Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past Reviews
Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past joins the list of JRPG remasters done right on the 3DS. Instead of providing a simple upscale of the original and calling it a day, this remaster goes the extra mile by completely redoing the visuals and adding or updating gameplay elements that streamline the experience for veterans while making it more accessible to newcomers. Purists might decry some changes as dumbing down the game and nixing some of its trademark challenge. For the most part, though, this is an excellent example of how to remaster a classic.
Dragon Quest 7: Fragments of the Forgotten Past is a huge but extremely charming and endearing game and stands as one of the best JRPGs I’ve played on the 3DS.
With a lengthy adventure full of memorable story moments, Dragon Quest VII deserves a spot in every 3DS owner's library.
While there are a few hiccups along the way, Dragon Quest VII is a well-crafted classic JRPG.
Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past is a solid JRPG remake with more than enough plot and gameplay to keep RPG fans happy. The turn based battle system is light on grind, filled with Dragon Quest’s trademark cast of colorful monsters, and offers a mostly hands-off feature for fights. With an engaging story, a huge world to explore, and plenty of side quests and additional content, there are many of reasons to get lost in the past.
There is one section of the game however that felt completely overwhelming. At a certain point you’ll temporarily lose access to most of the arsenal you’ve become reliant on, making every battle a chore. There are a bunch of boss fights you have to loose to progress any further followed by a fight that you have to win that fells just like the unwinnable battles. If When you lose you’ll have to traverse the entire dungeon again until you either luck out and the boss is just an idiot or you grind for a few hours to increase your chances, I did both. Even after grinding it’s an uphill battle and the whole thing feels like it’s full of cheap deaths. If you have the patience to make it through this nightmare of a section you’re rewarded with normal gameplay and a general happiness inside.
RPG fans and people who like extensive gameplay times will absolutely fall in love with Dragon Quest VII
A charmingly old-school and endlessly engrossing title that boasts over a hundred hours’ worth of content, Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past earns a slot in any JRPG lovers’ library.
An old classic revitalized and modernized in the right ways, preserving its core and best features while streamlining other elements to make it not only more enjoyable, but also more penetrable for the average player. Highly recommended.
Reminders such as “The Story So Far” descriptions are available for the forgetful among us, and the next direction to venture will often be highlighted by talkative villagers, as is the custom. Ice-covered landmasses and lava-spewing volcanoes await. Dragon Quest VII may not rewrite the history books, but if you’re in the mood to sink into a thousand page tome, and could stand to be charmed by a smiling dollop of sentient goo, you’re in the right place.
In the end, Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past is a very sturdy Japanese RPG on the Nintendo 3DS that offers a massive world for you to explore. Best of all, it contains an interesting time travel story as you search for the antagonists and the characters you encounter are not too clichéd but help add to the overall mythology of this title. The gameplay is great and I had no issues navigating both the menu system and the gaming world with my characters.
You don’t often play an 80+ hour game that earns every second of the time it demands.
While Dragon Quest VII's remake successfully honors the original, it strays just enough away from the source material to keep it relevant
Despite a long list of small gripes, it’s hard not to see the majesty in [Dragon Quest VII]
Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past is a charming re-imagining of an RPG classic lost to the annals of time that is full of clever surprises in its complex themes and solid gameplay.
Couple those first impressions with awkward camera angles and unavoidable monsters in linear dungeons, the flaws are unfortunately quite clear. Yet with all that said, and despite the deeper, richer and more complex JRPGs flooding the market today, sometimes it’s nice to bring back the classics. After all, Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past is storytelling at its best.
It’s certainly a long game, and that can be daunting to many who just want a pick -up -and -play adventure. It also doesn’t change or revolutionize the RPG formula, but I would argue that it didn’t need to -; its simplicity is one of its best attributes. If you can put the time and effort into it, you’ll find that Dragon Quest VII is a charming, wonderful game that is full of heart - something that, in many ways, only a Dragon Quest game can accomplish.
It’s a simple, and entirely appropriate confidence in the quality of the work that led the developers to craft such a lengthy quest back in 2000, and it remains every bit as worthy today.
It is hard to make an RPG as classic as Dragon Quest VII. The series is known for not trying vastly different things in its mainline entries, rather sticking to a strict established formula that never disappoints its most hardcore fans, especially in Japan where it remains the absolute favourite role-playing experience for most. It is long and it moves slowly with its story, with lots of things to see and do on the side, and levelling up being very slow; however, it never gets boring and manages to hook players with a loveable story and characters served masterfully through witty dialogue, good visuals (if not technically very impressive), and a fantastic soundtrack by maestro Sugiyama-san. It feels very classic in its execution, yes, but the relative non-linearity and all things loveable about the game mentioned previously do contribute to making the long adventure a pleasant trip that never grows tedious. Fragments of the Forgotten Past is a great RPG through and through, masterfully remade for the 3DS, that offers what is perhaps the best value for money on the system in terms of RPG adventuring.
Dragon Quest VII is a shining example of what JRPGs can be, thanks to its lovable cast of characters, impressive and intriguing narrative, and back-to-basics approach to gameplay.