Though updated in every possible way, Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake retains the challenge of its classic JRPG roots. If you are a newcomer to the series, understanding some essential quirks is key to enjoying both games right from the start. This guide will walk you through settings, exploration, and combat tips to tame the difficulty.
NOTE: Tips devised and refined during two complete playthroughs of both games over the course of 45 hours at Dragon Quest difficulty in the game's PlayStation 5 1.0 version. Screenshots captured from the same version.
Table of contents
3 Essential Settings To Tame Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake's Challenge
Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake features some new settings the original games and their many remakes didn't. Unless you are a hardcore series veteran who wants to be challenged, you must change some of them to have an easier time with both games.
The first settings to turn on are found in the System Settings menu's Helpful Settings section (Triangle/X/Y button on the field - Misc.- System Settings). These are:
- Treasure Chest Locations - Adds icons on the mini-map indicating treasure chests
- Secret Spots - Adds icons on the world map indicating the general location of Secret Spots, where you can find additional items, gear, Scrolls and Mini Medals
The third setting to turn on is found inside the Difficulty Settings section of the System Settings menu:
- Recover HP/MP When Levelling Up - Restores HP and MP fully every time any character levels up
Turning on these features vastly improves both games significantly for the majority of players due to both games' high challenge level and encounter rate. The Treasure Chests and Secret Spots indicators will cut down the time needed to explore locations fully, making you get into fewer random encounters. Restoring HP and MP fully upon level up allows you to explore dungeons for longer without being forced to return to a town to rest at an inn and heal up, improving both games' pace quite a bit for a more enjoyable experience.
Leave No Stone Unturned
Exploration and traversal in Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake is quite straightforward, but this doesn't mean that the colorful world of both games isn't hiding all sorts of secrets, including powerful gear, Scrolls, consumable items that can teach characters some new spells or abilities, or the elusive Mini Medals that can be exchanged for other useful items.
While shining spots on the field and treasure chests are the most obvious indications that new items can be obtained, they aren't the only places you should search. Whenever you reach a new town, explore every house, check every drawer, cabinet, bookshelf, pot or barrel. Same inside any dungeon: even if a path doesn't seem to lead to treasure, there's a good chance something may be hidden inside a stray pot. Take your time to explore the world fully, and you will be thankful for it.
In RPGs where critical gear costs a lot, where you often cannot afford to buy everything at Weapon and Armor shops, any extra equipment you can find is critical. Even if you don't need an item you have found, you can sell it at any shop and get extra gold to spend on anything you may need.
Stock Up On Healing Items
In Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake, the descendants of Erdrick learn plenty of healing spells to heal their wounds quickly, but the limited MP pools, and the scarce availability of MP restoration items force you to think hard about which spells to use and when to use them.
As such, healing items should be the core of your healing strategy, more than MP-consuming spells. Thankfully, Medicinal Herbs and Strong Medicine, which heal HP by 30 and 50 HP respectively, are quite cheap to purchase, and can be stocked up in your Item Bag by the hundreds. However, make sure to transfer these healing items to your characters, as no item stored in the Item Bag can be used in battle.
If you use the Tactics auto-battle options a lot, having a healthy stock of healing items has another important benefit. Every option besides Show No Mercy heals characters when needed, and will use items if no healing spell is available, unless you set your characters to not use items with auto-battle settings active.
Use Tactics As Often As Possible
The Tactics feature in Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake offers a few auto-battle settings that can be quite effective. These settings are:
- Show No Mercy - Characters fight with everything they got
- Fight Wisely - Characters strike a balance between offense and defense
- Focus on Healing - Characters prioritize healing above all else
- Don't Use MP - Characters fight and heal without using MP
- Watch My Back (Dragon Quest II HD-2D only) - Characters focus exclusively on healing, leaving damage dealing to other party members.
Generally in any JRPG, you want to have direct control of your characters, but in Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake, these options work remarkably well in random encounters. By assigning these settings individually, you can have party members in Dragon Quest II HD-2D Remake focus on specific strategies, and you can even tweak which spells or what item types can be used with the Tactics auto-battle options to further enhance your strategies. With how many random encounters you will get into during the course of these epic adventures, Tactics can make you save a lot of precious time, and improve the pace of the game.
Every Tactics auto-battle setting with the exception of Show No Mercy has a hidden mechanic that can help your party stay alive against powerful enemies. Unlike a human player who cannot predict which character is going to be hit, the AI can, and thus can take advantage of turn order to provide emergency healing to a character hit by an unexpected critical hit.
Don't Be Afraid to Lower Difficulty
Although not as unforgiving as the original NES releases and some of their subsequent remakes, Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake is still a challenging experience that can get you off guard. Even if you have set up your party properly, ready for every contingency, there will be times when you will have to deal with some unexpected difficulty spikes due to powerful enemies, some capable of acting twice out of turn, appearing out of the blue. This is all part of the Dragon Quest series experience, so veterans are fully prepared to deal with this.
However, if you are a newcomer, don't be afraid to drop the difficulty to Dracky Quest, the easiest setting available. If you turn off Invincibility, which makes both games literal walks in the park, this difficulty setting can still provide a solid level of challenge to a newcomer without overwhelming them with massive difficulty spikes.
Difficulty can be lowered at any time via the System Settings menu, so the experience can be quite flexible, allowing you to experience Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake at a variable difficulty setting. No content is locked behind difficulty, so change it away if you're finding the hordes of fiends too challenging for you.
Played the original games and want to know if Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake is worth your time? Check out my review to learn more.
About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack. After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA's president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3. When he's not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.
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