Following Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake, and ahead of planned HD-2D remakes of the first two games for October 2025, Square Enix is reportedly working on a remake of Dragon Quest 7 to be released in its 2026 fiscal year. Although the remake can free it from its 3DS cage and make Dragon Quest 7 more accessible, choosing it before other mainline games — such as Dragon Quest 4: Chapters of the Chosen or Dragon Quest 5: Hand of the Heavenly Bride — doesn’t make much sense.
According to mp1st, citing internal documents that mention upcoming projects, Square Enix reportedly plans on remaking Dragon Quest 7: Fragments of the Forgotten Past for a 2026 or 2027 release. Although Square Enix hasn’t officially announced this project yet, but Polygon has reached out to Square Enix for comment and will update this story if we hear back.
Even so, the mainline Dragon Quest games are ripe for the remake treatment. From Dragon Quest 4 to Dragon Quest 9, many entries in the series are only available for 3DS (with some on mobile as well), and the series clearly still finds success. But it nevertheless feels weird that Square Enix is prioritizing a Dragon Quest 7 remake before other entries.
Officially released for the PlayStation in 2000 and remade for the 3DS in 2013, Dragon Quest 7: Fragments of the Forgotten Past puts you in the shoes of the Hero who alongside his friends travels back in time to save islands close to their home, Estard. While many players have it as one of their favorite Dragon Quest games, the community has always been vocal about how long Dragon Quest 7 is. Unlike Dragon Quest 4, which can take you 40 hours to do everything in the game, a casual playthrough of Dragon Quest 7 can easily stretch longer than 80 hours.
Remaking Dragon Quest 7 would give Square Enix the chance to work on the length of the game and “fix” it, making it less of a slow burn. Doing so would definitely make the game more appealing for the new audiences, who, after being introduced to the series through the recent remakes, want more of the Dragon Quest juice.
The benefits of remaking Dragon Quest 7, of remaking any of these games actually, are clear. With the release of HD-2D remakes of Dragon Quest 1 and 2 later this year, the Erdrick trilogy will be complete. If Square Enix chose to remake Dragon Quest 4 after that, then we’d have the first of what is known as the Zenithian trilogy. (Also, in 2023, Square Enix released Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince, which is directly connected to Dragon Quest 4.)
Or if Square Enix wants to side-step the fictional order, the most logical choice would be Dragon Quest 5, which is considered one of the best games in the series and one that many players have formed emotional connections to. Dragon Quest 5 is so central to the series’ history that the 2020 Dragon Quest animated movie was based on it.
We’ve been waiting to hear anything more solid about Dragon Quest 12, announced in 2021, so I’m always happy to hear any potential news about Dragon Quest games — even if it’s a remake that doesn’t entirely make sense in the context of the series.