There have been plenty of remasters and remakes in the video game industry in 2024. All the big companies did it in one form or another, and numerous games were covered under this umbrella of “nostalgia.” To be fair, several of them were titles that gamers were actually interested in playing, and some were surprising because of the context behind them. One such remake was the Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake that Square Enix revealed. This was surprising because Square Enix is using the HD-2D style, which helped make it popular to completely overhaul the first three games in the series to retell the story of a certain hero.
On the PlayStation Blog, Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake producer Masaaki Hayasaka talked about the various elements that went into making the game stand out while also being the game that fans expect. The visuals were one example of that, as he was asked about both using the new style while explaining the visual aesthetics that make the RPG franchise so distinct:
“The most obvious is the color palette. Dragon Quest games are characterized by rich, vivid colors, so we aimed to fully embrace that in the remake as well. If you compare the original game and the HD-2D remake side-by-side, the graphics will look completely different. Even so, the color palettes are similar, so it shouldn’t feel far off from what OG players remember.”
The producer also noted that Yuji Horii, the series creator, was consulted on many elements of the remake and even offered recommendations for how certain things should go. For example, he noted one time when the team showed him the game and thought they had mastered the “background blur” for the game’s HD-2D graphics…but…
“However, when we showed it to Horii-san, he said that the blur was far too intense, and it made him feel like there was something wrong with his eyes. He then asked us to dial back the intensity. We were quite shocked, in a good way, by his suggestion from a player’s point of view. However, as a result, this change made Dragon Quest III stand out from other HD-2D titles, so his recommendation was on point.”
Even with Horii’s help, the team had to work out other elements, such as the density of the map. There were even new elements to be included, such as customizing the main character and party members’ hair colors.
So, while the game will be what you expect it to be at times, there will be key differences to make it feel original.
