Dragon Quest VII Reimagined

Main series games Dragon Quest VII Reimagined Developer(s) Hexadrive Co., Ltd Publisher(s) Square Enix Designer(s) Yuji Horii Series Dragon Quest Platform(s) Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Steam Release date(s) Nintendo Switch
^INT Febuary 5, 2026
PlayStation 5
^INT Febuary 5, 2026
Xbox Series X/S
^INT Febuary 5, 2026
Steam
^INT Febuary 5, 2026
Genre(s) Console role-playing Mode(s) Single-player

Dragon Quest VII Reimagined is the second remake of Dragon Quest VII, announced on September 12th 2025. Unlike the Nintendo 3DS remake released in 2013 that implemented modest balance adjustments compared to the original, Reimagined is a total reworking of the adventure that changes several elements to provide a different experience. Certain aspects that were added in the Nintendo 3DS remake have been retained, such as Ruff riding on the back of his adoptive mother and the unnamed Faerie guide dwelling in the Shrine of Mysteries, newly dubbed The Caretaker. A demo that covers up to the conclusion of the Ballymolloy scenario was released on January 7th, 2026.

New features

Presentation changes

• Characters are displayed in a handcrafted artstyle and the environments are presented as dioramas, not unlike Square-Enix's Fantasian
• The proportionate size of characters in relation to the environments has been returned to the original PlayStation scale, compared to the compressed 3DS version
• The game is rendered in Unreal Engine 4 like many of Square Enix's recent games including Dragon Quest XI and the HD-2D remakes of the Erdrick Trilogy.
• A character's weapon and shield are now displayed in battle similar to Dragon Quest VIII and Dragon Quest XI
• Characters can equip alternate outfits similar to Dragon Quest XI S.

Character changes

• The Caretaker has more personality and a defined backstory, no longer being just a means to simplify the Shrine of Mysteries
• Pollock now has light brown hair instead of black
• Pike stockpiles water from Rainbow Cove to sell to his marks, terminating the infamous empty bottle problem from the original
• The story of the present-day Roamers has been altered so that Aishe joins the party much sooner than in past versions, before Sir Mervyn
• Barbatoses and fandangows now have their usual appearance, compared to both prior versions of the games where the former monster was flesh colored and the latter monster was blue colored.

Scenario changes

• The Castle Estard bank has been replaced with a mini medal exchange, granting players access to prizes much sooner
• The process of opening the Shrine of Mysteries has been altered considerably:

• Kiefer has filched the sizzling stone off of Pike and brought a tablet fragment with him, using both on the statue after his late mother's ring doesn't work, saving the player the trouble of walking back and forth across Estard to acquire them
• A voice speaks through the statue and instructs the Hero and Kiefer to complete puzzles hidden through the island to obtain three fragment shards in order to be granted access to the shrine. Eventually, the voice that instructed them through the statue is revealed to be The Caretaker when Auster and Kiefer finally gain access to the Shrine of Mysteries.
• Dermot the hermit has locked the way to one of these puzzles after being unable to complete it in his youth

• Beyond the opening the game is considerably more non-linear than before, allowing players to tackle the problems of the past in nearly any order provided the requisite tablet fragments have been found
• The player also has more agency within a given island scenario than before. For example the player's decisions influence the strength of the boss sealing Ballymolloy and the ending of that adventure can be slightly altered
• The Rainbow Cove is now accessible from the overworld, instead of needing to enter through the Shrine of Mysteries
• Fragment locations have been changed and a checklist has been added to the system menu to keep track of them
• Regenstein, Greenthumb Gardens, Vogograd, and Nottagen were made optional and removed from the main storyline.

• Due to El Ciclo's removal from the game, the second visit to Greenthumb Gardens thirty years later takes place immediately after the first.
• A new alternate ending for Vogograd has been added, which causes its citizens to preserve the truth instead of twisting it.
• The Pillar of Sulkk has been removed from Nottagen, making Moostapha responsible for the darkness covering the island instead of Sulkk.

• New boss battles added such as Florin's new monster form
• New scenarios that elaborate on the Hero and Maribel's childhood have been added
• New scenario featuring an older Kiefer has been added, with the option to have him rejoin the party as a guest in the Cathedral of Blight.
• A battle arena has been added, with one section including the three archfiends from the Erdrick Trilogy
• Several new monsters have been added to the game's bestiary in addition to the three archfiends, ranging from common enemies such as slimecicles and toadies to boss characters such as Atlas, Robbin' 'Ood, and even Xenlon
• The fog over Vogograd at Mount Gora by Gasputin is now generated by hammerhoods instead of forky pigs

Cut content

• The woodcutter and his cabin east of Pilchard Bay have been removed.
• The El Ciclo, Gröndal, & Providence scenarios have been removed.

• The Time Being and Grody Gumpdrops have been moved from Inside the Time Frame in El Ciclo and Grody Grotto in Greenthumb Gardens to the Malign Shrine and Cave to Another World, respectively.

• The casinos, the Excellence Grading Organisation, the Immigrant Town, and Monster Meadows sidequests have been removed, though the prizes originally acquired through these sidequests have been retained and are available through other methods. Bonus equipment that was added in the Nintendo 3DS remake is also retained
• The vocation uniforms seen in the 3DS version have been removed, with characters retaining their default appearance as in the PSX original

Battle changes

• All five heroes can now travel together, with the fifth being a backup character to be swapped in at will during battle
• Just like the 3DS remake, random encounters have been replaced with on-screen monsters
• The player can now attack monsters outside of battle for minor damage and even one-shot weaklings, similar to Nintendo's Paper Mario

• Monsters defeated this way can still drop their items as normal

• Characters now have their actions selected individually once their turn comes up as in Dragon Quest XI, instead of the party's actions being selected together at the start of a turn
• New spells have been added, such as the Crag, Deceleratle, Frizz Cracker, Kerfrizz, & Moreheal spells, and fourth-tier attack spells such as Kaswooshle
• The Woosh-family of spells now target random foes instead of a single group. The range increases by tier, such as Woosh hitting 2~3 foes & Swoosh hitting 2~4
• New skills have been added, such as Clap Trap, Hip Drop, Hymn of Light, and Kiss Me Deadly
• Certain abilities have had their MP cost rebalanced, such as Maelstrom taking 16 MP instead of 12
• The Charm, Deftness, Magical Mending, and Magical Might stats have been added

• As a result the Style and Wisdom stats have been removed

• Shields have a chance to block 100% of a physical attack's damage as in Dragon Quest IX, Dragon Quest X, and Dragon Quest XI

Vocation changes

• Vocation advancement is no longer based on the number of battles fought while in a given profession, instead using a secondary experience point system where stronger enemies award more points than weaker ones
• New exclusive starter vocations have been added for every character to increase their ability repertoire in the early portions of the game before accessing Alltrades Abbey

• For example Ruff starts in the Wolf Boy (オオカミ少年) vocation and Aishe begins as Destiny's Dancer

• Characters can now take up two vocations simultaneously in a featured dubbed moonlighting
• All vocations now feature exclusive perk abilities that trigger when a character is thoroughly worked up in battle and selects the Let Loose command, ranging from powerful attacks to life-saving buffs
• All spells and skills learned through a vocation are now tied to that vocation, meaning for instance that a Pirate will not be able to perform the Flying Knee skill unless the character is also moonlighting as a Martial Artist. This restriction is stricter than that found in the Nintendo 3DS remake, in which all abilities learned through beginner-grade vocations were permanently available to a character, but it also adds another layer of strategy in assigning vocations and reduces the overabundance of techniques that cluttered a character's command menu in past versions of the game

• The Hero's exclusive spells, The Great Leveller and The Greater Leveller, are permanently tied to him regardless of his vocation

• Monster vocations have been removed and monster hearts have become a new type of accessory that grant monster-themed traits to characters, similar to the Monster Battle Road badges in Dragon Quest X and medals in Dragon Quest Treasures
• The Monster Master vocation replaces the Monster Masher vocation
• Characters can change vocations on the fly after being given the career sphere by High Priestess Jacqueline, which is automatically assigned to a shortcut button. Using it will allow Jacqueline to telepathically change a character's vocation, and in the present her descendant Jacqui will handle the duties

Miscellaneous changes

• You can pet the cats and dogs by interacting with them, in keeping with the Hero's kindly nature.
• Zoom now functions as it does in the HD-2D remakes of the Erdrick Trilogy, allowing the player to fly to shrines and dungeons as well as towns and castles. It can now be used in the past as well, though the player cannot travel outside of an island's scenario

Development

In a brief video published on the day of the game's announcement, producer Takeshi Ichikawa states that the subtitled of "Reimagined" was chosen as the game changed so much of the original's content. The narrative has been reworked extensively, with new scenarios being added while others were removed to improve the original game's infamous pacing. Yuji Horii notes that searching for fragments is much easier than before. Real-life figurines were scanned to create the in-game models for the six main characters, with the developers dubbing this approach the "diorama style". These figurines were created by Studio Nova, a celebrated atelier company founded in 1970, and the studio's work was then used as the template to base the secondary characters and monsters on. A panel previewing the game was held on September 26th 2025 for the Tokyo Game Show, and live-streamed on youtube. During the panel Horii announced which scenarios and features from past versions of the game would be cut for this remake, in addition to showing footage exploring Aeolus Vale.

In an interview with V Jump magazine Ichikawa explained that the use of dolls and dioramas came about once he discovered games that used such methods for their own art style, and felt it was an appropriate match for the pseudo-chibi character designs Akira Toriyama created for the PlayStation version. Each doll took several months to complete, beginning with a rough model that was made to match the original illustration's proportions and reworked until it became satisfactory while the texture of its clothing was finalized.. The diorama style for the game's environments was implemented to match these dolls, with Ichikawa intending for players to feel like they are exploring a miniature garden . The other characters, environments, and monsters were designed to match the dolls and enable the development team to push for a high degree of texture realism that didn't compromise the game's atmosphere.

A main goal of the project was to trim down the original's infamous size to make it more approachable and faster-paced to play. To this end it was proposed to remove scenarios that were less relevant to the overarching narrative became optional side quests and certain scenarios were cut altogether, resulting in a denser structure that did not lose its focus. Horii made many proposals on the game's new structure over the course of development and reviewed the ideas pitched by the main creative staff―Ichikawa, scenario lead Sayaka Takagi, & director Masato Yagi―in order to fine tune the game. Horii found the trio to be so capable that he entrusted the game's storyline to them. One of Horii's main priorities in altering the game's structure was to have Aishe join the party much sooner than before: this decision was made on the grounds of her joining so late in previous versions meant players did not truly get the feeling of travelling with her and because he found the lengthy stretch where the party is just a three-man team to be unsatisfactory. To this end the story was altered so the three-man party phase was shortened to just the Alltrades Abbey and Al-Balad segments right after Kiefer leaves, with additional embellishments given to Aishe and the Roamer's scenario.

Ichikawa proposed to Horii that Kiefer return to the group as an adult very early in the game's development, citing that many players were curious of what became of the prince after his sudden departure. Horii reflected that the last word from Kiefer was the message he left behind on a tablet in the game's ending, and agreed to the idea. This lead to a brainstorming session to hammer out the details on the timeline of events from Kiefer's perspective and his middle-aged design, with Horii highlighting his facial hair as a key element. The flashback scene that shows how the Hero and Maribel became friends when they were small children was written to give the girl some added depth and to explain her beginnings as a pioneer tsundere in Japanese media ; this new scene replaces the lengthy portion of the game where Maribel leaves the party to tend to her sick father with a brief scenario that never leaves Pilchard Bay. This new scenario has the added benefits of giving depth to Maribel's parents and to Pearl, the Hero's mother, while also eliminating the infamous design flaw where players could soft-lock themselves out of the game dozens of hours into the story if they accidentally left the empty bottle in Maribel's inventory when she leaves the party.

In the team's approach to rebalancing the game's battles the small-fry encounters were designed to be quick and simple skirmishes while the bosses would take a slower and more methodical pace. The moonlighting system was implemented to expedite character growth by allowing party members to undertake two career paths simultaneously, which added the secondary benefit of encouraging players to experiment freely with character and vocation combinations now that advancement was no longer such a lengthy process. The career sphere was implemented to further encourage player creativity and to eliminate having to backtrack all the way to Alltrades Abbey to change vocations when faced with a difficult boss fight. The character of Jacqui, the distant descendant of High Priestess Jacqueline, was created to replace the generic abbot who manages vocation changes in the modern day Alltrades Abbey in response to the notably popularity of Jacqueline, with some players even returning to the past to have her change the party's vocations. The replacing of the Monster Masher vocation with the Monster Master stemmed from the development team wanting to create a vocation with abilities that would summon monsters to fight on the behalf of the party; Horii was delighted with the unpredictability of these summoning skills and likened them to a game of battle pencils. As the nature of the new vocation implies recruiting monsters instead of hunting them, the Masher was swapped out entirely instead of simply being fitted with new abilities.

The Let Loose command came from the development team desiring to create a distinct system for VII Reimagined that would be comparable to the Tension and Pep systems seen in Dragon Quest VIII and Dragon Quest XI. As special moves have become common to the series, such as with souped-up skills, it was decided to tie these powerful techniques to the vocations instead of the characters to add another layer of strategy when assigning professions to a party member. The vicious monsters were added to the game as an extra challenge that can scale to the difficulty of the island on which they are found and also serve as a means to obtain the repurposed monster hearts as a reward. As monster vocations were removed from this iteration of Dragon Quest VII, Horii proposed using the hearts as a new type of accessory akin to the ones found in Dragon Quest Walk. As overseas ratings boards have become very strict in allowing depictions of gambling in games rated for children, the various casinos were removed as the monster arena betting system had been in Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake. The lucky panel was spruced up to serve as a replacement means to amass powerful items, and a battle arena was implemented in Buccanham to replace its casino with another type of challenge for battle-hungry players

Trivia

• The game's opening cinematic features a panning shot of the Hero, Maribel, & Kiefer resting on the steps leading to the Shrine of Mysteries. As the camera pans to Kiefer it lingers on him flicking a seed or nut into his mouth, a cheeky reference to his reputation as a "seed thief" (種泥棒) among fans

Gallery

Promotional images

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  Maribel's day off dress, available through the demo

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  Game Informer cover art

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  Tokyo Game Show 2025 photo stand, featuring the Dragonlord

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  TGS 2025 display case housing the dolls used to create the main cast

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  A wider shot with the entire cast

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  A close up of the Maribel doll

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  Studio Nova announcing its involvement with the game

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  TGS 2025 poster ad revealing several newly added monsters

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  Jump Festa 2026 booth

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  Collaboration art by Final Fantasy illustrator Tetsuya Nomura

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  Promotional art by the Warriors of Eden author Fujiwara Kamui.

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  Yuji Horii and Yoshinori Kitase in a Famitsu interview

Characters

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  The Hero

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  Prince Kiefer

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  Adult Kiefer

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  Maribel Mayde

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  Ruff and his adoptive mother

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  Aishe

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  Sir Mervyn

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  The Caretaker

Promotional events

SHIPS

On January 27th 2026 the Japanese fashion label SHIPS announced that it would be producing merchandise for a collaboration with VII Reimagined. The centerpiece is a navy blue slime plush, serendipitously celebrating the nautical theme shared between the company and game.

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  Collab window display

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  King slime photo booth

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ZONe ENERGY

On January 28th, 2026 ZONe ENERGY announced it would be producing limited edition cans of its chief energy drink flavors to coincided with the release of VII Reimagined, including one based on a metal slime.

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Kameda persimmon seeds

The Kakinotane company announced a collaboration with the game on January 30th, 2026, in which its persimmon seeds would be sold as seeds of strength and seeds of agility. Humorously, the social media for the promotion advises against wasting any on Kiefer.

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Shinagawa station

From Febuary 2nd through the sixteenth, Shinagawa station hosted a display case containing the dolls created for the six main characters. Several trains were also decorated to advertise the game

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  A rendering of the display case at the station

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  A train compartment decorated with VII Reimagined branding

External links

• Official Japanese site
• English press release
• Developer interview with English subtitles