95%Nintendo Switch

This was my introduction to Dragon Quest and it did not disappoint. I think it revived my interest in JRPGs in general. Also this was probably the game I've put 100 hours into the fastest. It was that addicting to me.

The turn based combat is fun. The vocation system left me with a sense of wanting to grind and become stronger so I wouldn't say I disliked the grinding. The story was charming and almost felt like a fairy tale. Amazing game!

95%Nintendo Switch

Amazing

85%Nintendo Switch

My first Dragon Quest game.

I hesitated to start this one because first-person combat system isn't my favorite.

So I decided to borrow the game from the local library. At first, the first-person perspective bothered me. But because the other aspects of the game are so good, my "annoyance" started to fade. The story is good, and there are so many things to do besides the main story. Like the side quests and their stories. Or capturing monsters and their linked pet battles tournaments and so forth. All of these things aren't necessary to complete the main story, but are a nice addition.
It's a long story. When I thought I had defeated the final boss, it turned out to be just a stepping stone. I would spread the game over weeks to avoid burnout (I did it anyway).

I liked the job system but if you don't like grinding you might not like this one.

My only criticism is that your three helper characters are just there. There's no development for them. There's only interaction between your main character (the hero) and the NPCs throughout the story. This sometimes makes the helpers feel like pets you use during battles.

85%PC

+ Incredible graphics that blend 2D pixel sprites with 3D backgrounds.
+ Stunning global illumination, lighting effects and water physics.
+ Great optimization; stable 60 fps on max graphics settings on GTX 1070 with zero framerate drops and no screen tearing.
+ Mods (censorship removal, partial identity politics removal and various gameplay balance fixes) available to fix major issues and greatly improve gameplay experience.
+ Responsive and satisfying controls.
+ Enjoyable straightforward classic turn-based combat; animations can be sped up.
+ Difficulty can be changed at any time.
+ Party members cannot be KO'ed in battle on Dracky Quest difficulty.
+ Fully customizable party; generic party members can be recruited from the tavern and their classes (vocations) & appearances are selected by the player.
+ Class change system enables high build freedom and class mixing; party members inherit all learnt spells & abilities and a portion of their stats and their level is reset to 1 upon changing class.
+ Competent party member AI; tactics can be tweaked in menu and there is an option for manual player control.
+ Rewarding exploration; areas are full of loot hidden in plain sight and plenty of optional areas (secret spots) on the world map.
+ Functioning map and minimap that actually provides plenty of useful information.
+ Obejctive marker greatly helps with navigation to the next objective.
+ Recall system lets you save NPC dialogue that contains important quest information for personal reference.
+ Fast default movement speed; running can be toggled for even faster traversal.
+ Dynamic day/night cycle affects NPC availability and monster type spawns.
+ Monster arena and monster recruiting provide entertaining side content.
+ Excellent sound mixing; character voices are loud and clear.
+ Excellent English voice acting.
+ Iconic Dragon Quest OST.
+ Concise and well-written dialogue.
+ Puff Puff. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

- Major censorship; female character designs were heavily censored/toned down from the original game.
- Forced identity politics and cringe propaganda.
- Boring story; party members are basically empty shells with zero dialogue/interactions because they are custom created mercenaries from the tavern.
- Extremely grindy; battles give too little EXP.

75%Nintendo Switch

Pretty solid! Man, does it drag on towards the end - it’s mostly the old-school game design, I think. Gorgeous treatment on the graphics and a ton of modern conveniences.

90%PC

the post game Trials are complete garbage

80%PC

This is the definitive version of DQ3. If you don't like this game, you don't like DQ3.

85%Nintendo Switch 2

Enjoyed this one a lot more than I expected. Classic turn based JRPG combat that goes down easy. Quite a bit of charm to this game despite being an NES game at its core. I look forward to playing through the 1+2 HD-2D remasters when those come out later this year.

80%Nintendo Switch

What an adventure. Final bosses are pretty tough.

90%Nintendo Switch

I was really hyped for this game and bought it retail in Kyoto at launch. I started it in my Shinkansen rides and it was great.
Typical Dragon Quest fairytail.
Sadly I regret buying it for the Switch as the performance and looks aren't as good as on other platforms.
I'm currently replaying it on PS5 as I good it insanely cheap in a Book Off and I'm having so much fun! It looks SO good.
The game and everything in it is awesome. I'm about to collect all mini medals and monsters.

70%PC

A remake of the fabled Dragon Quest 3, I have heard the stories about the craze when this was originally released in Japan. Since I have not played the original it is difficult for me to say how faithful it is to the original. As a story and adventure I think this game holds up well to the standards of today.

Highlights for me are the visuals of the game and the sense of adventures DQ3 is able to convey. I like exploring the map for hidden areas to find monsters and items. The map also really opens up when you have access to the boat and later the ability to fly, it makes revisiting old places rewarding.

Parts of the game I dislike are the party system, I understand that this is an old game but I do really miss the band of adventurers you get together such as in DQ8 and 11. Especially since the main character is mute there is basically no interaction between the party and any of the NPCs. Furthermore I dislike that the game tells you nothing here about the personalities which the characters have. Lastly I feel like the random encounter balancing is not great in this game. At parts of the game you can easily get away with basic attacks and at later stages the random encounters can be extremely punishing, especially when they hit their Thwacks. I would have preferred to have less random encounters but have them be more challenging and more rewarding on average. Lastly, some bosses can become frustrating with the amount of status effects they hit.

Traveling around the world and ending up in Alefgard was a great surprise for me, hearing the original DQ1 music was a hit a of nostalgia and felt like a proper end of the game. Although it did feel a bit weird to just gain the ability to fly and then not having this ability in Alefgard.

Overall I find DQ3 Remake a fun experience, so many of the later Dragon Quests still draw influence from this game. However, a of few of the design choices did show their age.

70%PlayStation 5

Amazing game, amazing art and story, too bad the combat is punishing, and make it too long for Platine without bringing new concepts.

100%Nintendo Switch

Lovely experience

85%Nintendo Switch

Great in all regards, but with some inevitable rough edges that show the age of the original. Main annoyances being the lack of a proper party of characters, the Baramos twist and the boss rush at the end. Other than that, great simple story, gameplay was polished and enjoyable, graphics were beautiful and the world gave a sense of adventure like few others achive.

75%Nintendo Switch

While a very good game, I find that Dragon Quest III HD-2D did not hold up to my expectations.

The music, graphics, and gameplay are amazing, but the story is lackluster.

For a JRPG from such a renowned franchise, I expected a bigger connection between the main characters, the main enemy, the goddess of the world, etc. It felt kind of a letdown compared to other JRPGs of its time.

70%Xbox Series X/S

I'm not familiar with the original, so I can't compare it to the remake. The game itself is pretty good. The graphics are really nice, and I hope for more remakes with this style. The story is nothing special, but it does have its moments. I find the item management very outdated and cumbersome; it could have been more modern. But what almost killed the game for me were the boss fights towards the end. In my opinion, these fights are ridiculously difficult and even unfair. If you don't get every item and don't happen to have the right spells and abilities, the final bosses are just torture. It's best to use a walkthrough to remedy this. I hope that won't be necessary for the remakes of Dragon Quest 1 & 2.

95%PlayStation 5

This was my first Dragon Quest, and I completely understand why the series became such a phenomenon now. An engaging story and world, charming humor, and a battle system that obviously laid the groundwork for countless JRPG's down the line. I'm really happy this remake exists, it was the perfect gateway to the series. I'm a fan now, and can't wait to play more Dragon Quest games.

80%PC

Es un excelente remake de un juego que nunca había jugado antes. Como todo Dragon Quest, su sistema de batallas es bastante vainilla y hay algunos picos de dificultad que requieren que hagas grind algunos niveles, sino el boss que te toca te destroza.

Me gustó bastante, pero no estoy del todo seguro si jugaré los remakes de DQI y DQ2...

80%Nintendo Switch

不过不失吧。
作为一个JRPG它有的优点基本上都有，缺点也是一个不落。
有明确的任务提示这点做得还是很不错的，跟1代有不少联动也让人很惊喜。
但是暗雷实在是很折磨人，而且转职系统也相当于变相地让人加倍刷级，这一套组合下来就是大大延长了游戏的寿命，也缩短了玩家的寿命。说得严苛一点，这些无法让人感到乐趣，只是机械性的重复着同样指令重复上百次的玩法根本就是浪费生命。

95%PlayStation 5

One of the best jrpgs i've played in a long time. The post game is as hardcore as it can be.

95%PlayStation 5

Terminei o jogo no PS5, tenho 59% de progresso nos troféus, achei um grande jogo e lindo demais.

70%PlayStation 5

Charming, but dated game.

80%Nintendo Switch

Overall a fun experience. They did a great job revamping the original game. However, this was definitely not worth 60 dollars. Probably the worst HD-2D game I've played, but still enjoyable. The job system was basic, but great, and while I don't know what changes have been made to the original story, it felt like a surprisingly deep story for an NES game, though bare bones for a modern game.

80%Nintendo Switch

Very fun, however was happy to be finished by the end of the game. Scratched the itch for a classic JRPG but excited to play something more modern next .

80%Nintendo Switch

Typical clasic jrpg, with fresh look

85%Nintendo Switch

Ok so the ending was pretty cool. It made no sense how this connected to DQ1 until right at the very end. I think I’m in the mood for a more modern jrpg however as this kind of dragged on with the grinding. I really did enjoy the graphics and sound. Nice use of the hd-2d engine, and exploring the world was fun. For rpg play this year I preferred Romancing Saga 2 and Unicorn Overlord over this though.

70%Nintendo Switch

Story : 8
Gameplay : 7
Graphics : 7
Animation : 7
Sound : 7
Music : 7
Value : 7

70%Nintendo Switch

Gostei da arte e vozes. Mas combate repetitivo e aleatório fartou-me

60%PC

I really wanted to like Dragon Quest 3 HD but the more I played it, the less I wound up having fun. Ultimately, it ends up being a poorly balanced game with a lot of weird design decisions which is a shame because I actually really enjoyed the story. The top offender was the job switching system. While a great idea, Metaphor did this really well, resetting experience was detrimental and set your character's progress back to 0 for little gain. This ended up making them under-leveled for the rest of the game and an extreme handicap unless you subject yourself to mindless grinding which was slow and at a point in the game where you can teleport to virtually everywhere, so random encounters drop significantly. Combat encounters also had a ridiculous amount of status effects in the later half of the game; it was comical especially when enemies were given sometimes 2-3 attacks per monster before you could get one in. It really was deflating when I was hunting treasure chests in a dungeon filled with mimics and the mimic combat encounter was just it spamming an insta-kill ability on every party member 2-3 times a turn. At the end of the day, the gameplay was the real offender here and made the game a lot less fun than it could've been; this coming from someone who had an absolute blast with FF1 Pixel Remaster. Luckily the story was simple but great, the visuals second to none, the voice acting and soundtrack great, and it really helped invigorate my curiosity for the rest of the series including the original release of 3 which I heard was better. Will definitely still check out the 1 and 2 remakes and play through the both of them.

95%Nintendo Switch

I’ve finished the NES & GBC previously and I was excited to see the updated version. I’m happy to report it’s now the definitive version. Gorgeous graphics & iconic music kept me happy for all 92 hours. I can’t wait to play the I & II remakes now.

60%Nintendo Switch

Looks great. Difficulty balance is frustrating, I don’t mind grinding but some more room between getting stomped and being invincible would be nice. Ended up just running the game on story mode, fun enough that way. Playing this game at other difficulty would be frustrating.

100%Nintendo Switch

A beautiful remaster of a quintessential JRPG

80%Nintendo Switch

This would have been a 10/10 game on NES, probably the best RPG released at that time.

Now, it's still great, but some of the NES restrictions hold it back.

✅ Open World JRPG, for a 1988 game, pretty fantastic. Very well balanced, you need to explore after the 15 hour point as objectives are all over the map and can be tackled in any order.
✅ Classic Dragon Quest Music, Art and style
✅ It's fun, and the story, while basic, is good.

❌ Changing Jobs is a bit of a chore. You don't save your previous jobs level, so if you change back to an old job, it's level 1 again. Becoming a sage takes an extra step, and honestly because there are only 8 jobs, make 2 members a sage (for offensive magic, healing and revive), and have 1 monster wrangler. Other jobs are useless after learning some basic skills (e.g. thief - nose for treasure).
❌ High encounter rate - Discourages exploration
❌ Pretty lame post game. I'm not a fan of repeating dungeons with new enemies
❌ Overly ambitious. Dozens of temperaments, but only 2-3 useful ones. 8 jobs, but only 2 are worthwhile. So what's the point?

Overall, I enjoyed this game, but I still like Dragon Quest 1 more. DQ1 is JRPG comfort food. It's simple with 1 playable character, and can be finished in 4-10 hours.

DQ3 is a bit much, it's a large game, and with the high encounter rate it can feel like a chore exploring. The job and temperament system is also really flawed.

The main world, imitating Earth, is cool. Jipang (Japan) was really cool to visit, and overall I enjoyed the game.

Basically if you like Dragon Quest, you'll enjoy this game, but in my opinion it's not a standout like V, VIII or XI.

My DQ ranking

(Best)
XI
V
VIII
I
III
(Worst)

I've haven't played the rest.....yet.

90%PlayStation 5

I really liked this game. Great control over what you want in a party. Can combine classes over time. Beautiful hd2d graphics make every game better. Music is decent, nothing amazing.

My first Dragon Quest. Will probably preorder the next remakes this year.

Searching for mini medals and friendly monsters is the most tedious bullshit going. It's 2025, wish it had a checklist.

70%Nintendo Switch

A beautiful remake with amazing pixel art and good musical arrangements. I enjoyed all the little story additions and the combat was as fun as ever. Can't wait for the 1 & 2 remakes.

90%PC

This is the second Dragon Quest game I've finished (first one being XI) and I gotta say it was an amazing time. I love the story and the characters you meet on this journey, the music is also fantastic. I was worried the older look and style of this would be off putting for me, but the game is beautiful and plays great. My only negative about this game is that the inventory system was not super organized, but that's just me nitpicking. I can't wait for the I and II remake, hopefully they actually release this year and there's no delays.

80%PC

Dragon Quest III is a game with a tremendous legacy that deserves the utmost respect for helping kickstart the birth of a sub-genre hot off one of its best years ever. But it's also a game weighed down by its legacy baggage, drowning in the sea of outstanding contemporaries it helped inspire. It's a funny situation it finds itself in, where its age is both a redeeming factor and its damning flaw.

Over thirty years removed from the original release, modern game design expectedly moved on, into big overarching narratives, deep progression/battle systems and sprawling seamless worlds. But does this make DQ3 obsolete? Or does it make the old feel new again? I can't lie to you, it's a bit of both and I could put two thousand words here dissecting it all, but spend more than a few hours with this and you won't deny the indelible charm of this game's rather simplistic hero's journey. And coming off the back of Metaphor ReFantazio's evocative character-driven epic, it's been fun to unwind with an experience that's so stripped back.

Running from dinky town to dinky town, you set on a quest to save a mostly empty world, taking just a few steps before the next random encounter slaps you in the face and peels off the lull of the game's overworld theme. You spam the same three attacks, clear the fight and enjoy the next five or so steps before the next one. If you're a sane person, you likely hate random encounters as much as me. It weighs the whole experience down into tedium, a tedium that the DQ3 experience is defined by. But somewhere in all that is a sort of indescribable relaxation found in this game's endless grind.

Away with the cynicism though. The thing I loved most was something added specifically for this remake - the monster wrangler and the newly reformed monster arena battles. You don't know how much you desire something until you've been handed a creature-collecting minigame where I find four-armed monstrosities (and then name them "Steve" for some reason). It gives me another reason to explore and a break from the demands of my straight-arrow adventure. It's a great addition. What else do I love? The music. Specifically Ramia's Flight, like wow. Only at that moment, soaring into the sky, did I truly feel the weight of the journey and believe in the promise of this mystical world.

But really, I very honestly have no idea how to feel about this one, you'd expect more conclusive thoughts after a little over forty-five hours, but I'm gonna have to let this experience sit in my mind. Do I hate it? Far from it. But do I love it? Well, no. More importantly though, for this "review", do I recommend it? All day, every day. It's addictive, focused and visually superb. It's also occasionally repetitive and frustrating. But any fan of JRPGs or even RPGs in general, will immediately realise the particular allure of this one. It's special, very special.

8/10.

(Played on Steam Deck OLED at 720p50fps at Max settings with 10-14w of power draw and 3-5hrs of battery life.)

85%PC

A great but imperfect remake.

90%Nintendo Switch

Soy de finales de los 90 y cogí este juego teniendo 0 nostalgia por la saga ya que de pequeño tiraba por otras cosas, desde el principio conecté con el mundo, con su sencillez, con ese sentimiento de aventura, con el sentimiento de ser un héroe.
En mi caso, lo que no me gusta de los JRPG actuales es la dificultad (entiendo que siempre puedes ponerte el modo difícil pero me gusta que la experiencia original ya sea un reto), siento que ahora los juegos de este género intentan romper ese nicho (y a la vez lo entiendo) pero hace que se pierda esa magia que veo era más generalizada en la época.
Si te atrae esto de lo que hablo y no te importa el farmeo, que me parece inevitable, te recomiendo este juego.

90%PC

What a great example despite being so oldschool. Story was minimal of course and the endgame got a little tedious.

75%PlayStation 5

75%

100%Xbox Series X/S

The original was one of my favorite NES games as a kid, and this remake is both an homage and one of the best remakes I have ever played. They managed to make the game fresh and introduce numerous QoL elements, while maintaining the feel of the original adventure. The design of the towns and dungeons are absolutely beautiful. The battle system was fun and the game has some rather challenging boss fights. The additional background for Ortega's journey was really welcome and well done.

Some questionable features are included, but generally toggle-able and not required. While I mostly played on Draconian (hard), the Dracky (easy) mode lets you survive with 1hp in any battle. I found this useful in the post game as well as grinding, especially as XP gain is much slower on hard (not great design IMO). The game also can show you everywhere you need to go, rendering a lot of the exploration and many items and conversations pointless. Ramia is PAINFULLY slow. And the pointless inclusion of "Appearance A/B" when its otherwise treated as male/female in every other aspect of the game is bonkers. I know others are disappointed by the lack of the TNT boards, but I'm personally fine with it.

Overall, one of the best games of all time got a remake that honors everything great about the original. My only hope is that in the future when this game is remade again- its a fully realized 3D version.

85%Nintendo Switch

Jogo muito lindo, com história simples, sem muitas reviravoltas ou informações jogadas, direta e objetiva, como os jogos clássicos são. Quanto a gameplay é padrão RPG old school, tem que ter paciência e se dedicar para evoluir no game. O jogo tem dificuldade mediana, porém em razão das batalhas aleatórias e de turno, pode se tornar muito cansativa em pouco tempo, principalmente a parte final do game, que para mim deixou o jogo menos divertido e mais estressante. O sistema de up dos leveis é cansativo e pouco recompensador, a evolução tende a ser mais lenta nos níveis maiores. Dito tudo isso, é um jogo gostoso de se jogar, porém é necessário avaliar antes se este tipo de game é para você, eu vim de uma sequência de RPG's de turno mais modernos como: Super Mário RPG e Sea of stars, ambos mais dinâmicos, então vale fazer essa reflexão caso decida jogar. Por fim, minha nota final para o game é 85/100, as mecânicas datadas me deixam mais cansado que imaginei, o game é divertido porém cobra muito na sua evolução. Recomendo o game, porém deve-se levar em consideração os pontos negativos.

35%Nintendo Switch

A frustrating game where the only redeeming factors are exclusive to the remake. There were some neat ideas in the game but the legacy mechanics were overbearingly annoying.

85%PC

Even with a quest marker, you'll get lost.

Otherwise, a perfect remake to a classic with much needed QOL updated

90%PlayStation 5

Dragon Quest 3 HD 2.5 masterfully combines the nostalgia of its classic story with a refreshed 2.5D style. The gameplay remains solid, offering a timeless RPG experience that captivates both veterans and newcomers. Its visual design and added details enhance the experience, though there's room for a bit more surprise.

Highlighted Achievements:

Mini Medals: 110
Arena Rank: 11
Tamed Monsters: 121
Monster Types Defeated: 163/163 (100% complete!)
Item Types Obtained: 296/300

80%Nintendo Switch

I enjoyed this game it is really impressive to be based off a game that came out in 1988. The remake looks great, it does run quiet poorly on the switch especially in certain towns. H2DD is a really cool art style and I would like to see and or play other games using that are style. I am very thankful for some of the quality of life features that were added, I would not have continued to play if there was no way to increase the battle speed. The overall game story and gameplay are quiet simple and are truly embody the old school RPG expectantly so as it is one of the games that truly set the standard for years to come. When looking at the game as a game from 88 I can respect it but in a lot of ways I did not truly enjoy the old school RPG mechanics. It is probably just because I have played such good JRPGs at this point that had so much better QOL improvements that it is hard to walk back in time. Random encounters are only so much fun, games that don't scale up and require you to grind to fight the bosses are annoying, there being almost no emotional attachment to any of the characters as well. The story is simple and just kind of sends you around to do random things some are fun while others feel like chore. Sometimes the game felt like a game better suited almost a second screen game, where you don't need to give your full attention. Things just wore thing for me around the 30 hour mark and I really had to motivate myself to finish. I am excited for DQ12 it is probably still a ways out but I don't envision myself playing the one and two remake. Maybe there will be even more changes that enhance the game more, but I don't think there will be anymore.

90%Xbox Series X/S

Good, solid turn based RPG
but the random encounter rate is high

75%PlayStation 5

Great Game, Cant wait for the remakes of the first two.