Dragon Quest VII Reimagined Hands-On Preview – Nostalgic Yet Modern
Dragon Quest VII Reimagined was formally announced on September 12, 2025. About a month and a half later, MP1st received an invite to play an early build of the game, as work is no doubt ramping up as we near its February 5, 2026 release date. So, how’s the remake going so far? Read our Dragon Quest VII Reimagined preview to find out.
A Unique Angle
From a presentation perspective, Dragon Quest VII Reimagined is going for a color-saturated, immediately recognizable-as-fantasy color palette, with well-animated, expressive characters that are actually scans of real-life dolls created specifically to bring the classic characters to life. It’s a unique way to design character models, one that I’m not sure I’ve seen anywhere else. The effect didn’t feel obvious, I mostly thought I was looking at complete CGI. The diorama-style camera angle does make it feel like a toy set come to life, at times.
Dragon Quest VII Reimagined has streamlined the story for better pacing, and deeper character development. There will also be brand-new storylines to discover and play through, ensuring even the most die-hard Dragon Quest VII fan will have something new to look forward to when they play this remake. As someone who did not get to play the original, I can appreciate it as an added bonus for what many revere as a fun JRPG.
For our time with Dragon Quest VII Reimagined, we played a chapter involving a town being saved by an old man who at first, appears to be a cunning musician who can woo hapless citizens into a jail just by playing a melody. But there is more to the story than that, as we soon saw. Cutscenes featured voice acting, which further drove the story’s tone. This is set against the wider story, which involves collecting stone tablets or assembling them from fragments dropped by larger enemies, each of which presents some problem to solve. Once completed, they affect the world in some way, such as restoring continents that have mysteriously disappeared from this world. It’s a whimsical tale not too dissimilar to JRPGs at the time. The voice work definitely helps bring it to life.
Familiar, Traditional Combat
Combat features traditional turn-based mechanics, though you can choose to have characters automatically perform actions based on your guidance, such as focusing more on offensive, defense, or a mixture of the two, or rather to focus on healing allies ahead of everything else. These tactics can come in handy as it can be easy to forget to heal party members if you’re distracted by combat, for instance.
Difficulty-wise, at least on Normal, Dragon Quest VII Reimagined felt like a decent challenge, though not nearly on the same level as with the Dragon Quest I-II HD 2D Remake, which was decidedly more difficult, especially the first game. I don’t recall ever losing a battle, however, I did come close with at least a couple of my party members dying/needing a revive at various points throughout my time with the game. I’m sure Hard offers a good challenge for seasoned players of the original, but Normal is just fine for anyone at least vaguely familiar with JRPGs.
Expanded Vocation Options
Vocations have been reworked in this remake, now allowing for each character to dual-wield two vocations at once. This can greatly increase the variety and types of spells and abilities that become available to any given character, instantly allowing for countless variations capable of being built.
Dragon Quest VII Reimagined is shaping up to be a faithful recreation of a 25-year-old game, one that perhaps those of us who might’ve skipped it when we were busy with the latest Final Fantasy can finally check out in a better way. While you await Dragon Quest VII Reimagined’s release on February 5, 2026, why not go ahead and read (or re-read!) our review of the recently released Dragon Quest I-II HD 2D Remake, and appreciate the fact that Dragon Quest fans have been eating pretty well as of late.
Dragon Quest VII Reimagined is currently set for release on February 5, 2026 for the Nintendo Switch 1 & 2, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Steam and the Microsoft Store on Windows. Look forward to more coverage on Dragon Quest VII Reimagined as we get closer and closer to its launch early next year.
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