Five remakes that set a high standard for Final Fantasy VII

When it comes to remakes, Square Enix’s Dragon Quest franchise is batting about as high of an average as it can get. Each of the first seven games have been granted a remake at some point in their history, and each and every time, Square Enix has gotten it right. I’ll just throw the whole series out there instead of focusing on just one.

Nothing can take away from what the first three games achieved, forging the rules of the JRPG genre and boosting its popularity into overdrive, but each also has a Super Famicom remake that make them much more palatable to modern audiences. The prettier graphics are easier on the eyes, but more importantly, the experience points and gold distribution benefit from being re-balanced .

From there, we tackle Dragon Quest IV, which was also an NES game, but its first remake was for the PlayStation using the Dragon Quest VII engine. This version is a bit stiff, but Square Enix eventually retooled it with better animation into the Nintendo DS hit. It is this version which set the standard for the Nintendo DS remakes of Dragon Quest V and VI following it.

Dragon Quest IV, V and VI all shine the best on the Nintendo DS, there is no denying that. However, they are also still fun to play on their original consoles as well to see how the series evolved over time. Being all built on the same engine, the Nintendo DS games miss out on this progression.

Dragon Quest V also has a PlayStation 2 remake exclusive to Japan that fans swear by.