Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake Review

In a year already chock-full of excellent remakes like Persona 3 Reload and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, it’s impressive that I can still call Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake one of the best I’ve ever played. That’s not because it sets out to redefine the 1988 NES original like Square Enix did with Final Fantasy VII Remake and Rebirth, but because of how it strikes a nearly perfect balance between faithfully sticking to the bones of Dragon Quest III while adding modern quality-of-life improvements and a beautiful new coat of paint that make it more fun than ever to explore and battle across its surprisingly dense overworld. Dragon Quest III is a true godfather of the RPG genre, and this immensely satisfying retelling so clearly spells out why it’s one of gaming’s essential works.

HD-2D Remake is fundamentally the same adventure Dragon Quest III has always been, and it’s hard not to marvel at how well its original blueprint still holds up in 2024. This is as classic as JRPGs get – the genre boiled down to its absolute essentials of rock-solid turn-based combat, atmospheric caves and dungeons filled with monsters and treasure, and a straightforward story about good versus evil that asks you to fill in a lot of the gaps with your imagination. It evokes nostalgia for a bygone era of video games in the best ways while proving it still has the stuff to hang with the fancy, modern RPGs.

Despite the unabashedly old-school design, it does manage to feel new thanks to its overhauled graphics, and Dragon Quest and the HD-2D style pioneered by Octopath Traveler are an absolute perfect combination. The enemy design is amazing, with highly-detailed sprites and animations that are a joy to look at. The late Akira Toriyama’s signature style is wonderfully realized here, and battles feel more dynamic with each enemy’s lively animations for attacking and defending. Towns are delightful to explore, with stunning castles, houses, and shops that are breathtaking to look at from the outside and adorable to poke around on the inside thanks to sharp attention to detail. The dungeons all look great, too, especially with the moody lighting emitting from your hero’s lantern. Finally, the overworld feels grand to march across, and it’s all backed up with an orchestral soundtrack that fits Dragon Quest’s lighthearted, adventurous mood to a tee.

HD-2D Remake doesn’t just look gorgeous, as it has great battle and class systems to match. Apart from the Hero, whose class and spot in your party is locked in from the start, the composition of the other three spots is completely up to you, including their classes, names, and appearances. I outfitted my party with a Thief, a Priest, and my personal favorite: the all-new Monster Wrangler, who became stronger as I found and recruited friendly monsters across the world, which further incentivized exploration. It’s a ton of fun constructing your band of heroes, and I’m honestly considering a full replay where I try something entirely different given how many classes I didn’t take advantage of. There are also opportunities to reclass later in the story while retaining all the abilities your characters have learned thus far, adding even more important decisions to consider.

HD-2D Remake doesn’t just look good, it has great battles to match.

It’s just a shame that the personalities of your party members are all silent, blank slates as a result of that mechanical flexibility. That’s the same as it was in the original, but it makes for an RPG journey that’s much more about character builds, combat, and exploration rather than relationships, camaraderie, and story. It’s completely understandable that Square Enix would stick with the old style in this instance, as it did with almost everything else, but it’s hard not to miss the wonderful personalities of my party in Dragon Quest XI or the Party Chat feature seen in most modern entries of the series by comparison. But as someone who vastly prefers a barebones story compared to an overbearing one, I still thoroughly enjoyed Dragon Quest III’s focus on engaging directly with its RPG systems.

To that end, the battles themselves are fast-paced, fun, and occasionally quite difficult. Make no mistake – this is still very much a hardcore NES-era RPG, and you need to use a balanced mix of strong attacks, healing spells, and buffing/debuffing abilities to beat some of Dragon Quest III’s toughest bosses. There are some real nail-biting moments, especially later on in the campaign, and I loved using unorthodox strategies to barely squeak by fights I probably wasn’t ready for yet. Random encounters in both the overworld and dungeons are a constant factor, but they’re always enjoyable and drop essential experience points and gold, which you’ll need as much of as you can get to reach the end credits.

But if nervewracking turn-based battles aren’t your thing, there’s no need to worry. I’m incredibly impressed by how flexible HD-2D Remake is as a whole. Apart from three difficulty options you can switch between at any time (Including the Dracky Quest option, where your characters essentially can’t die), there are a ton of ways to tailor the adventure to your specific playstyle. In combat, you can speed up battle animations to get through encounters faster or watch them at normal speed to really enjoy the detailed enemy animations. You’re also given complete control over how your party behaves: In classic Dragon Quest fashion, you can give individual orders to all four party members, or choose strategies for them to execute on their own, like focusing on healing, conserving magic, or going all-out against a tough foe. It’s honestly relaxing to set the whole party to autobattle when grinding for experience points before taking control back for yourself ahead of an important boss fight. Options like these ensure the great combat remains fresh across the roughly 30-hour adventure, even with multiple sessions of grinding.

That’s partially because the Dragon Quest series is pretty good at making grinding for experience points entertaining, and this remake is no exception. If you’re a fan of the series, you know that Metal Slimes are the key to leveling up fast: Enemies with low spawn rates that drop way more experience points than the average bad guy. Discovering areas of the map where Metal Slimes are more likely to appear is exciting, and the rush of adrenaline that kicks in when you see one show up in a random encounter never gets old – like pulling a rare card from a Pokémon booster pack.

Plus, apart from the occasional level grind session, Dragon Quest III’s pacing is impeccable. You’re always being ushered from one new location to the next, constantly exploring new towns and dungeons while encountering fresh foes from the huge set of over 150 enemy types. It rarely retraces any of its steps – except for one specific recurring boss I won’t spoil that admittedly rears its ugly head a few too many times.

This remake also goes to great lengths to ensure you’ll never get lost or stuck. The Zoom spell lets you escape a tough situation to rest at an inn pretty much whenever you want, while objective markers clearly label what you need to do next to progress through the occasionally unclear and outdated main quests. However, if you want the classic Dragon Quest III experience, you can turn these quest markers off and discover everything for yourself by exploring and talking to townsfolk. It’s a great system that makes this aged RPG more approachable and playable than ever, while also preserving that original style for those who want it. It’s an ideal way to revisit a beloved adventure, and I love the pace at which this vast world slowly reveals its secrets to you piece by piece.

I love the pace this vast world slowly reveals its secrets to you.

While I was generally a big fan of Dragon Quest III’s old-school nature mixed with the HD-2D Remake’s modern improvements, there are a couple of places it could have gone a few extra steps. Inventory management is clunky, as each of your four party members only has access to their individual item bags in combat, meaning I spent a ton of time in menus transferring items from the party’s overall inventory to their individual pockets. Managing equipment comes with similar annoyances, where it’s just a bit harder than it should be to see how equipping something will impact each character’s stats. I eventually got into a rhythm of how to fiddle with these outdated menus, but it’s one place I wish had gotten more updating. (There are also just a few enemy designs that haven’t aged especially well, and probably would have been better left in the past.)

Daily Deals: Metaphor: ReFantazio, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, PlayStation 5 Consoles, and More

Many Black Friday deals are already live at retailers, and we’ve rounded up the best deals you can find today. These include PlayStation 5 Consoles, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Metaphor: ReFantazio, SteelSeries Arctis Pro Wireless, Elden Ring, Astro Bot, iPad (10th Generation), and more.

PlayStation Console Deals Are Now Live

There are many PlayStation 5 console bundles on sale today, with the start of early Black Friday deals, making this the best time of 2024 to pick up a new console. You can purchase a PlayStation 5 Digital Edition for $374.99, saving $25 and scoring a free game at no extra cost. Or, you can opt for the PlayStation 5 Disc Console, which is priced at $424.99. Sony also has the PlayStation VR 2 on sale today, with the Horizon Call of the Mountain Bundle priced at $349.99 at Best Buy.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth for $39.99

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth was one of 2024’s biggest games, continuing the story from 2020’s Final Fantasy VII Remake. Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, Barret, and Red XIII begin their journey outside Midgar, meeting characters like Yuffie, Vincent, and Cid alongside the way. This experience offers well over 100 hours of content, with 36 sidequests and a main story over 40 hours long. Plus, there are dozens of minigames to discover.

Metaphor: ReFantazio for $49.99

Metaphor: ReFantazio is the latest game from Persona 3, 4, and 5 Director Katsura Hashino and the team at Atlus’ Studio Zero. For the first time since launch, you can score the game at a discount, saving $20 this Black Friday. In our 9/10 review, we stated, “Refining the Atlus RPG formula of weaving tough turn-based combat into compelling social sim mechanics, Metaphor: ReFantazio doesn’t just send a powerful message across its political drama, it becomes a beautiful expression of the real impact storytelling can have on all of us.”

50% Off SteelSeries Arctis Pro Wireless

The SteelSeries Arctis Pro Wireless Headset is perfect for any PC or PlayStation gamer. This model includes a wireless base station, which allows you to connect two devices at once and simultaneously switch between them. Additionally, the Arctis Pro Wireless supports hot-swappable batteries, so you can swap and continue playing with no downtime needed for charging.

Elden Ring for $19.99

Elden Ring is on sale for an all-time low price today at Amazon, with PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Xbox copies available for $19.99. Additionally, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Edition is $30 off. This package includes the base game and the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion. In our 10/10 review, we said “Elden Ring is a massive iteration on what FromSoftware began with the Souls series, bringing its relentlessly challenging combat to an incredible open world that gives us the freedom to choose our own path.”

Astro Bot for $49.99

Astro Bot is on sale for the first time since launch, and there has never been a better time to pick up one of the PlayStation 5’s best games. Building off Astro’s Playroom, Astro Bot features many new abilities and bosses to fight, with over 300 bots to rescue across the galaxy. You’ll find planets modeled after beloved PlayStation games like Ape Escape and Uncharted, and even surprise third-party bots like Leon S. Kennedy from Resident Evil 2.

Ghost Cipher Special Edition Xbox Controller for $49.99

Best Buy has the Ghost Cipher Special Edition Xbox Controller for just $49.99 today. This is one of the best Xbox controllers you can buy, as it offers a unique design and maximum comfort. Not only can you use this controller with Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S, but you can also pair it with a PC or mobile device. With its transparent design, this is sure to be a talking point for any Xbox fan.

JBL Quantum 360 Headset for $59.95

Right now, you can save over 50% off the JBL Quantum 360 Wireless Gaming Headset. This headset features a detachable boom mic, memory foam ear cushions, and a 22 hour battery life. Plus, there is a game audio / voice chat control on the side, allowing you to get a perfect balance between the two. Both the Xbox and PlayStation editions of the headset are available on sale, so you can pick accordingly depending on your console of choice.

iPad (10th Generation) for $249.99

The Apple iPad can be an incredibly useful device if you’re needing something bigger than a phone. Powered by the A14 Bionic, you can sketch, create presentations, and watch content all day long, with up to 10 hours of battery life supported. The 10th Generation iPad includes support for Touch ID, Apple Pencil, Magic Keyboard Folio, and more.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard Faces ‘Uphill Battle’ to Match Inquisition’s Launch Sales, Says Analyst

Dragon Age: The Veilguard launched on October 31, and we’ve already got a tiny window into how well it’s selling. It debuted at No.6 on Circana’s report of the top selling games in the US for the full month, just after Metaphor: ReFantazio. But its placement on a single chart doesn’t quite tell the full story.

We reached out to analyst Mat Piscatella at Circana following the report to get a little more info on just how well Veilguard was doing, and he offered some context. Though it might look like Dragon Age is being soundly beaten by a number of other debut titles for the month of October, he notes that Dragon Age launched on October 31, and the chart tracks through November 2. So Dragon Age only had three days of sales reflected in the chart, while most other games on it had significantly more.

Additionally, Piscatella pointed out that EA does not provide Steam data for the best-selling titles charts, so while other games (including Metaphor) had Steam digital sales reflected, Dragon Age’s numbers are only for PlayStation and Xbox.

“Were Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s PC volume included it would have placed higher on the best-selling titles chart — perhaps as high as 3rd overall,” he says. “Unfortunately, however, digital sales are included in these specific charts only at the discretion of the publisher.”

For more info, we asked Piscatella if there was any way to compare The Veilguard’s launch sales to its Dragon Age predecessors, but Circana’s weekly data only goes back to 2018, so no dice there. However, Piscatella did have some analysis to add about how things were going:

“Just looking at the first days of sales and initial engagement levels via Circana’s Player Engagement Tracker, it’s been a good – but not great – launch,” he said. “Dragon Age: The Veilguard did not reach the launch week sales levels of either Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth or Dragon’s Dogma II, and it will be a bit of an uphill battle to reach Inquisition’s lifetime sales. But again, it’s very early and a lot of the story is left to be told. November will give us a much better read.”

Though we don’t have sales numbers for Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, Square Enix has said they did not meet their internal expectations. Meanwhile, Capcom reported that Dragon’s Dogma 2 was a success for them, having passed 2.5 million copies sold as of this past April. We do have a bit more comparison context through sales numbers in the UK, courtesy of GamesIndustry.biz. Dragon Age: The Veilguard debuted at No.7 on UK sales charts, but its first week sales were over 18% lower than those of Dragon’s Dogma 2 and nearly 21% below those of Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth.

We gave The Veilguard a 9/10 in our review, writing that it “refreshes and reinvigorates this storied series with enjoyable action combat, a fantastic cast of companions, and moving character writing.” Opinions on it have varied, though, including among our own staff. You can form your own opinion if you haven’t yet, as Veilguard is already getting a price drop for Black Friday.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

Official PlayStation Podcast Episode 501: Celebrating 30 Years of PlayStation (Part 2)

Email us at PSPodcast@sony.com!

Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or download here


What’s up, gang! The festivities for PlayStation’s 30th anniversary continue this week as the crew hears from listeners and developers about their favorite PlayStation games of all time. Plus, the crew dives into their favorite games on PSP and PS3. We’ll continue to feature listeners and developers leading up to PlayStation’s 30th anniversary on December 3 and beyond.

Stuff We Talked About

  • Next week’s release highlights:
    • Nine Sols | PS5, PS4
    • Trombone Champ: Unflattened | PS VR2
    • Snow Bros. Wonderland | PS5, PS4
  • PlayStation VR2 news on Mare, Trombone Champ: Unflattened, Masters of Light, Alien: Rogue Incursion, and Hitman World of Assassination
  • Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns new kombatant Ghostface 
  • Legacy of Kain series retrospective
  • Gran Turismo 7 – Update 1.54 adds five new cars, a new Cafe Menu, and more
  • MLB The Show 25 revealed
  • 30th Anniversary listener and developer favorite PlayStation games 
  • The podcast crew highlights personal top PSP and PS3 games (to be continued…)

The Cast

Sid Shuman – Senior Director of Content Communications, SIE

Tim Turi – Content Communications Manager, SIE

Brett Elston – Manager, Content Communications, SIE

O’Dell Harmon Jr. – Content Communications Specialist, SIE


Thanks to Dormilón for our rad theme song and show music.

[Editor’s note: PSN game release dates are subject to change without notice. Game details are gathered from press releases from their individual publishers and/or ESRB rating descriptions.]

Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel: A New Shadow Duelist and Where to Watch

On October 28, Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel announced a new Shadow Duelist has emerged. Previously, Duelists competed for the right to claim the mask of Shadow Duelist Nocturne. Now, they’re competing to unmask Axle with an added twist. The winner of the new Shadow Duelist Tournament will also get to face Axle in Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel. The match between Axle and the tournament winner will be broadcast on November 23, along with Axle’s unmasking.

IGN will carry the stream across our channels, and this watch guide will tell you everything you need to know to watch the match between Shadow Duelist Axle and their opponent, including when it starts, a list of places to watch it, and what you can expect to see.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel’s New Shadow Duelist Event Start Time

The Shadow Duelist broadcast will start on November 23 at 3pm PST / 6pm EST / 11 pm GMT. The stream will kick off with the final player match of the Shadow Duelist Tournament followed by the reveal of Axle’s secret identity and their match against the tournament winner.

Where to Watch the Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel’s New Shadow Duelist Event

If you’re curious to see the mysterious rocker’s unmasking and match in the spotlight, we’ll be hosting the show here and across our many channels on YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, Facebook, and more. Here’s the full list of IGN channels you can watch it on:

What to Expect from Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel’s New Shadow Duelist Event

Axle has been appearing on Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel social channels, talking about training for their Duel and teasing their challengers. Hundreds of players signed up for the honor of claiming Axle’s mask, but only one will get to claim the mask and face Axle. Who is behind the rockstar persona’s mask? Find out Axle’s secret celebrity identity and learn more about them when the new Shadow Duelist event airs on November 23.

Level-5’s Mech RPG ‘Megaton Musashi W: Wired’ Lands Online PvP Mode In Upcoming Update

Here’s everything included.

Level-5 returned to the West in a big way earlier this year with the release of Megaton Musashi W: Wired. Eight months on, the mech battler is landing a beefy new patch, with the ‘Megarobo Batroseum’ update scheduled to come to Switch on 26th November.

As detailed in the new trailer (above) the headline addition of this one is a new online PvP mode — fittingly called ‘Megarobo Batroseum’ — where you’ll select a mech from a limited number of pre-sets and get right into a battle. You can either invite friends or hop into a room with other fighters based on your match rule preferences. Nice.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Share of the Week: Dragon Age: The Veilguard – Companions

Last week, we asked you to highlight favorite companions in Dragon Age: The Veilguard using #PSshare #PSBlog. Here are this week’s heroic highlights:

_xFenrir shares scout Lace Harding posing with her bow and arrows on her back.

LadyCalzone shares a portrait of Mourn Watcher Emmerich bathed in the green glow of his staff.

devilishbrycevp shares a portrait of Veil Jumper elf Bellara.

esterinaska shares Shadow Dragon mage Neve in the middle of an incantation.

jdbolzan shares a portrait of dragon hunter Taash looking sullen.

xLightningWolfx shares Grey Warden elf Davrin in the heat of battle.

Search #PSshare #PSBlog on Twitter or Instagram to see more entries to this week’s theme. Want to be featured in the next Share of the Week?

THEME: Gathering
SUBMIT BY: 11:59 PM PT on November 27, 2024 

Next week, it’s time to come together. Share a moment that had characters gathering together in the game of your choice using #PSshare #PSBlog for a chance to be featured.

The RPS 101rd best game on PC

That there are more than 100 entire PC games is a revelation as shocking as it is disturbing, but despite recently spending days translating Horace’s sonorous yawps into the list that eventually became our RPS 100, a chill silence recently befell the treehouse when we realised that some of our personal favourites had somehow been excluded. Determined to right this most heinous of wrongs, and armed with the conviction that no subjectivity be allowed to exist on the internet without at least one supplementary article of caveats, we’ve all put forth a single game that absolutely should have made the list. Consider the matter closed, then, at least until we all realise we’d actually like to do a 102nd pick each.

Read more

Grand Theft Auto Community Devastated by GTA 6 Trailer Announcement No-Show After Moon Theory Proved Incorrect

Rockstar was supposed to make a GTA 6 Trailer 2 announcement today, November 22, according to a moon theory that had sent the Grand Theft Auto community into overdrive.

A year on from Rockstar’s internet-breaking GTA 6 Trailer 1 release, information-starved fans have taken to looking at images of the moon as they hunt desperately for clues on Trailer 2.

Why are they doing this? Because the moon theory was proved true for Trailer 1. Two months before Trailer 1 came out, Rockstar released a GTA Online image that included the moon in a phase (Waning Gibbous) that ended up corresponding with the day Rockstar announced the release date of Trailer 1.

Fast forward to the start of November 2024, and Rockstar’s release of another GTA Online image, below, that – you guessed it – includes the moon in the Waning Gibbous phase. The real-life moon ends its current Waning Gibbous phase today, November 22, and from tomorrow moves on to the Last Quarter phase. And so, fans thought today would be the last possible day for either Trailer 2 itself or an announcement on when it would drop.

Unfortunately for its supporters, the moon theory turned out to be false this time. 9am Eastern, when Rockstar’s New York-based parent company Take-Two tends to make its announcements, has been and gone without a peep.

The GTA community is struggling to cope with this, taking to social media, Discords, and subreddits to question their world view.

It is remarkable that Rockstar has gone nearly a year without following up GTA 6 Trailer 1 with any new information at all. With GTA 6’s fall 2025 release window on PS5 and Xbox Series X and S still on the cards, according to Take-Two, you’d expect Rockstar to pipe up sooner rather than later. But will the moon show fans the way? Or is Rockstar just messing with its fanbase, as it’s done many times in the past?

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.