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.