Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake

What it is

Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake rebuilds the first two entries in Square Enix's flagship JRPG series using the HD-2D art style — pixel-art characters over richly lit, dimensional 3D backgrounds — first popularized by Octopath Traveler. The two games, originally released in Japan in 1986 and 1987, ship together as one package, developed with ARTDINK.

It launched alongside a digital-only Erdrick Trilogy Collection bundling it with Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake, completing the HD-2D treatment of the series' original trilogy.

Old bones that still hold the weight

Critics were broadly aligned that the games' age is their advantage here: small, tightly looped dungeon-and-town structures that were already clean design decades ago translate well to a modern remake, without needing the scale of a contemporary open-world JRPG to feel complete.

The HD-2D presentation was consistently singled out as the standout element — lighting, particle effects and diorama-style town layouts give sprite-era compositions a sense of depth the originals never had.

Where the pacing shows its age

The most consistent criticism centers on Dragon Quest II specifically, whose mid-game stretch was already considered the series' hardest pacing test in 1987 and remains a noticeably slower section here despite modernized quality-of-life additions like faster text and adjustable encounter rates.