Dragon Quest I/II: HD-2D Remake

The logical followup to the 2023 remake of Dragon Quest III, Dragon Quest I and II: HD-2D Remake revives the two earliest Dragon Quest games, adding a substantial amount of new content and of course updating their graphical styles and quality of life features to modern standards.  But does this revisit of two genre staples prove worthy of the name, or does this quest just get dragoned down?

Dragon Quest III was a definite game-changer in its time, bringing the JRPG genre to a new standard of quality, and it remains a beloved classic even today.  The first two Dragon Quests are not quite as well-beloved; while they did of course introduce the series to the world and sell like gangbusters in Japan, the first is a very short, fairly primitive game mostly occupied by farming experience and gold to progress and only a single party member, limiting your strategies overall.  The sequel is regarded as overly difficult, with three extremely specialized party members, some punishingly hard dungeons and an infamous dead stop at the end where you end up having to grind well over ten levels to have any chance at all of completing the final dungeon.

Artdink's remakes do attempt to address these shortcomings while at the same time adding a lot more in the way of narrative and design. The first game now has a considerably more involved narrative, with a lot of in-engine cutscenes, character interactions and a more standard progression - while you're still largely free to roam, you are gently steered in the right direction so as to not get wiped by enemies well above your current level, with many high levels areas also now being locked off until you find a particular key.  It also carries over many of the spells and abilities from the 3 remake, giving you a much wider repertoire of moves to utilize in combat; and you will need them, as there's more boss fights added and they are substantially harder than anything in the original.  Other things get carried over from their remake too, like the little hidden glades and random items on the world map, three difficulty settings and of course the series staple of Mini-Medals that can be traded for prizes.  Some skills are learned by finding scrolls hidden throughout various towns and dungeons, and reading them permanently adds them to your repertoire.  Overworld spells and skills can also be assigned to shortcuts accessed by holding R1 and pressing a directional key, which is a quick and handy way to access commonly-used utility spells.

The core plot of Dragon Quest I remains largely unchanged and fairly simplistic, though many more subplots, cutscenes and characters are added.  Some add more to the lore like a subplot about Zalen, the descendant of the legendary bard Galen, and some are just for levity, like the subpar adventurers trying to save the land independent of the protagonist and constantly falling prey to their own incompetence.  Some other objectives are added in too, with the most prominent being the Sigils.  There are five magical items of power strewn throughout the game, and turning them over to the fairies to craft into sigils will as adding benefits like regenerating some MP while defending.  Some will allow you to access "Souped up Skills" - more powerful variants of abilities only accessible under certain conditions, such as being at low HP or having a particular buff active.  These are incredibly useful in some fights (in fact the final battle is nearly impossible without them), so learning how to activate and use them is key.

So, in contrast to the original game which is a very short experience once you strip out all the grinding (I once finished the Game Boy Color version in about 4 hours), Dragon Quest I's HD-2D remake is now a pretty substantial RPG.  There's more towns, there's sidequests, there's an ongoing narrative throughout with voiceover and even a couple of clever twists, and in general it's considerably more strategic and challenging.  It's still recognizably the same game beneath the new stuff, but it's enough of a new spin to feel fresh even to fans who played the original decades ago on the NES.  And at about 20 hours from start to finish, it gives you plenty of bang for your buck as half of this package.

As for Dragon Quest II, the main protagonist (the Prince of Midenhall) still doesn't utilize any spells (a unique trait for the series), but does get MP and can use physical attack techniques; generally the ones geared toward dealing extra damage to specific enemy types.  The Prince of Cannock gets a combination of mostly-defensive spells and martial arts moves, while the Princess remains a fairly squishy caster, albeit with a more rounded skillset containing utility spells and some healing.

In addition, there's now a fourth party member to recruit; the princess of Cannock joins, and has a handful of offensive and utility spells and random "Goof Off" actions like Torneko that can be surprisingly powerful.  There's a fair bit of new story and side content (with some notably taking place under the ocean), effectively filling in the dead stop in the final stretch from all the prior iterations.  There are some more story threads added and the protagonists have more personality, which gives more of an ongoing narrative than the original version; one notable one being that the Dragonlord's castle is now a story-relevant area and not just an optional location to visit (and the Dragonlord's descendant is a tough optional boss fight later).  The five sigils are a plot point again in this game too, conferring Souped-up Skills and other bonuses as they do in the first HD-2D remake.

 

These HD-2D Remakes are definitely a different experience from the first one.  III's remake felt like they kept largely faithful to the original design and concept while adding more content.  For I and II, it feels more like they used the original games as a basis while largely doing their own thing; not dissimilar to Final Fantasy VII Remake or the numerous versions of Ys IV, which were all very different interpretations of the same core concept.  The battles are definitely more of a challenge, and the abundance of extra content and cutscenes, as well as some welcome balance tweaks, definitely help with the slow pacing and rigid design the originals had.  If you want a different take on the first two Dragon Quests with some clever new twists, this is one HD-2D remake worth considering.  If you want a more authentic '80s RPG experience with all the awkward balance and primitive quirks, though, check out one of the earlier ports instead.

 

Developer: Artdink
Publisher: Square Enix
Released: 2025
Platform: PlayStation 5, PC, XBox Series, Switch, Switch 2
Recommended Version: All versions seem to be more or less on level with one another as far as I can tell, though the Switch 1 version obviously runs at a lower resolution and framerate.  Curiously the PS5 version (at least) has a toggle between Performance and Graphics modes, though it made no visible difference as far as I could tell.

The Dark Heart of Uukrul

Made as the pet project of Ian Boswell and Martin Buis, it was released in 1989 by Broderbund - a company not exactly known for RPGs.  It got good reviews from magazines, but bue to a lack of marketing on Broderbund's part, it sold less than 5,000 copies and largely fell into obscurity for many years before eventually seeing a rerelease on GOG in 2020.  I can certainly see why it retained enough of a following to get one too; while it is a pretty standard dungeon crawling RPG, it shows a lot more polish than many of its contemporaries.  It has a fully-featured automap that even allows the player to add custom notes to specific spaces, and a surprising amount of detail is given to descriptions and prose found within the dungeon, so the puzzles feel natural and well-designed rather than like irritating guesswork.  Combat feels like the '80s Ultima titles, though with a bit more polish - each round is broken up into a movement phase and then an attack phase where the party takes actions, and each sprite has quite a few animation frames.  Character creation seems to take inspiration too - while you must have a party comprised of one of each class (Fighter, Paladin, Priest and Magician), you answer a series of unique personality questions to determine their starting stats.  The spell system is given a lot of thought too, with your magician and priest needing to acquire the rings of specific gods/circles of magic to cast certain tiers of spells, and then know the correct prayers/words to use in order to invoke them.  (The gods are temperamental, though, and may refuse to aid priests or even damage them if they invoke too often).  Even little touches like the health bars that go up and down as you take damage or heal it are clever touches, as is the experience system; each character gets a different share, though it's weighted toward getting kills in combat.  There's a lot going on for a 1989 game, and it's kind of a shame it didn't get more attention in its day; thankfully it's got a new lease on life with the digital age, so it's one to check out if you enjoy these types of games.

Developer: Digital Studios Limited
Publisher: Broderbund
Released: 1989
Platform: Apple II, PC

 

Ghost of Yōtei

The sequel to the hit 2019 game Ghost of Tsushima, though storywise it has no direct connection; instead it's set in rural Japan in the 1600s and follows Atsu, a mercenary on a quest of revenge against her family's killers, the ruthless Saito clan.  Gameplay-wise it remains very similar to Tsushima, though many new elements are added.  One can disarm enemies now and throw their weapons to inflict heavy damage on others, and by completing some sidequests you earn the aid of Yōtei's wolves in battle.  You also utilize a wider variety of melee weapons, including dual-wielded katanas, a yari and even a kusarigama, adding more variety to battles.  You're also afforded more leeway in how you approach all the game's missions, as you can defeat five of the main antagonists in any order.  Side-stories are also better paced and less monotonous than the first game's in general, and and optional objectives have more variety, from hunting bounties to dueling ronin.  Basically, if you enjoyed the first one, this is a more polished and fun version of what you got the first time around; as someone who had a great deal of fun in Tsushima, it can only be a good thing to me.

Absolutely gorgeous-looking game, too.

Developer: Sucker Punch
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Released: 2025
Platform: PlayStation 5