Dragon Quest 1 & 2 HD-2D Remake review for Nintendo Switch 2

System: Switch 2 (reviewed), Switch
Release date: October 30, 2025
Developer: Artdink
Publisher: Square Enix

How do you follow up the remake of one of the most popular JRPGs of all time? Well, you take that beautiful HD-2D engine and remake both of the game’s predecessors using the same assets of course. And how do you dodge complaints that using the same game engine for these remakes is a lazy rehash? By putting an insane amount of effort into modernizing and expanding the stories, characters, lore, and world of these two classic RPGs. Square Enix and developer Artdink present for your consideration: Dragon Quest 1 & 2 HD-2D Remake. It’s two retro RPG remakes for the price of one! But is it worth it? (spoiler: yes, but with some caveats).

Assuming you boot up Dragon Quest 1 first, you’ll be greeted with an expanded introduction that immediately sets the tone for the remainder of the story. Far from the sparse narrative of earlier editions of the game, it now features a variety of colorful characters, including a steady mix of recurring faces and more episodically featured players. Not a single location or story beat from the original game is left untouched, each scenario now infused with a greater depth of character and emotion to flesh out of the world of Alefgard. This is proper remake, not only revamped graphics and gameplay, but entirely new location to explore and dungeons to dive as you set out to defeat the Dragon Lord.

Perhaps the best part of the remake is the way the narrative now handles the Hero’s relationship with the greater populace of Alefgard in general – and Princess Gwaelin in particular. You are repeatedly reminded both through storytelling and gameplay just what a monumental task defeating the Dragon Lord is for a lone hero, as you face hordes of monsters without the aid of a full party of playable characters. Even the recurring characters found throughout the story are simply no match for any of the monsters roaming the land. Even so, characters like Princess Gwaelin more than demonstrate their competence and bravery in the expanded narrative, making the eventual romance between Gwaelin and the hero all the more believable. “Above and beyond” is only adequate phrase for the care put into remaking this story for modern audiences while staying true to the original game.

Unfortunately for Dragon Quest 1, the gameplay doesn’t appear to have been given the same level of care. While there is something to be said for story and gameplay integration, I firmly believe that the decision to pit the Hero against full parties of monsters was a short-sighted mistake. The engine used for Dragon Quest 3’s HD-2D Remake was reused here with few, if any, changes; and it shows.

Throughout your journey across Alefgard, you will find yourself facing monster parties designed to fight against a four-person team. While the game is somewhat generous in giving out multi-target spells and weapons relatively early on, each one quickly loses effectiveness as you progress to stronger enemy groups. Beyond that, though, there are the status effects – oh God, the status effects. Being slept, paralyzed, or inflicted with fear can result in an instant game over. Forget the remainder of the enemy party makeup. Even a small group of weaker monsters can wipe the hero if the RNG goes the wrong way. You have no choice, and there is no skill barrier here – you’re just dead. Even the equippable accessories that negate specific status effects aren’t 100 percent effective either, and some later game dungeons feature monsters who can inflict multiple potential status effects in the same battle anyway. You will die unfairly – there’s no way around it.

Beyond that, some monsters will also randomly take two attacks in a single round or may strike you with critical hits unexpectedly (sometimes both). Again, instant game overs in a single round are not beyond the pale here. Taking the time to grind for experience helps, of course, but the entire battle system just leaves you on edge for a large portion of the game, and you can just die in almost any random encounter if you aren’t over leveled.

The final wrinkle (which crops up in Dragon Quest 2 as well) is that most boss monsters can not only implement the same tactics discussed above, but they also have insanely high HP pools. I died to several bosses, despite having an excellent handle on how to manage my HP and damage output, simply because they ran me out of MP before I could seal the deal. My only recourse in those situations was to go with riskier strategies that used less MP or just to bounce out of the fight and grind a few levels to give me a big enough MP pool to run them down. The boss fights in particular reek of rushed or poorly thought-out game balance, and it legitimately makes me wonder just how reliant we all were on the unpatched Monster Wrangler abilities in Dragon Quest III to mitigate these problems.

When I finally booted up Dragon Quest 2 for the first time, it honestly felt like “going home.” Suddenly I found myself fighting with a full party of heroes who were actually designed to operate within the game engine. I enjoyed Dragon Quest 1, despite my frustrations, but diving into Dragon Quest 2 gave me a far better idea of what the developers had in mind for these remakes. The expanded story elements were here, a larger cast of characters, new story beats and dungeons, and a well-designed and synergistic party to top it all off.

If anything, I’m surprised with just how much content was added to Dragon Quest 2. The original game is fairly sweeping, world-trotting adventure compared to its predecessor. I would not at all have been shocked if the developers had done something similar as they did with Dragon Quest 3 – just fleshing out the original skeleton rather than adding in a ton of a new content. But again, “above and beyond” is the name of the game for pretty much everything other than actual gameplay balance in these games. Dragon Quest II is an even more impressive adventure that makes it a worthy conclusion to the Erdrick Trilogy.

Put together, Dragon Quest 1 and 2 make for a formidable, though by no means flawless, package. As an HD-2D superfan, I can honestly say that the game is beautiful, with magnificently designed environments that push the boundary of what HD-2D even really is. The sprites are detailed and perfect representations of their 8-bit counterparts, and while I wish they were more expressive, I can’t argue with just how good some of them look in freeze frame.

Being remakes, both games also come with a cornucopia of quality-of-life features, including specific navigation aids, graphical and audio adjustments, difficulty settings, and more. While I personally think that the normal difficulty might be a little too tuned against the player, having the option to crank that difficult up and down to suit your play style is a welcome addition.

All told, Dragon Quest 1& 2D HD-2D Remake is an RPG bundle absolutely worth your time – so long as you are comfortable with a bit of old-school difficulty. These games are clearly love letters to the original NES releases, looking to both honor and expand upon decades-old games and bring them beautifully into the modern. While I do think the gameplay balance (particularly in Dragon Quest 1) could have used a little longer in the oven, there’s no denying that this is a solid pair of RPGs. If you have any interest in the Dragon Quest series or JRPGs in general, then this package gets my hearty recommendation.

Dragon Quest 1 & 2 HD-2D Remake copy provided by the publisher for the purposes of this review.