A funny thing happened to me in the weeks I've spent playing Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined: I fell in love with its 25-year-old PS1 predecessor instead. Playing both versions side-by-side, it's clear that the remake does a brilliant job of sanding off the original's rough edges, speeding up the grind and making sure you're always pointed at your next objective. But it's the very orneryness of the old game that I've come to find so delightful about this piece of the Dragon Quest canon.
I'm an avid collector of retro games, so when the opportunity to play an advance copy of Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined came my way, I figured this would be a perfect excuse to spend entirely too much money on eBay for a copy of the PS1 original. I'd be able to make some direct comparisons between the two versions, and would have a fresh copy of a classic JRPG to display on my shelf. But as I put more and more hours into both versions, I've found myself sticking with Reimagined largely because I have an assignment to write about it. The original is the one I keep wanting to return to.
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