Corona Jumper: Dragon Quest 1 HD-2D (Multiple, 2025)

Tuesday, November 4, 2025

Dragon Quest 1 HD-2D (Multiple, 2025)

I've played every other version of DQ1 under the sun, so I'm legally obligated to play the new ultimate version. Will I finish this game in four hours like the old versions, or will it pose a more robust threat? What kind of optional content did they add? Is there finally an Erdrick's Helm? Join me as I answer these and more pressing questions.

A century+ after DQIII, the spirit of Rubiss hovers around and warns people about the coming of Hargon and his pet Dragonlord.

The call would soon be answered by the descendant of Erdrick. Unfortunately he has no allies on this quest. Fortunately the monsters have the decency to engage in sportsmanlike one-on-one combat, so he'll be fine.

First thing's first: The visuals are super nice. Crisp, colorful, with that kind of "diorama" aesthetic that I like so much. Trees look particularly great. This is on Performance Mode, and it looks even better on Graphics Mode, but it also loses a lot of framerate (at least on Switch 2) to the point of being a bit choppy.

New scene at the outset, with the hero rescuing a bunch of Tantegel's finest from a monster attack. They then in turn bring him back to Tantegel, which gets us one of a bunch of really nice new artwork stills:

For a minute it seemed like this might be an in-roads to a multi-character party being a thing in this version, but nope, they all quickly sod off.

The DQIII HD-2D engine returns for this game, which means we get sweet flyovers of new towns as you arrive for the first time.

The Captain then proceeds to be very irresponsible by bringing his new ally to see the King of Tantegel, and leaving the room. Yes, all the guards just left the room, leaving this guy they just met alone with the king. During a time when the Dragonlord is menacing the kingdom, security is THIS lax?

Luckily, our hero isn't a Dragonlord spy, and doesn't slay the king. Instead he gawks at the local fountain. This place looks awesome.

Looks like you start with the Copper Sword, so no need to save up for it while swinging a Bamboo Stick. Also, after all this time, helmets have finally been added to DQ1. Been wanting to see a remake do this for ages.

Wonder where Erdrick's Helm will be, and what quest it'll entail. Will they rename the Silver Shield to Erdrick's Shield (which it probably was intended to be to begin with) or will there be a new shield beyond it?

The first merchant has a bunch of equipment that usually isn't found until the second town, Garinham/Galenholm. So they've already got the equipment on an accelerated timetable.

Oh yeah, I named the hero Erdrick IV. That's probably under-shooting the amount of generations that have gone by in-universe, though. The hero of the next one will be Erdrick VIII or something.

If you've got DQIII save files, there's a reward upon starting this game: ......Dog Suit.

Would have been rad if it were Mini Medals, stat seeds, maybe a big bag of gold to beef up your equipment out of the gate. Instead they give you.....Dog Suit.

It's so....random. Also it's a huge defense increase that dwarfs the first few armors you can buy. You don't get anything better until the Full Plate Armor which is several towns in. So you pretty much have to wear a DOG SUIT if you want optimal defense early on, which makes it not feel like DQ1. I just...don't like anything about the Dog Suit.

We've got maps, and once you've got the Zoom spell you can warp right from the map screen with one button which is a nice shortcut. You can warp to any location, too, not just towns (or worse, just Tantegel like it was on the NES)

Another QOL improvement, you can set what items will be used during autobattle. This is great for setting it to use equipment effects without using consumables. Wish this was an option in DQIII last year (maybe it was and I missed it?) because characters never used their equipment effects during autobattle there.

The people know that if the Dragonlord strikes with his legion of monsters, their puny cities don't have a chance. So really, the people of Alefgard are at the mercy of the Dragonlord being too lazy to take over?

This fair maiden is still the hero's groupie, which is a tradition going all the way back to the NES days.

She can't leave Tantegel, but she'll go anywhere with our hero therein. TO THE INN!

The innkeeper doesn't say anything about you having a guest, like he did in other versions. At this point he's probably jaded and has seen it all, plus his wife left him on Tuesday.

Our hero puts on the DOG SUIT. Things got pretty weird. An old guy looked on from the corner and didn't say a word all night.

In previous versions of the game, you could see the final dungeon (Charlock Castle) right across the water from Tantegel. Not the case here, though you can see part of a giant mountain there.

Alright, here we go. Old-school slime-fighting goodness. THIS...is Dragon Quest 1 intensity!

How much of this series' identity comes down to the first enemy you fight being this iconic slime? And to think, if anyone else designed this slime besides the person who did, it might have been a generic slime enemy like any other game, and robbed this series of so much of what made it iconic. Like the giant gold tree in Elden Ring making scenes from that game instantly recognizable.

::record scratching sound::

Oh My God. The enemies can gang up on you in this version. This has the potential to cause all kinds of balance issues and difficulty spikes across the game, and explains why equipment is gained earlier than normal. Status effects like Sleep are now a death sentence as well. They should have kept it at one-on-one. Well, we'll see if it proves me wrong.

A magical moment in the hero's life, as he gets level 3 and Heal. In the NES original, this was officially the "I think I'm getting somewhere" lightbulb moment.

Next town is the former Garinham. It contains a giant mermaid statue.

Statue: "Mer-MAN, damn it! Mer-MAN!"

More upgrades, and the Steel Broadsword is the big thing I'm shooting for in the early game (jumping right over the Iron Lance). Gaining money is a slow process, though. Selling things I find in dungeons and whatnot seems to be the quickest route.

Water looks really nice in these HD-2D games, that's been pretty consistent across all of them.

Case in point. Behold

From there, I wander around the world for a while, fighting random goons for their pocket change. It's like being a resident of Detroit.

A group of soldiers dispatched to rescue Princess Gwaelin was easily routed by the Dragonlord's minions. If our hero doesn't rescue her, the family lineage ends here and in theory DQ2's three heroes could all disappear from the timeline. ...unless the hero has kids with that groupie from Tantegel, anyway. In which case, only the Princess of Moonbrooke will disappear from the timeline if Gwaelin is gone. Our hero has some 'splaining to do!

My quest right now, besides collecting change to eventually buy a broadsword, is to find all the towns and locations to add them to the Zoom list. For example, the woodland town of Kol.

Kol is a cozy mountain realm, with cabins and greenery. Pretty much how I imagined it to look in the 80's and 90's versions of the game. The town is known for having hot springs that are frequented by giggling, frolicking women in towels.

It's also known for being the best place to get a sensual puff-puff. 20 coins, soldier boy!

Wow, she's really going to town on our hero. She should slow down a bit.

Now freshly-pleasured and ready to take on the world, our hero grabs the Faerie Flute on the way out of town. That's pretty much it for Kol, except...

This guy, who tells me what I already know: I need a better weapon. Yeah, I'm working on it.

I'm so pathetic at this point that even Boxer Shorts are an armor upgrade.

If Slimes are the big iconic foe from the DQ series, Babbles aren't that far behind.

After lots (and lots) of grinding, I'm finally able to get the sword upgrade. This game has a level of grinding that players of modern games aren't going to be used to, and I'd go so far as to say it feels like the grinding takes longer than the old versions of the game. Plus you need a lot more levels and gold than you did originally.

Mini Medals are finally a thing in DQ1, and there are 40 of them hidden around the world. I doubt I'll find all of them (not without following a list from the get-go, anyway) so hopefully they aren't tied to postgame content like they are in Dragon Quest VII.

Another magical moment in the hero's life, as he reaches level 10! In the old versions of the game, he'd be about halfway to the needed goal to beat the game. In this version, it's more like a fifth.

The first real dungeon is that cave northwest of Tantegel, and it looks pretty cool in this version. Like something you'd find out in the Wadi Rum desert of Jordan.

That's right, gird your loins. Our hero is already over-prepared, with ten levels, the Steel Broadsword, and the having just received a passionate blowie at the Kol hot springs.

New abilities can be acquired by finding certain scrolls. These abilities are outside of the normal level-based ability-learning chain. So far none of the ones I've found have been particularly awesome, but there are good ones out there.

Note that the character's visible weapon in battle changes depending on what weapon you have equipped, and every weapon has a unique look. This doesn't seem to apply to shields or armor, just weapon. Regardless, it's pretty cool to see the weapons rendered like this. Looking forward to seeing the Erdrick Sword and how they imagined it.

Maps make the dungeons far easier than they were on the NES, nearly to the point of trivializing them. They're a lot less of a hassle, regardless, since you can't really get lost or turned around anymore.

"Mediocre Mage" lol. At least he's honest and upfront about his capabilities.

At the end of this dungeon, we find the inscribed tomb of Erdrick:

Noble descendant, rememba!

Some people will like you, and some people won't like you! And that's just something you'll need to accept.

Some will appreciate your monster-slaying work and build statues in your honor, while others will call you terrible names, like 'Erd-prick' and 'Hitler'

This is weirdly specific. Is everything alright, Erdrick?

New mission acquired: Collect 3 artifacts. This is added to my previous mission of "rescue the princess" and my overarching mission of "get stronger to face the Dragonlord". A nice simple game, no quest journal is needed.

"People keep calling him terrible names, like Hitler. Then again they call everyone Hitler. The Innkeeper got called Hitler yesterday. He's still in critical condition."

Speaking of critical condition, the guards are still reeling from their fight with the monsters. At this point Tantegel is completely reliant on this one guy who just showed up yesterday. They should probably up their military spending.

Poison marshes look REALLY nice in this version. What a great color scheme. I'm taking more time to explore here, and find...

...a dungeon that might be new, not sure. I can't really do anything here, though. Went through the whole place and it seems that it won't really be doable until I get to the right point in the story. There are a number of things in this version that you can't do until a specific point, whereas in the original NES version you could go anywhere whenever, limited only by your character power. I really liked that about the original.