Dragon Quest 1 & 2 HD-2D Remake, much like Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake before it, is a phenomenally pretty game. Square Enix really has found something special in Team Asano’s HD-2D art style, which defines this adventure incredibly well.
In remaking games like Dragon Quest and Dragon Quest 2, overhauling them entirely risks losing what made them so special. They exist as bright relics of a bygone gaming era, complete with lovely but basic graphics and simplistic gameplay that has long been left behind. In leaning into Asano’s HD-2D art style, which transports 2D graphics into more dynamic 3D planes, Dragon Quest 1 & 2 HD-2D Remake manages to refresh the original adventures, while modernising them entirely.
Even as a newcomer, with my vision unclouded by nostalgia, I was immediately rapt by the original Dragon Quest. My adventure began in a church, with a quest to to venture to a desert cave, and find a tablet with mysterious writing on it. Those familiar with the tale will know this begins the journey of Dragon Quest, with that tablet prompting the game’s mysterious hero on how to defeat the villainous Dragonlord.
Beyond the sharp high fantasy setup, what was immediately apparent was the game’s inherent beauty. Even in the holding chambers of the church, you can see the grandeur of this game. Each texture is carefully outlined in pixel form, and colours are bright and vivid on screen.
Light filters in through the church’s windows, casting god rays on its tile stone floors. While you are a little 2D sprite on screen, there’s so much detail in your movement, and you cast dynamic shadows through the world. There’s also a lot of pep in your step, with the game’s spritework well-illustrating tiny little footfalls.
Read: Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake preview – A dazzling journey awaits
Entering combat, the game’s creatures get the same treatment, with updated sprites maintaining the style and quirkiness of monster designs, with a fresh lick of paint. Rather than remaking these sprites entirely, Square Enix has kept their original, slightly goofy designs, preserving the games’ light-hearted humour. It’s hard to be mad that you’re losing ground when you’re facing off with a happy little Slime, or a funny-looking werewolf.
Overall, combat has also been updated mechanically, to ease the frustration of random battles. While random battles are still a common feature of JRPGs, it’s fair to say these systems aren’t as common as they once were, and there’s plenty of folks who dislike random encounters, as a mechanic.
Personally, I’m one of those folks. While I did my time in titles like Digimon World, I find sudden roadblocks more frustrating than fun, particularly when I’m trying to keep my health up and avoid carting around a crew of coffins (and more on this in a minute). In my time with Dragon Quest 1 & 2 HD-2D Remake, I did face off with dozens of random encounters in the lush game overworld, as I was trundling between quest points – but at the very least, the game does reduce the friction in this system by speeding up attacks.
Battles in both Dragon Quest remakes can be sped up to a very snappy pace, and while you are required to input commands, you can pretty much get away with clicking twice, blinking, and low-level enemy battles will be over. It makes all the difference in a game where you’ll need to grind for levels, regardless of your love for random encounters. After all, there’s always a bigger boss waiting around the corner, in nearby dungeons, forests, or mountains.
Playing through a mission in Dragon Quest 2, this system almost defeated my morale completely, until I understood it. It’s not that the game is necessarily hard, it’s that you need to plan much better than I did, particularly when you’re travelling between distant points on the overworld map.
The preview segment I played concerned a long journey to a tower, in which a boss resided, as well as a magical artefact. The journey to get through was across large fields, plains, mountains, rivers, and deserts, each populated by hordes of roaming creatures. While I wasn’t alone, as in Dragon Quest, poor decisions in battle – going for the kill, rather than healing – meant at several points in my journey, I managed to wipe out all but one party member.
When this happens, the game does something very funny: it makes you carry the coffins of your dead friends with you, reminding you of your failures. I assume in later parts of the game, you can find resurrection items, but I didn’t have any on me.
The first time I made the journey, I was determined to see it through, so I pressed on with coffins in tow.
But Dragon Quest doesn’t reward a stubborn approach. On entering the fabled tower and embarking on a mission up and down flights of stairs, I was consistently targeted by roving enemies – and defeated multiple times, with no healer to back my attacks. What the game actually wanted me to do was return to my nearest church for healing, and while that meant backtracking on my entire journey, I eventually did just that.
The second approach went much better, because I knew what I had to do. I had to learn to pick my battles. Not every werewolf needed a Frizz sent their way. Sometimes, the best option to stay alive was to retreat – and while cowardly, the approach served me well, as I eventually made my way back to the tower, and continued my quest without being dragged down by coffins.
Dragon Quest 1 & 2 HD-2D Remake – Trailer
What followed was a very nifty environmental puzzle that required long and hard thinking about which combination of stairs would allow me to get at my artefact prize. The solution wound up being simple – but not before I wasted many minutes on battles with goofy, gangly beasts.
Finding the correct stairs eventually led to a very funny boss fight against a strange blob, who I immediately underestimated. But the blob brought hands. In several (embarrassingly, too many) rounds of combat, I fought for my pride against this wanton jelly, casting all manner of spells.
Putting him away was a very proud moment, and it marked the conclusion of my time with Dragon Quest 1 & 2 HD-2D Remake.
What was most striking about my time with this game, beyond its aforementioned art style, was just how well the humour of the series has endured. There’s a timelessness to both of the original games, and this was clear in my time questing and battling through various dungeons. Both Dragon Quest games might be dramatic high fantasy adventures, but they leave plenty of time for levity and goofiness. In this remake, that balance in tone has seemingly been very well maintained.
It means that while you’re experiencing (or re-experiencing) the classic tales, you can see just what made them great originally, and why they came to be known as such formative tales for the JRPG genre.
Dragon Quest 1 & 2 HD-2D Remake is set to release in 2025.
