Last week, a surprise demo for Dragon Quest VII: Reimagined dropped. Not only does playing it grant you an exclusive costume for the main party member, Maribel, but you’ll be able to carry over your save file to the full game next month. As a huge fan of the series, I grabbed the demo right away to see how the opening hours compared to previous Dragon Quest VII releases, and I came away from it rather impressed.
The demo covers the start of Dragon Quest VII up to the procurement of the second tablet, meaning it can provide a good few hours depending on how much exploration and grinding you take part in. There are caps in place to keep you from completely overleveling ahead of the full game’s release, but you can get up to level 15 with each party member and four star Class rank, which is solidly above what you’ll actually need to finish the demo’s contents.
The demo’s narrative certainly has a faster pace than the original game, more comparable to the Nintendo 3DS version, Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past. A major talking point of the PS1 version was that it took approximately 4 hours to reach your first battle, while here it took maybe just over an hour. The cozy and peaceful atmosphere from the beginning of Dragon Quest VII is still present, so I appreciate the speedier start, as it doesn’t come at the cost of the meaningful beginning.
There were also some intriguing story changes to Dragon Quest VII Reimagined’s demo. It seems as though there are somewhat different routes for each story to take, depending on the choices you make. The Ballymolloy story provided a couple of options regarding a key item and what you do with it, with your choice affecting the rest of the island’s plot. If every storyline has these different routes, I’m excited and quite curious to see just how varied things get.
Gameplay-wise, this is exactly what you’d expect and want from a Dragon Quest game, though unlike the recent HD-2D remakes, turns are executed in a sequential order rather than in rounds. I sort of wish you could see the turn order a la Final Fantasy X, but that’s a very minor thing. Turn-based combat is my favorite gameplay type, so it’s always refreshing to play a Dragon Quest and get this slower and more methodical style. I especially like that the main party has starting Jobs this time around, meaning no experience is wasted prior to the Job system really opening up.
Dragon Quest VII Reimagined has an incredibly charming visual style.
I really love the presentation of Dragon Quest VII Reimagined, as the diorama vibe perfectly complements Akira Toriyama’s unforgettable style. There are times when it’s reminiscent of Rankin/Bass holiday specials, with charming expressions that come off as remarkably earnest. This colorful and pleasant style works perfectly with the cartoony vignette style of Dragon Quest VII’s story, and I can’t wait to see some later moments portrayed this way. It also goes without saying that the music is top-notch, as Dragon Quest music so often is.
Somehow, I’m even more excited about Dragon Quest VII Reimagined than I was prior to the demo. It’s going to be a long month of waiting for its release on February 5, as I truly can’t wait to see what other changes are present in this third take on the longest single player Dragon Quest. Until then, I guess I’ll make sure everybody hits the level cap while making sure I get all of the Mini Medals around so I’m all ready to continue.
