Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past Nintendo 3DS Review - A Long Journey, but Not a Draggin' Quest

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Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past is a game about rebuilding a shattered world. Appropriately, when you play this Nintendo 3DS remake of Square-Enix's 16-year-old RPG, it's clear the gleaming new adventure is built on the bones of an ambitious but deeply flawed relic of the PlayStation era.

The original Dragon Quest VII – initially released on these shores as Dragon Warrior VII – is still considered a good RPG, but it swishes far below greatness for a significant reason: The adventure is as bloated as a dead gasbagon fermenting by the side of a river. Though many of us (myself included) missed out on Dragon Warrior VII when it had its first go-round, it's still widely known as the RPG nobody finished because to do so requires at least 100 hours of your life.

It's not as if the entirety of that time investment goes into exploring cool new areas, either. Instead, you drift through a series of archipelagoes in search of the fragments that are necessary to restore the world to its former glory. In turn, that means stumbling through winding dungeons and going up against endless chains of random encounters.

As the words "review in progress" indicate, I'm not yet done with Dragon Quest VII for the 3DS. I can confidently say it won't take me 100 hours to get through its main storyline, though. I can also say, thankfully, that not a single minute of the 50+ hours I've spent with the game thus far feels like a waste. Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past is nearly 100% muscle-meat. No fat, no filler, no gristle.

Well, almost no filler. The vital story transition from "humble fisherman's son" to "stick-wielding adventurer" takes about 90 minutes. Once you hit the ground, though, it's all hustle and bustle.

Like other games in the series, Dragon Quest VII's overarching story is simple good-versus-evil fare. In this instance, a struggle between God and the Devil led to most of existence being wiped away aside from the small island you're born on. When it becomes apparent you're the Destined Hero (that mark on your arm ain't for show, boy), you must find fragments of tablets that let you travel back in time, cure whatever's ailing those ancient continents, and allow them to return to the peaceful sunshine of the present.

Though Dragon Quest VII's story appears oatmeal-flavored from the outset, its appeal is in its individual events, not its bigger picture. Every island you visit and liberate has unique problems. The first realm you free is a standard "Help, monsters are oppressing us" scenario, but things quickly become more interesting. On one island, people have been turned into animals. On another, a poison rain is turning people into stone. On yet another, the monsters are seemingly at bay even though its human denizens have turned on each other. And so on.

Dragon Quest VII's story value comes from the people you meet and watching their lives transform as you help them out of their jams. Incidentally, "saving" the world in the past doesn't necessarily spell the end of trouble in the future. There isn't always a tidy solution or a happily ever after, and it's these twists that keep you invested. Simply put, there's an excellent story here that's well-paced (outside of the game's first hour or so, you're rarely expected to sit still while people jaw at you for ages), and it's nice to be able to experience it without burrowing through hours of aimless dungeon-crawling and tablet-hunting.

The Dragon Quest VII 3DS remake team actually set out specifically to make a slimmer, trimmer, and more accessible game than the original, and it's a job well done. Gone is the guesswork that infamously sucked the fun out of Dragon Warrior VII. A "tablet tracker" that lights up whenever a piece is in the vicinity makes tablet-hunting painless, as does a hint system that gently points you in the direction of missing pieces if you find yourself befuddled.

The tracker and hint system blend well with other new time-saving features, like complete maps of every town and dungeon you enter, and the elimination of random encounters. As in Dragon Quest IX, your foes are visible on-screen. They may charge you if you're spotted, but it's usually not hard to give them a wide berth, especially in open areas. And if you're a higher level than they are, they'll ignore you or outright flee. Many of Dragon Quest VII's dungeons are full of twists, turns, and dead ends. It's easy to see how Dragon Warrior VII's lack of decent maps combined with random encounters would make for an agonizing journey.

But my very favorite thing about Dragon Quest VII is its accessible and streamlined job system. As is typical of Dragon Quest games, jobs are your primary means of picking up skills and spells. There are dozens of the gosh-darn things in Dragon Quest VII, including several monster-based vocations. It's an intimidating realization until you realize most job-switches don't require you to also juggle your equipment, nor do they penalize you if you're using the "wrong" type of equipment. Ruff the wolf-boy can be a boomerang-wielding Monk if you want him to be, and the game never wags its finger at you. This non-prejudiced job system makes experimentation a breeze.

Don't be fooled into thinking the new Dragon Quest VII is underweight, however. Even with all its filler blasted out, it's still an adventure of considerable heft. As I stated earlier, I'm over 50 hours into the game and I'm still not done. I can see the sun peeking over the horizon, but I'm not quite there. And I know the game won't be "over" once I've restored peace. There are still Tiny Medals to hunt, monsters to tame, and traveller's tablets to collect. Traveller's tablets work much like the treasure maps from Dragon Quest IX and are similarly sharable via StreetPass, so if you enjoyed sinking hundreds of hours into Dragon Quest IX's post-game, prepare to keep Dragon Quest VII nestled in your 3DS's cartridge slot for a long time.

(Unless you download it to your SD card.)

I'll pile on more observations about Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past day-by-day until I finally plunge my sword into the Devil's heart (or the heart of whatever abomination is waiting for me at the end of all this). For now, it's an easy recommendation for RPG fans of all shapes, sizes, and stripes. If this is your first crack at Dragon Quest VII, welcome to the fold. And if you were burned by Dragon Warrior VII in 2000, don't be afraid to downsize.

ConclusionIf a traditional menu-based RPG that spans nearly 100 hours isn't your idea of a good time, run away from Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past. Run away *screaming*. On the other hand, if you want to tuck into a great RPG for months at a time, you couldn't ask for a better companion.

Part 2

Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past is a great-looking RPG. While it'd be nice to philosophize about how its creative monster designs and fluid animations are a fitting send-off for the aging Nintendo 3DS hardware, there isn't much point: The game's already three years old in Japan.

Still, Dragon Quest VII 3DS's visuals are definitely worth jawing about since the original PlayStation game is still dinged for not looking so hot. In fact, Dragon Warrior VII's squat sprites and stiff enemy animations are barely a step up from 1995's Dragon Quest VI on the Super Famicom.

While a game's legacy shouldn't lean heavily on its graphics, sweet visuals never hurt anyone's feelings. And since Dragon Quest VII 3DS that requires a significant time commitment (especially if you plan to grind vocations), there's nothing wrong with being surrounded by imaginative foes that move and attack in creative and endearing ways.

Dragon Ball manga-ka Akira Toriyama is behind Dragon Quest VII's visuals as per series tradition. Also per tradition, his designs for the game's human characters are fine, but the monsters are the real celebrities. Dragon Quest VII's world is populated by huge furry beasts, chunky dragons, oodles of oozy slimes, and even some genuinely unsettling critters (don't look into a Well Wisher's eyes for too long).

Also per series tradition, it's possible to befriend some of the monsters you encounter. After administering a smackdown to a foe, it may struggle to its feet and regard you with puppy-dog eyes. You're then given the option to let the poor thing live in "Monster Meadows," a safe haven where monsters live peacefully. You can then send said monsters out to hunt for traveller's tablets. A busy Slime Knight is a happy Slime Knight.

Unfortunately, the monsters can't fight for you a la Dragon Quest V, nor do many of them speak your lingo, barring the Slimes capable of understanding the "gooman" language.

On the topic of dialect, Dragon Quest VII 3DS utilizes the same style of localization we've seen in modern Dragon Quest games going back to 2005's Dragon Quest VIII. In other words, get ready for a wide span of English accents and slang, in addition to all manner of Irish brogues. Your preference for this style of translation / localization may differ, but I personally love being pelted by cockney insults from an irate shopkeeper when I snoop through their wares.

That said, the dialects that aren't emulating the English or the Irish can be tiring to read. This is admittedly a complaint I've had with Dragon Quest's otherwise-excellent localizations for a long time. While care goes into making sure the English- and- Irish-flavored dialogue doesn't simply tack "guv" and "aye" onto its sentences and call it a day, no other "nationality" gets the same nuanced treatment. The "French" characters just use random French words and say "ze" instead of "the," and the "Spanish" characters likewise deliver half of each sentence through Google Translate.

While the shoddy dialects don't damage Dragon Quest VII 3DS's overall story or characters, reading them sometimes feels like trying to focus on a book while you're driving over a series of speed bumps. If the job's only half-done, I'd rather not have the dialects there at all.

Barring the English and Irish slang, of course. I never want that stuff to go away. If Dragon Quest's monsters ever stop making cracks about my heroes' "gormless faces," that's the day I hang up my sword.

ConclusionIf a traditional menu-based RPG that spans nearly 100 hours isn't your idea of a good time, run away from Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past. Run away *screaming*. On the other hand, if you want to tuck into a great RPG for months at a time, you couldn't ask for a better companion.

Part 3

When I started this review of Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past, I said I was confident the game wouldn't take me 100 hours to complete, unlike its PlayStation predecessor. Ha ha! That was a good joke! I'm such a card.

Yeah, if you intend to settle down with Dragon Quest VII, you can expect to put in between 80 to 100 hours of your life. The number fluctuates depending on how much you want to grind your vocations, as well as how thorough you want to be searching for Mini Medals and Traveller's Tablets. But even if you plan to blaze through the game as quickly as possible (good luck), you should hug your loved ones and leave behind a month or so of frozen dinners that can be easily heated up.

I can't hold Dragon Quest VII's length against it, though. The game arguably lets you know from its earliest moments that while it is a more streamlined play than the PlayStation title, you're not taking on a lightweight quest. You have to wait one to two hours before you get to harass your first Slime, and shortly thereafter you learn about how you need to collect shattered tablet fragments in order to resurrect the world sleeping around you. When you first see the pedestals that hold the fragments, that's your first indication that there are a lot of pieces to collect. A few minutes later, it becomes clear you have to dart between timelines in order to do so.

The story is also a very slow burn. It takes ages for you to get a clear picture of what's going on, and a good idea of who your foe is. That's fine, though. This is a story about the apocalyptic struggle between God and the Devil. It shouldn't be the kind of thing you can tuck away in a single weekend.

One point that should be emphasized is that while Dragon Quest VII is certainly a long game, it's still very digestible. As stated earlier in the review, its accessible maps and lack of random encounters keep dungeon spelunking from becoming a tedious slog. You can focus on finding treasures, collecting Mini Medals, and adding monsters to your Big Book of Beasts. If you do actually become thoroughly tired of running into enemies (some dungeons have narrow passageways, which makes scooting around foes difficult), Holy Water or the low-cost Holy Protection spell will keep them out of your hair for a considerable time.

That said, there are still some moments in Dragon Quest VII that could stand some fat-trimming, especially towards the end of the game. You wind up making repeat trips in certain dungeons, and while there are sometimes new enemies and new treasures to discover in these familiar lands, you're just as likely to slog through the same terrain and same set of foes as the first time. It probably won't make a significant impact on your overall enjoyment of the game, but it's still a noticeable instance of repetition.

Is there such a thing as a Dragon Quest game you can zip through, though? While the first title is barely a mouthful by today's standards, it seemed to stretch on forever in the heyday of the Famicom and NES. Dragon Quest / Dragon Warrior II, III, and IV were likewise epic. It's only natural that Dragon Quest VII 3DS piles on the hours, and given how few of those hours are spent searching in vain for a dungeon's exit while simultaneously running into random encounters, I really can't complain about the game's length. I enjoyed every minute I spent unravelling the past in order to save the future, and if you're a fan of traditional JRPGs, I suspect you will too.

Now I need to get a bunch of stuff out of the way in anticipation for Dragon Quest VIII 3DS.

ConclusionIf a traditional menu-based RPG that spans nearly 100 hours isn't your idea of a good time, run away from Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past. Run away *screaming*. On the other hand, if you want to tuck into a great RPG for months at a time, you couldn't ask for a better companion.