Dragon Quest VII Reimagined preview: The best DQVII has ever been

Dragon Quest VII Reimagined is coming in 2026, and I’ve never been more excited for people to experience DQVII for themselves. I have a complicated history with this game, and while I know it has its fans, and rightly so, I had a very hard time getting into it. It was certainly a game with flaws, as its producer, Takeshi Ichikawa is very familiar with. In fact, that’s one of the reasons I have so much hope, so much hype for this game. The producer of the game had just as much of a hard time enjoying the original release as I did.

Being able to recognize the parts of the game that were flawed, that felt broken or unfun, and updating them is one of the biggest parts of this game. Sure, it’s pretty, and it has neat new features, but streamlining the story, cutting needless content and adding new stories is going to be what wins people over. Here’s what we know about the game after getting hands-on.

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What areas did we explore in the Dragon Quest VII Reimagined preview?

Though I only had a brief amount of time with Dragon Quest VII Reimagined, they were important plot points, and gave me a pretty good slice of the game to experience. We took to the seas, explored a few dungeons, and fought a couple of bosses. In particular, we explored the Wetlock portion of the game, as well as Burnmont in Emberdale.

An evil fire elemental trying to make a traditional ritual into a life-threatening calamity? That checks out (Image via Square Enix)

It allowed us to experience the emotional weight this remake offers in Wetlock, as well as the pure joy and challenge of dungeon crawling (in both areas) but in particular, Burnmont. Burnmont takes place pretty early Dragon Quest VII Reimagined, as one of the chapter 1 scenarios. It’s pretty straightforward, going into the dungeon to stop a terrible calamity from occurring.

However, Wetlock took place in the second chapter of Dragon Quest, with a full party, quite a few Jobs/Vocations to utilize, and a more gripping story. I won’t spoil the actual story beats for people that haven’t experienced them yet, but seeing these tragic, sad moments with these gorgeous new graphics and voice overs really amplified the emotional weight of the Wetlock scenario.

This was where the game ended for us, though we were allowed to sail around a bit in Wetlock, as well as explore some of the overworld. Being able to see enemies in the overworld and in dungeons is not uncommon in Dragon Quest these days, but the designs were just so charming.

Hey, I remember you from Dragon Quest VI! (Image via Square Enix)

The bosses were supposed to be pretty challenging, but perhaps it’s due to my lengthy experience playing Dragon Quest games, they were dashed to pieces by my party of heroes. This was no doubt in part to skill and experience, but also because of my favorite addition to Dragon Quest VII Remagined: Moonlighting.

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Moonlighting lets players have access to unprecedented control and freedom in Dragon Quest VII Reimagined

One of the best parts of Dragon Quest VII Reimagined is the Moonlighting feature. With it, players are essentially able to dual-class, utilizing two different Vocations at once. During my interview with Takeshi-san, I learned that each character that joins your party will also have a Unique Vocation that fits them, in addition to the other Vocations that they can learn and use. This is a nice addition to the game that wasn’t in the original, offering a bit more personality and power to each of the party members.

You're still leveling up Vocations, but now you can have two equipped at once (Image via Square Enix)

Being able to level jobs faster, by having two equipped is going to be really enjoyable, in addition to the fantastic new options we’ll have in terms of build variety. There are going to be lots of ways to set up a perfect party that works for you, that we never could on the PlayStation/3DS.

However, the downside is that Monster Vocations were removed from Dragon Quest VII Reimagined. They will still exist in some capacity, though, at least, as far as I can tell. We had some tokens that could be equipped to characters that featured the various monsters, and I believe that will be the replacement for Monster vocations. Overall, this is a change I’m excited for, and I hope there will perhaps be some sneaky, new Vocations, or additional abilities from previous games.

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Dragon Quest VII Reimagined is gorgeous from top to bottom

The character designs for Reimagined are top-notch (Image via Square Enix)

The hand-modeled character and monster designs in Dragon Quest VII Reimagined are glorious, I have to say. They look fantastic, and the animations for them are just grand. The maps themselves are stunning, but the real winner in this remake has to be the way the characters are modeled.

Sure, this means we’re not going to see vocational outfits for the characters that join the party, but I feel like that would’ve been entirely too expensive. That’s a sacrifice that I’m fine with, but others may not be. Overall, the color palette reminded me of Dragon Quest XI, which is far from a bad thing. It’s a game with striking visuals, amazing music. This game has a brilliant aesthetic that I can’t wait to see more of.

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Final Thoughts: How is Dragon Quest VII Reimagined so far?

My face when I had to stop playing, and go back home (Image via Square Enix)

After talking with Takeshi Ichikawa about his experience not just with DQVII, but at Square Enix overall, there isn’t anyone else that I’d want to helm this project. He worked on DQXII, which is one of the best games in the series. He got his start with Dragon Quest Builders 2, which is an underrated gem, and perhaps the best voxel building game I’ve ever played. Plus, he understands the highs and lows of this particular game.

I feel like it takes someone who is really engaged with a game in order to remake it properly, and give it the changes necessary. Sure, there is some content being removed from the game, but there will be new storylines added, and changes that will enhance the experience.

After a few hours of playing the remake, I’m excited to play DQVII for the first time since I first purchased the PSX version. Between the producer’s experience, and the smash-hit that was the Dragon Quest 1 & 2 HD-2D release, I feel very positive about what this game is going to bring, when it releases on February 5, 2026.