Dragon Quest is among the most acclaimed and influential sequence in gaming. Should you’ve ever performed a Japanese (or Japanese-inspired) RPG, it in all probability owes a debt to this superb franchise.
And it began with Dragon Quest I and Dragon Quest II.
These games captivated gamers by sending them on epic adventures throughout expansive worlds filled with imaginative locales, whereas battling all method of monsters. It was an expertise like few others.
New Gameplay Overview Trailer gives a take a look at exploration, fight, get together lineup, and extra.
Now these games are hitting PlayStation consoles for the primary time in Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake. These aren’t any easy retro revivals although – each games have been absolutely remade and enhanced, with new options that make them really feel contemporary and fashionable with out sacrificing their unique appeal.
They’ve been rebuilt within the gorgeous HD-2D visible fashion made well-known by sequence like Octopath Traveler, and have extra content material, gameplay enhancements, tons of quality-of-life options like goal markers and auto-battle options and way more.
It’s principally two of essentially the most revered RPGs ever made, however made higher. Should you’re a fan of the style, they’re a must-play.
However what went into the sport and their many enhancements? We spoke to Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake Producer Masaaki Hayasaka to search out out:
Why did you determine to remake Dragon Quest I and II?
There have been numerous ports and remasters of Dragon Quest I, II and III launched over time, however there hasn’t been a full remake in a very very long time. Octopath Traveler established the HD-2D graphical fashion, and with HD-2D graphics, the extra retro a recreation is, the extra its true worth is revealed. Because the titles that make up the Erdrick trilogy are essentially the most retro of all of the Dragon Quest titles, and the start line of the franchise as a complete, we realised that the HD-2D fashion can be a excellent match, and so we resolved to remake them.
Why did you determine to incorporate each remakes in a single package deal?
The principle causes behind this have been to do with the practicalities of manufacturing. If we had determined to launch Dragon Quest I and II as separate titles, then there would have been a lot to think about: like how we value the games appropriately for the quantity of content material, how that pricing would have an effect on gamers’ perceptions of the games, what to do about launch home windows and so on. One other massive issue behind this choice was that releasing each games as a single set would imply that we may current gamers with a package deal that wraps up the Erdrick Trilogy faster than having two separate releases. Making all the pieces individually would have taken way more time.
Why did you’re feeling that HD-2D was the best visible fashion to rebuild these games?
As I discussed beforehand, the extra retro a recreation is, the extra HD-2D actually exhibits its true worth. Having labored on HD-2D titles ever for the reason that launch of Octopath Traveler, I obtained to see for myself how the HD-2D fashion got here into existence, and how it was obtained by the world. Additionally, the Dwell a Dwell remake—additionally made by Square Enix’s Staff Asano—was the primary occasion of a HD-2D remake title, and that was very properly obtained, so it gave me confidence as I launched into this undertaking.
It’s a very lovely recreation. How did you strategy the problem of turning 2D environments into visually spectacular 3D ones?
Essentially the most tough factor about changing 2D into 3D was the environments. For this remake, we more-or-less adhered to the constructions of the environments from the unique recreation, from the position of the buildings within the cities to the positioning and path making of the staircases within the dungeons (I’d love for somebody to have a look at the environments from straight above and examine them with the unique recreation!).
So regardless that the sport’s visuals have been modified considerably, I wished individuals who performed the unique recreation to nonetheless have the ability to depend on their reminiscences of it — to have the ability to say, “I appear to do not forget that if I’m going over right here, then I’ll discover this factor… Yep! There it’s!”. Taking features of the unique recreation that have been designed in 2D and recreating them in 3D whereas nonetheless preserving the construction of the unique actually places your level-design expertise to the check, however the map workforce and the planning workforce did a implausible job, which meant that we have been capable of obtain simply what we got down to do.
Why did you determine to launch this after Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake?
Once I take into consideration I, II and III, I feel that Dragon Quest III was essentially the most full title out of the three, together with by way of its recreation mechanics. Dragon Quest III was additionally a cultural phenomenon in Japan, and I had some discussions with Yuji Horii through which he stated he’d prefer to see the Erdrick Trilogy remade with Dragon Quest III popping out first as a kind of entry level, in order that was how the Dragon Quest III remake obtained began. So it was determined on the very starting of the undertaking that we wished the games to be performed within the order III, I, II.
Do you could have performed Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake to take pleasure in these games?
Dragon Quests I, II and III all inform standalone tales, so in fact gamers can take pleasure in these games with out having performed Dragon Quest III. Nevertheless, these remakes supply a contemporary retelling of the story of Erdrick in chronological order beginning with Dragon Quest III, adopted by I and II, and there are specific twists and turns in retailer that will likely be notably shocking for those who play the games in that order, so I would really like for folks to play the HD-2D remakes within the order III, I, II, and from a developer standpoint as properly, I like to recommend enjoying them in that order!
Why do you assume Dragon Quest I and II nonetheless maintain up as nice games, even so a few years later?
I feel a massive a part of it might be that these titles maintain the excellence of being the start line of the Dragon Quest sequence, which has endured for round 40 years, in addition to the start line of JRPGs themselves. I feel that you possibly can say this of different IPs as properly, however whenever you discover a sequence that you simply like, you naturally attain a level the place you need to play the primary title within the sequence. On high of that, Dragon Quest was a pioneering title that influenced most of the JRPGs that got here after it. And so when folks truly attempt Dragon Quests I and II for themselves and get a sense of all these components which have appeared once more in every kind of JRPGs, I feel they arrive to know why it’s such a masterpiece.
For many individuals, notably areas exterior Japan and America, this will likely be their first time experiencing these games. Why ought to RPG followers be excited to play these titles?
Lately, a lot of RPGs have adopted extra motion gameplay components, however this remake respects the unique, and it’s introduced in a classic command-battle RPG fashion. The enemy encounters are random as properly, slightly than being triggered by strolling as much as monsters on the map. So conversely, titles like this are literally uncommon these days, and it looks like we could have gone full circle, to the purpose that they’re now thought of contemporary once more. As I discussed beforehand, these games have influenced a large variety of JRPGs—it isn’t actually attainable to speak about JRPGs with out mentioning them—so I imagine that individuals are going to search out them actually fascinating to play, exactly due to after they’re popping out.
What have been your key priorities whenever you began improvement of those games?
After we have been engaged on the latest HD-2D remake of Dragon Quest III, our aim was to keep away from tampering with the unique so far as attainable, and to solely add a little embellishment. For this title, nonetheless, our strategy was that we may change as a lot as we wished to, so long as the core of the sport was nonetheless intact, and we positioned nice significance on the information that we may make modifications. That being stated, if we had made too many modifications, then we’d have remodeled the sport into one thing utterly completely different. But when we had restricted ourselves an excessive amount of on what we may change, then folks would have stated, “why not simply play the unique?”. So we have been notably cautious about discovering that steadiness, and I feel that ultimately, we landed on one thing that’s actually good.
How have you ever made these games extra handy for fashionable gamers?
After we have been engaged on the Dragon Quest III remake, we did a lot of labor to enhance playability. We added an autosave function, a fast restart following a recreation over, location guides, vacation spot markers, issue choices, enemy weak point indicators, UI management enhancements and so on., and so on. And for this recreation we’ve got additionally included the Brief-Reduce Instructions function, which permits gamers to set shortcuts for their favorite instructions to particular buttons, which ought to scratch the itch for most gamers. So I feel that this recreation gives an acceptable degree of user-friendliness for a fashionable title.
Each games function extra eventualities. Why did you need to add these into the games?
The unique games have been clearly launched within the order I, II, III, however as I stated earlier, we’re releasing them within the order III, I, II this time round. The revelation that the unique Dragon Quest III had a narrative reference to Dragon Quest I used to be vastly impactful, however we couldn’t replicate that within the remakes. So as an alternative, we determined to launch them within the order that the occasions of the Erdrick Trilogy happen, beginning with III, adopted by I and II, and we determined to take advantage of this by including some new story components.
With out spoiling something, what extra story components do folks need to look ahead to within the games?
I feel the phrase, “epic conclusion” nearly sums it up. We added some components of foreshadowing within the latest Dragon Quest III remake, together with some mysteries that don’t get tied up in that recreation, and for this title, we’ve got integrated all kinds of content material: some issues that aren’t addressed in any respect within the unique recreation, some issues that we expect followers of the unique will likely be curious to know extra about, and a few twists that I don’t assume anyone will see coming. I feel that there are fairly a few surprises in retailer for anybody enjoying this recreation. I can’t wait to listen to what all people makes of this as soon as the sport is out.
How tough was it so as to add components to those games in order that they felt pure, however didn’t detract from the unique appeal?
Throughout improvement, we needed to needless to say we wished to strike the steadiness between making modifications wherever we noticed match, with out undermining the unique recreation, so this was one thing that was consistently enjoying on our minds. Nevertheless, we additionally had Horii-san on our facet, so we have been consistently having discussions with him, and we have been capable of transfer forwards with improvement one step at a time.
Why have you ever added the Princess of Cannock as a new playable character in Dragon Quest II?
We wished to give you one thing that might make this title stand out. There are a lot of examples of remakes of mainline Dragon Quest titles including new vocations or new get together members, and we have been conscious that these had been very properly obtained by followers. The latest remake of Dragon Quest III included the new monster wrangler vocation. Since this recreation is a sequel to Dragon Quest III, we knew that we needed to give you a standout new function that measured as much as the monster wrangler, and so we got here up with this concept for the Princess of Cannock. She seems within the unique recreation as properly, and identical to the sport’s protagonist, she too is a descendant of Erdrick, so there was a lot of hypothesis amongst followers that she may grow to be a get together character in some unspecified time in the future. I don’t assume there’s anyone higher suited to the position than her.
What classes did you be taught from Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake and how have they helped you develop this title?
Dragon Quest III taught me that everyone has their very own opinions on what they assume a remake title ought to appear like. The extra well-known a recreation is, the higher the number of folks’s opinions about what they count on to be included and what can be the very best strategy. And this isn’t simply true of gamers; it’s true of builders as properly. It’s bodily not possible to fulfill everybody’s needs for a remake, so it’s important to attempt to discover the very best strategy that you simply assume will please followers essentially the most, whereas additionally making an allowance for time constraints and the constraints of the sport construction as properly.
The scope for what we’re altering is way larger for this remake of Dragon Quest I and II than it was for the Dragon Quest III remake, so the decision-making course of for which of these opinions we undertake and which we disregard was significantly tougher. That being stated, our stance throughout improvement was at all times to take the strategy that we knew would please the most important variety of folks.
What have been essentially the most difficult issues about creating Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake?
That must be the story. For RPGs, the story is the basis out of which all the pieces else grows. The environments, character sprites and different features of the sport are the branches and leaves that develop out of that root, so improvement can’t transfer forwards till the story is determined upon. The extra you tweak the story, the tougher it’s to remake the sport, and for this recreation we actually made some main enhancements to the story. We spent a lot of time on the story, together with discussions and tweaks with Horii-san, so I feel you possibly can say that this was a fairly main problem.
How did you overcome these challenges?
Numerous very reliable workers joined the undertaking partway via, each internally and externally. Due to them we have been someway capable of determine it out. If these folks hadn’t joined the undertaking, then I feel it might nonetheless be unfinished even now. I feel that that is true of any undertaking, and never simply games, however in the end all of it depends upon the abilities of every particular person member of the workforce. I’m actually grateful to every member of this workforce.
What are you most excited for followers to find after they play Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake?
I can’t reveal any particulars but, however I feel that the new story content material will actually resonate with a lot of Dragon Quest followers, no matter whether or not they’ve performed the unique or not. I hope followers will look ahead to this. Additionally, identical to with the Dragon Quest III remake, Dragon Quests I and II function a lot of well-known strains of dialogue, occasions and characters. Attempt to spot all of the completely different references as you play via the primary story!
I hope that folks will actually take pleasure in this title that serves as each the start line of the Dragon Quest franchise, and the start line of JRPGs normally! And I additionally hope that folks will take pleasure in seeing the story of Erdrick via to its conclusion!
Many because of Hayasaka-san for answering our many questions on the sport. Right here’s another you may need: when can I play it?!
Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake launches October 30, 2025 on PS5. It’s accessible to preorder now – we will’t wait for you to find what these two games have in retailer!