Square Enix Reveals New Character Art For Every Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake Job Class

This art style is gorgeous, really evokes Toriyama whilst having more shading and maturity.

Looks fantastic, definitely day a one buy. Anything to get rid of the awful mobile one on the eShop.

Winter sorted for me along with Metaphor ReFantazio 🙂👍

While I lament some changes in design, I understand, and I appreciate the way they made the changes less glaring.
I haven't been this excited for a game in ages.

@jedgamesguy I'll always find the word "maturity" to be a goofy way to describe a thing, hehe. Reminds me of folks saying the GameCube or Mario Sunshine was "kiddie." I remember asking a person in college if they got all the Shines in that children's platformer and they told me that wasn't the point 🤷‍♂️

All that being said, if someone told me they were just new Toriyama (RIP 😭) art I would have believed them. They look great!

That female Merchant is giving me HUGE Marle (from Chrono Trigger) vibes. I love it. <3

@Taguon to be fair there’s little other way to really describe it 😅 the colours are less saturated, there’s much more shadow, the designs are more complex but retain the same eyes and face that we know from Toriyama’s work.

@jedgamesguy It totally fits! Sorry if it sounded like I was being condescending by saying I thought it sounded goofy.

@Taguon oh no no no you have nothing to worry about, didn’t see it that way at all. It’s true that the word’s lost some meaning because of how it’s been thrown around so casually, in this case it makes sense to me though. It’s an evolution of the simplicities of Toriyama’s style.

@Serpenterror Yeah, I did begrudgingly pick up and play all three of those when they were on sale, as I was pretty sure it was going to be the only legit way to play them on modern consoles, so you can imagine my relief when they announced this trilogy!

Is all this art by Akira Toriyama or is it done by the artist Toriyama got for Dragon Ball Super?

@Jamie64326 Toriyama had many people under him that trained in his style. I don't think the guy who does DBS is the same who did this.

These are oh so barely new. Most of them are just tiny alterations of the character designs provided in the instruction manual of the GBC version, but that's not a bad thing. I love this game and am happy to see the character designs staying true to form.

I've only ever played the GBC version, I don't know how they compare to the original game.

wow so they actually have male and female heroes i am shocked.. i thought square enix got rid of gender....

Too many good games out right now. I'm just staring Visions of Mana, plus I have Shadow of The Ninja and LOZ: Echoes of Wisdom arriving soon.

I have this one on order too, and well...I don't know if I will get to it this year, but it looks so good. DQ games always deliver. DQ 11 on switch was the last one I played. I grew up with the early NES games, so I'm really stoked for this one. I never actually finished III, and had to return it to the video store - so this should be a nice trip down memory lane. The character models are dope.

@USA_Spartan
This. Other than monster wrangler, these are the exact same Toriyama drawings they have been for decades. Maybe touched up by an in house artist or protégé. Which is good. I don't know who drew the monster wranglers, but they fit in nicely.

@speedracer216 Gotcha. And I do mean tiny changes. I have the GBC manual on hand right now and comparing the mages, for example, the male mage's hat is facing a different direction but his stance is almost the same. The female mage is facing right in the image above, left in the manual, and the hand and staff placements are not the same between them. Yes, the Monster Wranglers fit in nicely and I'm very curious to see how they play out.

Never played a DQ but I'm excited for the holidays with this one. Sad I passed on dq11 at Walmart for like 15 bucks a while back

Definitely looking forward to this! As a DQ fan who has been holding out for this version - I have yet to play Dragon Quest III in any form - it's one of my most anticipated games this year.

The spats censorship on Warrior female is absolutely insane. Does not mesh well at all.

I am so ready to curl up with a blanket and hot chocolate and play this game. Dragon Warrior 3 on the GBC was my gateway drug into RPGs, so this game is very special to me. Hyped!

@USA_Spartan Do you have a source for that claim? These look kind of similar to previous art but it's not just spruced up old stock art. Compare the two and you would clearly see that

So everyone seems to agree there's no way Toriyama did the Monster Wrangler design before he passed? I feel like it's possible he contributed to it, production timeline-wise (game's been in dev a long time), but they're definitely not drawing any attention to it one way or another.

Artwork looks awesome.

@The_Blue_Mage Yes, I have the instruction manual for the GBC version on my desk right now. I'm simply noting that the only differences are in the orientation of the characters (direction they are facing, hand positions, weapon positions), not the characters themselves; hard to call it "new" artwork.

I would add a picture here if I could.

I’m waiting until release to decide what version I am getting but I am super excited.

@DripDropCop146 You're right he had many people learning his style, but I remember reading that the one doing DBS he said is the closest. That's why he's probably fully doing it now.

I can’t wait for this to come out

I don't care if you think I'm petty or childish for this, but putting the shirt under the female warrior's Bikini armor is unbelievably insulting.

It's such a digustingly lazy attempt at censorship, nobody would realistically wear that. not to mention Toriyama himself would never approve of this.

I really hate to be such a downer, but I'm just sick and tired of these types of changes and I can't really bring myself to support games that do this type of revisionism anymore. (and to all the people who say "why do you care? it's no big deal" well, if it wasn't a big deal, they shouldn't have changed it). at least Romancing Saga looks promising.

thanks Square, you just saved me some money.

@bobrocks95 you know it wasn't him because there's no way in hell he would've approved putting pants and a shirt under the female warrior's bikini armor.

@ottoecamn I looked at the pics of the CE character models and the female warrior didn't have that shirt and if you look at the sprite, it doesn't have it, either. It's just in the artwork.

Anyway, looking forward to playing this!

@Porky If you look at the sprite's art, it doesn't have it.

@DripDropCop146 That, and about a million people who like drawing in his style. I know I used to be one.

There's bound to be hundreds of people capable of perfectly copying his style.

I wasn't one of them, though. Haha.

Yeah, nice try, Squeenix. You can put as much garbage on underneath as you want, that's still bikini armor in freaking 2024. Hard pass.

Do better, Japan.

Dabs tear from eye.

Love the art style. Looking forward to playing this.

Can't wait to finally officially start my Dragon Quest journey!

Censorship. Square you can keep it.

Trident replacing medic symbol on Priest clothing because they worship Satan now. Good job SE.

@ThatGuyWho See, this post proves when companies try to cater to these people, they still won't buy their games. So it's best to make the games for the fans and not make unnecessary changes for a spec demographic.

@MidnightDragonDX Have a look again, because the shorts are visible on her in-game sprite. The brown pixels on her hips. Though, it appears her shirt isn't in the in-game sprite (for now perhaps)

https://imgur.com/a/H34Tn2i

@AlexanderDaniels Well, if people don’t want to get it over something so trivial, that’s their loss.

@Porky Well, I don’t care enough about that to not get it.

Ugh, not surprised to see culture wars debates. Gaming in the 2020s right? Look, do the shorts look ridiculous on that art for the warrior? Yes. But do you sound ridiculous if your stance is "one of the best games of all time getting an awesome remake...but wait, shorts? I'm out." Also yes. It's not even like games get physical manuals anymore. This is probably the only time you're even going to see these photos lol

@MidnightDragonDX I'll wait for it to go on bargin bin sale or buy it second hand I guess.

@Kisame83 It's over a multitude of pointless changes we know so far, but sure, go off!

@Kisame83 Agreed. It does look silly, but if you aren’t going to play an awesome game over something so dumb and trivial, that’s your loss. Me? I’m gonna play it and likely enjoy every second of it.

@Kisame83 it's precisely that mentality that emboldens the people censoring games to keeping pushing further and further (just look at the Dead Rising remake, they changed an asian character into a white one because he's a psychopath, removed the fact that the soldier guy mentioned communism, and removed the "Erotica" rating, which was an actual way of earning points in the game). Heck, 2 of my favorite gaming franchises ever (Dead or Alive and Senran Kagura) are not DEAD because of this garbage that y'all keep supporting.

At this point, there's enough good games out there that DON'T capitulate to censorship. I much rather give my money to them, and if that means I'll miss out on some good games, so be it. it's not like I don't have a massive backlog to play through. And if don't think these types of changes are that big a deal, the least you can do is ask why they're even being made in the first place.

only the monster wrangler male is goodlooking out of the men smh smh, but honestly what did I expect?

Pretty faithful recreations of the Toriyama designs for the SNES remakes, they look badass. Not a fan of the ugly orange sports bra and shorts combo under the bikini armor obviously, but otherwise they all look great.

@ottoecamn You're really not going to play this fantastic game just because the artwork of a girl has a shirt (that you can barely notice, actually)...??? I'm sorry, but that's one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard of lol.

I'm afraid it sounds like this game will be a 9/10 and Romancing Saga a 7/10, but I guess quality is not important for you, if you care so much about such nonsense...

Ok, this is getting way too RIDICULOUS. I though it was just one person, but I see several people rejecting such a great game like this just because of a different style used in an artwork... We live in a strange time for sure.

@the_beaver buddy, I got over 100 games on my backlog, and I despise censorship. At the end of the day, games are entertainment and the Japanese ones in particular have been targeted by nonsensical censorship from the west.

So me, and other people are choosing to vote with our wallets. I'm not gonna lose sleep over not playing a single game.

@ottoecamn Fair enough, that's your loss. I'll be enjoying the game like a child meanwhile. It doesn't bother me a bit if a picture of a girl is showing more or less skin, to be honest.

@the_beaver It's extends more than a singular character altercations (adding more clothing on females seen here and coloring in the lips on the troll enemy). Removal of Male & Female labelings in favor for Type A & B nonsense, and this is also mostly just visual stuff we know of right now. Localization will most certainly stray from being faithful-- that's a guarantee for modern Dragon Quest games, but character and locales name rewrites to reference pop culture. How do you translate Ruida's Tavern to Patty's Place otherwise? The GBC version is more faithful having her be named Ruida and apparently the Patty name choice is referencing the Simpsons character. You're not playing the writers vision of the game, rather, you're playing a vision of some wannabe writer who couldn't make it big on their own having to tamper others work so they can call it theirs.

@Porky Well, that's a completely different thing. That is something I could complain about indeed, if the changes altered the original meaning of the game's creator.
But we were just talking about a picture of a girl not being naked enough... I couldn't care less about that lol.

@Porky what "multitude?" I was only speaking to the warrior model - if you're saying a name translation difference falls under culture wars, I'm going to ignore you lol. And I really don't care about type A and B. It's silly, but it's two seconds on a character selecter. Just pick the one that looks like you and move on with your life, jeez. Other changes to the game - fine, debatable, but not the topic I was addressing. Remakes often add or tweak things, this has been going on since forever. And people are free to decide which version they find definitive, most faithful, etc. To the Simpsons reference, for example, yes that sounds dumb. But, also, we as a society somehow managed to love the Lunar games in the 90s. And Working Designs was lousy with that sorta thing, but I don't know anyone who has urged people to NOT experience Lunar: Silver Star Story over it.

@ottoecamn I swear, some of you wouldn't have survived gaming in the 90s. They used to pay Ted Woolsey (and others) to tone down or remove references to religion or smoking or alcohol, lighten up topics of death, and the art department slapped extra clothing on the sprites of any scantily clad (or sometimes nude) female. Somehow, buying those games didn't lead to the death of art itself. Heck, if you ask a lot of people how they feel about less censored re-releases, a lot of people fanboy for the older US SNES releases as "the original." And now anytime Squenix slaps a thin line of fabric somewhere, people lose their minds. Not everything is some conspiracy - I prefer to judge cases on their individual merits. Squenix isn't Capcom. The Dead Rising situation sounds ridiculous. I have no intention of buying that remake anyway. And it was also ridiculous when, decades ago, Atlus released the original Persona and cut half the game out while turning one character into a street-wise black kid lol. Some censorship is crazier than others. Sometimes cultural differences and different pressures from ratings boards require adaptations to make changes. Sometimes it happens in the country of origin as just attitudes in culture shift. Let's be honest - the word censorship at this point is one of those that is losing meaning because it gets applied too broadly. Generally speaking, someone slightly changing art on THEIR OWN intellectual property isn't "censorship," it's artistic license. So, sorry, do you, but I'm not going to lose my mind and boycott one of my favorite games over a pair of trunks.

As for encouraging them - I promise you, the business folks producing these games, especially in Japan, does NOT care about this. They just want to know if the game sells, as a metric of if they will greenlight more games. Developers may engage with the community and listen to feedback when approaching the next game. But that depends on the series being seen as viable. I'm not going to participate in a movement to cancel Dragon Quest, again, over a pair of shorts lol. There's also the uncomfortable conversation some people don't seem to want to address that maybe...maybe the modern audience is less accepting of bikini armor? In the 80s and 90s this hobby was definitely more of a boys club, but it's gone WAY more mainstream over the last couple of decades.

Really love the art. It definitely stays true to the original.

@Kisame83 ooh boy, where to even begin.

You really gonna throw the "modern audience" argument? The modern audience games like Dustborn and Corcord were made for? The one Disney is desperately trying to chase with Star wars and their live action remakes that fix "problematic elements" of the originals? How's that going for them? How about Koie Tecmo? Wanna look at how much their sales for Dead or Alive 6 boomed after they decided to tone down the game's sexuality "for a modern audience" despite DoA5 being the most successful game I the series just years before?

The modern audience doesn't exist. All you do when uou try to chase it is remove elements people in your fnadom enjoyed and getting nothing in return. And I guarantee you this all stems from the west.
There's not a single person out there who's gonna look at the bikini armor with shrots and a shirt under and say "I wasn't gonna buy this game before but now I will!", while there's A LOT of people aren't gonna take this gutted version.

Nintendo had the right idea with Bayonetta 3, giving people the option to turn off her clothes vanishing during wicked weaves, and most people would be more than happy with a toggle, But they don't wanna make it optional.

@ottoecamn You're reaching. The modern audience is just the current generation of players, and cultural attitudes shift over time. If anything, censorship was more common in the 80s and 90s—pixelated sprites with suggestive outfits were often toned down by localizers. Meanwhile, today, we have fully nude characters in games like Baldur's Gate 3. Your argument cherry-picks examples and assumes correlations.

DOA 6 failed because of poor business decisions—modes removed, a messy story, and nearly $100 season passes—not because of reduced sexualization. The core series toned down its sexuality (especially in regards to the chest physics) back in the OG Xbox era, yet that was when it peaked in full game sales. Your argument of "it just gets worse" ignores the historical context.

As for Dustborn, it was set up for controversy, so it's not comparable. Also, not censorship. The game flopped because it was mediocre, not because of diversity. Look at Baldur's Gate 3—praised as one of the best recent games, despite featuring diversity.

Concord failed for being bland and unoriginal. Meanwhile, Apex Legends, which embraces diversity, has 18 million monthly players this year. Jason Schreier nailed it: live-service games with no unique hook fail in an oversaturated market, but some people will always blame diversity.

FFVII Rebirth is one of the year's top-reviewed games, with strong sales. Any drop in numbers can be attributed to it being PS5-exclusive and new players needing to play Remake. Yet, I'd bet you claim it failed because Tifa's childhood outfit was slightly altered.

You’re confusing correlation with causation to justify your frustration over...a pair of shorts. If you think this will significantly affect sales, that speaks volumes.