and the little-to-no impact on the game's overarching plot until very late in the game, I think new players might be put off by how little story this game actually has. The short stories on the islands are the focus; the party members' goals and their interactions are just footnotes.
The same motif of the game being inconsistent is also present in the game's party members. Most of them only get one major story moment, and that's about it. They're present for almost all of the game's big and small story beats, but they rarely speak, and most of their reactions are relegated to optional dialogue that not-so-discreetly just points you in the direction you need to go next.
It's not that any of these things are necessarily bad; it's just not what modern audiences may expect in 2026. If you're looking for a deep story with likable characters and an interesting world, you probably will not find it in Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined, nor will you find it in the original game, and that's my point--the game is seemingly for established Dragon Quest 7 fans, and that game is already one of the more controversial games in the long-running series.
A World Full of Water and Grass
Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined looks very good. The carefully sculpted diorama areas are charming, and the new character designs highlight aspects of each character well. Keifer has a regal, confident look on his face, while Maribel comes off stern with often-narrowed eyebrows.
The only complaint I have about the visuals is, once again, a complaint against the source material too: almost every area looks similar. The islands are mostly green fields with a couple of mountain ranges. Most villages and towns have the same small layouts, too. Again, that's not a bad thing by any means; this is a remake of a game that came out during a time in which visuals were only starting to be fully explored in game design. But after 30 hours of seeing similar-looking areas, it's hard to be excited about what may come next.
Recreating a Classic JRPG in 2026
Though Square Enix has done a commendable job at trying to streamline a notoriously long and often poorly paced original game for this remake, there are some stumbles there, too. The game moves much faster than the original. Some major plot events that took hours previously now happen in a couple of minutes.
One such moment was when a party member leaves, relinquishes all their equipment, and then immediately rejoins within the next couple of minutes of gameplay. It's jarring, and it shines a bright light on the number of cuts that were made to the game. It's not that those cuts are bad; they were actually needed, but it's more so the way that the cuts happen that makes it feel awkward.
Turn-Based Battle Goodness
One of the best new additions in Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined is to the game's classic Vocation system. Vocations act like the classic "Job System" from the Final Fantasy series. For the first 10 or so hours, players will be locked to each character's starting Vocation. After that, players will be able to change it to a different one, and there is quite a lot of freedom for player expression, which is drastically improved in this remake with the addition of being able to equip a second Vocation, called "Moonlighting," about halfway through the game. If you want to make Maribel a battle mage, you can. If you want to make her a warrior, you can. You probably shouldn't, as each character still has individual statistics that gear them towards certain Vocations, but the option is there.
Battles now take place from a third-person perspective, instead of the classic Dragon Quest first-person view, which makes the game feel a lot more like Dragon Quest 11 than the original game. There are options for a normal speed, a fast speed, and an ultra-fast speed, so if players find classic turn-based battle systems too slow for their liking, you can increase the battle speed to make battles last seconds. It's a great addition, and coupled with the almost-total removal of random encounters (you still get random encounters when traveling on the game's ship across the ocean), the game's combat feels like it belongs beside other great modern turn-based RPGS, like Persona 5 or Metaphor ReFantazio.
That being said, on the normal difficulty, I found the game quite easy. I didn't have to use a single item during my playthrough and never got a game over either. Also, with the addition of a second Vocation, it is incredibly easy to make super-powerful party members. I was able to kill a boss halfway through the game with one attack. RPG veterans should consider bumping up the difficulty.
It's a great turn-based combat system, one that will definitely make fans of Dragon Quest 11 and classic Final Fantasy happy. That being said, if players go in expecting cinematic spectacles like last year's Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 or the stylish presentation of Persona 5, they may be a little disappointed. This is a classic game for classic fans.
'Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined' Is Still A Flawed Classic JRPG
Even with improvements to the game's core elements, like improving the game's pacing and adding new combat depth, Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined is a classic JRPG through and through, for better or worse. The story and characters are simple, the world is simple, and the bosses are simple. Simple does not mean bad by any stretch of the imagination. It's ironic, though, that a game that has gone through this much intentional design ends up coming across as awkward and frustrating at times.
Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined is not bad at all. It's got some really high highs and some really low lows. As long as JRPG fans keep their expectations in check, I think the majority of players will have a good time with it, especially those craving a truly classic experience. Some modern additions, like being able to instantly heal your party members after a fight and change Vocations any time (once it's unlocked), keep the game moving at a breakneck pace, which helps the game with its pacing but also rarely gives players the chance to get to know the world and characters. That sort of catch-22 is present throughout most of the game, leading to a good, but sometimes frustrating experience. It's a classic JRPG that tries to be modern, resulting in a game that wants to appeal to a new audience but will likely only satisfy hardcore JRPG and Dragon Quest fans, due to its shallow main story, characters, and world.
When the game works, it works really well. When it doesn't, it feels like the game is trying to mix a fragment of the past with a fragment of the present, and the two don't always fit together nicely.
Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined will be available on February 5 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch 2. A free playable demo is also available now on all platforms, with progress carrying over to the full game.