Dragon Quest is one of the most recognizable names in classic RPGs, and also one that has recently leaned heavily on the past to attract new fans. Square Enix has remastered the first three classic DQ games, dubbed the Erdrick Trilogy, and is now skipping ahead to the seventh installment with Dragon Quest VII: Reimagined. It's an unexpected move, but partially explained by DQ7 having such a notorious reputation among fans. Namely, it was a slog. Even its own key developers acknowledge that much, which made it ripe for a remake that trims the fat. I played a little over an hour of Dragon Quest VII: Reimagined and talked with producer Takeshi Ichikawa. My limited time was not enough to get a feel for the full scope of the cuts, but I was impressed by the other ways it's being modernized.It starts with the art style, which is immediately striking. Square Enix noted during a presentation that to establish the revised look, it constructed physical dolls for each of the major party members, giving them the ability to focus on small details like the texture of their clothing. Those dolls were then scanned in to act as digital puppets, and the rest of the game was developed to match their style. That gives it a handcrafted look that is, I dare say, cozy. The perspective is still primarily following your characters from above, as you'd expect in a classic RPG, but the character detail is readily apparent even there, and you get a closer look at them in cutscenes and battles. Ichikawa said that the doll-like art style was an homage to the late Akira Toriyama, the renowned manga artist who also created the visual style for all of the Dragon Quest games before his passing in 2024. When Toriyama designed the characters for DQ7, they were given a more "cutesy, adorable aesthetic" compared to other Dragon Quest games, with more squat designs that differed from his usual art. The company researched ways to maintain and update that visual style and found inspiration in other media, like movies and TV shows, that have used a doll motif. That inspired the creation of physical dolls to define the look, which he says helped create realistic fabrics and textures that influenced the overall style.Continue Reading at GameSpot