Dragon Quest 1 + 2 HD Remake Review

Dragon Quest 1 + 2 HD Remake

Release: October 30, 2025
Publisher: Square Enix
Developer: Square Enix
Genre: Switch Reviews
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Dragon Quest 1 and 2, originally released separately in the West as Dragon Warrior 1 and 2, have been fully remade in HD-2D. The two games are included in this new collection recently released from Square Enix. We were provided with a digital code for review and checked the games out. Here is our review of Dragon Quest 1 + 2 for Nintendo Switch.

In Dragon Quest 1, you play as a hero related to the legendary hero Erdrick (from Dragon Quest 3) who gets a vision and sent off by yourself on a quest to save the world.

Meanwhile in Dragon Quest 2, you play as a hero who is related to the hero of Dragon Quest 1. It is many years later and relatives of the hero from the previous game must band together as a team to save the world.

The stories of Dragon Quest 1 and 2 have been expanded and new material has been included to both games. The first game isn’t very long but the second one is a pretty big journey. Both games complement each other really well. 

The best way to play them is the first game first and then the second game but if you decide to play the second game first, you won’t be confused because the second game does have recap of Dragon Quest 1. Both games make reference to Dragon Quest 3. Of course the best order to play them is Dragon Quest 3, then 1 and then 2. The stories for each of the games is very good.

That said, the RPG gameplay is absolutely classic and the true reason to play these games.

Dragon Quest 1 has you playing as a lone hero who has no help at all. You’ll have to make sure to level up your hero every chance you get. You’re on your own with this game. There are three difficulty settings though, so if you want an easy quest, set it to that or to the normal setting or the extremely hard setting.

The battle system is a classic RPG turn-based system where you see your character, but when you attack, you only see the attack happen in first person mode. We found that setting the battles to Ultra-fast helped the pace of the battles a lot, but you can set the battles to normal, fast, and ultra-fast. You’ll be running into a lot of random battles in this game and you can’t turn that off.

The same battle system is in Dragon Quest 2, though in that game you’ll have help as you recruit your relatives and each character will have their abilities. There are scrolls to find in both games that will give you new abilities. There are a lot of treasure chests to find in both games. There’s so much to see and do in both games, though the second game is the bigger quest of the two.

The maps have been improved for both games and another improvement is that you can zoom out of an area back to another area you’ve previously been to no matter where you are. So you can be inside of a building and teleport back to previous towns. In other Dragon Quest games, if you are inside of a building, you’d hit the ceiling. That’s not so in this game.

Unfortunately, you can’t save anywhere in this game. Dragon Quest 1 and 2 keep the old “save at the church” system. Its too bad you can’t at least save on the world map. Though there is an autosave system that saves at certain times, though you can’t choose when it takes you back to.

Dragon Quest 1 + 2 play a lot better than their original versions. The battles can be speeded up, you can have places you need to go to highlighted on your map, and the difficulty settings help those who are new to the series. The best part is that the games look better than ever.

Dragon Quest 1+2 both look fantastic on the Nintendo Switch. HD-2D makes the backgrounds and the characters, including enemies, absolutely beautiful. These games look like storybooks brought to life. Not only that, but there is some voice acting with certain scenes in both games that is very good and the music is wonderful too.

If you’re a Dragon Quest fan, you’re going to absolutely love the remakes of Dragon Quest 1 and 2. Though if you’ve never played the series before, you can easily dive into this collection and enjoy the games. This is a fantastic remake of the first two games in the series. Dragon Quest 3 is also highly recommended. The HD-2D games just keep getting better and better. We can’t wait to see Square Enix’s next one!

Thanks to Square Enix for providing a digital code for these games. Dragon Quest 1+2 is now available for the Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2.

Article By Daniel Fugate

Daniel Fugate has wanted to be a writer since he was seven years old. He has a bachelor's degree in English and he's a huge Animal Crossing fan. The Nintendo Switch and Xbox Series S are his favorite systems. His e-mail is [email protected]

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