I don't normally get involved with any remakes of famous older games because they are almost always a disappointment. I initially was excited about the Final Fantasy 7 remake but after defeating the first installment and being rather nonplussed by it I didn't even bother to look at the 2nd installment even though it is now free on the PS-Plus network.
When Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined was released I decided to break my code and buy this one anyway and here we are, about 10 hours into the gameplay of one of my favorite games that was ever made, and I have to say they really "screwed the pooch" on this one.
My dislike of this game isn't definitive. There are parts of it that I like but for the most part this is just because every now and then it brings me back to 25 years ago when this game was first released and graphics and sound were very far behind where they are today. The story is mostly the same although some parts of the game were removed. Since so much time has passed I am not always very aware of where they were cut and the game is so damn long that I don't really miss it.
But this Square-Enix re-release kind of sums up about how I feel about the general laziness of that company that has reared its ugly head in recent years.
Here we have a comparison between the original, the 3DS release, and the modern Switch version. The improvements are palatable and real, that much is for sure and this stays fun for a little while. The problems that we encounter as the game goes on though are noticeable to the point of annoyance.
For one thing, they made combat, which was already quite easy, even easier.
I am a good 50% through the game and have only encountered a handful of situations where doing anything other than using the basic attack command was necessary. The auto-healing I guess is nice but it kind of eliminates a great deal, if not all of the strategy necessary to succeed. Instead, you are made aware of your lack of level by losing fights and then are simply supposed to go and grind for more levels before proceeding. When has that ever been fun?
As is the case in any JRPG, combat is a major part of the game but in the case of DQ7R, it is so repetitive and basic that I start to find myself just wanting it to be over. I will often skip optional treasure chests just because I can see from my vantage point that I will have to endure 2-3 more fights in order to get to the chest that in all likelihood contains something that I don't need anyway.
I will give credit where it is due though and the cutscenes are excellent on the remake. This seems to be what Square-Enix specializes in these days and that being the case, they should just transition to being an animated studio and forget about making games. I suppose we could say that they already tried this but as it turns out there are not enough general fans of their games for them to make money on films. The Final Fantasy films I have watched were mostly not worth the time even though they were beautiful.
Combine this with the fact that I am not really a fan of excessive cinematics interrupting gameplay and there really isn't much for me to enjoy contained in this game.
I should have listened to what I already kind of knew: Remakes are generally just lazy cash-grabs on the part of studios with a couple of exceptions. the Resident Evil remakes are ones that pop into my mind as being wonderful "reimagining" of the already excellent originals.
The Dragon Quest remake though, that is an entirely different story. Not only is the story almost exactly like it was in the originals with very little new content, but they actually cut some of the content out including a great many of the enemy types that existed in the original. I don't necessarily NEED a wide variety of opponents, but when it is the same 7 or 8 enemy types over and over again this gets boring pretty quick.
The only reason why I am even playing this at all is because Nine Sols is so painstakingly difficult that I find that I need a break to something that is significantly easier.
Unfortunately DQ7R is so easy and simplistic that I can go ahead and state that the entire experience is boring and seems like a waste of time. My parents claiming that video games are a waste of time has come to fruition in this particular title and I can't recommend this game to anyone really. Old school fans are going to be pissed about their memories getting shit on and new players are going to be like "is this all that this game can do?" and be bored almost immediately.
I am kind of in a state of disbelief that Square-Enix continues to exist as a company. Perhaps in a future episode I will dive into their finances and management, because I believe there are some really serious problems over there at what was once one the most highly-regarded companies in gaming.