When Square Enix announced Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake, I was both surprised and not surprised at the same time. Dragon Quest was a natural fit for Square Enix’s HD-2D line, and with Dragon Quest XII taking a long time to brew, there was certainly a gap to fill for fans of the series. The third installment is arguably where Dragon Quest went from merely a very popular game series to an outright cultural phenomenon in Japan, and as such, holds a special place in people’s hearts and minds. Why not start things off with a bang?
Of course, if you’ve played the first three Dragon Quest games before, you might know why it’s simultaneously a little odd that Square Enix started with the third game, but also kind of logical. The original trilogy has stronger connective tissue to its narrative than most of the rest of the series. Dragon Quest III served as the climax of these games, with its big reveal being that it was, in fact, a prequel to the previous chapters. At the time, it was an unexpected, exciting twist that brought the Erdrick Saga full circle. In opting to remake that chapter first, Square Enix has sacrificed that surprise in favor of telling things in a chronological order.
It also meant that the earlier, shorter, more pioneering entries were going to follow the far more fully-formed, polished third game. As has been done in the past, Dragon Quest and Dragon Quest II are packed together in one release, but is that enough? The first game basically laid out the blueprint that much of the genre would follow in Japan, but in comparison to its many progeny, it is a very thin experience. The second game has often been seen as something of a black sheep in the family, mainly down to how messy a particular late-game section is. With this new release order, it now has to perform the task of concluding the trilogy. While Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake was mostly faithful to the original, that probably wasn’t going to fly for Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake.
To its credit, Square Enix seems to have recognized this. Sure, Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake has all of the things from Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake that you would expect. The lovely new visuals, the orchestrated soundtracks, the voice acting, and plenty of tweaks all make the games easier to enjoy in a modern context. There are difficulty options along with a selection of cheats that you can use if you like, allowing you to control how much resistance the games will offer. You’ll also be able to find little sparkly points on the world map that will give you some items, and secret spots that might have some extra goodies or perhaps some NPCs offering hints. Dungeons, towns, and other locations have been expanded while largely maintaining their basic shapes. It all feels quite luxurious.
That’s just the start, though. After choosing which of the two games you want to play (yes, you can jump right to the second game if that’s your preference), it won’t take long for veterans to notice some very big differences. The original hero has to take on parties of monsters? How’s he supposed to do that? Oh, he gets a ton of new gear, including boomerangs and whips. More magic spells, too. Abilities are also here. Better still, you can learn new spells and abilities by finding special scrolls and using them. By the end of the game, the hero of Dragon Quest I is significantly more powerful and versatile than he has ever been. The game steps up the challenge to match that, though. The menagerie of creatures you’ll face this time around vastly outnumbers the original game’s roster. This all adds a lot of gameplay zest to a game that was very simple in its original form.
It’s not just the gameplay that has been expanded, though. The narrative has also been significantly fleshed out. You’ll interact with tons of new named characters, visit new locations, deal with new subquests, and watch some honest-to-goodness cutscenes. The early Dragon Quest games were extremely terse with their storytelling, and the first game especially so. It was up to the player to fill in the story blanks themselves when they came across a destroyed town or battled an extra-tough monster. Why is the Dragonlord being such a jerk, anyway? This remake gives voice to those silences, for better or worse. It feels like a very different game following the same outline, and what was once an adventure you could wrap up on a lazy Saturday is now much longer.
As much as Dragon Quest I has changed, Dragon Quest II’s changes feel even bigger. The original game definitely offers more to work with for a remake like this, and the developers have taken full advantage of that here. The hints of personality in your party members in the original game have fully blossomed here, adding a great deal of drama to the story. The destruction of Moonbrooke Kingdom was just a story trigger in the NES game, but in this remake, it’s a massive tragedy that constantly fuels the party’s motivation to keep going forward. Lots of new side characters appear, and there’s even a new party member that fits in reasonably well.
All those new gameplay additions in Dragon Quest I show up here as well, but they resonate differently. Take the scrolls, for example. In the first game, you can just use them all on your character right away. There’s nowhere else to put them, after all. In Dragon Quest II, you often have to make choices about who gets what. This extra resource management adds even more crunchiness to the gameplay, and again, the game is not afraid to step up the difficulty to test your party’s new capabilities. The deeper you go into the game, the more it expands on the original work.
I’m not going to spoil anything, but suffice it to say the late game has seen some extremely significant alterations to suit Dragon Quest II’s new role as the story finale. While at times I felt Dragon Quest I was getting too far away from its charming simplicity, I think Dragon Quest II has had a full-on glow-up. While I’ve never disliked playing through Dragon Quest II, I’ve never had as good a time with the game as I did with this remake. I feel weird saying this out loud, but I think Dragon Quest II might be the best of the HD-2D trilogy. Whether you liked the original game or not, you should check this version out. Excellent stuff.
The Nintendo Switch 2 version of Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake will be familiar in function to those who have played the patched Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake on the console. You can choose between a crisper image at 30 frames per second or a slightly blurrier one at 60 frames per second. I mostly opted for the latter, but I don’t think it’s especially hard on the eyes either way. Part of me feels like this should be running a little better on this hardware, but it’s at least a serious improvement over how Dragon Quest III HD-2D looked on the original Switch. It’s a fine enough way to play.
Given how generally safe Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake played things, it’s truly remarkable just how much Square Enix has added and changed in Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake. It’s as though the original games were summaries of the stories, and these are full-blown novelizations. The expanded narrative bits, new areas, enhanced gameplay mechanics, and presentation overhaul make Dragon Quest I & II come off like entirely new games. While I occasionally lamented the loss of the zippy pace of the original Dragon Quest I, this is still a must-play for fans of the series and those who can appreciate RPGs with a slightly old-school sensibility.
Version Tested: Nintendo Switch 2
Review copy provided by Square Enix
