If you’re playing the Dragon Quest VII Reimagined demo and you reach the Shrine of Mysteries expecting the same statue puzzle from the classic PS1 or 3DS versions, you’re going to get stuck fast.
The biggest thing to understand is that the demo doesn’t treat this as a physical puzzle anymore. You can’t push or reposition statues, and you can’t brute-force progress by trying random items until something works.
Instead, the Shrine of Mysteries section is controlled by a strict event-flag system, meaning the game only lets the next step happen after you trigger the exact story conversations it expects.
If you skip even one mandatory dialogue or item pickup, progression will be blocked and the necessary objectives won’t appear.
This is why so many players arrive at the Shrine, interact with everything, and assume the puzzle is broken when the truth is they haven’t activated the right triggers yet.
How Do You Reach the Shrine of Mysteries?
Before the Shrine puzzle even becomes solvable, you first need to clear a mandatory opening sequence in Fishbel Village.
At the beginning of the game, it’s tempting to sprint outside and explore, but the demo forces you through an early “home phase” that must be completed before the world properly opens up.
The key item here is the Pilchard Sandwich, which is located on the kitchen table in the Hero’s home.
You cannot progress without it, and leaving without completing this step creates a trap where you can wander the village endlessly but won’t be allowed to leave the island.
The guard at the gate will block you, and the next story trigger at the harbor won’t activate correctly.
To avoid that, head downstairs immediately, interact with the table to pick up the sandwich, then speak to your mother Pearl, who officially gives it to you as part of the story flow.
After that, go to the harbor and talk to Borkano (your father) to push the village sequence forward and properly mark that phase as complete.
Some players even recommend grabbing the sandwich before talking to Pearl so you don’t burn a dialogue cycle, but regardless of how you do it, you must have that sandwich step completed before the game will allow the next stage to proceed.
Once you leave Fishbel, you should head directly to Estard Castle, since this section is also required to unlock the Shrine event.
After Fishbel is cleared, the guard on the bridge will finally allow you to pass, because your progression flag for the village is now marked as finished.
Your next objective isn’t just “explore the castle,” but to trigger the demo’s real reason for entering the ruins, which only activates after you speak to King Donald.
Even if the talk feels like a dead end and he reacts angrily or dismissively, it’s still the required dialogue — basically the permission flag that pushes the story into the next phase. Immediately after this scene, don’t leave the castle yet.
You need to head into the basement area (the old laboratory section) and locate the Ancient Text.
This item is extremely important, because it’s what convinces Kiefer that the Shrine of Mysteries is worth investigating.
Without the Ancient Text in your inventory, you can technically reach the Shrine, but the Shrine sequence won’t properly begin and you’ll be stuck in that “nothing works” state.
How Do You Actually Solve the Shrine of Mysteries Statue Puzzle and Start the Trial of Courage?
Once you finally reach the Shrine of Mysteries, this is where most players get stuck, because Kiefer suggests using items and even gives you the Hot Stone, making it seem like that’s the solution.
In this version, the Hot Stone is basically a false lead and doesn’t advance the Shrine in the demo.
Putting it on the pedestal, walking around with it, and trying different angles does nothing.
This is the game intentionally nudging you in the wrong direction if you’re thinking like an older-version player.
The correct solution is not tied to your inventory at all. To solve the statue “puzzle,” you need to walk right up to the left statue and interact with it directly.
Once you hit the interaction button, you’ll trigger the main cutscene, where the Guardian speaks in a voice-over and asks you to prove your resolve.
This is the real completion point of the statue puzzle in the Reimagined demo. Once you hear the Guardian and the scene finishes, the game updates your objective log and activates the next quest phase, which is the Trial of Courage and the instruction to collect the Three Yellow Shards.
The most important detail here (and the reason people think they’re bugged) is that the Yellow Shards do not exist in the world until after you trigger the Guardian dialogue.
So if you arrive at the Shrine and try to jump straight into shard hunting without interacting with the left statue first, you’ll be searching for items that literally haven’t spawned yet.
That’s why following the correct order matters so much in this demo. Once the Guardian scene is triggered, the shrine section is effectively solved, the puzzle is cleared, and the shard hunt becomes the true next step forward.
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