Among the many announcements shown at Nintendo Direct September 2025, Square Enix showed off a new title that nobody saw coming and had old-school Dragon Quest fans excited with nostalgia — Dragon Quest VII Reimagined.
This game is the 2nd remake of Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past, the seventh mainline installment of Square Enix’s iconic Dragon Quest franchise.
It was originally released on the PlayStation One in 2000 before receiving a remake on the Nintendo 3DS in 2013.
Now this retro JRPG is getting reimagined yet again for Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch consoles and PC on February 5, 2026.
For those unfamiliar with the original game, Dragon Quest VII is a turn-based JRPG that follows the adventures of heroes travelling the world to explore mysterious, uncharted islands surrounding their homeland of Estard.
Along the way, our heroes will uncover ancient secrets, trek through wondrous locales, and face off against giant monsters and evil villains in turn-based combat.
The original game blended pixel-art character designs with 3D backgrounds, whereas the 2013 3DS version employed full 3D graphics.
From the looks of this trailer, it appears that Dragon Quest VII Reimagined will be taking the 3DS’ approach of making the whole game 3D but with crisp, next-gen graphics while upholding the cutesy art direction of the original game.
Another new feature is that Dragon Quest VII Reimagined will feature full voice-acted dialogue, which previous versions never had.
Dragon Quest VII Reimagined will also feature an updated version of Dragon Quest VII’s traditional turn-based combat system.
In the original Dragon Quest VII, you can equip your party with Vocations, which are the game’s classes that grant them powerful abilities and access to mighty weapons.
However, in Dragon Quest VII Reimagined, party members can equip two Vocations at once instead of only one, thanks to the new ‘Moonlight’ feature.
Additionally, each Vocation gets a new Vocational Perk, which are special attacks and support spells that can only be activated when a character gets ‘worked up’ in battle.
On top of that, Dragon Quest VII Reimagined will include a Monster Master Vocation and quality-of-life features like seeing enemies on the field (eliminating random encounters), automatically killing enemies several levels below you in one shot, tactics for party members, and battle speed-up options.
Time to embark on another Dragon Quest on Xbox
Square Enix is putting out all the stops to bring us a wide range of Xbox JRPGs for the upcoming winter season and beyond.
We’ve got Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles, Dragon Quest I+II HD-2D remake, the long-awaited Xbox port of Final Fantasy VII Remake (which finally has a release date), and now we have a 2nd remake for Dragon Quest VII on the way.
I am slightly disappointed that this game won’t have an HD-2D art style like Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake did, as I love pixel art graphics. I will say, Dragon Quest VII Reimagined’s full-3D graphics look very impressive and 100% faithful to the original game’s charming art style.
As a UK-based gamer, I sadly never got a chance to play the original PlayStation One version of Dragon Quest VII, as it was released only in Japan and North America.
I did, however, play the Nintendo 3DS remake in the 2010s, and I remember enjoying it a lot for its diverse character build potential thanks to the Vocation system and crazy boss fights you encounter late in the game.
So, I can’t wait to relive those memories with next-gen graphics when Dragon Quest VII Reimagined launches on February 5, 2026, for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC via Steam.
The game will also receive Xbox Play Anywhere support, so you can continue your save file progress on any compatible Xbox console and Windows PC if you have a digital copy of the game.
Dragon Quest VII Reimagined is now available for pre-order on various online storefronts, which are selling Standard, Digital Deluxe, or Collector’s Editions of the game.
