Respect Your Elders: Dragon Quest 1 HD-2D Remake Thoughts

 Party Like It's 1986 

In recent years, Square-Enix has been creating and releasing games under this "HD-2D" art style and presentation. Games like Octopath Traveler were the progenitor of this movement, and several games like Live A Live and Star Ocean have been given this makeover. In 2024, Square-Enix re-released Dragon Quest III HD-2D remake, and then later announced that Dragon Quest I & II were getting the a similar treatment. I had just recently finished Dragon Quest V on my DS very early last year, and thought it was a great experience! I've heard that Dragon Quest can be JRPG comfort food from several people on social media before, and I can relay that sentiment. So, itching for some more comfort food, I recently checked out Dragon Quest I on the new HD-2D collection from late last year. Before DQV, I had played DQI on several occasions, getting about two-thirds of the way through the original US release on NES, and fully beating the IOS port on the Nintendo Switch about 4-5 years ago. With that prior experience with not just the franchise but the game itself, how does the HD-2D remake stack up?

The story to this point, as DQIII is the prequel to the original DQ

 

Presentation

 The biggest draw I think initially to this collection of games is its presentation. DQ I & II have been re-released several times since their original versions in the mid-late '80s, but not to this level of love and care that the franchise deserves. Like I mentioned above, I had played through the other Switch version of DQI but it wasn't the best experience. Some things were hit and miss with the visuals, and it was a pretty bare bones improvement overall. Thankfully, the new HD-2D remake hits pretty much every mark. The new visuals are looking great in my opinion. The sprite work on the characters in the overworld and in battle are supremely detailed while still carrying the original Toriyama art style that the series is known for. Towns, dungeons and the overworld have been revamped with a new 3D visuals that compliment the sprite art nicely. The mountains have never been larger, and the water has never looked as scenic as it does here. As the hero walks through dungeons, you can see the shadows from the torch in his hand crawling the walls and flickering as the torch does. Battles have never looked better either, with enemies greatly detailed and every strong attack has a clean animation to go alongside it. I especially like the Dragon Slash ability, with a slash summoning a screaming dragon that does well against dragon foes. Everything looks great, with a few caveats. I played my copy of the game on a Switch, and I did notice times when loading into a new area the frame rate dipping down a bit as things were loading in, mostly in the backgrounds. Additionally, playing in handheld mode did not do any favors for the sprite work in the characters. The sprites are detailed enough so that you're able to see their expressions and emotions on the current situation fairly easily, but some of that detail is lost at the lower resolution of the Switch's handheld mode. Characters become muddied together, but not in a way that makes it look better like dithering has been used in the past. Still though, I can't ignore the level of detail that has been put into the visuals. I would just recommend playing on a newer device with a little bit more under the hood than the ol' not so reliable Switch.

This definitely looks better on a TV, but even in the OG Switch's handheld mode some scenes can impress.

Visuals aren't the only part of a game's presentation however; soundtracks are an integral part of the DQ experience as a series as long running as it is. As I understand it, more recent releases of DQ games were available with a full orchestral soundtrack provided by the Tokyo Symphonic Suite in Japan but not here in the states, mainly DQVII and VIII on the 3DS. This is not the case thankfully for DQ I & II as they have a fully orchestral soundtrack that sounds amazing. Traversing Alefgard with the soft oboe and strings playing in the background really adds to the sense of wonder of the world itself. It is a soundtrack that adds to the freshness of the experience, while still giving longtime players nostalgia with Sugiyama's compositions that have graced the franchise for so long.

Gameplay and Story

(Minor Spoilers Ahead)

Erdrick's Grave found early on in the game is a key catalyst for your adventure

Being the grandfather of most JRPGs to this point, DQI is mostly a game that goes back to basics. Throughout the game you only control one character, a descendant of the legendary hero Erdrick on his quest to slay the Dragonlord and bring peace back to the land of Alefgard. In the original, this was pretty cut and dry storywise. You would go around the world collecting new equipment, learning new skills, gathering keys to progress to the next section of the world until you're at the end. This is largely the same in the remake, but much more fleshed out. Several key items are included that you have to gather that aren't in the original, making you explore the world a little bit deeper, and giving opportunities for some characters to be fleshed out. The original DQ basically didn't have characters for a lack of a better term. It was you as the hero, the king, the dragonlord, and other minor characters that would give you items needed to progress. In the remake however, you get to really experience Alefgard as a land that people live in, and you get to learn much more about their experiences and plights. As an example, part way through the journey you come across some faeries who will be vital to your quest. You get to see some friendly banter and debating on what they should do with you as humans and faeries historically didn't always get along. Then later in the adventure, you get to experience some events alongside the faeries firsthand that makes the hero's journey all the more worth it. I'm purposefully being vague in my description here, because I think its something that you should experience. In addition to there being more story and characterization in general, the writing is fairly competent as well. Dialogue is mostly written in an old Shakespearean way where most words have a -st or -eth at the endeth of every other wordeth. There were also several points where in talking with the NPCs you discover some wittier dialogue that won't necessarily have you laughing out loud, but it adds brevity to more serious moments and situations throughout the adventure. 

Stories are only half the battle however; what does the minute to minute gameplay feel like? In a game this old yet new, I feel that Square-Enix hit a nice balance of feeling like the original while adding modern sensibilities. Battling might has well have been completely retooled. In the original game, your moves were limited to fight, item, run, and spell, all while only fighting one enemy at a time as you were just one hero. Well you're still just one hero, at no other point will you receive any other party members or help in battle throughout your playthrough. The enemies have gotten a bit more wise though, and will fight you with multiple groups of fiends at once. To compensate, the hero has a few more tricks up his sleeve. You now have access to abilities, a mid ground between casting spells and doing a normal attack. Most abilities are elemental forms of physical strikes, but you have other more status buffing effects like Dodgy Dance or Wild Side to assist in your efforts. You can also now defend on your turn! Wow! While sometimes unused in some JRPGs, defending as well as every other move in your arsenal has a time and place. Controlling only one character makes you approach battles a little differently compared to most games following it. I really noticed this in the boss battles. Some bosses aren't anything to slouch at becoming a careful dance of attacking, healing and defending, all while noticing subtle habits in how they attack you. It makes those more climactic battles feel more like a puzzle, where you're trying to find a strategy that works best for the current situation. That's not to say you don't see that in more modern JRPGs, but its more noticeable and appreciated because only control one character, not in spite of it. 

Battles are some of the best updates to the DQI, while still having that classic DQ feel.

Strategies and abilities aside, there are also some nice quality of life changes. In the overworld you can now run to get a move on, and the fast traveling options have been greatly expanded since the original game, not even costing MP to Zoom from place to place. Battles can be had at different speeds as well, making them as drawn out or as snappy as you'd like them to be. On the subject of grinding, compared to the original which was about 60% grinding, the remake is very minimal. I had about 20 hours in my play time of DQI, and I'd say a little under a full hour was spent grinding either for money or exp. I don't think it was required at all either, it was just something I wanted to do to get a better piece of equipment earlier in the game, or to make a boss fight a little bit easier. In my opinion one of the greatest quality of life features is the Recall system. Whenever you talk with an NPC, whether it be in a cutscene or some cat you found on the street that meows at you, pressing the start button allows you to save that interaction in a memory bank of sorts to recall at a later point. As someone who isn't past looking things up for a game online, but likes to try to beat the game without the outside help, this was a great feature. Being able to recall hints to find hidden equipment pieces or hidden areas on the world map made me feel that talking with every NPC was valuable, but I didn't have to worry about forgetting their information, or remembering where they were located so I could talk to them again. I would like to see features similar in other RPGs in the future, as it was one of the biggest takeaways I had from playing this remake. 

 

Closing Remarks

My itch for Dragon Quest has become ever itchier after playing this first part in a two part package. While Dragon Quest gets more recognition in the west than ever before, it feels satisfying to go back and play the series origins. I've made some remarks to the limitations of the original version of DQ over the course of this post, but don't think that I didn't enjoy my time with the original. It was a different experience than the games I had already played, but I could see the essence of the JRPGs that I've come to enjoy in DQ. The HD-2D remake captures that feeling and essence, but in a refined way that is complimentary to the original experience. The game is beautiful to see and hear, and has enough depth to its story and gameplay to keep you engaged throughout the games duration. With the complete Erdrick trilogy being out on modern consoles in HD-2D, and DQVII Reimagined being just on the horizon, I'd say that there's not going to be a better time to get into the franchise. If you like JRPGs, give this version of the game a shot to see where so many other games got their ideas from. I'd say its worth going back to the original version of the game sometime as well, as it makes you appreciate the remake even more, while also still being fun in its own right. 

 

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