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If you could condense every RPG ever made down to its core components, stir them into a hearty stew, and then feast on the resulting concoction you’d get Dragon Quest VII – the most RPG to ever RPG.
Its grand plot takes our heroes – a plucky band of budding upstarts hungry to explore the wider world – on an adventure across not only the globe, but through time too as they seek to defeat a great evil that has brought terror to their land. They’ll develop their skills in their chosen class (or Vocation as the DQ series prefers to call them), and use their abilities to battle a wide variety of monsters in turn-based combat.
As trope-fuelled as it gets, I nevertheless found I simply couldn’t put Dragon Quest VII Reimagined down – to that point that several times during this review process my TV had to check if I was still there as it had been on for so long.
Review info
Platform reviewed: Nintendo Switch 2
Available on: Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC
Release date: February 5, 2026
It helps that the story and characters are utterly engaging, but that was true for the original. Reimagined knocks things up a few pegs by boasting a litany of excellent quality of life updates that would make anyone forget the original released over 25 years ago.
While still turn-based, the combat has had a major tune up. With powerful ‘Let Loose’ effects, auto-battle options, the ability to speed up animations, or even take out enemies in the overworld before a fight can break out, the combat of Dragon Quest VII Reimagined feels faster while accessible.
You can still experience the meatiness of grinding through turn-based bout after turn-based bout, but in those moments when you’re tired of weaker foes you can much more easily power through to the next objective than you could in similar RPGs.
There’s also a tweak to the Vocation system. Moonlighting, when unlocked, lets you choose two jobs at once. This not only creates opportunities for more creative builds, but also makes it less of a slog to unlock the higher-tier vocations which ask you to first master lower-tier ones.
Of course I can’t ignore Dragon Quest VII Reimagined’s most noticeable glow up: the aesthetics. Many a 2D game has lost its charm in the transition to 3D, but with its toyish diorama-like look Reimagined bucks this trend by heaping the charm on by the shovel load. To call it beautiful is an understatement, and yet – as is so true for every way this title has been ‘reimagined’ – the graphical changes feel true to the original’s stylings, which were of course provided by the late great Akira Toriyama.
If you love classic RPGs, or if you’ve never quite gelled with them: play Dragon Quest VII Reimagined. You won’t regret it, I promise you.
In with the old, in with the new
I touched on several of Dragon Quest VII Reimagined’s reworks in my intro, but let’s go into some of them in a little more depth – starting with one I didn’t mention yet: custom difficulty options.
You can, of course, choose the basic Easy, Normal, and Hard difficulties when you boot up this game, but you could instead tweak different settings to suit your challenge preferences.
For me that’s making enemies stronger, my characters’ attacks weaker, but keeping progression at a normal pace – landing my difficulty as a sort-of Hard-lite. Though, I have now slowed down my progression to make the game a little more challenging – with the settings menu letting you make tweaks anytime during your playthrough.
Then let’s talk combat. I thought I’d feel auto-battling is a cheat, but it only serves to make those easier mob fights feel like less of a slog than I’ve found they can be in other turn-based RPGs. We’ve all been there – wishing an enemy wouldn’t spawn because we’re tired of the same-old fights we’ve mastered – and with auto-battle, I can just use these moments to quickly grab a drink or snack while still progressing my adventure.
Just a word of advice: tougher fights will always warrant full player control.
Precise controls will let you prepare your synergies, and let you choose when to activate your Let Loose ability – rather than the auto-battler just firing off as soon as possible. When characters are sufficiently ‘worked up’ – I’m not 100% sure what causes this (it was probably explained in some text I skipped through) – they can let off a powerful effect and still take an action on their turn.
Best bit
I adore the monster designs in the Dragon Quest series. Despite being undeniably monstrous, I love the quirkiness every enemy is imbued with through its animations, name, and stylings. It plays very well into the child-like wonder of this game, and every new encounter made me chuckle.
This gimmick, especially when combined with moonlighting – which gives you two options when letting loose for greater versatility – can turn the tide of a battle, and has saved me from a pinch or two without making bouts feel trivial (an ideal sweet-spot).
What these improvements do mean is Dragon Quest VII Reimagined feels a lot more accessible than other titles in this genre.
Given its slower pace, turn-based gameplay is generally quite accessible as players can take five seconds to five hours to decide and input a move (and there’s no Expedition 33-esque parry mechanic to fuss over between your turns). At the same time this slower pace can transform into a grind that not everyone enjoys, which is why some classic remakes have turned to something different like with Final Fantasy VII Remake.
Dragon Quest VII Reimagined finds its sweet spot by instead offering these tools like battle speed-up, auto battle, instant victories and moonlighting to keep everything that makes turn-based excellent, while eliminating as many of its deficiencies as possible.
A critical hit!
To make matters better, Dragon Quest VII Reimagined only has one major fault and that’s I wish finding tablet fragments felt more special in the early game.
Things do pick up eventually, but at first too many pieces are simply found on the floor of people’s homes. I wish more of these supposedly rare artifacts would be treated with respect – locked behind a mini boss fight, or puzzle, or side mission.
As it stands, the loop of Reimagined’s first 10-or-so-hours can become repetitive when you reexplore lands in the present day after saving them in the past – as you simply wander around, searching every home and talking to strangers until someone gives you the broken stone you’re seeking.
I’d also say the game can feel a bit too easy at times – especially after unlocking moonlighting and extra party members. This was even after I slowed myself down by going to full-on Hard mode. I did still find bouts that posed a challenge, but I had to be careful to not over-level with auto-battle and make fights easier than I wanted.
Otherwise I’d say Dragon Quest VII Reimagined hits the mark in so many ways. The combat is well-tuned, the music is a delight, and I’ve already gushed about the visuals but know that I could say I love them a hundred times more.
This is the quintessential RPG experience, and one everyone should experience – I’d especially recommend it to my fellow Nintendo Switch 2 players, this was the console I reviewed it on, and it shone in both handheld and docked mode.
Should you play Dragon Quest VII Reimagined?
Play it if…
Don’t play it if…
Accessibility
The pace of turn-based action already allows for more accessible gameplay than more action-packed titles, but Dragon Quest VII Reimagined does boast a few specific accessibility tools such as all of its dialogue being written out on screen, and there being a handful of colorblind modes that should help with the odd puzzle section.
How I tested Dragon Quest VII Reimagined
I played Dragon Quest VII Reimagined on my Nintendo Switch 2, predominantly in docked mode but I did still spend plenty of time with this title in handheld mode while I travelled. Otherwise I used mostly standard hardware, except for relying on my 8bitdo Ultimate 2 controller for a lot of my docked experience.
On my Amazon QLED TV the visuals looked absolutely gorgeous, and he iconic Dragon Quest soundtrack came through my Sonos Beam Gen 2 soundbar and Sub Mini setup nicely too. Though both elements they still shone through on the Switch 2’s LCD and in-built speakers.
Throughout my whole testing process I didn’t experience any noticeable performance issues – everything ran as smoothly as I could want.
First reviewed February 2026
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hamish.hector@futurenet.com (Hamish Hector)
