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I will split this review into two sections based on how much of a Dragon Quest veteran you are.

If you're completely new to the series, this is a great jumping off point. The core gameplay the series is known for is here. There's a reason that people keep coming back and working their way through the catalog of 11 main games (not including the spinoffs). It's just a fun and pleasing gameplay loop. Combat is about as traditional as JRPGs come- there's no fancy combos or gauges. There's just towns, an overworld map, dungeons, and random battles. If you're not a fan of this classic JRPG gameplay, you might not fall in love with this game. Thankfully, you can speed up combat, and there are also several skills and items that can reduce the encounter rate. The story, in keeping with the original NES release, is minimalist, but they did sprinkle in some voice acting here and there and throw in a few cutscenes about your father's adventures through the land. The game's strongest point is the semi-open world gameplay and the class system. You can pick and customize your traveling companions from scratch, and then multi-class and stat them in different ways to build your personal dream team. The map opens up in a sort of metroidvania way, where getting a new key or access to a ship will open up different areas, but the game gives you some freedom in how you explore the map. Overall, it's a great representation of the classic/retro style JRPG game. It's also a remake of one of the most highly celebrated and beloved RPGs, the game that completely blew people's minds when it came out on the NES. I think it's worth experiencing if you're in any way into video game history and if you at least like the RPG genre in general. If you don't like RPGs, there's no need to force yourself to try to like this game!

If you're more experienced with the DQ franchise, then you absolutely need to give this remake a try. It stays relatively true to the classic but keeps a lot of the QOL from later more modern DQ games like the fan-favorite Dragon Quest 8. The graphical update is handled very nicely. The world is lush and colorful, and you get to enjoy the environments as you explore every nook on your scavenger hunt for item in barrels and finding all the mini medals. The iconic monsters also look very nice. If you've played DQ3 before, either on the original NES or even the SNES update, this game has plenty of homages to the original, and it can be fun to seek out all of the secrets from the original and seeing them all kept and reinterpreted. DQ3 is one of the most replayable entries in the series because you can start with a completely different party and try different builds, and the game isn't so punishing that you can't just have a little fun and make some odd combinations. Overall, I highly recommend this game to people who are fans of the DQ series. If Square Enix continues to keep releasing these high quality remakes, they can expect to keep taking my money.