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Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past Discussion (Nintendo 3DS) [game]
 
Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past on the 3DS
8.5/10 from 2 user ratings

Welcome to the official discussion thread for Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past on the 3DS!

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It's the official discussion thread for the long-awaited remake of this storied series! Let's post our progress and impressions here.

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09/16/16, 15:28    Edited: 09/16/16, 15:30
 
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I knew going in that it'd be a bit before a battle, but I enjoyed the opening for the most part. It was good world-building, with solid character writing and a lot of fun or interesting moments that endeared me to this world and its cast. I do think that the revised area @ploot mentioned could've been done better though. Apparently it was longer in the original, but a lot more interesting and ruins-y.
09/20/16, 20:32   
Apparently Yuji Horii was inspired by Myst and "wanted to push against the convention that fighting alone should be the key to advancement in an RPG".

I don't know if he succeeded (I'm just an hour or so in) but the goal, at the very least, is commendable. DQVII is probably best enjoyed with that in mind.
09/20/16, 23:41   
Okay, I'm stuck. Is my game glitched??
The characters are saying I have enough fragments to form the second pillar and all I have are two reds and two greens. I can't complete anything!
Please tell me I'm missing something.

Edit - I figured out that there's a lot of helpful stuff under "info" and found the fragment. Phew!
It's too bad the characters were so sure I had everything already. Really threw me off!
09/21/16, 07:46   
Edited: 09/21/16, 14:39
Zero said:
@VofEscaflowne What you didn't like fighting the same set of 4 bosses like 5 different times?!

Yuck. Hate when games pull that. I'm going with DQVII.
09/21/16, 14:26   
So I tried to approach the beginning of the game with an open mind, but the game definitely got more fun once I had my first battle, about 1:45 into it.

That beginning part involved a lot of "you're here but we can't do anything so go to the hermit and come back, except I'm not gonna be here when you do, I'll be all the way across the island, back home, and you'll just have to figure that out and find me there.".

That's not world-building. That's not taking the time required to tell the story well.

That's just busy work.
09/21/16, 17:35   
@Guillaume
Exactly.
I'm definitely enjoying it a lot more now that the story has begun. I just can't wait for the customization to come into effect (though I'm sure I'll have to).
09/21/16, 18:15   
Edited: 09/21/16, 18:16
I'm about 10 hours in, closing in on the L'Arc...uh, arc. I quite enjoyed the island just prior to this one--I forgot the name of it but it was the one with all the statues. These games do a great job at dropping little understated bits of poignancy in the dialogue; shortly after that adventure, I went to talk to Dermot the Hermit, who lamented that he had wanted to go on this island-hopping adventure since he was a kid, but didn't have a best friend to go with. And now he's too old. So our gang is essentially having his adventure for him, but he'd appreciate us dropping in and telling him about it. Stuff like that plus the statue sequence make for some surprising, effective storytelling.

Still too easy though. If the remakes were going to let up on the fire this much, I'd appreciate a difficulty option.
09/22/16, 21:18   
Man, people weren't kidding about this starting slow... and that's a understatement. I just played for an hour and a half, still haven't seen a battle, and have to sleep now. What a damn bummer.
09/23/16, 11:56   
Man there's a lot to do in the first part of this game, with almost nothing actually happening.

I guess we're all saying the same thing!
09/23/16, 12:55   
Does anyone else find it sort of tiring to read the NPC dialogue? Specifically, the people from the different islands.
Feels like I'm reading a Harry Potter book where every character is Hagrid.
Also, each island has its own story, but they use the same 8 NPC models for even the characters in which I'm supposed to form a connection. That's hard to do.

I normally love me some Dragon Quest but something isn't clicking here.
09/23/16, 15:17   
Edited: 09/23/16, 15:22
@ploot

I like how that Dermot old fellow sounds all important but then 2 minutes later, I run into his NPC clone But I guess it's a problem of its time? Back when Square Enix didn't focus on hair physics and intricate belt clothing for its characters.
09/23/16, 15:25   
@ploot

Haha, every character is Hagrid. Reight, wot's all this then, 'Arry?

The dialects are sort of a point of contention for some people; personally, I really like 'em. I think there's actually a lot of care put into making them consistent within each town (there are subtle differences between each one--one might be Cockney, another Irish, another sort of a higher-brow, stuffy sound, etc). Kinda adds to the whimsy for me; feels like I'm actually traveling to different areas of the world, and I've already laughed out loud several times from the quality of the writing itself.

The NPC reuse is more of an issue for me, and one that cropped up in the DS remakes of 4, 5, and 6. The models themselves look great (and I appreciate their variety of animations and little touches, like physically looking down towards whoever's talking to them), but it's a little difficult to fully get involved with Old Man NPC's plight whenever I see his twin in the next town over. From what I remember of 8, it was better at giving important/story-related NPCs unique models.

I'm about 11 hours in, just finished the Faraday storyline which was pretty compelling and cool in its own right. It also ended with a boss that really brought back the DQ difficulty I've been craving; I managed to win by the skin of my teeth, with barely any MP left and one of my party members having bitten the dust.

Game is darker than expected, but you kinda delve a bit to experience some of the poignancy. A lot of somber moments are very understated and are only found by talking to NPCs at particular times. I like this; it feels weighty without shoving it in your face or getting melodramatic.
09/23/16, 15:43   
I made it to the German town (the third island) and it was quite a neat experience. Pretty sad actually.

After finishing the above area I feel like the game has opened up a tiny bit. Looking for monsters to live in the town and playing their special dungeons is going to be a fun diversion.

Also, wow is there A LOT of dialogue in this game! NPCs change what they say depending on what is going on and who is in the party (WAAAAAY more often than a typical RPG). Not only that, your party chat often has special dialogue for each NPC you speak with. Speak with an NPC, then press B to see what the party has to say. Craziness.
09/24/16, 06:19   
Edited: 09/24/16, 06:20
@ploot

Yeah, party chat is a neat feature that started with...I believe the original DQ7? They added it into the DS remakes of 5 and 6 too (although there, it triggered something new for EVERY playable character after EVERY NPC, which was kind of amazing). DQ7's isn't quite as extensive, but it makes up for it by--like you said--including brand new dialogue from NPCs very frequently popping up. There's apparently a ridiculously huge amount of dialogue tucked away into the game because of that.
09/24/16, 07:21   
I'm really liking this game but it's a slow burn! It took me over 2 hours to even reach my first battle! I think I'm almost 3 hours in. Definitely still at the very beginning. I hear these games are long? Like.....LONG? 100+ hours long? It doesn't help that I always feel tempted to talk to like ALL the town folk over and over again. If anything, that's taken up the most time. I bet I could rush to where I am in like 20 mins if I ran through it.

I love the art style and the music! Sounds like classic Enix music to me!
09/24/16, 08:11   
@carlosrox

From what I hear, it's definitely a biggie. Probably best to go into this game full-stop, just kinda absorbing the experience and not trying to rush through or anything. That said, the intro is a bit infamous for being long (and the PSX version was even longer) but the pacing seems fine to me after that.

The music definitely has a nostalgic feel; the same composer has worked on every Dragon Quest game and definitely has a specific classical style.
09/24/16, 16:36   
I suppose "give it 10 hours" is asking for much, but that's about how long it took for me to finally feel like I'm on an adventure.
Once you start unlocking larger land masses, it really starts to feel good.

Now I am addicted (and customization has yet to rear its head).
09/24/16, 16:39   
Edited: 09/24/16, 16:39
My feelings seem to be all over the place with this game.

I'm currently in a story that simply requires I look around for characters and backtrack all over the place.
I am indeed impressed with the amount of text in this game, but it's startling to wear thin right now.

BLAAHHHHHH. One day I'm annoyed, the next I love it, and then I'm back to annoyed.
09/27/16, 07:19   
@ploot

Yeah I'm feeling the same way... but at least I just got my vocations so that's one good thing now. Now I'm just curious if this is the type of RPG where if a character takes vocations that are melee focused, should that character remain melee? Or does going to a magic casting vocation readjust stats in order to be efficient? Or are certain characters better suited to certain vocations? Cause I switched my main character to Warrior whose strength became 55 but upon checking Maribel's stats as a Warrior, her strength was only 33. That's a pretty huge difference and I'm not sure of the reason why that is.
09/27/16, 15:34   
@ploot

Are you talking about Greenthumb? Yeah, I thought that island was the weakest part of the game for sure. I wouldn't normally mind going around just talking to NPCs, but it didn't help that I found all the major players during that section to be very stupid and unlikable. And to make matters worse, Maribel's party chat during that part even made me like her less.

I just finished the island after that, which was a pretty cool change of pace...but resulted in a surprising ending!

@VofEscaflowne
I haven't gotten to vocations yet, but I hear Equips are character-based rather than class-based (which I kinda like, actually, makes for a lot less switching around and buying new stuff all the time with each class change). What this means is that someone who can equip a big ol' sword like our Hero would naturally be hitting harder than Maribel and her whips and knives. That said, that does sound like a pretty large jump in power for Warrior. Mage-to-Warrior might be a big leap, but utility classes like Shepherd or Pirate might fit her just fine if you don't want her to be a Mage or whatever.
09/27/16, 15:39   
Edited: 09/27/16, 15:42
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