Feature: "I Was A Bit Nervous At First" - Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake Producer Talks Reimagining An RPG Classic

I want to know if the battle system is fully first person mode in this one? Some pics make it look like there is also the third person option? What i do hope!

DQ3's battle system is first person but, you get to see the backs of your characters when choosing commands. Once a turn actually starts, it zooms in to a first person point of view

“This review has been edited lightly for clarity.”

Makes sense that the censored game would get a censored interview

@Lumi777

Aah thanks for that!

@Overzeal What did they censor?

@Overzeal Tell me you don't know what censorship means without telling me you don't know what censorship means

Something tells me I'm not going to finish the new Zelda in time for this...
Ope!

@Asaki Same here, this game looks great but I've still got Zelda on the go. But maybe once I'm done with that I'll pick it up if I can ignore the siren's call of the backlog for long enough.

Yeah I will skip the game due to the changes they made, or I might get a used copy someday.

@Dogorilla Oh, I'm still picking it up, but I might have to wait for a few more dollars to come in.
I don't want to risk it going out of print, some of these games go awfully fast, and Dragon Quest is certainly the rule rather than the exception.

@MeanBeanEgg They changed some of the artwork.

@Asaki That's probably a good plan, some of the old Dragon Quests are really expensive now. I'd also like to have played this one by the time the I and II remake launches ideally.

@JohnnyMind I take a drink every time you write the phrase “discounted physical copy.” I’m often quite drunk lol

This OG (granted I started with VI lol) fan is very satisfied. I really hope they redo 4-6. This is really the best way to play DQ 3. I love that they made it multi language (I still don’t like the English localization (as usual it is horrible)but love that I have the option either way. ) Game looks gorgeous and the QoL improvements make it that much better.

I like the part where they ditched Male/Female for Appearance A and B only to have items in the game only equippable to "women" yet the game being unable to tell you which is the female!

i started the dragon quest series on the nes so this version is 100 times better think about no longer having to press search or stairs everytime like you had to on the nes lol..

@johnedwin I loved that the SNES version you could press a different button to automatically search/interact, made the game so much less tedious.

@Mommar Went to see it, I don't know how some lips on a troll being removed and them adding shorts to a character makes it unplayable for some people, but yeah.

Dragon Quest IV-VI would be amazing!

I saw this reimagining: There was a Twitter from a guy who wanted to wear a dress that was for "women" but there are no men or women in the game anymore and even so he couldn't wear the dress. 🤣

I’d like to see Final Fantasy I & II HD-2D made with the same type of style. Sure the original NES games were basic and flawed, but a remake would correct what you don’t like about the original games.

@Mommar “They changed some of the artwork.”

They attempted to hide the original artwork from modern day eyes, but as a result they caused the original art to be spread across the internet.

@nessisonett Stop telling people to touch grass and go do it yourself. You spend more time online than the people you say it to.

Disappointed but not surprised you guys didn't bring up that many fans enjoy the west were displeased with the censorship of the designs. They keep being told there's "regulations" not allowing to keep things as they were when that's blatantly untrue, and it's so rare that someone who, as a writer in a site such as this (whoch is a loy more respectable than something like kotaku or ign), would be perfectly aware of the sentiments of western players gets to talk to one of the producers and don't let them know.
I'm not saying the whole interview should be about that, but but it should've been brought up since it's a point of contention for a lot of people (specially when Toriyama's art gets brought up in the interview).

@Bass_X0 Yeah, i'm sure they were not aware the original art still existed, ahahahahah. Some delusion going on here.

@ottoecamn Grow up, it's a draw.

I genuinely do not understand the appeal of the HD 2D style. It’s a lot of effort for a remake that I’d rather see put into a totally different art style? It’s like the goofy halfway between the FF pixel remaster, and Trials In the Sky First/Trials of Mana style.

Either version of these classics would have been preferable

@Agenerationofgens they only went halfway- a bit short-sighted

@MeanBeanEgg mate, Yuji Horii himself expressed he didn't like the changes. Why you defend something even the original creator isn't in favor of?

The game has been a blast to play through, I'm still cutting into it and should have many more hours before the credits roll.

All the changes have been for the better, the game hasn't really lost any of its charm or challenge, but is more accessible than ever. I think it's about as great as can be expected for a remaster of a classic.

I cannot wait to see what kinds of options/changes they go with for 1+2, since those games are far more archaic than 3.

@ottoecamn I'm not defending anything, mate. I'm saying it's a draw.

@MeanBeanEgg "Yeah, i'm sure they were not aware the original art still existed, ahahahahah. Some delusion going on here"

That sounds like an excuse to lie to people.

"people do not know what is actually true, therefore it is ok to say/show whatever you want to them and they will believe it"

That sounds really scummy motive when I put it that way, no? If you are gonna be the one to tell others to grow up, you should try maturing yourself first.

There's always gonna be push back against censorship. period. And trying to twist things into the original character designs not mattering in a nostalgic game "because gameplay"..... like come on. If that's the case, why even have characters. Why isn't every character unreal engine guy instead?

Everyone's who's "boycotting" this game over the "censorship" had no intention of ever playing it in the first place. None of them are DQ fans. Probably not even JRPG fans. They're just looking for interactions.
Don't feed the trolls, just ignore them.

@Dogorilla lol, or just wait for I&II and then play them in the proper order =)
...even though they've already spoiled the heck out of the original plot twist...

@Asaki "Everyone's who's "boycotting" this game over the "censorship" had no intention of ever playing it in the first place. None of them are DQ fans. Probably not even JRPG fans. They're just looking for interactions."
Oh bugger off with this cope. Most of my switch library are JRPGs.
I'm very interested in playing more Dragon Quest after playing the demo of 12, and still need to buy it (but....money). The fact that there even is censorship in this shifted the purchasing mindset of "maybe I will pick up the game when I can" to "I am NOT picking this up", which is a huge shift in business terms.

From where I stand, if you actually love this series, you'd be more likely to hold Square Enix's feet to the fire and make them take responsibility instead of doing that dog in a burning house meme and saying "this is fine". Cuz I'd do that with any other series I love.

I had Dragon Warrior I-IV on the NES when I was a kid. I'm who these remakes should be for. Saying that someone is not the audience for this when you have no clue who they are is short sighted. Nostalgia is what sells this series. Those NES games understood the difference between boy and girl. I won't be buying this and I hope SE loses a lot of money. Same goes for the Trails series. When you decide to edit for modern audiences you are just caving to people who hate video games.

@The-Chosen-one It switches automatically. You have no control over it. It's their style.

So do you "anti-censorship" lot have any clue how much this series has been "censored" in the past?
@philwhite there's a whoooole lot of gender play in that series, bro. But good riddance anyway! Byeeeeee.

@Samalik how do you feel about the series composer being a war crimes denier? How about the religious censorship and many, many other things that have been censored in the past games? Kind of reflects on you as a person where your lines are drawn. Or maybe you are ignorant of those things. But you love the series, right, so you know all about that stuff.
Are you saying that you think we should go back to the draconian censorship of the 80s and 90s, when games like SMT wouldn't even be released in the West? Or are you saying that we should do better these days for people with similar sensibilities as you, the modern audience???

@LikelySatan What are you talking about? I'm saying there shouldn't be any censorship to the art at all. Is that too much to ask? Do you really have to stuff words down my throat that run complete opposite to what i said? In fact, why are you even putting censorship in air quotes, when this is basically what it is.

I don't care for what happened in the past. It was bad then and it's bad now to do that to someone else's work, regardless of era. It wasn't yours and morally pressuring/lying to the original author so they comply with the new arbitrary moral censorship movement in art isn't a good look, assuming we aren't talking about the regular ongoings about bad localization. So that's not a good justification. And trying to twist the core argument here to something else isn't helping, because you aren't really rebutting what was said. Just shifting the goalpost. If you got an opinion on me then actually say it instead of beating around the bush on what reflects on me.

@Samalik no problem! You care about censorship when it's bewbs, so my opinion of you is that. I thought you said you were a DQ fan, but I think I mixed you up with a different freedom fighter here in the comments. So my apologies! Point still stands for fans who are yelling about "censorship" these days .

Any censorship is bad. Until they fix it, there will be no money from me. But they probably do not care about that anyways.

@LikelySatan Funny you say that, because it was also pretty bad when they censored Amy's personality traits in Sonic X Shadow Generations and neutered the romantic comedy aspects and slap stick antics involving her, dulling the relationship between her and Sonic. If boobies are all you notice in this conversation, then you aren't seeing the bigger picture of the problem because you're too busy focusing at them.

Besides that, you really didn't say anything meaningful about fans, new or old, while I already picked apart why they don't hold up. And you keep trying to aggressively dismiss the whole censorship problem.

And I'm honestly asking, why try shutting these people up who clearly have a problem? Imagine, if the fans who have an issue actually got listened to, what would you actually lose?

@Samalik I'm not shutting anyone up, clearly, lol, and honestly that was probably just Sonic devs being lazy Sonic devs but don't worry the next one will be great!!! I'm juuuuuust saying...the series has a history with censorship or at least "localization" (I imagine you don't have a problem w those quotation marks), an outfit was made less revealing in the remake, and that's what these super mega fans are upset about?
Honestly, this is dumb, because you are right. If this bs gets people focusing on actual censorship, then good on ya! Imagine if a publisher withheld copies of a game unless the people covering it agreed to not speak about politics or to not decry the politics of the publisher's political persuasion? Oh wait you right, Wukong.

@LikelySatan "I'm not shutting anyone up, clearly, lol"
I dunno about that. Trying to shame and pressure people into not talking about an obvious issue certainly is a method here.

"honestly that was probably just Sonic devs being lazy Sonic devs but don't worry the next one will be great!!!"
If they were actually lazy, they wouldn't have changed anything in the port to begin with. wtf are you talking about?!

"the series has a history with censorship or at least "localization" (I imagine you don't have a problem w those quotation marks), an outfit was made less revealing in the remake, and that's what these super mega fans are upset about?"
Yes, because that caught eyes that something morally motivated was going on. For some reason these things are always the first to go. And character designs are always the first to be noticed before the game gets released, before dialogue options and other things are more seen. The times have changed and people are more aware of the nonsense that goes behind the scenes. This stuff isn't really accepted anymore. And if memory serves me right, DQ11 from 2018 wasn't censored, releasing as authentic as it could both east and west. So it's only adding more flames to the fire that we are back here in this mess all over again. So, why is that a big issue to you that people have a problem again?

"Imagine if a publisher withheld copies of a game unless the people covering it agreed to not speak about politics or to not decry the politics of the publisher's political persuasion? Oh wait you right, Wukong."
You have a really bad habit of trying to twist the current conversation into an unrelated topic here. I'm probably taking a shot, but it feels like you're trying to move to goalpost to whatever political field you feel comfortable agreeing with. Well fine. Allow me to break this apart.
Bringing up Wukong is not working in your favor, because when people complain about censorship, they are usually complaining about the sincerity of human expression being compromised.
The coverage of Wukong in game's journalism was not sincere, and even the reviews tried to paint the game as a social political blight, sometimes even lying about it to make the game seem like a blight on gaming culture. Not surprised if the devs reacted accordingly in their streamer's agreement and wanted to keep their game out of trouble of politically poisoned individuals, wanting nothing to do with any side of the spectrum. Nobody is going to argue censorship over a lie and insincere criticism.

Don't believe me? Here's some breakdowns.

@Samalik Again, the "first things to go" w DQ happened on the NES. It's your own biases and predilections that are drawing your attention so recently.
My point about Wukong is only that it was an incident of actual censorship, and not localization changes made to better fit a rating. But you don't care about that, got it.
I think the changes made to 3 are stupid. I think caring about those changes more than real censorship is stupiderer...er.
It's not moving goal posts. My point here has been the same the entire time. You guys care sooo much about censorship but rarely mention that this series has had content altered/removed/censored for literally as long as it's been a series. You just care now cause it's bewbs, and don't care about real censorship.
If you haven't gotten it yet, my point is you're acting. Like a clown. It's performative.

@LikelySatan "It's your own biases and predilections that are drawing your attention so recently."
What's to be biased about what we just saw? You can't make this stuff up.

"My point about Wukong is only that it was an incident of actual censorship, and not localization changes made to better fit a rating."
The rating hasn't changed and similar or more excessive games like Xenoblade, in terms of the level of content they show, still retain their T ratings. So that's already off the cards as a reason.

Besides that, you're still arguing that what happened with Wukong was "actual censorship" when what was going on was trying to quell a shame campaign. I already mentioned that much, but apparently you ignored/glossed over it or are downplaying it despite also having videos about it. Because even libel and slander deserves to be shown to the world... right?
Come to me again when we get actually important government documents or whistleblower silencing if you wanna talk more societal-level censorship. Cuz this ain't it. I'd rather let the people who are into that talk more seriously about it, while I stay in my lane of art expression, since that's what I know more about, while also knowing how to shut up when a topic is out of my lane.

Again, the "first things to go" w DQ happened on the NES.
My point here has been the same the entire time. You guys care sooo much about censorship but rarely mention that this series has had content altered/removed/censored for literally as long as it's been a series.
What do you even want me to do then? Make a time machine and tell Enix to "don't do that" on old offline exclusive formats? Or make an essay in a comment section with a character limit?

Ya know I wasn't even alive when the old Dragon Quest games came out and I was a GameCube kid for the most art, and it's relatively recently that the series has came into my sights from obscurity, as I've already said earlier. So I dunno why you're trying to pull this about what happened in the past when people are talking about now. Just because it happened before, doesn't make it right now.

I'm not living in the 1980s, I'm living in 2024, it's problems included. I already said what happened in the old games were bad as well. Did you miss that? I might not have an encyclopedia level knowledge of dragon quest, but even I remember some things like iconography and gags getting removed in old Youtube essays. If a game, book or movie gets re-released, I want it to be the most authentic version of that game possible. And the only way to keep them that way when at risk is to voice your concerns while the fire is hot.

"You just care now cause it's bewbs, and don't care about real censorship.
If you haven't gotten it yet, my point is you're acting. Like a clown. It's performative.."
You're painting me like a perverted clown here, you only, and calling me a lying grifter, when I've been pretty sincere and consistent about my issues whenever censorship in games gets brought up in the past year alone. I already went over the whole Amy Rose thing as is, and you're still trying to focus on boobs as the culprit of all people's issues here...

@Samalik grifter yes, perverted no. Just opportunistic.

@LikelySatan
grifter - noun
1. (informal, originally Canada, US) A con artist; someone who pulls confidence games; a swindler, scammer, huckster, hustler, and/or charlatan.
2. (colloquial, especially Internet) A manipulator or otherwise generally corrupt person who "games" a system, group of people, or other entity for selfish gains; especially of a political "sell-out" perceived as lacking integrity.

screw off with this crap nonsense...

I'm still looking forward playing this game although the censored stuff (from male/female to type a type b) is annoying, though.

And hey, I saw the youtube video of the next usa president saying he will only recognize only male and female in goverment, maybe he'll ban this stuff in usa so gaming company has to go back to normal again, I hope for the updated normal male/female patch for this game in a couple of month lol.

@Samalik just been waiting for permission!