With last year’s Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake, Square Enix managed to successfully tow the line between recreating that authentic, old-school RPG experience while still offering plenty of modern adjustments so it didn’t feel outdated. Now it’s rounding out the original Dragon Quest trilogy with Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake, and it’s every bit as impressive as its predecessor. Individually, both games in this package still stand on their own, and Square Enix has added exciting new content in a way that feels natural. Their combat systems and stories are a product of their time, with simple mechanics and very black and white motivations – but that’s part of the charm, as this approach oozes confidence in keeping things classic. And while I could have done without some returning difficulty spikes, Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake is the perfect send off to one of the best RPG trilogies of all time.
Like the Dragon Quest III Remake, I & II Remake uses Square Enix’s signature HD-2D graphical style that combines expressive 2D characters with gorgeous 3D environments, seen in other games like Live a Live, Octopath Traveler, and Triangle Strategy. It’s the perfect fit that keeps a feeling of authenticity to its retro visuals yet looks stunning in a modern setting. The various castles and dungeons have plenty of detail and lighting that makes exploration captivating, and the surrounding trees and bodies of water in the overworld invoke a sense of grand adventure.
Attack animations have also been greatly improved. My eyes opened wide the first time I saw my characters slice through enemies with a spell that conjured up a storm of beautifully crystalline icicles, or when I slammed another with Dragon Slash and the blood red aura of a drake shot upwards. It’s a visual spectacle that still feels nostalgic and never gets old.
Dragon Quest I sends you on a quest through the land of Alefgard to defeat the Dragonlord. Given it helped pioneer the genre 40 years ago, this is a straightforward story about good versus evil, so don’t go expecting plot twists left and right. I love a complex RPG story, but it was actually a nice change of pace to play one that didn’t ask me to sympathize with villains or deal with their emotional backstories. All I had to do was turn off my brain and defeat monsters.
The original Dragon Quest I was quite short, clocking in at under 10 hours to complete, but there’s some new content here to help pad out the run time. It’s cleverly integrated, too, as it relates to the events that our heroes in Dragon Quest II will encounter. Additionally, it helps expand on important characters that didn’t have a time to shine in the original such as Rubiss, the creator goddess, which adds even more worldbuilding to Dragon Quest I’s lore. This only adds up to a few more hours of actual gameplay, but it’s refreshing to play an RPG that doesn’t take months to complete.
Your protagonist is a descendant of Edrick, the hero from Dragon Quest III – and while he is silent, there’s now a semblance of a personality to him thanks to the HD-2D art style. He’s gullible, falling for a simple “look over there!” trick in the very first dungeon. He’s also selfless, as he helps out the Faeries during a time of need – these ageless creatures serve as important storytellers as the years go by, passing down tales of this game to Dragon Quest II’s main cast, establishing another enticing connection between them. So although he doesn’t say any words, his actions speak loudly, and his character sprite helps convey his traits convincingly.
The nature of Dragon Quest I’s battle system also means you’ll be spending a lot of time with this lone hero. Combat is a simple affair where you and your enemies take turns making moves. It’s like old-school Pokemon without the Mega Evolutions, Z-Moves, or Gigantimaxing. You won’t see modern mechanics like Persona’s One-More turn system or Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s real-time parrying. It’s raw and unadulterated turn-based combat in its purest form, but that doesn’t make it any less engaging.
And unlike in Dragon Quest III where you have a whole party to command, you’re a one-man army in Dragon Quest I. This fundamentally changes how you approach each fight. Suddenly, non-damaging skills like Dodgy Dance, which increases evasion, or Wild Side, which lets you temporarily do the same move twice in a row, become some of the most important in your toolkit. More often than not, every single turn was quite literally the difference between life and death. If I avoided an attack, that gave me another chance to heal my HP instead of losing outright.
With an entire party, you can get away with trying to steamroll through battles. One character can dish out all the damage while another could be put on strict healing duty. Here, however, I had to meticulously balance between offense and defense, adapting to every situation as the battle unfolds. Do I go for the extra hit by attacking, or play it safe and heal up? Playing solo forced me to consider all my options and be much more methodical. This made victory against Dragon Quest I’s difficult bosses even sweeter.
That difficulty also applies to Dragon Quest I’s normal fights. Since it has random encounters, sometimes you’re at the mercy of RNG. There were instances where I’d trigger a battle against some easier enemies, but some others I’d face off against multiple powerful dragons that could act twice per turn, potentially killing me before I even had the chance to move. Those fluctuating difficulty spikes can be frustrating.
This is mitigated a bit by its generous autosave system, which activates after every successful battle and lets you reload a file that’s not far off so you can retain most of your progress. There’s also the easy mode called Draky Quest returning from Dragon Quest III Remake, which offers an invincibility option. Despite its name, enemies can still hit quite hard in this mode, especially bosses. The invincibility can be toggled on and off this time as well, which is a nice adjustment since you can now lower the difficulty a bit without being forced to use the invincibility crutch that trivialized Dragon Quest III’s Draky Quest mode.
Setting sail once again
After revisiting the early but promising origin of the series, Dragon Quest II comes along as a much more story-driven and “traditional” RPG. It has a party-based approach to combat, similar to Dragon Quest III. The difference, however, is that the latter has blank slate party members while the former has characters with vibrant personalities. This alone makes Dragon Quest II my favorite entry in this remake trilogy.
The story follows four cousins who are all descendants of Dragon Quest I’s protagonist as they rise to save the world from darkness once again. The increased focus on storytelling results in a beefier adventure, taking about 25 hours to finish the main story. As a direct sequel to Dragon Quest I, it also reuses the same overworld map and locations, but the order you visit places is entirely different, preventing it from feeling like a retread. The ship you use to travel that world can even go underwater now, which adds a whole new layer of to exploration, new dungeons and post-game activities, and new story and side content that greatly extends the runtime.
Although the main protagonist, the Prince of Midenhall, is silent once again, that’s balanced by how colorful your other three party members are. The Prince of Cannock is your typical naive and bright young boy who sometimes can’t keep his mouth shut, leading to some humorous moments. His sister, the Princess of Cannock, is loyal and level-headed, yet sometimes a bit mischievous given that her brother initially didn’t want her to join the party due to her age and lack of experience. Finally, the Princess of Moonbrooke is impulsive, but it’s warranted given Dragon Quest II’s story starts off with her kingdom being decimated by the main antagonist, Hargon. Initially guided by selfish vengeance, it’s compelling to watch her grow to learn that she should be fighting for a better world for everyone.
The Princess of Cannock’s role has been greatly expanded in this remake, becoming a full-fledged party member when she had much more limited involvement in the original. Her inclusion feels smooth and effortless, making her a natural fit for the party. I especially loved the sibling camaraderie between her and her brother as they always have each other’s backs.
As opposed to Dragon Quest III, where you could customize your party to fill whatever combat roles you wanted, Dragon Quest II’s characters have much more defined paths. The protagonist is a pure physical attacker, while the Princess of Moonbrooke specializes in magic. The Cannock siblings are both jack-of-all-trade characters, but there’s enough differentiation within their spells and abilities to make them feel distinct.
The Sigils your party has to travel around the world to collect can impact your combat strategy as well. Previously just useless items that sat in your bag in the original, they now provide passive benefits for the entire party. For example, the Moon Sigil adds a chance for offensive spells to do more damage and healing ones to recover more HP, while the Soul Sigil transforms certain attacks into more powerful versions if a character’s HP is below half. Should I heal a low character and forgo my chance at executing that more powerful attack, or should I risk death and go for broke to get that hit in, hoping to land the killing blow? The Sigils also appear in the Dragon Quest I remake, and these trade-offs are even more pronounced there since it’s a one-man show. They are an excellent way to introduce small but impactful changes to the classic turn-based combat without losing the spirit of the originals.
Like the other entries in this remake trilogy, Dragon Quest II is tough, but having four characters feels perfectly balanced to take on the challenging boss battles and enemy encounters awaiting you. One of the best quality-of-life features that both games have, along with Draky Mode, is the ability to speed-up battles, making animations play out faster. It drastically improves the pace, especially with four characters to individually command.
Helping the world, one step at a time
In Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake, you can also toggle objective markers on or off. In the originals, it was quite easy to get lost since many times you wouldn’t know where to go next. Turning on objective markers makes for a more streamlined adventure where you don’t feel like you’re wasting your time as often. You can also toggle on markers for secret areas on the map, which can contain useful items like gold and weapons if you enter them, which makes them worth exploring. I really liked having these markers available, but it’s nice that you can turn them off, if you want to preserve that old NES-era approach to discovery.
In both games, you’re now also able to come across Mini Medals, which were introduced in later Dragon Quest entries. These can be found in barrels and rocks throughout the world, smartly incentivizing you to interact with the environment and explore every nook and cranny in dungeons. Turning in the medals to a specific NPC rewards you with incredibly powerful weapons and equipment to help you along your journey, and every single stat increase matters, as it can mean the difference between victory and defeat.