Following the success of last year’s Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake, Square Enix is bringing more classic DQ entries to modern hardware with the upcoming Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake and Dragon Quest VII Reimagined. The latter, a full 3D remake, came as a surprise announcement during the recently hosted September 2025 Nintendo Direct. Although any news is good news, the announcement also raised some questions as to why DQVII is getting the remake treatment before entries IV to VI.
As spotted by Otaku Soken, Dragon Quest series creator Yuji Horii answered that question in the latest episode of KosoKoso Hōsō Kyoku, a talk show hosted by Horii and former Shonen Jump editor Kazuhiko Torishima. Around the 44-minute mark in the stream, Torishima asks Horii why DQVII is getting a remake now, instead of DQIV, V and VI. In response, Horii comments, “there are various projects in motion, it’s just that VII happened to get completed first.”
Torishima takes this as a subtle confirmation of other remakes, asking, “So it’s not that you’re not working on IV, V, and VI, right?” However, Horii keeps things mysterious, refusing to go into further details.
With Dragon Quest XII’s development in full swing and possibly multiple remakes in the works in parallel, Square Enix seems to be going all out in revitalizing the Dragon Quest franchise. It will be interesting to see whether subsequent remakes receive the HD-2D treatment or take the “Reimagined” approach with full 3D graphics.
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