Dragon Quest 1 & 2 HD-2D Remake

The game was provided by Square Enix for review. Thank you!

When it comes to remaking older titles, Square Enix has set itself apart. Not only do they have some great games to bring back to life, but they also started using a whole new art style to do it. The HD-2D aesthetic was started with Octopath Traveler, and has since been used on multiple other games, culminating with the remake for Dragon Quest (DQ) 3. I loved the game, as I said in my review, and I was blown away by how beautiful it was. I went into Dragon Quest 1 & 2 HD-2D Remake with the same excitement and drive to continue the Erdrick trilogy in the same beautiful setting, and I was not disappointed.

If you have played Dragon Quest 3, then this will be a very familiar experience. The traditional JRPG style that was pioneered back when the original games were released, 1986 and 1987, respectively, still feels as untouched as it possibly could. Square Enix tows the line between reinventing and preservation just as well as they did with DQ3, finding ways to expand the story and streamline gameplay without sacrificing the roots and legacy the games originated from. It feels like an impossible task when it comes to remakes, but thanks to the mechanics in the game and the HD-2D art style, it feels like they achieved it once again.

The game comes with two in one, as the name suggests. We get to play through both Dragon Quest 1 and 2, continuing the Erdrick trilogy that started with 3. And while there are a lot of similarities between the two games, there are a good chunk of differences in how they feel.

In Dragon Quest 1, we follow a lone hero from the Erdrick bloodline on a quest to defeat the Dragonlord. Originally, this was a short story, and was a traditional take on the good vs evil scenario. In the remake, we still have the core of the story, with some wonderful new content that fleshes out the story and some of the characters more. It’s enough to add that those who played before will feel like they are seeing something new, and I appreciate how the content has some relation to the sequel. Our silent protagonist also feels like he has more of a personality, conveyed by his actions throughout the game and the movements/expressions his sprite makes.

As for Dragon Quest 2, this picks up a bit later. Years and years have passed, and Erdrick’s line has continued to be passed down. Now, there are three kingdoms, and you will team up with three of your cousins to, once again, save the world. Our protagonist is all on the silent side, but we are now joined by three party members. While our protagonist is more of a clean slate and stays neutral, that’s more than made up for by the rest of our party. Each of our cousins is brimming with personality and charm, ranging from the prince and princess of Cannock and their camaraderie as siblings to the princess of Moonbroke, who is hell-bent on avenging her decimated kingdom. It was a joy to go through the much longer story with them, to watch as they converse, grow, and get stronger together. And I felt the expanded inclusion of the princess of Cannock felt right at home in the story.

The new content in both of these games makes the entire trilogy feel more connected. It was rewarding to see how the events of Dragon Quest 3 affected DQ1, which in turn affected DQ2. Nothing felt over the top or forced; it was just well placed and fit perfectly like that last puzzle piece completing a 1000-piece puzzle.

Combat in general is similar between the two games, but the structure ends up making them feel wildly different at times. Both games utilize the classic turn-based combat we have come to know and love with JRPGs. Each turn, we choose our action, whether it will be our basic attack, using abilities or spells, or defending. Once we decide, the enemy takes their turn, and we duke it out. Enemies have their own vulnerabilities and strengths, and with some of our abilities and spells carrying an element to them, figuring out the best moves to use will come in handy. With so many RPGs and JRPGs having complex mechanics, it was kind of refreshing to just go back to the basics here.

The biggest aspect that makes combat feel different between the two games is the fighters we have. DQ1 has only one protagonist fighting, forcing us to balance our attacks, healing, and defense to make sure we survive the toughest encounters. On one hand, I am someone who enjoys having one overpowered character, and this feeds into that fantasy, but on the other hand, it makes some fights much harder. For instance, fighting the dragon to save the princess took me so much longer to get through, really only being saved by the armor I had on that nearly nullified fire damage. Being able to replay the fight immediately and the generous autosaves help, but it can still get frustrating.

DQ2 doesn't suffer from this problem as much, due to the party members we have. It can still get difficult from time to time, but it's not nearly as aggravating as the first game. Each of the party members fulfills different roles in the party, with our protagonist being the main damage dealer and the others being closer to mages and healers. It's not as fluid as Dragon Quest 3, where your party can have roles customized more, but I didn't mind the lack of malleability. The team still felt diverse enough to enjoy each fight, and I felt each fight had everything I wanted.

Both of the games largely play like a classic JRPG outside of that. We level up, our stats increase, we get new abilities and spells, find equipment and items to make ourselves more powerful, and travel throughout the Alefgard continent. We can also find Mini Medals throughout the world, which is a new feature that was introduced into the games, and can get us some extra items depending on how many we find.

There is also a wealth of new accessibility settings that made their way over from Dragon Quest 3's remake. These include increased battle speeds and showing the next objective location on the map. It's easy to turn these off if you want a more classic experience, but I love having the option. Increasing battle speed was especially useful, and I used it to make the grind more manageable.

Dragon Quest 1 & 2 HD-2D Remake - Steam Deck Performance

Dragon Quest 1 & 2 HD-2D Remake is a gorgeous game, and one I had no worries about running on the Steam Deck. With how great Dragon Quest 3's HD-2D Remake ran, I had little to no worry about this entry, and I was right. After testing both games, I would consider the entirety of both Dragon Quest 1 and 2 to be very similar to Dragon Quest 3 in terms of performance, but my recommendations have changed a little bit.

Recommended Settings

The game is perfectly playable right out of the box at 60 FPS with the highest settings, and it looks gorgeous to boot. However, there is one change I would make to help with battery life a little bit. With battery drain not being as heavy in as many areas as Dragon Quest 3, I recommend playing at 60 FPS with turning rendering scale down to 2. This is only one notch down, but it doesn't change much visually while saving about 2W-3W of battery drain, and adds around 30 minutes of battery life. It's a small change, but extra battery life with lower temperatures for almost no visual change is nice. The most you may see is some slight extra shimmering on buildings when moving past, but it's not easily noticeable.

That's really all I would change. In Dragon Quest 3, there were more areas with slowdown, and it went below 60, but we can keep it at 60 here with ease. This is much nicer, as it feels like there aren't any slight stutters, and it's completely smooth. It felt necessary at times in DQ3, but here, it doesn't.

Quality Settings

For those who want the best quality and framerate, there really aren't any compromises here. Just play right out of the box, with max settings at 60 FPS. I didn't encounter any spots where the framerate would dip, and while there were some that drained a little more than the 13W-15W average, it was still very playable without any issues. This gives us the best of both worlds, quality and framerate, with just a little extra battery drain.

The only reason this isn't the recommended settings is that the tweak for recommended is not noticeable and gives a clear benefit. Otherwise, I would consider this the best way to play.

Accessibility

There are a couple of accessibility settings amongst all of the settings we can turn on. We can change the battle speed, suggested actions, whether the cursor remembers the last used command, change brightness, modify camera distance, toggle the minimap, turn on/off quest help text, toggle an objective marker and whether we can see treasure chest locations and secret spots, change the difficulty and whether we recover HP/MP when leveling up, and choose whether the text display speed is fast or slow.

We can also modify the audio, language, keybindings, and alter the confirm button. Still, there are a lot of aspects we can change for accessibility to tailor our experience, and I love it.

The game doesn't support the 16:10 aspect ratio, but we do have cloud saves and controller support. There are no HDR settings.

Conclusion

Dragon Quest 1 & 2 HD-2D Remake brings the next two games in the Erdrick trilogy back into the limelight in a glorious way. The new content, quality of life improvements, and extra accessibility make diving back into these classics so much more worth it. The gorgeous HD-2D art style keeps the game feeling retro, while still modernizing the look and feel. It keeps the core of the original releases, and despite some spikes in difficulty, it's well worth enjoying.

It's also wonderful to play on the Steam Deck. It doesn't need any changes to enjoy, and while we could make an adjustment to increase battery life with almost no visual change, it's a blast to play, and I can't recommend it enough.

Our review is based on the PC version of this game.

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