“Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake” Review

When Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake was released last year, despite some age-old features modern gamers might find outdated, it still offered an exquisite and fresh take that made it the definitive way to play the game. Less than a year later, Square Enix is back with Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake and while it might be repetitive to have the same verdict twice more with this package, you simply can’t take away from the fact that these remakes breathe new life into a series that really deserves it.

When Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake was released last year, despite some age-old features modern gamers might find outdated, it still offered an exquisite and fresh take that made it the definitive way to play the game. Less than a year later, Square Enix is back with Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake and while it might be repetitive to have the same verdict twice more with this package, you simply can’t take away from the fact that these remakes breathe new life into a series that really deserves it.

The Legend of Erdrick

If you’re new to Dragon Quest and are wondering why Dragon Quest I & II got the remake treatment after Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake, it’s because Dragon Quest III was the first game chronologically. The original title was meant to be a prequel to the first two games, and altogether, they make up the Erdrick trilogy, perhaps the series’ most influential story.

The latest game in game in the series, Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age, references the Erdrick trilogy more than periodically, but the series has really evolved since those releases on the NES, as well as their later remakes and ports on the SNES, Game Boy, and mobile. If Dragon Quest III was going to get the HD-2D treatment, it only makes sense for Dragon Quest I & II to get the same.

This is where reviewing the game gets a little spotty, because not only are they two separate games, they’re also two separate remakes of NES classics that might as well be considered obsolete, so I’ll spend the next couple sections talking about the differences in plot and how they’re related.

Dragon Quest I

Dragon Quest I takes place in Alefgard around 60-100 years after the events of Dragon Quest III. The hero in the previous game saved the world and received the name “Erdrick” for his efforts, and so many years later, evil and disarray seems to once again plague Alefgard, this time seemingly thanks to the actions of the Dragonlord.

Looking back, the most interesting thing about the first Dragon Quest game was that it only featured one protagonist, and that’s still the case in the HD-2D Remake. It’s double-edged sword because while it’s nice focusing on only one character to continuously build your “party” with, the hordes of enemies you come across aren’t exactly forgiving–in fact, challenge will likely be a problem you’ll face throughout both games, but we’ll get to that later. Difficulty aside, since there’s only one person in your party throughout the DQ1 experience, the satisfaction of only having one person to use the new scrolls on in addition to the various moves you have in combat that aren’t reliant on just attacking give the game a fresh feel.

Neither game in the original Erdrick trilogy has aged particularly well, and that much should be expected considering we’re talking about the series that essentially made the Japanese RPG its own genre. In the case of DQ1, having only really seeing iterations on the NES, SNES, Game Boy, and mobile, there wasn’t much of an opportunity to flesh out its narrative. Using the HD-2D engine really allowed the team to do just that, and the result is a game that’s probably 30% bigger than the original, at least in terms of length.

It’s been so long since I’ve finished the original game (the last time I did it was as a kid when Dragon Quest I & II was a new GBC game), but HowLongToBeat.com says it took players around 10 hours on average to finish DQII. My playthrough took me around 15 hours, not including all the times I had to walk away from my Switch because of a cheap way I died.

Dragon Quest II: Luminaries of the Legendary Line

Dragon Quest II again takes place on Alefgard, this time 100 years after the events of Dragon Quest I. Without saying too much about DQI‘s ending, like his ancestor before him, DQI‘s hero also earned the title of Erdrick and instead of ruling over Tentegel, he journeyed across the land of Alefgard, spreading his influence (and offspring) across several new kingdoms bringing new prosperity and peace to the realm that grew through generations. Of course, evil once again reared its ugly head and when the dark wizard Hargon brings the Moonbrook Kingdom to ruin, word of its destruction comes to neighboring kingdoms in Midenhall and Cannock.

You take on the role of the Prince of Midenhall, a scion of Erdrick’s line, but unlike the rest of his family, he has no magical ability. Fortunately for him, he’s also joined by the Prince of Cannock as well as the Princess of Moonbrook, who you come across later in the story to form a party who all share the Erdrick bloodline, and it’s up to them to save the world.

If you’re keeping track, the key feature Dragon Quest II had over the original was you had more than one protagonist. Unlike Dragon Quest III, the people in your party aren’t just random people who join the prince on his quest. These are actual characters with their own reasons to be a part of the group, and the fact that they’re all family is really hammered home in this remake. Yes, the cliché of saving the world is there, but there are instances in the game both new and old that the remake handles quite nicely for the sake of character progression, and in my mind, it made the HD-2D Remake of DQII so much stronger than DQ1.

Compared to DQ1, DQ2 HD-2D Remake is absolutely hefty. After the amount of time I took to roll credits on the first game, I definitely expected DQ2 to go a little longer, but it wasn’t a little longer. Even after I rolled credits more than 40 hours in, there was still more meat to it. Take that for what you will. True ending, anyone?

Difficult Quest HD-2D Remake

I don’t know if Square Enix ever plans to release both these games separately, but individually, there’s enough here to call both games the definitive ways to play them, and that’s really by default simply based on the fact that they’re way more approachable to any gamer in 2025 because of the way they look. I’m not one to dock a game because it’s old, but going back to the games in their original form can absolutely be jarring. That being said, while both DQI and DQII benefit from this new coat of paint, it isn’t without its issues.

As I mentioned earlier, these games are quite difficult. Skill aside, I play JRPGs to relax, but I constantly got my ass kicked in both games. In Dragon Quest I, I primarily died for two reasons. First, I was likely underleveled. Secondly, when it came to bosses, I just wasn’t paying enough attention. The latter is key here. Since you only use one character, it’s imperative for you understand the abilities you have at hand. It wasn’t until I talked to a fellow freelancer playing the game early when I found out some abilities could be beefed up if you hold a button when you had half your health. It was also awesome falling this golem with a bunch of defensive abilities I had.

In Dragon Quest II, obviously you have to play a little differently since you do have a party, but like in Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake, there are a bunch of settings to make fights go by faster. I really only used two characters manually throughout the game, while I had two other characters on “Fight Wisely.” It’s worth noting that you can also do this in DQI, but for whatever reason, your AI in the game was anything but wise, and it was both excruciating and therapeutic watching AI also get its ass kicked. The reason why DQII‘s battles felt cheap was because the random battles always insisted on having a group of enemies with like enemies hardly ever next to each other, so when it came to your magic that only attacked groups, it essentially felt like wasting a turn.

In “ye olde” days, difficulty in JRPGs meant you weren’t grinding enough, and while that’s still the case here, grinding was made less fun just because of the way enemies were arranged. I didn’t want to completely rely on it and I’ll probably receive flack for even thinking about it, much less turning it on, but yes, there were some times in the game in which I made use of Dracy Quest mode. All of DQ‘s HD-2D Remakes give you the ability to change the difficulty at any point in the game, and Dracy Quest mode makes it so none of your characters are ever knocked out. So if you really want a “chill” DQ experience, that’s the way to do it, no matter how humbling. At least I never felt the need to go back to a church whenever I died.

Bigger? Absolutely. Better? Mostly.

Both games in the package are much longer than the originals, and in the case of DQII, it’s almost three times the length. That said, there definitely are key changes in both gameplay and plot, especially in DQII that really lengthen the experiences, but they felt like bloat more often than not. In DQI, the quest to find the sigils in particular really felt like a chore. This time it felt like you had to do a quest in order to do another quest to finally get the items you needed, and I didn’t find that necessary, especially since it did add anything of value to the plot. The game’s final dungeon also seemed like it tried its hardest to make you give up with the amount of difficult random battles the game threw at me.

DQII does all of this better thanks to both character progression and what I’m calling the Pokémon factor. Again, DQII features four three characters that have their own intentions and go through growth that make the journey way more epic than it ever was, so that certainly helped, but what really impressed me happened early on. Eventually when you get your boat, you’ll be able to visit all the places you initially went to in DQI. Having played the game in the past, I knew this was going to happen, but the HD-2D made this more special. I liken this to the feeling I had stepping foot in Kanto in the second generation of Pokémon games.

A Trilogy Worth Still Worthy Of The Erdrick Name

It’s hardly anybody’s fault, but the main reason why Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake probably won’t amount to the highs that Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake did last year is because it has the misfortune of coming after. We already know how beautiful the HD-2D style looks. We already experienced how the presentation is made better with voice acting and an orchestral score. I played the game on the Switch 2 and had absolutely zero issues with performance. Every game in the Erdrick Trilogy deserved this treatment, but because we already went through it with DQIII last year (not to mention the fact that it’s considered by many to be the best in the series), DQI&II just couldn’t pack the same punch. Again, this isn’t to say they aren’t good. They’re great, and totaling nearly 60 hours, you’re getting similar value here with what’s pretty much an extended cut.

Despite some bloat, as a whole, Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake did an outstanding job making the Erdrick Trilogy feel more epic and cohesive than ever, and this effort has given me a more fond appreciation for it, which to me was the goal all along.