Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past

Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past is a reworked version of the sprawling RPG originally released on PlayStation, this time with significantly improved graphics, faster pacing, and a reworked combat system for the Nintendo 3DS. The story follows a young fisherman who, together with his friends, discovers vanished islands from the past by assembling fragments of ancient puzzle tablets, gradually restoring lost regions and their inhabitants to the world. Each rediscovered island brings its own story episode with its own cast of characters, so the game ultimately feels like a collection of smaller, interconnected stories.

The game retains the series' classic turn-based combat with random encounters and the traditional class system, which lets characters learn skills and change classes based on accumulated experience. Compared to the original, the notoriously slow opening hours were noticeably shortened, and new quests as well as online functions for sharing data between players were added. The visuals on 3DS use a stylized cel-shading look that handles the stereoscopic 3D well, and the music was, as always, composed by Koichi Sugiyama, whose orchestral themes are among the most recognizable in the entire Dragon Quest series. The reworked character and environment models also give even the older content a surprisingly modern look.

The remake was received as a marked improvement over the original, especially thanks to the faster pace and modernized controls, even though the game's scope - dozens of hours of content - remained unchanged. The class system in particular, and the freedom it offers in combining character abilities, was among the most frequently praised elements of the whole remake. For many players outside Japan, this was the first chance to play this entry at all, making it an important moment for popularizing older Dragon Quest titles in the West and one of the most substantial JRPG experiences the 3DS has to offer.