We're now a few days removed from the release of Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake, and so players have had time to formulate some initial thoughts on the RPG. And perhaps surprisingly, the title's difficulty seems to be the biggest talking point at this early stage.
Generally speaking, a lot of new players are quickly discovering that Dragon Quest 3 has some nasty difficulty spikes — and many of them are still present in the remake. The Dragon Quest Reddit is flush with posts about being obliterated in tougher battles, having eased through the adventure up until then.
We've also seen several streamers and content creators expressing genuine shock over how brutal the old RPG can be at times — who knew that Dragon Quest would be kicking so much arse in 2024?
To be clear, Dragon Quest 3 does let you leave the recommended path here and there, testing your luck against stronger enemies in parts of the map that you're only supposed to visit later on. But loads of these reactions are actually referring to specific, story-advancing dungeons that present a fairly steep jump in overall difficulty.
The bottom line here is that Dragon Quest 3 is a rather grindy game. It's from an era of design that encouraged players to simply grind their troubles away. Stuck on a boss? Go back to the map and grind some levels. Can't make it to the end of a dungeon without using up all of your MP and healing items? Go grind a load of gold so that you can snag all the best equipment from shops.
Still, it's interesting that new players are hitting roadblocks. More experienced Dragon Quest fans will no doubt be aware of the series' old-school formula, and so they're expecting to wade through countless random encounters in order to beef up their party. But again, this is a structure that's long been out of fashion — even when it comes to modern examples of the same genre.
Of course, HD-2D Remake does have an 'easy' difficulty setting, which is designed to help ease new players into the release, but even then, the game's difficulty spikes still exist — they're just lessened, to some degree.
What do you make of all this? Dare we ask if you struggled with Dragon Quest 3 back in the day? Did you think the remake would ease up on things? Curse those damned Grillerpillars in the comments section below.
Have you hit any Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake difficulty spikes? (223 votes)
- Yes, the game's harder than I thought
- Kind of, it's been tricky here and there
- Nope, can't say I've noticed
- No, I'm a Dragon Quest 3 veteran
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[source reddit.com]
Comments 21
It's not that you need to grind - god knows the encounter rate is high enough to keep you at the right level - but these people aren't buffing or debuffing, and aren't using the different items because they're probably used to FF where you very rarely use items.
Status effects are actually viable to use on bosses too, unlike most RPGs, so like what's basically blindness from FF, and paralysis, silence etc. This version is actually considered easier than previous versions because the game is constantly throwing stat seeds at you and the mechanics have been changed so Wisdom increases spell damage whereas it didn't in previous versions. Classes that were useless before are now actually good.
You can actually beat the game using only the hero, though that does actually involve a lot of grinding...
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/gbc/450388-dragon-warrior-iii/faqs/31969
oh nice good old RPG... no simple 'I get through without effort' like most games adapted over time~
i probably dive in soon aswell as i love new games don't get me wrong, i enjoy old timers even more~
Difficulty in a game? A lack of handholding? God forbid.
Good. About time these young ‘I prefer real time combat because I have no attention span and like to mash buttons’ whippersnappers get burnt by old school glory.
I Seem to remember Dragon Quest 2 being the brutal game in the trilogy.
Music to my ears😍
@Matroska Gamefaqs that brings me back to the good old times.
I'm poor I'm waiting untill the month is on the end so I can get it.
Nice to see the struggle 👌
I want to post the “first time?” gif meme so badly lol
There’s a Dracky Quest difficulty for those people
I remember a lot of the older jrpgs being pretty unforgiving and having difficulty spikes, I think it's the reason I always anticipate the spikes when I play jrpgs.
Traumatized by it lol
Like @Matroska said, you just need to buff/debuff - those abilities aren’t there just to make the list longer, be strategic! No need to grind as the encounter rate is high enough
I was obscenely over-leveled in Fantazio because of my obsession for Archetypes builds, so this feels sooo right atm
It's really not. I've been playing solo with no party. Level 40 odd. I've still yet to hit one. I saw the comments about difficulty and thought ill get a party when I can't progress more. Still hasn't happened.
@Areus Cave to Rhone is evil.
Doesn't the (new) lowest difficult level even makes you invincible?
"For players who want to focus purely on the story. Battles pose no threat of death."
Dragon Quest isn’t supposed to be easy!
Aw man I hope they will not nerf the game because of this. I'm hoping on getting it once it goes on a sale
I'll have to wait till Christmas to find out how difficult it is as I'm getting it as a present.
As someone who naturally searches every corner and grinds accidentally while doing it this is rarely an issue. But I can see it being super annoying if all you want to do is just play the main story step by step and frequently hit a brick wall. I don't mind difficulty, but choice is good, and uneven spikes are no fun, we should have moved beyond that in 2024.
Meanwhile, in SMT...........
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