Poll: The Dragon Quest VII: Reimagined Demo Is Now Available, What Are Your First Impressions?

"What platform will you be getting Dragon Quest VII: Reimagined on?"

Me: ABSOLUTELY PS5 version.
HELL NO to Switch 2 version with game key card.

Not available for me yet. Will keep an eye open for it

@Anti-Matter the way ps5 works it is pretty much the same way. You have to install the game on the console and then download a day one patch to get most games to play. Truly what makes this much different than game key cards?

Available where? Not there in the eshop.

It's not available as far as I can tell

Not showing up in North America yet. Also do we know if the demo is a going to be a Switch 2 version and a Switch 1 version? Back when Romancing Saga released a Switch 2 edition, if you downloaded the demo off the Switch 2 page it still gave you the Switch 1 demo version.

@siavm
PS5 games still have game data inside the disc but game key card has no game data inside.
That's the huge difference.
I refuse to purchase game cartridge without any game data inside.
It's simply a scam product to me.

Fantastic, will be getting it on Steam for Steam Deck and Switch for Switch 1 & 2 even though I still got my 3DS one that I am close to finishing likely by March of this year.

@Anti-Matter I messed up and bought SF6 forgetting it was a game key card. I could have just bought it digitally. The fact that there's nothing on the cartridge and it has to download the entire game is whatever, but they fact that I also need that cartridge in my console to play it as an activation thing is one of the most ridiculous concepts ever.

It literally just makes more sense to just buy digital versions for anything that's a game key so you have slightly more flexibility

@Justdave Actually THIS is the future. No this. No this.
Anyway, while I agree that almost everything sucks more now, doesnt mean I have to accept when things get worse.

@Randomarcadedude thats the point. They are obviously trying to groom people for all digital future. See also the animation that plays when you install a digital purchase now.

@Anti-Matter
Woooooww

@Randomarcadedude
I don't want digital only games.
I have ever bought very cheap digital games from PS Store / eshop but everytime I bought them, I never played them again after playing them for several minutes just for testing the games. It just wasted my money.
It doesn't feel exist for me when playing digital only games considering I have played with physical games a lot and it became attached with physical media to play the games.

@Charlirnie
I mean why surprised?
Nintendolife provided with every released version as the polling choice.
I chose PS5 version because the game have game data inside the disc. The game key card has no game data at all, I refuse to buy empty cartridge that will be a junk and unplayable in the future.

@Justdave
No
We can change the future.
The future is not dictated by game key card.

@siavm You can still play most PS5 games using the disc without connecting to a server. That's the big difference, meaning they're futureproofed once the servers are no longer available. Sure, there may be updates, but they're usually just to correct minor bugs. It's rare that they're necessary to complete the game if it's a full physical edition, especially if it's a major release.

Edit: Apparently 'Doesitplay' tested 235 PS5 physical games in 2023. 89% of them played perfectly fine from the disc or were playable but benefitted from patches. This seems a plausible figure and I'd imagine this would be much higher for the more established Publishers, from whom the majority of people will be buying from.

@Anti-Matter Let’s change the future 🤝

@Justdave NEVER

Can NL put some kinda moderation on the GKC chat please? It takes over every comment section. I get that it's important to some people but it takes conversation away from the actual news article.

Switch 1 for me. Same as Octopath Traveller 0. If there's a version with the game on card over the game key I will get it. Unfortunately I need to make up my mind with what to do with game key card only releases, whether I buy digital , such as 007: First light.

@Anti-Matter for a dude who is allegedly all physical, why on the Pushsquare 2026 PS5 New Years Resolutions article did you say on Monday that you are getting a 2tb ssd for your PS5?

That's a lot of storage for someone who only buys physical.

Comments for clicks on this site as always.

@SlimeRyu and 3 months of a certain musical turned film found it's way to every comment section as well.

First week back at work is a bit of a slog. Looking forward to the demo at the weekend for some chill time.

Can't wait.

@Duncanballs Probably because even PS5 physical games need to be installed on the machine.

So uh... Game Key Cards being horrible anti-consumer trash aside...
Does anyone here know what slice of the game this demo covers? Is it just the first bit on Estard, or do we get to travel to an island or two?

Edit: It's up to the end of the first island.

@Anti-Matter A lot of PS5 games come with day one updates that are either 70-100GB downloads, and often required for the game to actual run though. Basically same thing as gamekeycards but then with an incomplete game on the disc.

Of all current consoles only ONE runs games directly from purchased media. That's the Switch 2. And sure GKCs exist, and we can think what we want about that as well. But, maybe you have noticed that flash storage isn't cheap. (Especially fast reliable flash storage) Nintendo can eat the cost easily, but it's not easy for most third parties. Especially those with multiplatform games. For example a blank blu-ray disc is max $1 where a 64GB Switch 2 card is around $15.

Which why a lot of third parties picked the original PlayStation over the N64. Because back then you couldn't download a game. So the only real other option to a GKC is a game skipping the Switch 2. And that would ultimately hurt the platform and Nintendo's sales.

@Duncanballs for me, part of why I love the first Switch is real physical media. I like collecting that way. I think all this stuff (including having to install games) is awful. I just had to accept that I won't own a Switch 2 any time soon and will instead focus on the backlog/collecting.

@LikelySatan and that viewpoint is totally fine. I think the issue I have with the subject, whilst I am open that it doesn't bother me, is that it is raised in so many articles when it isnt the topic of discussion.

Genuinely do feel for anyone who has an issue with this and it's a shame if it is impacting their enjoyment of this hobby.

I just dont want to hear about it on everythread when there have been dedicated articles on this and anyone can start a topic in the forums if they wish.

Unfortunately we have a few in the community who are not interested in the article in question and just use it as an opportunity to spam their views that are often off topic to get clicks. This site is becoming more and more like IGN.

Aaaand the comment section is not on topic, once again flooded with comments on Game Key Cards...

I am going to get the demo later when it's available. I'll fill in the polls then!

@Anti-Matter You don't even own a Switch 2.....

But good news the Switch 1 version (a console you have) isn't a game key card.

@Duncanballs yeah I haven't been annoyed by it, probably cause of my own bias. Im fine with that. I like me.

@Pillowpants hope you enjoy your first dip of your toe into the world of DQ.

You are in for a treat 👍

....... Just set aside 100's of hours for when you get hooked. 😃

Still have to beat Fantasian first, before I try the demo. But I was already sold on the game anyway, so I see this demo, as an early start. I will get the PlayStation 5 version.

I understand GKC are not as good as full physical but as others have said, how is this different than a PS5 disc where you can't even start the game before doing a mandatory update? Or the Switch 1 games with the white banner for additional downloaded data to be played. I view it as a digital game that can be resold.

Anyway, stoked for the game, will be playing the demo this week!

@Nicktendo64 Keep in mind that this game, same as Octopath 0, don't have an upgrade path to the Switch 2 version. So, in this situation, it's either Key Card or having the Switch 1 edition forever (which can be played on the Switch 2, but it's much worse).

@Duncanballs I reckon that whole subject should be categorised as “off topic” as it derails comment sections every time. Unless they do yet another article about it of course, it could serve as a containment centre.

I haven't been able to try out the demo yet, I hope to do so as soon as I get back home tonight.

I was expecting to see some impressions here, after seeing that the article had so many comments. However, I see it's all about the Key Card situation... Oh well.

@WiltonRoots totally agree. Ive always enjoyed the NL threads even if I dont always comment.

Its a shame that a select few are derailing what are normally some fun and good discussions.

Lots of things in life that I do not like but Im not going to bore the NL community with them at every opportunity with no relevance to the topic in hand.

@Anti-Matter You also don't even own a Switch 2 so you're just spreading negativity for no reason.

So, did anybody actually play the demo, or are we all just fighting about Game Key Cards again?

Seriously, I'm curious, how was the demo? I'll try have a go later today.

Had a good time with the demo, aside from it crashing once near the end. Really brought me back to playing the 3DS version and how much I enjoyed every minute of it there.

@ShadLink
But I believe Dragon Quest VII Reimagined game size will be under 40 GB so it will fit in Blu Ray disc.

4 hours into the demo and I love it so far. I really hope they do the same treatment to DQ5

Each time a Dragon Quest game or demo comes out, I give it a try but it feels like the same exact game over and over with slightly improved visuals. They were never able to grab me as much and I find the demos a little boring cause the world is vast but sparsely filled imo

Regarding Game Key Cards: Not desirable at all, but what the others said about today's state of "physical games" is very true as well. When at some point in the future the servers won't be up anymore, most physical games will be reduced to a bad unpatched state, if playable at all. That's very worrying. I wonder how we will all deal with it once Nintendo announces their deadline date. I plan to insert all the games I own and make sure I've downloaded the latest patch for every one of them. And then hope for the system to never break (is there something like a full backup for Switch 1/2? One that would preserve the update data?).

@Jalex_64
So Doesitplay actually says there is now around 67% of PS5 games that are playable without downloading anything. However, do they consider installing stuff as an equivalent to downloading? I get the impression that they just don't take into consideration the fact that you sometimes need to install stuff from the disk. I think they just see if the game requires extra download such as patching and also if there is some kind of DRM in place. But their stats don't include installing, or at least I don't think it does I could be wrong of course.

I'm saying this because if you look at the NS2 stats it says 69% of games don't require downloading, which if it was considering GKC as extra download it would definitely not be this number. So that makes me think they consider GKC as installing and not downloading and they don't include installing for either PS5 or NS2.

I've played the demo and was really impressed with how clean and polished it looks. The menus are also really snappy. I does lose a bit of the charm from the 3DS version (which I assume is close to the original version), but as it's a Reimagined version, there would always be some differences. Some fat has very clearly been trimmed. I'll wait for reviews but I'm very likely to purchase it.

I've decided to keep Resident Evil on my PlayStation account and to make up for it will be purchasing Dragon Quest for my Nintendo account (I like spreading my console gaming time between both). The demo I played was the SW2 one.

@SlimeRyu This. Not everyone cares even though there’s a vocal community about it. it get most of my games digital tbh. Not everyone cares even chat needs to be about GKCs.

It's weird that DQ VII was next in line to be "remade", especially since they got 3DS ports (but that was also like 10 years ago, lol I feel old). The heavy rumors said that IX was next in the pipeline and VIII has always been the fan favorite, but I guess those were not to be. I also imagine DQ IV-VI are gonna get HD-2D treatments down the line.

@Axecon I also reckon 4, 5 and 6 will be remade following the 2D-HD treatment, probably by next year. VIII I don't know, but will perhaps get a big remake with XI graphics, while IX will continue the art style of VII, which fits it very well.

@Anti-Matter If the game requires an update in order to run, it doesn't matter if the disc has 99% of the data or 0% of the data; if it's not completely on disc, then it's effectively no better than a game-key card.

@ElkinFencer10
Fortunately, all my PS5 games purchase in physical don't have update require to run the games.
They are playable right after installation from disc and I only play kids games that didn't even get treatment of update mandatory to run the games.

So, how is the demo … ? I couldn’t tell by the comment section.

@Pillowpants It’s the same 5 or 6 people every time and it’s getting ridiculous at this point. Makes the site a lot less fun to be on.

@spiderman0616 100% dude. I hate the game key cards, too, but it is what it is, and no matter what those five or six scream endlessly, it is going to make absolutely no difference to Nintendo if a few thousand people refuse to buy physical releases because they're game key cards. This isn't a boycottable situation because the shift to an all-digital gaming landscape is inevitable. Let us talk about games in peace.

Already intended on getting it.
it's going to be the ps5 version though.
Would have loved to get it on switch 2 but it's a game i see myself replaying a lot over the years and gkc just isn't going to cut it for that.

@NintendoWife you raise a point I have often mulled over, the hardware!

Whilst not a given, modern tech doesn't last as long as it used to. So some may be in a position in 20-30 years time of owning the physical media but the hardware died a long time ago.

Having been a gamer from the 80s, I must have played 1000's of games in my time. I wager that of those, I only go back to about 5-10% of them. Most are available digitally in some shape or form.

Yes, I'm paying twice and yes not everything is available but from experience of gaming over 40 years, most games I want to revisit, I can.

If we are actually going to talk about the game...

I have played the PSX and the 3DS version of DQ7. This demo already shows Reimagined to be the best version of the game. So excited to play the full version.

@Fiq_Strife Available where? Not there in the eshop.

What country are you trying? I went to eShop online and found it and downloaded the Demo. Now have to FF7 2026 and DQ7 Reimage.

I've played through the prologue, here are my thoughts:
Reimagined does a slightly better job than the 3DS remake at opening the game... But man I still hate how butchered it is. Square Enix is petrified at the notion of you getting lost for a single second and having to think things through on your own.
It wouldn't be an issue if the original game didn't do such a great job at setting up the world and characters before having you ACTUALLY EXPLORE the ruins and ACTUALLY SOLVE puzzles. Playing through this abridged version knowing how much better they did it 26 years ago just takes the wind out of the sails.

Original game feels like the start of a story.
New game feels like a video game tutorial.
Lame.
If it's anything like the 3DS remake it should be mostly fine going forward, but this version has quite a bit of cut content so we'll see.

@Anti-Matter

Same. Thanks to nintendo and squeenix for the demo though.

I'll be getting it on Switch 2. I wasn't sure about the art style initially, but it has warmed up to me.

I didn't see an option in the poll, but I will be getting it later on a sale probably. I usually don't play games at release, I have so many other games I haven't even gotten to yet.

I couldn't wait until the weekend so dived in and about an hour under my belt.

Im a little done with the often popular chibi style and diorama approach to these classics but in this example it's really nicely done.

Great voice acting and a very dragon quest esq orchestral score.

Performance appears flawless on SW2 so far and it's quite stunning visually.

Gameplay and dialogue is very classic DQ although I do note a bit of hand holding so far but I think thats by design for the opening part.

Controls are good and in particular the camera rotation is nice.

Overall, Ive got no reason to question my pre order and thoroughly looking forward to it.

As a fan of the series, I quite quickly felt like I was about to embark on a grand fantasy adventure and it felt very Dragon Quest ..... and thats a good thing 👍

...... possibly my older eyes, but if I was to give the most minor quibble, would be nice to have a zoom in function for some of the areas. That's mainly from a handheld perspective. Text size is fine, just sometimes feels just a smidgen too far zoomed out. Ill adapt.

Happy questing people.

I've stated numerous times that it's not a matter of if, but more a matter of when gaming will go fully digital. Anyone who has done PC gaming has faced this reality for a long time now. Many retailers are phasing out physical games much like dvds and Blue rays. The Game Key Card is a stop gap at best for this inevitability.

As for DQ7, I'll likely get the switch 1 version as I have yet to get a Switch 2 (my rule of thumb is to wait a year after the systems release for any bugs to be worked out).

I haven't played a traditional turn based RPG since Golden Sun 1 & 2. I was never a major JRPG fan to begin with, I just dabbled in them and nothing since Golden Sun 2 had interested me enough to try.

That said, I rushed through the demo on Switch 2, skipping everything to get to the combat to test it out. Now that I know it's the combat I wanted I plan to replay the demo.

The lighthearted tone of the game along with the visuals, are extremely appealing. Appealing enough to rekindle my enjoyment with traditional JRPG's that I purchased the HD-2D remakes of DQ 1-3 along with DQ11S for the Switch to have physical editions on the go.

I'm looking forward to the game but I think I may try to beat 1-3 before playing 7 Reimagined.

I'll be buying the Switch 1 version for a portable physical copy and will likely buy it digitally on Switch 2 whenever it goes on sale for the improved visuals/performance.

I'm just disappointed that DQ HD-2D 3 was the only game to get enhancements for the Switch 2.

I wish Golden Sun 1&2 would get remasters because trying to read them on NSO due to the low resolution is difficult.

Tried out the demo on Switch 2, and it looks amazing! Love the art style.
I really want to play the game, but my backlog is huge and I already preordered REquiem... And Ys X Proud Nordics is coming in February as well, I've wanted to play that game for a long time.

Damn, so many great games all together.

@Duncanballs Thanks for the insight into the demo. Although I'm a lifelong classic RPG man, I've only played XI in the DQ series. My wife preordered DQVII Reimagined for me, and I am really excited to play now that I've seen a lot of positive reactions to the demo.

I tried the demo out for a few hours, and it's certainly DQ7.

Yes, the opening hours are hilariously short compared to the PSX original where you'd spend 2-3 hours doing nothing but slow, methodical puzzle solving. But I won't nag the game for the change. Much as I loved the original, even I found that snail's pace opening to be a bit of a slog.

Game looks beautiful, too. And the combat has been tweaked to move a bit snappier, but maintain all the charm of the latest entries.

All in all, cannot wait to dump 100 hours into the experience when it fully drops in February.

@Jalex_64 you do realize you can play it offline once it's installed on your switch, right?

I won’t even try the Nintendo demo aliasing annoys the hell out of me (Reason why I always hated the PS2 but the Dreamcast I really liked.) I might get it on Series X.

@ElkinFencer10

Key phrase there is "update to run", however. Most games don't, they will run fine off the disk/cart. They just won't have the latest patch. And games which did require a download to function, were typically lambasted for that just like keycards should be.

It's so freakin cute! Can't decide on platform yet, but I've checked out the demo on Switch 2 and my beastly PC. Plenty snappy on Switch 2, but docked on a 4K display won't win any awards.

DQ VII happens to be my favourite PSX-game. This fantastic demo ticks every box for me on Switch 2.
I tried the Switch 1 demo on an OLED model right after and although I always scoff at people, who are content with 30 FPS gameplay, even that version felt smooth enough.
Not sure what sorcery Squeenix is performing here, but it means I'll grab a physical Switch 1 copy.🎉

Played about an hour of the demo yesterday. I like the art direction, but have only had a single battle so far. I'm keen to continue, but the intro is a bit long so far. I like it, but I need more battles to know if I really like it.

Switch 1 physical > Switch 2 GKC

Just finished the demo and it was great! Took me about 7 hours but I did talk to absolutely everybody I could and did a bit of grinding. I wasn’t expecting to go in and hate it or anything but always nice to have expectations met.

The thing that I kept thinking about was how good Final Fantasy 9 would look if it wasn’t given the same treatment. I like the 7 remakes but would prefer any other Final Fantasy remakes to be a tad more like the original and this was very much a more recognisable remake.

I just want to add a comment for those that seem to misunderstand what game key cards are doing. You buy a game key card and download the game, as much as i understand it there is then no further online handshakes to be done to play that game - in principal that game data is yours to access along as you retain the data of the game files, which you can do with memory card storage quite easily. It is not the same as downloading a game from the eshop, which requires regular online handshakes to be done, and that the license to play the game is very much digital and ties to an online account. Outside of the initial step of downloading game files, there are tangible benefits to a game key card that a simple download from
an eshop does not offer - you can go “off grid” and still let your Switch know you have the a license to play the game. It’s still not ideal, but if you back up game files via memory cards, it is better than digital only.

Huge fan of the original game, not as big of a fan of most of the 3DS version (graphics/localization are the worst offenders) and have played about an hour of the demo. My thoughts:

Like:

• Font and most of the UI changes look great
• Consistently better looking than the 2D-HD remakes
• Japanese voice work sounds great, but can also turn it all off
• New music also sounds great, but some of the key melodies are a little muted
• Running with R2 is the best. All games should do this (and most are it seems)
• Battle flow is really nice, though kind of doesn’t feel like dragon quest.

Technically bugs:

• Turning off objective markers still displays them on screen, which is infuriatingly bad (go search for 3 missing tablets, 3 objective markers show up??? how did my characters suddenly know where to look???)
• Should have the option of disabling only the mini-map and keep the rest of the hud (or a smaller version of it, for hp/status info)
• Advancing text with the analog or dpad causes text to be frequently skipped by accident, allow this to be disabled or just remove it entirely
• Shop interface feels broken and hard to navigate? Definitely prefer the "conversational" style of previous dragon quest shop menus.

Don’t like:

• Intro is too streamlined, similar to the 3DS version
• Menus in general are kind of a miss, I dislike full screen menus, especially in a dragon quest, overlays would be less immersion breaking
• Text speed options would be nice, default is a little slow
• Looks like we are getting the 3DS localization again, and I am not a fan. Not only do real-world dialects break immersion, but I also just plain don't like having to read them. Dialogue also could be much more concise. Many games I don't mind so much reading but in DQ I just wat to get out and play.
• In the "Info" tab, ditch everything but the journal, or integrate these other screens better. I don’t want to know how many tablets there are right away. Have some guy I can talk to at the end that will tell me how many I’m missing or give hints to find them. These kind of completionist lists break immersion.

@Duncanballs you have to install all the ps5. They’re not run from the disc

So, anyway am I the only one that thinks this game is ugly as sin compared to the 3DS release?

Everything from the static, top down camera to the uncanny Polar Express characters is just... yuck. They couldn't have at least made the game cel shaded? It's like they took the ugliest parts of the PS1 release and said "Hey Grok, make old 2D game look PS5."

Day one buy for me, but still... I feel it must be said.

For those that don’t want to see GKC comments just start ignoring commenters who post about it. Problem solved.

I will buy this when Switch 2 gets a physical or the digital/GKC version gets a steep, steep discount. I have a huge backlog so I’m not hurting for anything to play.

Downloaded and played a bit of the demo last night... I might just have to buy this for the music, alone! I liked the how tweakable the settings are, too. And being able to skip scenes and dialogue is always a plus. I don't like the portrait blur look, fuzzy edges/border, decently sharp center, but otherwise I'm impressed.

@Duncanballs I finished the demo last Saturday. I LOVED everything about it. I think this will be my first DQ game I'll play, since it's a stand-alone entry. After that I think I'll get the remakes of the first trilogy.

@Pillowpants glad to hear. Timesinks but great games. Some say dated when it comes to DQ but for me, that is some of it's charm.

@Duncanballs @Pillowpants did the demo in about 5 hours and didn’t want it to end. Sold! It’s got a lot of charm and it’s been super cozy. I was introduced to the series by XI S which I loved, so glad you can choose to fight rather than getting random encounters out of nowhere all the time.

@WiltonRoots Glad to hear it! This will be my first DQ game, I decided. I will get 1-3 at a later date. But first it's time for the FF7 Remake for me!

@WiltonRoots agreed on the random encounters. One of the only few old school elements I dont miss.

Can't wait to get this ..... its just the debate when it arrives to either pick up where I left off or start again. Its only 5 hours or so but I search every nook and cranny on these games and it's whether I want to do that again.

Top tip, if you are like me and search every corner, you normally dont need to buy much armour and weapons at shops as a lot can be found in chests. I tend to complete an area and go shopping after I leave for anything I didn't get for free.

@Duncanballs random encounters turned me off Skies of Arcadia instantly. Especially coming off the back of Grandia 2 where I could choose my battles most of the time. But yeah I like to talk to everyone and open every drawer and cupboard and scour places…