Earlier this month, I finally played through Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake on my Switch. Having never played the original, I had two main takeaways. One, this is some of the best looking sprite work I’ve ever seen. Two, like many games from that era, it gets extremely grindy and your choices are to either stick it out or switch to the can’t-die “Dracky Mode” difficulty (I did the latter).

I did this in the wake of a 25-minute demo of Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake on PlayStation 5 at PAX East 2025 earlier this month, as I wanted a frame of reference before finally writing this preview. This is going to be a bit of a different sort of writeup as, mechanically, there’s not a ton to say. To me, what they’re conceptually going for here is a lot more interesting.

Let me explain. In the Dragon Quest I portion of the demo, I went from the starting town into the open field into a cave. I did some battles, walked around, and didn't see much of the new stuff. Hey, it looks amazing. The little tweaks that I could see, such as the ability to fight multiple monsters, seem like a good way to add mechanical complexity to the original title.

II was similarly gorgeous, and it played a lot more like the Dragon Quest III remake – low camera overworld and voiced cutscenes in kind – which is good because, if you’ve played II originally, it’s a fairly polarizing game. II, while not entirely a black sheep on the series, is unforgiving and an awkward halfway between the addictingly grindy Dragon Quest and the more expansive Dragon Quest III.

There’s little you can tell from a few minutes with a game, but if Square Enix gave II the same treatment they gave III which they absolutely seemed to have (increased battle speed, multiple difficulty options, and generally a more comfortable experience overall), then it seems like an ideal way to experience a game many Dragon Quest fans have a complicated relationship with.

Now conceptually, what stood out to me was how the remake’s developers took pains to make I & II feel like a sequel to the III remake that came out last year. III stars Erdrick and acts as a prequel to I & 2, which are led by his descendents. Outside of visual/stylistic parity with III, I & 2 will have new content (both story and gameplay) to tie this remake trilogy together and make the III -> I -> II playthrough feel natural.

A Square Enix representative told me that playing the two upcoming remakes together is roughly equivalent to the length of the Dragon Quest III remake last year (which, if you played on default difficulty, would have taken about 30-40 hours). That same rep got excited when I said the new remake seemed like an opportunity to make Dragon Quest II into an easier hang; to paraphrase, they said the II upgrades/additions were specifically a point of focus for the team.

Today, on Dragon Quest Day, Square Enix announced Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake would come out (including on Switch 2!) on October 30. My surface takeaway of this remake is, “Hey, seems like they did a great job with this one like they did III!” But a bit below the surface, it’s clear Square Enix has grand ambitions for this remake, ambitions that will be worth paying attention to.