If they release good retro compilations in physical form I always buy them.
I ordered both those Psikyo Shooting Stars collections for The Switch. I also got the Dragon Quest Trilogy import because no way in hell is square going to release any physical form of the Dragon Quest trilogy in the west after 11 bombed on the switch.
I didn’t know that the DQ trilogy switch port was a thing until literally reading this post. I did some research hoping beyond hope that it was more than a lazy repackaging of the mobile ports from the past decade and was disappointed, but not surprised, to find out I was wrong,
I’ve been waiting for a well-considered update to DQIII in particular since
literally my teens and SE has proven time and time again that they are not interested in going even an inch beyond the barest essentials necessary for a lazy port. This is despite numerous chances to do so in the 19 years since the Game Boy Color version which set the bar for system ports well before any of the modern trends towards the same.
Hell, I remember hearing hazy internet rumors of a GBA version, and I was so desperate for it to be true that I scoured every GameStop in town before finally asking a perplexed employee about it, only to have him say there was likely no such thing.
I love DQ3. More specifically, I love the GBC remake/port Dragon Warrior III and I’m consistently amazed at how tightly it’s designed and how well it delivers an emotional, impeccably paced, organic RPG experience. There’s so much to say about it, and I’m sad that for every moment after the 2001 release, its story has been one of squandered potential.
Japan has consistently gotten the best ports of it; 1996 saw a Super Famicon version that added lush backgrounds, animations, a treasure hunting mini game and a board game side quest inserted at multiple points in the world progression. The US never saw this version, although an unofficial English patch does exist. The only versions released in the West before the Switch trilogy a were a 2014 iOS/Android port and the aforementioned GBC version. The Game Boy version lacks the visual fidelity (although its visuals are great for what they are) and keeps all of the side content and then some, including yet another dungeon on top of the post-game content already added in the SNES edition. The mobile port was a massive step backwards in many respects, ditching content such as the board-game and enemy animations while committing the unforgivable sin of a using a modernized HD user interface overlayed onto the SNES sprites with little care for the art direction as a whole. I believe most of the post-game content is intact, but I wasn’t eager to put money down and play through 30+ hours of now infamous janky mobile RPG presentation to get there.
The sad thing wasn’t the nit picks, it was the lack of care. It’s the series that built the multimillion dollar juggernauts of the company and its IP, and they can’t pay a small team of programmers and artists for the few months of extra work it would take to incorporate animated art assets
that already fucking exist and include an option for classic text and UI. And that’s before adding any reasonably achievable polish on top of that which would have paid dividends in preserving the game’s legacy, even in the hands of a bargain basement art director. Then they have the audacity to parade it in front of me for fifty fucking dollars on switch, and about the same price if you shell out for each of the three games in the trilogy on mobile.
A true faithful, definitive edition of the game has been laughably within reach for nearly 20 years; it really highlights the corporate cynicism of Square Enix in rushing out barebones versions designed solely to get sales based on branding and nostalgia. They’re presenting the Switch trilogy as a definitive version of the DQ3 despite the fact it looks considerably worse than a game from 1996 and is literally missing content that has existed since around that time. I know that Dragon Quest, while popular in the West, has never had the same voracious appeal here as it has in Japan, but at this point the only conclusion I can come to is that some asshole in a Square Enix board room hates me in particular, and has deemed me unworthy of partaking of the best version of the game.
Thats my big DQ3 spergout, thanks for reading.
In the spirit of the thread, I recommend either the GBC edition or the SNES edition with the English patch. The official localization has a professional polish while the fan translation feels more moody and atmospheric. It’s a great game with surprising emotional punch that strikes an excellent balance between on-screen presentation and encouraging your imagination. The mechanics are simple but incredibly tight, and while light on story, it’s heavy on themes and surprisingly mature for a game that in its original form could fit on a 512KB cartridge.