How do we feel about the Dragon Quest I, II and, III HD remakes?

[Bump'n'Ys]

Simple question I thought I'd ask the forum. I'm still gathering my thoughts on them but to put it short, I've been shocked at how good they've been. It helps that they have very strong bases in terms of the games they're remakes of, of course. While I would argue none of them needed remakes per se, I think especially in the case of I&II HD that they really added to the games and maybe even surpassed the originals, even if there's elements of those originals I like more.
So yeah, lemme know your thoughts!
EDIT: Just noticed this posted in general retro gaming, and I don't think that's technically the right spot for this. If someone could move it to general gaming that would be nice :)
Sorry for my mistake.

 

[Dani.]

I think they turned out beautifully. I haven't played them yet, but who knows, I might get them later.

 

[Graves Ruinwalker]

Simple question I thought I'd ask the forum. I'm still gathering my thoughts on them but to put it short, I've been shocked at how good they've been. It helps that they have very strong bases in terms of the games they're remakes of, of course. While I would argue none of them needed remakes per se, I think especially in the case of I&II HD that they really added to the games and maybe even surpassed the originals, even if there's elements of those originals I like more.
So yeah, lemme know your thoughts!
EDIT: Just noticed this posted in general retro gaming, and I don't think that's technically the right spot for this. If someone could move it to general gaming that would be nice :)
Sorry for my mistake.

I wouldnt say that they surpassed them but those both games needed some additional content badly .

The originals are basic and didnt had enough content too that justified the tedious grind but it had charme from its simplistic Pixel-art and open world approach . (Perfect for speedruns )

At the same time around Metal Max released and had way much more to offer than Dragon Quest 1 and 2 combined and also had an open world with more complex dungeons and alot of side-stuff to do .

Its the first time that i dont have against a remake of those two games and are this time a good purchase. But surpassing them isnt the right answer . They added stuff and give some nice 3D graphics too while changing enough things that people are motivated to play the old games and the remake too .

Thats how a good remake should do .

 

[Bonkers225]

Awesome for people that don't prefer first person battles which early DQ was always known for.

 

[Retro Doomer]

Well I utterly detest Censorship so I am not fond of those Remakes it is as it stays I simply fancy the Original versions far more than those censored pieces of entertainment.
Regarding Dragon Quest 3 Remake I have those videos

Well given I am not aware on how badly Dragon Quest 1 and 2 Remake is censored at the current moment but I expect its not less censored than the Dragon Quest 3 Remake.

 

[ThatOneLum ThatOneLum]

Are we talking about the versions that were also released on Switch a couple of years ago? Or is there some new remake I'm unaware of?

If it's the older one, I think they're great from a gameplay perspective, but with the first game at least, I find myself slightly disappointed by the visuals. It feels slightly too close to "stock art from RPG Maker" in a bunch of places for a series that has this much personality.

Cant say if it persists in 2/3 cus I've still not finished 1 just yet

 

[NeonKnights]

I'm glad they exist as an option for new players to experience Dragon Quest for the first time, and for fans and others to have a reason to go back and replay them anew. I however will never advance beyond the NES, SFC and GBC where these games are concerned. The hideous art style of the mobile versions ported to Steam and Switch killed any interest in a remake for me. The originals are good enough.

 

[Tonberry]

I've only played 3 HD2D, and I thought it was good, haven't finished it, though.
I'm not a massive fan of DQ3 in general but so far I'd say it's about on-par with the Super Famicom version, just in a different style, so it depends on which style you prefer.

My main gripes with DQ3HD2Dis that the UI is kind of cumbersome and slows things down, and I don't like that equipped weapons have no impact on whether or not you can use certain skills. It feels like an omission of nuance, and I kind of think it's immersion-breaking when my Thief can use dagger skills without having a dagger equipped etc. Makes me just want to look for what's got the highest attack power which kind of removes a tiny part of the roleplaying.

I hear 1 has a lot of changes which I'm equally excited and concerned about, as I love DQ1, but I'm still looking forward to eventually playing the 1+2 HD2D remake.

Are we talking about the versions that were also released on Switch a couple of years ago? Or is there some new remake I'm unaware of?

If it's the older one, I think they're great from a gameplay perspective, but with the first game at least, I find myself slightly disappointed by the visuals. It feels slightly too close to "stock art from RPG Maker" in a bunch of places for a series that has this much personality.

Cant say if it persists in 2/3 cus I've still not finished 1 just yet

The hideous art style of the mobile versions ported to Steam and Switch killed any interest in a remake for me. The originals are good enough.

I assume OP is talking about the newest HD2D remakes. 3 released last year, and 1+2 released like two weeks ish ago.

I usually hate the Octopath HD2D style but I think these look fine since the environments are in full 3D which feel like an iteration of the PS1/DS DQ games, and not that weird post-processing diorama hell that Octopath was.

Post automatically merged: Today at 11:58 AM

Awesome for people that don't prefer first person battles which early DQ was always known for.

The battles are still in first-person when they actually play out, you just see your characters when selecting commands. It's kind of an awkward middle ground.

 

[NeonKnights]

I've only played 3 HD2D, and I thought it was good, haven't finished it, though.
I'm not a massive fan of DQ3 in general but so far I'd say it's about on-par with the Super Famicom version, just in a different style, so it depends on which style you prefer.

I hear 1 has a lot of changes which I'm equally excited and concerned about, as I love DQ1, but I'm still looking forward to eventually playing the 1+2 HD2D remake.



I assume OP is talking about the newest HD2D remakes. 3 released last year, and 1+2 released like two weeks ish ago.

I usually hate the Octopath HD2D style but I think these look fine since the environments are in full 3D which feel like an iteration of the PS1/DS DQ games, and not that weird post-processing diorama hell that Octopath was.

Post automatically merged: Today at 11:58 AM

The battles are still in first-person when they actually play out, you just see your characters when selecting commands. It's kind of an awkward middle ground.

Yes, I am aware of the new pixel remaster like versions. They are good for those that like them. My opinion remains the same.

 

[Tonberry]

Yes, I am aware of the new pixel remaster like versions. They are good for those that like them. My opinion remains the same.

Ah my bad. Thought you were only referring to the mobile ports on Switch.

 

[Grumpy_Old_Man]

I will stick to the originals and snes remakes, the aforementioned censorship, art style and "modern localization". I think the new "translation method" begins around the eight entry in the series and the ds remakes, they are far from my cup of tea.

 

[NeonKnights]

Ah my bad. Thought you were only referring to the mobile ports on Switch.

No problem sir. My point is that the way these remakes were handled concerning the visuals and other caveats eroded any good will I had for a remake in the first place and now though these new versions may be far better I have no interest in ever playing them. I will be sticking with the originals no matter their faults.

 

[Aziamuth]

I didn't play I-II, but I did play III.

I think it's great! For beginners. There's a lot of QoL that makes it suited for them. The new additions are fun, as well. I'm fairly happy how they turned out.

For veterans? Unnecessary. The new additions make the game easier (with Sage, I could do 1000+ damage to the final bosses with ease), and there's not enough going to warrant its purchase if you played any of the previous version of the game. If you're a veteran to the series but didn't play III, I recommend the SNES remake or the Switch remake.

However, from what I've seen, I-II seem more like reimaginings because they add a lot of things. WHich is good! There should be more reimaginings and less remakes.

 

[PhrawzT]

I got the DQ3 remake last year and enjoyed it. I still have not played the DQ1 & 2 remakes yet, but would like to.

 

[Graves Ruinwalker]

Well I utterly detest Censorship so I am not fond of those Remakes it is as it stays I simply fancy the Original versions far more than those censored pieces of entertainment.
Regarding Dragon Quest 3 Remake I have those videos

Well given I am not aware on how badly Dragon Quest 1 and 2 Remake is censored at the current moment but I expect its not less censored than the Dragon Quest 3 Remake.

You're right .
Dragon Quest 3 is only the best in its original form .

Well , i gave my praise way too early .

Fuck my optimism for giving them atleast some credit just to find out they threw it already in the trash-bin.

 

[Retro Doomer]

They have only use in terms of being able to play these games on newer platforms if you prefer so, otherwise they do not add anything meaningful over originals so it doesn't give me any reason to play them.

However I may play the DRAGON QUEST III HD-2D Remake just because sometimes when you wanna replay a game and you got bored of playing the same old original even meaningless but different remakes/remasters are what I wanna play instead just because I'm in the mood for it. However I wouldn't pay for the game just because disrespecting artists enough to change their artwork for pointless censorship ideology, and then removing words for sexes as if being a he or she is a curse word and we are wrong to be a he or she so no one should be a "he" or "she" is not an ideology I would support. If they develop their game for anyone who has no common sense then I don't wanna be part of this romance and refuse to buy any Square Enix product until they get their shit together. Keep supporting this shit then in video game people will bleed rainbows instead of blood and in GTA 7 all you will do is helping granmas take out the garbage and rescue cats on trees just because their pathetic ass trying to butcher video gaming to befit it to a target audiance who doesn't even play games and they are not sane to start with.

If "this part of body is sexually attractive" is enough BS to justify censorship then in 10 years regardless of sex people have their body will be censored completely and they will be plain black rectangular prism instead because people can have any sexual fetish over anything on body. Shit doesn't make sense. Video game industry have lost the plot on why age rating even exists and for decades Americans and any Americano mentality people keep shitting on society further. When I play a game I don't have any sexual thoughts or any feeling about damn NPCs made of 0s and 1 so if a person is that sexual enough to wank at stickpeople then they would even have to censor chairs, couches, IDK even a damn TV because people may have sexual fetish over "sharp looking objects" too. What is this shit? And the next BS is "it offends me" shit. "It offends me that in the game animals are being killed" so let's remove animals from games. Next "it offends me that players can burn trees in the game" so let's remove trees too. "It offends me that there are people in the game" then let's remove any sign of life in the game too". They keep shitting on the video game industry just because what some brainless insane shit complain about on Twitter SMH.

Those statements are wisely spoken and I just say if they feel like removing me from the game a He for some stupid foolish reason then they should not mind if I kindly remove my money as well as they clearly don't want it.
The Censorship and disrespect towards the source material I find people that do such acts as utterly heinous.
I also have the feeling that those Remakes distort the real game as people especially newer players are only ever going to experience the butchered version of the game and will consider it as the real one a utterly dreadful future If I may say so myself.

 

[Yousef Yousef]

They’re great games almost no matter the version. I experienced the first trilogy on NES, Gameboy, iOS, Switch and remakes, liked every version I played and I’m glad to see them preserved so lovingly. Can’t wait for DQ7’s remake.

 

[Retro Doomer]

You're right .
Dragon Quest 3 is only the best in its original form .

Well , i gave my praise way too early .

Fuck my optimism for giving them atleast some credit just to find out they threw it already in the trash-bin.

Luckily my good Sir we life in a Digital world which means that we have access to Information and at least we should be more Informed than our forebears and it should be harder for those scoundrels to bring us of our hard earned money with there heinous deceptions.

 

[Graves Ruinwalker]

Luckily my good Sir we life in a Digital world which means that we have access to Information and at least we should be more Informed than our forebears and it should be harder for those scoundrels to bring us of our hard earned money with there heinous deceptions.

Good thing i didnt purchased the remakes/remasters .

Looks like my puristic nature just saved me alot of Euros .

Give me them goodhearted pixels !
I dont want those polygons on my SNES and NES games !

 

[Retro Doomer]

Good thing i didnt purchased the remakes/remasters .

Looks like my puristic nature just saved me alot of Euros .

Give me them goodhearted pixels !
I dont want those polygons on my SNES and NES games !
View attachment 126388

Das Original ist immer besser als eine Kopie wie unser guter Mr Spock zu sagen pflegte.
Yes if they want to push there nonsense its on them and so very bad for them that we don't rely on gaming journalists anymore as we nowadays have our own way of gaming research we can partake in so there foolery will not be unknown for long much to there dismay.
I miss those older days where we had competent game developers and not what that circus troupe pretends to be.

 

[Aziamuth]

They’re great games almost no matter the version. I experienced the first trilogy on NES, Gameboy, iOS, Switch and remakes, liked every version I played and I’m glad to see them preserved so lovingly. Can’t wait for DQ7’s remake.

My body tells me that I should experience DQ 1-6 on their original releases...

 

[Retro Doomer]

My body tells me that I should experience DQ 1-6 on their original releases...

It is your reason giving you warn signals and it is right I would advice you also to play the Originals of the Censored Remakes if you care quality and creative freedom in the slightest.

 

[Retro Doomer]

Yep.

Censorship can only be justified when the situation and the characters are put into insane "fan service" level to sexualize character for no good reason in video games that is not designed for porn genre. For example in Metal Max Xeno's PS Vita version which the game is only supposed to be vehicle modification to fight with evil machines the scene that a woman character is attacked by a spider-like murder-machine and as a result she is completely hanged naked with spiderwebs around her for obvious "pervert service" shit is what I would call "porn shit that I wouldn't care about if it is censored from a game that shouldn't have any pervert shit from the start". I won't deny that kind of shit shouldn't be in anything and should be censored just because it is stupid, but then we have age-rating at home that for people above 18 such stuff can be even a ha ha funny when they saw it because how weird it is. Unfortunately society is primitive therefore I ignore the fact that developers trying to attract some teens and add teen service shit into games but sometimes shit is too much. Such stuff only would mean sexual something for teens because they are too busy with insanity of puberty while most of adults ignore the shit unless they have porn addiction and shit.

But then we look at Dragon Quest censorship, there was nothing sexual about characters yet they ruined fashion choices for the characters just to hide a few lines that means "breasts" and "upper leg" and it seems like how a teen would think how sexual a person is by sexulizing whatever body part they have and eventually develop a sexual fetish for certain body types. Then they should start from banning feet, armpit and hair due to the way they are most popular body part that is subjective of a sexual fetish. But then it gotta be applied for men bodies too. Muscles, man's nipples, strong looking chest and all are also sexy for women too so ban the existence of men too!!!

From a legal point such censorship is just "legally right" for the international version of the game so due to the topic of international law the censorship can make sense, but it doesn't justify why tons of countries are subject to this censorship when either their law or culture wouldn't think original artworks are illegal or sexual. Square Enix is not an indie company so they can separate regional version of games easily like how video game industry cares to release specific Chinese versions of games to befit their game to their law.

As for censorship of words for sexes and what stupid shit video game companies recently does, we all know only non-binary people cares about what theydo so why rest of the society is enforced by this? I'm a man and to roleplay better I would wanna pick a male character. I will never reduce humanity to some Body Type A and B, this is very offensive BS they try to normalize. It doesn't even "help" trans people too. If I were a trans I would wanna pick whatever gender I choose for myself. Naturally trans people don't have a "Body Type A" or "B" body, they are beyond a body they are a "trans man/woman" not because of the body they have but what gender they feel they have. Another BS is, a woman may very well have a Body Type A that video game company means "a male". Does being a woman means having wide hips and big breasts? Nope. Are women "fail" to be a woman just because they don't have the stereotypical "wide AF hips" and "non-flat breats" video game companies believe this is what it means to be a woman?: Nope. It's all about having a Y chromosome in your DNA or not so how your body looks like and your sexual organ is irrelevant. A person can identify themselves as a "woman" while they have a "male body" with even a dick or a person may be a man with a vagina. This is why their ignorance is offensive and dehumanising. Body Type shit can only make sense after you pick your sex, otherwise it assumes all people are about is their body like whatever about them outside of their body doesn't mean anything. This is the mentality decides if a person is "not man enough" if they are not tall and muscler and "not a woman enough" when her breasts and hips not big enough SMH and if they believe this shit is the best bet for fairness in society I can safely say their brain dripping to the floor so they need a reality punch™©℗® in the face lolol. If they wanna befit games for non-binary that much they can simply offer "male", "female", non-binary" and to satisfy trans people they can add "trans male" and "trans female" to pick when you create your character when not most of gamers are non-binary folk but I know their lazy ass wouldn't bother that much but then their hypocritical ass preaches "we care and very inclusive" my ass. They just kick your ass out if you don't share this ideology so they ignore most of the society. Really doesn't make sense at all.

Well I do Identify as non buy nary with most of the Remakes that come out if you get the gist my good sir.
And yes erasing sex (gender) from your games those not help anybody and nobody even asked for such a fools decision.
Besides the only thing they achieve with such things is alienating large portions of there costumers besides the brainless morons sorry I meant loyal fans that will buy up every slop they produce without question.
Also I am not that comfy with overly pornographic scenes in games either as it is clearly not good for public morality and I would like some decency we gamers are not all perverts after all fair ladies in gaming are fine and good but don't transform the game into some weird fetish fantasy some fan service is naturally okay but keep it SFW.
You can of course call me a puritan or something of that sorts but just know I am for decency not extreme censorship which I detest but we also should not give into our primitive urges like some vile beasts either.

 

[ThatOneLum ThatOneLum]

Well I do Identify as non buynary with most of the Remakes that come out if you get gist my good sir.

Fucking lmao. Gonna use non-buynary every time someone asks if I'm gonna get a game now.

 

[lytrid]

Whew I didn't know there was a thread for these games.
Here's my quick review for DQ1 HD from the Megathread.

Pros:

• It looks and plays well, closer to the other modern DQs. If you find the original too "outdated", this is a much better way to play it. Turn on a couple settings (like objective markers) and you probably won't even need a guide to help you.
• Most battles are pretty high stake because of how unfair they are. They force you to be more strategic and endure some damn long boss fights, which if won are super satisfying.

Meh:

• The story was expanded, but what is there to flesh out? Erdrick, Erdrick, Erdrick.

Cons:

• Unbalanced fights, again. Your lone hero could be going against 5 or 6 enemies at once. An enemy crit or a status effect can easily end you. Good luck fighting and healing both with just one party member. Sometimes strategy isn't enough - the only option is to grind and you also need some luck. The only all-out spell is learnt near the end of the game. This is the only time I ever had to change to Easy in a turn-based RPG (I initially started on Hard; this says a lot).

I love DQ2 so far, though. It's better in just about every way.
The tides have turned and 2 is now a more beginner-friendly game than 1.