Dragon Warrior I & II is an enhanced remake of the first two Dragon Warrior games. It has a few modifications to gameplay, but the interface and graphics have been enhanced to be on a par with the 1998 Dragon Quest Monsters: Terry's Wonderland.
Reviews View More
Rating these together because I can't separate it but I think the GBC ports as a whole are probably my recommended way of playing these two (or at least DQ1, 2 you may wanna go SNES).
Dragon Quest 1 through this port has aged really well, quaint little RPG you can punch out in a few sittings tops, if not one straight shot. I do think that it has growing pains but given how seminal it is, I'm willing to excuse it a bit.
Dragon Quest 2 improves a bunch and I'm sure if we were talking NES I'd call it a straight improvement, but I think it's in this awkward spot where it loses the quaint feeling from DQ1 while not having a fully realized scope to warrant that. I'm willing to somewhat excuse it again since this is the first one with multiple party members, but yeah it's more contentious for me. Endgame was hellish to boot.
Anyway I think I prefer DQ1 out of the two and I probably won't revisit 2 anytime soon even if it aged way better than Final Fantasy 2 lmoa
Dragon Quest 1 through this port has aged really well, quaint little RPG you can punch out in a few sittings tops, if not one straight shot. I do think that it has growing pains but given how seminal it is, I'm willing to excuse it a bit.
Dragon Quest 2 improves a bunch and I'm sure if we were talking NES I'd call it a straight improvement, but I think it's in this awkward spot where it loses the quaint feeling from DQ1 while not having a fully realized scope to warrant that. I'm willing to somewhat excuse it again since this is the first one with multiple party members, but yeah it's more contentious for me. Endgame was hellish to boot.
Anyway I think I prefer DQ1 out of the two and I probably won't revisit 2 anytime soon even if it aged way better than Final Fantasy 2 lmoa
Overall, this is personally my favorite way to experience dragon quest 1 and 2. Maybe the super Famicom version is better though, but I haven't played it since it's in Japanese only.
But everything about these is a huge step up from the NES versions and I mean that in the most loving way possible. I understand also that this version is based off the super Famicom version, which might explain why, but even still, the Switch version is also based off the super Famicom version, and I think that game looks ugly as sin so I rate this one higher.
Dragon Quest 1 is the one that spots the most obvious improvements for me compared to its NES counterpart. We have a new intro showing the princess get kidnapped, battle animations for the attacks, more detailed towns, NPCs are more expressive (such as shivering when talking about how scared they are) and so on. Dragon Quest 2 was already such a massive improvement from 1 that you can already imagine that all of these improvements but added to DQ2 make it feel even more like a proper, modern RPG.
In fact, the only reason why this is 3.5 stars and not 4 or 5 is because its still literally just DQ1&2. DQ1 is, despite all the improvements, still a very, very basic game. And DQ2, while still being very enjoyable, even moreso in this package, is still ultimately a flawed experience.
For fans of the series, or for first timers, I cannot recommend this (or the super Famicom version probably since they are virtually the same aside from graphics from what I hear). It's an amazing bundle of two games, neither is horribly long, it gives you a good taste of the franchise and overall made great use of the extra technology between the decade between the original games and this remake.
But everything about these is a huge step up from the NES versions and I mean that in the most loving way possible. I understand also that this version is based off the super Famicom version, which might explain why, but even still, the Switch version is also based off the super Famicom version, and I think that game looks ugly as sin so I rate this one higher.
Dragon Quest 1 is the one that spots the most obvious improvements for me compared to its NES counterpart. We have a new intro showing the princess get kidnapped, battle animations for the attacks, more detailed towns, NPCs are more expressive (such as shivering when talking about how scared they are) and so on. Dragon Quest 2 was already such a massive improvement from 1 that you can already imagine that all of these improvements but added to DQ2 make it feel even more like a proper, modern RPG.
In fact, the only reason why this is 3.5 stars and not 4 or 5 is because its still literally just DQ1&2. DQ1 is, despite all the improvements, still a very, very basic game. And DQ2, while still being very enjoyable, even moreso in this package, is still ultimately a flawed experience.
For fans of the series, or for first timers, I cannot recommend this (or the super Famicom version probably since they are virtually the same aside from graphics from what I hear). It's an amazing bundle of two games, neither is horribly long, it gives you a good taste of the franchise and overall made great use of the extra technology between the decade between the original games and this remake.
Dragon Quest II has the most soul of any game I've ever played.
Dragon Warrior 1 is still pretty classically Dragon Quest. But jumping to 2 made it clear they still had a lot of work to do, with a lot of 2's issues mainly stemming from the wild goose chase to even get your first party member, the imbalance between enemy groups and your group (capped at 3 characters), unstackable items like herbs, the over-inflated world map, unintuitive direction for finding the seals, and the fact that you can end up in the endgame area like 10 levels below where you should, necessitating grinding.
Anyway, I'm glad at least I got 'em done. It was impressive that they got the two games onto the GBC, and they do deserve to be experienced.
Anyway, I'm glad at least I got 'em done. It was impressive that they got the two games onto the GBC, and they do deserve to be experienced.
A decent way to play the first two classic Dragon Quest games. I liked both, despite having to use a walkthrough because the game is pretty obtuse due to age. The music, colorful sprites and cool monster designs kept me going. I don't think I would be able to play these games again without some QOL. I can't see myself playing through the game on NES either lol. Entertaining experience nonetheless. Next up, Dragon Quest III.
This was a pretty good way to play the first two DQ games on the go. Since the GBA was able to mimic NES graphics to a degree, this helped create a great deal of parity with the two versions. Some sections in both games are still pretty challenging, but this collection is still charming and fun!