Eiko Kano hosted a special CRITIKANO HIT centering around the Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake during the Square Enix slot on TGS 2024, which featured Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii playing the game himself.
Everything Announced at the EIKO KANO'S CRITIKANO HIT at Tokyo Game Show 2024 Broadcast
Dragon Quest 3 HD Remaster Takes Takes Center Stage
Eiko Kano had a special episode of his show, CRITIKANO HIT, as part of Square Enix's time slot during the Tokyo Game Show 2024, where they exclusively played the upcoming Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake. Yuji Horii, the father of the Dragon Quest game is part of the panel during the showcase. They quickly go over the new features the remake will have compared to the original, such as the inclusion of cutscenes! Said cutscenes will be fully voiced by a cast of actors to better sell the 'remake' prospect.
Additionally, a new Monster Wrangler class has been added, taken from the more recent entries in the series, as the original DQ3 had a monster arena. They thought that it would have been a missed opportunity to not include the Monster Wrangler class as they reworked the game's monster arena area.
Speaking of monsters, you can engage in battles against Dragon Quest's legendary monsters in the open world area, where everything looks like a diorama. This is the HD-2D aspect of the remake that took inspiration from Octopath Traveller, wherein they manage to combine both the retro look of pixel sprites and the modern graphical fidelity of games with their 3D depth, fully animated fights, and spectacular special effects (SFX). Lastly, all party members will be fully customizable in their outfits! Dress up your heroes.
Features a New Pyramid Dungeon Full of Spoilers!
One major addition to the game is a new fully-fledged dungeon, the Pyramid! The team then proceed to enter the new area, fighting monsters and exploring the passageways, but are then warned that they will eventually have to censor the gameplay screen from the viewers, as there are certain surprises waiting for players that Horii wants fans to experience for themselves firsthand.
It was also revealed that the game will now have a dungeon map on-hand for players who often get lost while navigating the dungeon.
Insights Into Yuji Horii's Creation Process
During the extensive playthrough, Yuji Horii took the time to reveal some information from way back during the original game's development, where he cited that he purposefully created the walking corpse monster (or the zombie).
Most interestingly, he also named every single spell found in the original, where he mainly used their onomatopoeia. Where, for example, a 'gira-gira' which means glistening, as well as others such as 'whoosh,' 'freeze,' and 'crack' are other examples.
He explains that he's from the Kansai region in Japan as to why onomatopoeia is prevalent in his naming.
Yuji Horii Hopes that the Remake Finds Its Way to Fans' Hearts Once Again
Yuji Horii hopes that the remake, with all of its new and fleshed out features, will influence younger players to pick up the game and give it a try, as it remains a classic in the series and has had a huge inspiration towards future RPGs that preceded it, such as the legendary Final Fantasy series.
Horii stated that the beautiful memories of Dragon Quest 3 still remain in the players' hearts, and that the studio worked hard to embody those memories for both longtime fans of the game and newer players.
Lastly, as a teaser for hardcore fans of the series, he hinted that, if you play the upcoming remakes in the order of Dragon Quest 3, 1, and 2, something might happen to reward you.
Eiko Kano’s Critikano Hit at Tokyo Game Show 2024 Broadcast Streams on September 27, at 5 AM PT
Eiko Kano’s Critikano Hit at Tokyo Game Show 2024 at Tokyo Game Show 2024 Broadcast went live on September 27, at 5:00 a.m. PDT/8:00 a.m. EDT, streaming on YouTube, Twitch, Tokyo Game Show’s official X account.
Please refer to the table below for the streaming schedule using your local timezone:
| Region | Local Release Time |
|---|---|
| United States (EDT) | Sep 27, 8:00 a.m. |
| United States (PDT) | Sep 27, 5:00 a.m. |
| United Kingdom | Sep 27, 1:00 p.m. |
| New Zealand | Sep 28, 1:00 a.m. |
| Australian East Coast | Sep 27, 11:00 p.m. |
| Australian West Coast | Sep 27, 8:00 p.m. |
| Japan | Sep 27, 9:00 p.m. |
| Philippines | Sep 27, 8:00 p.m. |
| South Africa | Sep 27, 2:00 p.m. |
| Brazil | Sep 27, 9:00 a.m. |
