5 more things we learned from Inside DRAGON QUEST III HD-2D Remake
Discover more secrets of DRAGON QUEST III HD-2D Remake’s development, straight from the development team
How do you make a game like DRAGON QUEST III HD-2D Remake?
The INSIDE SQUARE ENIX video series helps answer that question, as developers talk about the games they’ve worked on. The latest episode offers another deep dive into the acclaimed RPG remake.
Producer Masaaki Hayasaka goes into amazing detail about the characters and animation of the game - and the techniques they use to make the game look as good as it does.
It’s a really interesting discussion - watch it here, or read on for just five fascinating things it reveals:
Please note: This article and video contain spoilers for DRAGON QUEST III HD-2D Remake. Proceed with caution if you are yet to finish the game.
Your mother has an expanded role
The main protagonist of DRAGON QUEST III has a mother - she’s one of the first characters you see in the game when she wakes you from your bed. She’s an important figure in your hero’s life, so the team incorporated her into a climactic scene to give it more impact.
Eventually, the hero defeats the Archfiend Baramos and triumphantly returns to the king in triumph. In the original game, the mother doesn’t appear in this scene - just the hero and whatever allies are in the party.
For the remake, the team wanted to incorporate the mother into this scene. Producer Masaaki Hayasaka points out: “Thinking about it, what parent would want to miss their child being commended by the King like this?”
Of course, things take a turn and a new threat emerges, so another new thing happens in the remake - your mom rushes to your side to protect you. As Hayasaka-san says:
“Even though the hero has been on all kinds of adventures and grown strong, to their mother, they're still a 16-year-old child who's been away from home. Surely, she'd risk her own life to protect her child!”
As well as it just making sense from a character perspective, the team figured that many players who grew up with DRAGON QUEST III are now parents themselves. As such, they’d feel extra emotion from these scenes.
Good animation sometimes takes some trickery
Speaking of the mother, did you know that this character has the most unique animations of any character in the game? One of those includes a small moment where she hugs the hero - something that was particularly tricky for the team to actually make.
When characters have to physically interact in the game, it takes a combination of artistry and smoke and mirrors to make it look right. In the case of the mother’s hug, for example, the hero, shield, mother and shadow had to be split into different layers. What’s more, the shadow of the mother is actually cast by an NPC girl hidden in the scene!
The Kings are more Kingly than ever
In the original DRAGON QUEST III, talking to a town’s King would save your game. The team wanted to bring the HD-2D Remake more in line with later DRAGON QUEST games, so introduced the churches and members of the clergy to let players save instead.
This meant they had to decide: what would the kings do instead?
The answer came from thinking about their role logically: you’d expect a king to have access to a lot of information. For example, the King of Aliahan doesn’t just send you out on your quest anymore - he also talks about Ortega and Baramos to set the scene and set your path.
There was also an opportunity to differentiate the kings more in the remake and give each one their own personalities. Voice acting was one way to do that, but also the lore of the area was considered.
For example, Portoga is a coastal town visited by lots of ships, so it would stand to reason that the King there is particularly well informed. It shows just how intently the team thought about each detail of the game.
The Robbin’ ‘Ood scenes have changed for the remake
Robbin’ ‘Ood is one of the most memorable characters in DRAGON QUEST III, and the team wanted to make sure this was the case in DRAGON QUEST III HD-2D Remake as well.
While the scenes play out very similarly to the original game, the team made some noticeable tweaks to the outlaw’s appearance.
For example, he wears the stolen king’s crown in Skyfell Tower and changes color to match the battle sprites in the Kidnapper’s Cave. Then, in Tantegel, he retains his hood, unlike the original game where he’s unmasked and looks like the other humans.
In addition, some tweaks to story scenes were added. When you confront Robbin’ ‘Ood to take back the crown, he exits the scene pursued by guards. This was added to give the story more depth - it shows the whole country is after the charming hoodlum.
Sacrifices to style had to be made to preserve the story
The HD-2D visual style of the game let the creators make dynamic scenes with different angles and effects to get players closer to the characters and story. Even so, they had to be careful when creating scenes so as not to ruin any story elements.
An example of this is the Kidnapper’s Cave. While it would look better for the HD-2D presentation to lower the camera and give the scene greater depth, making the angle too low reveals Robbin’ ‘Ood before the player is meant to see him. So, the team used tweaks to the angle and zoom of the camera to keep things obscured until they’re needed.
In the video, Producer Hayasaka-san reveals the scene from a different angle - one not available in the game. After the scene where Gopal and Tanaya escape their cells, you can see in this view that the characters and Robbin’ ‘Ood are hidden in the scene ready for the next cutscene.
Smoke and mirrors again - but it’s certainly effective!
We hope you enjoyed this behind-the-scenes look at DRAGON QUEST III HD-2D Remake. There’s loads more discussed in the video, and in much more detail, so be sure to check out the episode above or via YouTube.
DRAGON QUEST HD-2D Remake is available now for Nintendo Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC via Microsoft Store and Steam.
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