In a recent interview with Dengeki Online, series producer Noriyoshi Fujimoto and ArtePiazza’s Shintaro Mashima discussed the trials and tribulations they went through to make Dragon Quest VII 3DS the ultimate version.
One of the many tasks at hand required them to gather all of the old documents; since Dragon Quest VII originally released before the digital era, everything was written on paper. The transfer from analog to digital took about a years time. During this process, Square Enix and ArtePiazza conjured up new additions to be put in the remake.
While the remake was in its early stages, Fujimoto did a full play-through of the PlayStation version with Yuji Horii, the Dragon Quest series creator. While playing, Fujimoto mentioned,”Even Horii realized how difficult the game was with all the problem solving and puzzles” (the PlayStation version was more of a “riddle solving adventure”). “Solving some of the puzzles felt very exhilarating at times. Whenever you got stuck in the game, the frustration would build up.” This realization lead to the development team taking a slightly different path when remaking Dragon Quest VII.
The changes include:
-Better tempo/Game pacing
-Leveling system on par with other recent Dragon Quest titles
-The number of puzzles
-More player choice
-Evac spell (used to escape from dungeons) is acquired earlier
-Class exclusive costumes
-A choice of 2 different camera angles. They can be changed at any time
While there isn’t a release date for the title outside of Japan, the Dragon Quest series has sold well enough in America and Europe to warrant a release date sometime in the future.
