loading . . . Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake Review Don't Go It Alone
The Dragon Quest series is barreling headfirst into its upcoming 40th anniversary, and has been doing so by celebrating and refreshing its past. Late last year, Square Enix and series creator Yuji Horii released Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake and now, between the release of that game and the upcoming Dragon Quest VII Reimagined early next year, we have Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake. As the name suggests, the games look and sound much like the remake of Dragon Quest III, and despite being clouded with some uneven changes, they make for a highly worthwhile update of the series' origins.
The story of the original Dragon Quest is that of a solo adventurer, a distant descendant of the hero from Dragon Quest III, who is pressed into service when the Kingdom of Tantegel’s Princess Gwaelin is kidnapped and the realm threatened by the evil Dragonlord. Weaving a tale of elves, ruffians, princesses, and goddesses, Dragon Quest I's hero works to save the realm of Alefgard. The remake adds a great multitude of new story beats, quests, bosses, and skills while preserving the core essence of the original, which has defined the identity of JRPGs.
Winks and nods to the original can be found throughout, though no series experience is necessary to enjoy the story being told. Altogether, the story is a more fleshed-out experience with excellently written story beats and memorable encounters throughout. Princess Gwaelin has far more characterization and presence in the remake, being far from just a helpless damsel in distress. With Dragon Quest I's remake coming after Dragon Quest III's, it allows descendants of characters met in Dragon Quest III to be encountered and their families stories continued, while quick fetch quests become actual story beats with deeper meaning and connections to wider Dragon Quest lore. Nothing feels shoehorned in at all; it feels like what the original tale might be if it were created today.
[caption id="attachment_178653" align="aligncenter" width="640"] The Dragonlord's castle looms large over the starting town in Dragon Quest I.[/caption]
Similarly, the Dragon Quest II HD-2D Remake benefits from players being familiar with Dragon Quest I, but much of the story is recounted along the way, filling in any gaps should someone choose to play this title first. Its story takes place a few generations after the events in Dragon Quest I, and wherever the quartet of heroes roam, the hero of that game is discussed at length by the local citizenry of this much-expanded game world. Dragon Quest II has multiple new story beats, boss encounters, quests, and even a new party member. While the original focused on a trio of cousins — the Princes of Midenhall and Cannock along with the Princess of Moonbrooke — this time the Princess of Cannock joins the party as well, making a four-person party that tracks with subsequent games in the series. Along with all the other additions, the story and personal growth of the four characters is amazingly written. Heartbreak, feelings of inadequacy, fear, revenge, and forgiveness are all discussed, and substantial character growth is experienced throughout the adventure. While the game clocks in at nearly 30 hours due to quite a bit of backtracking, the story more than carries this extended game length.
Both of these remakes look amazing. They use the HD-2D art style popularized by Square Enix's previous Octopath Traveler and Triangle Strategy titles to great effect. The games are gorgeous, with amazingly detailed sprites, each with small and meaningful animations the NES versions could only dream of. The heroes in both titles have intricate hand movements which especially help the silent protagonists of both games convey a lot more information. Lighting effects and water animations are noteworthy hits of the background graphics, while improved monster sprites and spell and skill animations in battle are also breathtaking. From the lowly Frizz to the powerful Kazapple, there's something magical about every spell cast. Dragon Quest titles always encourage players to imagine themselves in the adventure as the silent protagonist, and these graphics help bring another layer of immersion to both classic games.
[caption id="attachment_178654" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Sailing Dragon Quest II's seven seas has never looked so beautiful.[/caption]
For the first time in a line of Dragon Quest I & II releases — which have appeared on the NES, SNES, GBC, and Wii just to name a few — the full orchestral performance is used to set the tone of the games. Created decades ago, composer Koichi Sugiyama’s scores for both titles feature a significant amount of violin and string instrumentation that set a beautiful tone for the games. Noteworthy tracks are to be found all over, and iconic enough through their reuse that many Dragon Quest players will recognize these pieces from multiple other side entries released throughout the years. Whether conveying the grand sense of exploration while adventuring, or the impending dread of a boss battle, the soundtracks of both games deliver that powerful emotional punch every time.
While story additions were touched on earlier, they are not the only additions to both games that make both adventures feel almost brand new. All characters now have access to battle abilities like elemental slashes and martial arts moves. The later series staple, introduced in Dragon Quest VI, of having both magic spells and separate physical abilities is very welcome. While most spells and abilities are learned upon leveling up, special scrolls are hidden around both game worlds that can impart new learnings to characters as a one-time use bonus. In general, this is a welcome change and helps players customize their Dragon Quest II party a bit more to their liking, though this lands a bit flat in Dragon Quest I. With only one playable character, the hidden scrolls take take on far too much importance, such as giving access to the best healing spell, which can require players to undertake extra hours of grinding if not found.
[caption id="attachment_178657" align="aligncenter" width="640"] The Cannock children adventuring together provides multiple occasions for brother-sister hilarity.[/caption]
However, scrolls aren’t the only addition; five powerful sigils also appear in both titles and provide helpful boosts to characters once found. First appearing only in Dragon Quest II as the MacGuffins required to progress towards the endgame area, these sigils are now found in both games. Once found, their mere presence in the party’s item bag allows for some pretty useful boons. For example, one sigil grants MP generation when characters defend, while others can help boost the power of certain skills or spells under specific conditions. Their effects do not come into play every round of every battle, but when they do, they definitely provide a potent boon.
Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake offers a few decidedly decent gameplay options, but still lacks substantial accessibility options. While players can speed up text, battle speed, and walking movement in the game, unfortunately only the first two are big improvements. Faster walking speed, and especially sailing speed in Dragon Quest II, does not feel like a huge improvement over the default speed. And while it’s nice for text to be able to fly by quickly, the fixed text size feels a bit small for those with vision issues. The ability to change text size and color-blind accessibility options would be most welcome, as would more granularity with the difficulty sliders in both titles. Both titles offer easy, default, and hard modes that affect damage output and monster HP, but all unfortunately come with set restrictions. The easiest setting also adds HP/MP recovery upon level-up and invincibility. There is no way to granularly take on slightly easier monsters without also having both active. Similar restrictions apply at every difficulty level, but with greater options, players could experience the games more where their play style is.
The same kind of “good, but could be better” experience also appears in the battle system. While the battle systems of both games are mechanically identical, in practice they feel drastically different. Starting with the positive, Dragon Quest II feels like an almost perfect traditional turn-based battle system. Players either pick their party members’ actions before each round begins or can designate individual characters to a variety of computer-controlled actions. The battle system will show which spells and skills specific monsters are weak to during the selection stage, a welcome addition, especially with such an increase in number of choices in these remakes. The AI generally works very well; if players pick their own commands, they’re unable to respond to what actions monsters take mid-round, but the AI can pivot to healing someone who’s taken an unexpected blow despite that character not needing healing at the start of a round. The only quibble with the AI is that unless told not to spend MP, it prioritizes using spells and skills, even if a physical hit would work just as well, or often better. Controlling damage-dealers while allowing healers to be controlled by the AI ends up being an excellent battle strategy.
[caption id="attachment_178655" align="aligncenter" width="640"] A dream encounter in any other Dragon Quest game, this is a quick death in the Dragon Quest I HD-2D Remake.[/caption]
Unfortunately, all these amazing platitudes can not be heaped upon the battle system in Dragon Quest I HD-2D Remake. The techniques are all there, but a single change to the original battle system pretty much ruins it. In the original Dragon Quest, hero exclusively engages in one-on-one combat. The HD-2D Remake adds in far too many battles where that isn’t the case, and by additionally giving more than a few monsters the ability to act multiple times, it sucks the fun out of the adventure. Soon into Dragon Quest I's Remake, players will find themselves facing up to five enemies on screen. Other encounters may have fewer enemies, but feature foes that attack twice. Very quickly, the game becomes gated off by the hero’s ability to heal. Combine this with an almost comically small defensive stat growth, virtually half of what the DQII crew gets, and the poor guy just can't hold up. There are too many battles where the ten monster attacks over two rounds can far more damage than players can endure to be able to both heal and attack. The entire game felt frustrating and unfair, especially when the best healing spell is only encountered by finding its scroll, rather than normal levelling. Grinding for hours was supposed to be something left behind in the NES Dragon Quest days, not carried forward due to a change in the number of enemies encountered. Luckily, the ability to reload from near-constant auto-saves reduces the wasted time from a death, but it still induces lots of rage across the 15-hour adventure.
While it offers a whole host of improvements, the Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake experiences end up being quite different. Dragon Quest I's remake offers an amazing story upgrade but has frustrating battles throughout, while Dragon Quest II's remake is one of the most amazing and memorable Dragon Quest experiences there is. Together with the Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake released a year ago, they do make a definitive trilogy that all Dragon Quest fans and those new to the series should explore. It was a worthwhile return to the games that made middle school me the RPGamer I am today.
Disclosure: This review is based on a free copy of the game provided by the publisher.
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