Dragon Quest VII Reimagined feels like the perfect excuse to revisit Estard

While there's been no sign of the series' next mainline entry in quite some time, Dragon Quest VII Reimagined is scheduled to continue the series' streak of comprehensive remakes. While the game's February 5, 2026 launch is only a few months away, Square Enix invited us to spend roughly an hour and a half checking out a few segments from the game, to get a feel for the changes gracing the remake. More specifically, we had the chance to check out an early game segment surrounding Emberdale, and a midgame scenario revolving around Wetlock; we mostly focused on the latter, and while we had the opportunity to test the game on both PlayStation 5 and Switch 2, the latter felt like the star of the show.

Without going into any specific story details of each segment, the one element of the remake I was most interested in was the shift in artstyles. This is, of course, not the first time that Dragon Quest VII has received a remake; it got a fairly comprehensive one on the 3DS that drastically changed the artstyle and overall presentation compared to the more isometric perspective of the PlayStation original. Dragon Quest VII Reimagined, then, errs closer to the original vision - with a twist. All of the main characters were originally created as reference dolls, that were then used as the base for their in-game designs. I actually had the chance to see those dolls in-person at Tokyo Game Show, and seeing the digital conversion is rather uncanny.

While I personally love the artstyle of the Erdrick Trilogy's HD-2D rendition, I'm pretty pleased with Dragon Quest VII Reimagined choosing a different path. While not to the same extreme degree as Fantasian, the use of digitized physical assets give the game a hint of that same diorama feeling for its various locations; it feels a bit like looking down on a toy box, and I do mean that as a compliment. While the PlayStation 5 build was hooked up to a 4K TV, the Switch 2 build of the same demo was only playable in handheld mode. While I wasn't sure quite what to expect, if I were to play the game on a console, I'd be hard-pressed to play it anyway else. While I'm no pixel-peeper when it comes to exact measurements, the resolution is nice and crisp; if it's not native 1080p, it's close enough to not matter. More importantly, it targets 60FPS. While the PlayStation 5 version undoubtedly looks better, you'd really have to search for the differences.

On the gameplay side of the changes, by far the biggest is the Moonlighting system which allows you to choose a secondary job as a subclass. Not only does this offer you the benefits of an additional job, but also ties into the battle system's new mechanic similar to Limit Breaks from Final Fantasy, or Pep Powers from Dragon Quest XI; when a character gets "worked up", they can Let Loose with an ability specific to a Job. Even the Job you're Moonlighting can be chosen, so at any time you'll have access to two different options during battles.

Unlike Dragon Quest XI's Pep Powers, this does not require multiple characters to be worked up, and one would expect that the game might expect you to make smart use of these skills for later game fights. We'll have to see how essential these end up being in the end, but at least in practice the combination of these changes makes regular combat all the more engaging; especially with attacks letting you know how effective they'll be on specific groups of enemies, and if ailments are even able to be used at all. Since every character has access to these upgrades, combat at least seems like it may be far more reactive than many of the franchise's other entries.

From what we've seen, so far it's all good changes - yet Dragon Quest VII is an infamously long game. Despite the reported changes, we were directly told that the team even expects Reimagined to be even longer than the original when accounting for all the new content. While we didn't get to experience it ourselves, that does get me wondering exactly how expansive segments like the new Adult Kiefer scenario might end up when all is said and done. If Reimagined truly is shaping up to be that large, I haven't even begun to scratch the surface with the short time that was allotted to me. Whatever the scope of these additions might end up being, we certainly wouldn't have been able to glean within an hour and a half.

It's all enough to make you wonder, though. I've already seen some concern about how Reimagined will end up changing Dragon Quest VII's identity, but after Dragon Quest I & 2 HD-2D ended up as practically entirely new games, I can't say I'm not interested in seeing how this shapes up in comparison to the 3DS version, at least. I wish I could justify a full replay of the original release before this new remake drops, but something tells me that might be a bit much of an ask in the lead-up to th game's February 5 release for PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox Series X|S and PC (Steam).