Square EnixMore and more often, people say that video games should be shorter, and there’s value in that idea. But it’s also hard to deny that sometimes you just want a meaty RPG to dig into — something that’ll soak up weeks of your time and transport you to a lovely fantasy world. Dragon Quest 7 is one of those games, a sprawling RPG that can easily go on for hundreds of hours. But it’s one of the rare games that manages to keep you invested for that time, paying off your patience through a delightfully charming world and set of compelling role-playing systems. It may not be the best Dragon Quest game, but Dragon Quest 7 remains one of the most unique entries in the franchise — and one of the best examples of the beauty of a true slow-burn video game.Dragon Quest 7: Fragments of the Forgotten Past was first released on PlayStation in August 2000, although it wouldn’t come to the West until over a year later. Interestingly, this was also the last entry in the franchise to be published by Enix, before the company would merge with Square and become Square Enix. Dragon Quest 7 perfectly nails the feeling of adventure, chronicling its heroes journey like a series of TV. | Square EnixIn a lot of ways, before Dragon Quest 11, this entry was the definitive ideal of everything the series is about. A sprawling world to explore, a charming cast of characters, and a phenomenally complex class system. It has all the bits and bobs you’d expect from an RPG of the era, but Dragon Quest 7’s real key to success is its unique format and story structure, feeling almost like a series of anthology stories that sport the same characters. As usual, you play as the stoic voiceless hero, but this adventure kicks off when your father brings a map fragment back from a fishing trip, suggesting the world at one point was made up of many continents. With the help of your best friend, you set out to investigate the many islands surrounding your continent of Estard, and even stumble into some time travel shenanigans in the process. That island setting is Dragon Quest 7’s most fascinating feature, as each one you visit is essentially its own self-contained story arc. This fills the game with a sort of story of the week kind of feel, from a Groundhog Day time loop in El Ciclo to trying to save the bountiful town of Greenthumb Gardens from a destructive Gray Rain. The fun little twist here is that you use stone shards to travel back in the past, saving each continent from some kind of evil or threat. After doing that, you can travel back to the future and visit the location again, seeing how your actions have helped society there flourish. Dragon Quest 7 has a delightful class system that adds some vital progression to the lengthy experience. | Square EnixMore than any other RPG out there, Dragon Quest 7 feels like a whimsical adventure-filled Shonen anime, like you’re playing multiple seasons of a TV show — and I mean that in the best way possible. The rich variety in settings and storytelling really helps Dragon Quest 7 shine.It also helps spice up the gameplay with some unique minigames. Immigrant Town lets you recruit various people to live in and build your own city, where you can get unique merchants, items, and interactions. Then there’s the casino and whole monster-catching minigame, where you can display the creatures in your own Monster Park. Coupled with that is a robust class system that helps bring variety to the combat system. Characters level up in each class and learn unique skills for use in combat and stat boosting, and some high-level classes need to be unlocked by ranking up other ones. And there’s a ton of variety in how you build your party, with classes like Warrior, Bard, Jester, Idol, Pirate, Paladin, and Champion. Then there are even monster classes you can unlock by using monster hearts. All of this adds a fantastic sense of progression to the game, which helps keep the fairly standard turn-based battling more engaging. In 2013, a 3DS remake of Dragon Quest 7 was released, overhauling the visuals and making a host of gameplay and pacing changes. | Square EnixAnd it’s a good thing Dragon Quest 7 manages to layer in so much variety, because it’s a game you’ll spend a long, long time with. The main quest takes, at minimum, about 70 hours — but you can easily spend up to 250 if you want to do everything. The benefit here is that those self-contained stories all get woven together at the end into an unforgettable finale. It’s a long road to get there, but the payoff is satisfying. But the real point is that a lot of Dragon Quest 7 spends time with meandering plotlines and simple exploration, and that’s what makes it charming. Its story is a slow-burn in every sense, but that allows the game to immerse you in its world, give you an understanding of its culture and history, while stapling satisfying progression systems on top of that. Future Dragon Quest games would refine the formula, mostly to success, but there’s still something undeniably special about Dragon Quest 7. It’s a game that isn’t in a rush to get anywhere, and that’s honestly beautiful.