3DS Dragon Quest 7 features network support, user-shared dungeons (maybe)

It's already a fair bet that the best-selling game for February 2013 in Japan is going to be Dragon Quest 7, the Nintendo 3DS port of the PlayStation 1 game released twelve years ago. This week's issue of Famitsu magazine has a little two-page piece on the upcoming role-player, and while a lot of the information is similar to what was shared elsewhere a couple weeks ago, there are a few new tidbits if you read between the lines.

As mentioned earlier, the DQ7 remake is just that: a real remake, with the background maps notably improved, the chunky 2D character sprites recrafted into chunky 3D character models, and some handy maps and such for bottom-screen navigation through towns.

A few screenshots in this preview, however, divulge a bit more about the new game's StreetPass support. Series fans might remember Dragon Quest 9 on the regular DS, where you could earn randomly-generated treasure maps in-game that led to treasure and boss-laden grottoes and could be shared with friends. The "special tablets" in DQ7 appear to offer much the same functionality. In addition the the regular tablets you find and piece together as part of the game's main plot, you also find special tablets that can whisk you away to new places and treasure, assuming you find where these spots are located. The tablets have names like "deep, isolated cave," "slime-laden forest" and "wide coast with good view," and presumably if the random-number generator is kind to you, they'll lead to killer loot and give you massive real-life popularity when you bust out StreetPass.

Dragon Quest 7 is due out February 7 in Japan for 6090 yen.