Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake Full Game Hands-On Preview: Switch and Steam Deck Tested
Back in 2017 when I played the first demo for what was tentatively called Project Octopath Traveler, little did I know that it would not only become one of my favorite RPGs from Square Enix, but the aesthetic would go on to feature in some of the best games the publisher has put out in recent years through Octopath Traveler II, Triangle Strategy, and the remake of Live A Live.
My first experience with Dragon Quest III was through the mobile release I read about back in 2014. Since then, I've played it on Nintendo Switch as well, and neither of these versions deliver a good enough experience. I expected Square Enix to just port that Switch version (based on the mobile release) over to more systems, but what we have here is multiple times better in every way.
When Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake was announced, I wasn't sure what to expect with quality of life features, how its timeless aesthetic would be brought over to HD-2D, and whether it would stay true to its roots.
Thanks to early codes from Square Enix, I've had a chance to play the final game's early hours on both Steam Deck and Nintendo Switch for this preview. I'm going to focus on how both of these versions of the game feel after having played every HD-2D game on all platforms since 2018. Make sure to also read our earlier previews of the remake in June from Adam and last month from Josh.
Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake final game hands-on impressions
Live A Live's remake was stunning, but I didn't have much context for the original outside of a few videos of it in motion. Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake on the other hand, is my 3rd time playing through the classic RPG, and it is breathtaking almost across the board. The HD-2D aesthetic has always felt like an alternate timeline version of how things would be if Square Enix continued refining its 2D RPGs from the 90s with modern technology, and that applies to Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake even more.
Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake is one of the few remakes I've played that seems to perfectly balance being true to its roots while delivering modern conveniences. These quality of life features can be turned off as well if you want to play it with similar features as the original, but Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake feels primed for bringing this classic to a modern audience while not forgetting everything that made it a classic in the first place.
Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake PC port features
I've played Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake on my Steam Deck OLED and LCD both docked and handheld. The PC version offers a few features above the usual performance and visual options you expect in these ports. I also tested the game with keyboard and mouse controls on my Steam Deck to see how that input method felt before moving back to using a controller when docked or the Steam Deck itself.
The additional PC features include an option to turn off depth of field, swap the confirm and cancel buttons, and adjust keyboard bindings. It also has both Xbox and PlayStation button prompts depending on the controller used. So far Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake is fully playable with just a keyboard as well, and I only used the mouse in some menus.
Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake PC graphics and display options
Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake's display options allow you to change display mode, resolution (720p, 1080p, 1440p, 4K), frame rate (30 or 60 with no option that I see to play above), and toggle v-sync. Since Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake was also developed (or co-developed) by Artdink, I assumed we'd see a similar feature set on the PC port side, but I was still hopeful for frame rates above 60fps given how Octopath Traveler II and Live A Live had support for higher frame rates.
On the graphics side, you can use the overall quality presets (low, medium, high, or custom), and adjust various settings. I love that this includes a live preview of the game behind the settings menu and a bar for overall GPU usage. The settings you can change in Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake are shadow quality, shadow area, anti-aliasing, texture quality, render scale, ambient occlusion, and toggle depth of field. These settings go from low to high or 1 to 3. The depth of field setting is notable since some folks dislike that strong effect in HD-2D games. I left it on initially, but found the effect was too strong an hour later in one early location.
Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake Steam Deck impressions
Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake is Steam Deck Verified, and it runs flawlessly out of the box. It defaults to the high preset and runs at 60fps at 720p. I capped the refresh rate on my Steam Deck OLED to 60Hz while playing since there is no support for higher frame rates out of the box.
Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake doesn't have 16:10 support and it runs at 16:9 with black bars on the top and bottom. I verified the Steam Cloud syncing as well after swapping across both my Steam Decks a few times after getting code in the 12 hours I've spent with the PC version so far.
On the Deck's screen, I have no complaints with how Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake looks at 720p and high settings. The only minor issue is some very subtle foliage shimmering that is noticeable when looking closely at the screen.
Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake Steam Deck recommended settings
Note: This might change in later areas that I can't talk about in this preview, but based on the 12 hours I've spent with this build, Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake is basically perfect on Steam Deck so far.
My Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake Steam Deck recommended settings are leaving everything to the default which is 720p and the high quality preset. This gives you great visuals and a very stable 60fps. If you want to address the minor foliage shimmering or flickering, you can run it at a higher resolution and downsample, but you will need to settle for a lower frame rate.
This is similar to games like Triangle Strategy on Steam Deck. If you want to play at 1080p, I recommend locking it to 30fps. The render scale option only having three settings isn't great. Had there been more granular control, I could've had a better solution for this minor issue.
The 1080p setting is also important if you play docked. I have a 1440p monitor so I ended up playing at 1440p with the render scale set to 1 for a 60fps target and 2 for a 30fps target by appropriately locking the frame rate in-game. This works out better than playing at just 720p across the board since the UI and menus at 720p don't look good on my monitor..
Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake Nintendo Switch final game impressions
Pre-release, I saw some folks wondering if Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake runs at 60fps on Switch based on some footage in previews or trailers. It does not. Just like prior HD-2D games, it has a softer image than native resolution and targets 30fps on Switch. I enjoyed the 8 hours I played of the Switch version in handheld mode, but wasn't too happy with how it is docked. Just like Octopath Traveler II, I stuck to handheld mode.
On the performance side, there are some minor frame pacing issues I noticed, but one specific early game town struggled to maintain 30fps in the night with lanterns and other NPCs moving around.
If you played and enjoyed prior HD-2D games on Switch, this will not be much different outside of some drops here and there. I was disappointed in the lack of HD Rumble since I enjoyed its use in the Octopath Traveler games.
So far, the depth of field option I mentioned for Steam is not included in the Nintendo Switch version. The Switch release of Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake does have depth of field, but there's no option to disable it. This post-processing effect also doesn't look as good as it does on Steam Deck.
One nice option on Steam is being able to swap the confirm and cancel buttons. I don't think many will care about this, but as someone playing Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake on both Switch and Steam Deck, this is a welcome feature so I don't press the wrong face button when swapping between platforms.
So far, Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake has exceeded all my expectations even as someone who has enjoyed every single HD-2D release so far. I still need to finish the remake and experience more of the new content included, but this is shaping up to be one of the best RPGs of 2024, and knowing what else has released so far this year, that is high praise.
Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake releases on November 14 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC (Steam).