Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake is losing players midway for an unfortunate reason – its target audience has grown old and farsighted
Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake’s recent release has been massive in Japan, with the game selling out at various retailers and racking up a record-breaking Steam player count for Square Enix. However, as the remake caters to fans of a classic RPG from that’s a whole 36 years old, it has run into an unexpected problem – some of its players simply can’t read anything.
An article by Weekly Josei Prime quotes some reviews from Japanese players who had to cut their adventures short after struggling with Dragon Quest III’s text:
“I can only play for about 2 hours before my eyes start to hurt.”
“The Dragon Quest 3 remake is awesome, but as someone from the Dragon Quest generation, the Switch screen is hard on my farsightedness. The text is so small”
“I’m a 65-year-old dad who bought Dragon Quest 3. Here’s a haiku: Dragon Quest’s most powerful enemy – hyperopia.”
This seems to be an issue for people on the Switch especially, and the Switch version of Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake also happens to be the best-selling version in Japan too (source: Famitsu).
The situation has even prompted a reaction from Nintendo legend Takaya Imamura, who simply posted an “Uh-oh…” on his personal X account.
