Now that the remakes are out, what do you think?
I'm playing through DQ1 HD. It's nice, but it feels like a different game to me. With all the added story and cutscenes a lot of its simplity is gone. That was the defining trait of DQ1 which made it stand out from the rest. The remake plays closer to every other Dragon Quest. I know I could just ignore the world map and turn off the objective marker, but it still wouldn't quite be the same. I also think the bad NES graphics and barebones story gave it more of a sense of wonder. It lets your mind fill the gaps.
Oh well, still a good game. Don't take this as a complaint.
As someone who also loves DQ1, I understand your position. What with the abilities, the sigils, expanded storyline, ramped up difficulty, etc., DQ1HD is fundamentally different from every other version of DQ1. In every sense of the word, it's a true remake.
Personally though, I adore this iteration of the game. While yes, the trademark nonlinearity of DQ1 is more or less gone (save for carrying Gwaelin through the rest of the game), the additions more than make up for it, in my case. I really enjoy the new layer strategy created by the new moves & items. Since the new bosses are all different from each other, the game now encourages you to experiment with different equipment, which is accentuated by freely being able to swap your weapons and armor during battle. I'd also argue that this game is still different from other Dragon Quests, because of its design philosophy with buffs.
For one thing, you don't have access to Buff (or Oomph for that matter), so outside of the Faerie's Foil, there's no way to buff your defense. And with how much enemies and bosses tend to do in the second half of the game, you're better off trying to win fights as fast as you can, rather than endure them by sitting around and buffing yourself. The buffs only lasting a few turns adds to this idea as well. Not only does the short duration push you to act quickly, it makes you consider which ones you should use, and in what order. For example, Divide only lasts one turn, so you can't use it with Muster Strength. On the flip side, Wild Side persists for multiple turns, so you have to consider, what's more worth it, two buffed up attacks, or three at once? Depending on who you're fighting, the answer may change. This is completely different from other Dragon Quest games, where you're allowed to buff everybody up with Kabuff, Kaoomph, and sit pretty for the rest of the fight. In DQ1, the only person you can rely on is yourself. Perhaps that's why the buffs don't last that long, maybe in-universe you can only spare your focus on a couple minutes of spellcasting. Either way, I definitely don't think the game feels like any of the other Dragon Quest, even with all the retroactive QOL additions, and new mechanics, DQ1 still stands alone, just like its main character.
The only exception to the offensive approach is the Knight Aberrant, depending on when you fight him. If you fight him early, he can do so much damage at once, that if you don't have access to any of the really strong items/abilities from later in the game, you're better off just playing defensively with Cop Out. Whereas if you fight him later on with said powerful items & attacks, you could probably stomp him. I still think that adds to my point though, because if you can't just rely on buffing your stats and think you'll be fine. You actually have to play around what he does.
The amount of damage you take can be ridiculous, especially from the Dragonlord's second phase. I like that though, because each fight feels exhilarating as a result. Plus, it's a remake of an NES game, so the difficulty has its own kind of rustic charm. I was honestly worried that the game was too easy before I got to the second half, since I was steamrolling everything, I quickly got put in my place though.
At the end of the day DQ1HD2D is very much an entirely different experience from the game it's based on, but I hardly find that a bad thing when all the additions are so great, in my opinion. If you tied me down and forced me to come up with a critique, it would be that the remake is pretty railroaded. You can't skip certain things like Erdrick's Hollow, or rescuing Gwaelin like you could before. Being able to tackle the game the way you wanted to, in an tabletop RPG-esque manner was one of DQ1's defining traits. So in that sense, I do agree that the game plays like the ones that follow. But, on the flip side, DQ1 has been ported so many times, that you can easily experience the original version anytime you want, if that's more your thing. I still love the OG DQ1 so I'll definitely still go back to it every now and then.
