Dragon Quest 1, 2, & 3 coming to Switch

[n0tredom]

Originally Posted by dyne

I got about halfway through 7 on my 2DS and just got burned out. I really should return to it someday.

Back when I played it on the PS1, I got to the end dungeon, grinded for a super long time, then decided I just didn't care to beat the last boss. I really liked the game, but the grind got to me.

[emailking]

I have platted the game now. I also did

[Show spoiler]Zoma unweakened

which was pathetically easy and way easier than the superbosses. In the GBC version it was the hardest thing you could attempt. But with wildside and pile on he just goes down so fast. The reason it was hard in the GBC version is he is immune to everything but physical attacks and had a ridiculous refresh rate. But pile on is basically a super spell that manifest as a physical attack.

Well anyway, now I am done. I really liked this remake, a game I once played ~10 times but not in over 20 years now. It's faithful and an improvement in most ways, and only a few things that I disliked as changes. Can't wait for Part I & II remake! Hopefully someone will make a thread for that lol.

[Akibiyori]

Finished DQIII HD-2D Remake. I played on Draconian difficulty. This isn’t like Stronger Monsters from DQXI, which you feel immediately. The early parts of this game are bafflingly easy on Draconian. As you go on, even with the lower experience and money, the way the world has been inflated and filled with open world-style loot will lead you to being overpowered for the most part (and without any grinding) if you explore the map to find the stuff. I didn’t find this to be the case in the older versions. This also negates the need to buy much of anything - you can find most of the good pieces of kit just laying around the secret places and shiny spots on the map (this kinda ruins the mini medal rewards.) I had an absurd amount of money before the end of the game and I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many dang stat seeds in my life…it really is over the top. By the Necrogond, the game evens out into something on par with older versions, which is to say it has its moments of heat but it’s really not that bad. I stumbled into new boss fights underprepared and made out fine. I did the final boss without the Sphere of Light as well.

I finished up by beating Xenlon in the post game, which took 45 turns on Draconian with a party that had only two class changes during the game. I really don’t feel like grinding stuff like the Monster Wrangler class to do the necessary fast fights to open up the final challenges and then jump through the hoops there too. Yeah, yeah, I know you can lower the difficulty to speed this stuff up and then change it back if you want but, c’mon, I’m not doing that. I’ve got 108 mini medals and 117 monsters - all found myself the hard way, later with a thief and occasional wrangler assistance (over 90 and 100 found before post game) - with Rank 9 of the arena completed. I guess that’s everything outside of the second post game dungeon.

Frankly, this remake is bloated - the old versions are 30-40 hour range games, this is…a lot more - but it’s still Dragon Quest III and I appreciated the perks of presentation in this version. It looks and sounds good. Is it the go to edition now? I think I still prefer the leaner, briefer, better balanced and to-the-point older versions.

[ChadFL]

Apparently, Square did consider a huge 3D remake of the game before settling on a 2D-HD remake. I'm sure they're happy they made the choice they did, as am I.

I really do fear they would have tried to "Westernize" the game, making it more hack n' slash/action RPG as they've done to the Final Fantasy series if they went bigger budget 3D remake. That would have been a big mistake, alienating the core Asian gamers who have always made up the core of Dragon Quest players, while not making much inroads into Western gamers.

I'm still a little nervous that they may try to move in the action RPG direction with DQ XII, even if they're denying it.

[Akibiyori]

Originally Posted by ChadFL

I'm still a little nervous that they may try to move in the action RPG direction with DQ XII, even if they're denying it.

I don’t need Dragon Quest to change ever but I have to admit I’m kinda intrigued by the idea of them returning to a single character experience like the original Dragon Quest, which I recall being mentioned somewhere as a possible concept. A Dragon Quest like The Elder Scrolls but everything looks like Dragon Quest? I could see it.

More than anything, I’d kinda like a remake of IV and V that look like DQXI, but they’re more likely to be smaller scale like the HD-2D series, which is fine.

[emailking]

Originally Posted by Akibiyori

I did the final boss without the Sphere of Light as well.

Ahh but you miss out on the best fight music doing that. Hope you went back and used it.

But yeah this was surprisingly way easier than it was in the GBC version, where it was by far the hardest thing you could do and way harder than the superbosses.

[emailking]

Originally Posted by ChadFL

Apparently, Square did consider a huge 3D remake of the game before settling on a 2D-HD remake. I'm sure they're happy they made the choice they did, as am I.

I'm not. I would have vastly preferred a DQ 8/11 style remake of this. Especially we already had a remake of the game in this style.

[dyne]

Preorders for the 1&2 pack live at Amazon, Best Buy, VGP and PNP.

[Diesel]

I still haven’t gotten around to DQ3 . At this point I think I am waiting for a $30 price to jump in.

I just signed up for 3 years of NSO Expansion and am playing Paper Mario (the best of the series and the one that should have gotten a remaster/remake), plus there are at least four other games on there I want to play, Clair Obscur is later this month and I just picked up Romancing Saga 2 on PS5 for $20 at Target. So I’ve got more than enough to keep me busy for a while even without considering Switch 2.

[emailking]

Originally Posted by dyne

Preorders for the 1&2 pack live at Amazon, Best Buy, VGP and PNP.

Looks like there's nothing on theSqsuare Enix store. I want to get the collector's edition again, if there is one. That was only available on their store for part 3. I've added it to my shopping list on Amazon for now.

[dyne]

Switch 2 version is keycard while Switch 1 is regular. It's 17GB.

[heyadol]

Originally Posted by dyne

Switch 2 version is keycard while Switch 1 is regular. It's 17GB.

Is Switch 2 enhanced in anyway?

[dyne]

Originally Posted by heyadol

Is Switch 2 enhanced in anyway?

If it is they haven't said. That's why I'm so hung up on all of this. If the games are the same, storage medium is the same then it's just price gouging their 3rd parties into Key Cards.

[heyadol]

Originally Posted by dyne

If it is they haven't said. That's why I'm so hung up on all of this. If the games are the same, storage medium is the same then it's just price gouging their 3rd parties into Key Cards.

I'm guessing it will have 60fps, HDR, and maybe VRR like the counterparts on other platforms, but none of that is related to using the silly GKC.

If it's a cost thing, you'd think Nintendo, with more than 150 million consoles sold and who knows how many physical games sold, would have a lot of negotiating leverage to get costs down, especially if they really are only offering one size. Then again maybe they aren't passing those discounts to the publishers.

[ChadFL]

Originally Posted by emailking

Looks like there's nothing on theSqsuare Enix store. I want to get the collector's edition again, if there is one. That was only available on their store for part 3. I've added it to my shopping list on Amazon for now.

A collector's edition is up on the Square Enix store now for $150. It would run me $186 with tax and shipping. I ended up buying the Dragon Quest III HD-2D Collector's and man, was it ever underwhelming for $200. It was multiple items that simply don't go well together and seemed very cheaply made for the price. Mainly got it for my sizable Dragon Quest collection. Really not sure about picking up this one.

https://na.store.square-enix-games.c...ii-hd2d-remake

[Akibiyori]

No special edition for me, don’t need that kind of stuff.

I’m intrigued about what they’re going to add to the original Dragon Quest. II has an entirely new character, so I have to think they’ll try to enlarge the original in some way although I kinda just like the breezy 5-6 hour replay the prior remakes turned it into (and how it should be - I can’t go back to the NES version, the grinding is too ridiculous.) Either way, I’m all in for it.

I heard III HD-2D just got a new update that drastically rebalanced certain things like nerfing the Monster Wrangler, increasing boss status effect resistance, etc. I didn’t use the Monster Wrangler in my main party, just as a tool to recruit monsters, and I didn’t really use sleep on bosses except for the first post game boss, so I’m not sure how much it’d affect me but it might be worth having another go at it sometime this year.

[Donl1282]

Release date is so close to Black Friday. Is it worth holding out and see if there’s a sale on it in less than a month?

[emailking]

Originally Posted by ChadFL

A collector's edition is up on the Square Enix store now for $150. It would run me $186 with tax and shipping. I ended up buying the Dragon Quest III HD-2D Collector's and man, was it ever underwhelming for $200. It was multiple items that simply don't go well together and seemed very cheaply made for the price. Mainly got it for my sizable Dragon Quest collection. Really not sure about picking up this one.

https://na.store.square-enix-games.c...ii-hd2d-remake

Thank you! I just ordered the Collector's Edition for PS5.

[emailking]

As Akibiyori mentioned, part III just got its very first patch, a mix of good and bad.

Traversal


• The movement speed when travelling by boat or using Ramia has been increased.


• Adjustments have been made to avoid boat travel speed being reset by opening the menu or getting into a battle while travelling by boat.


• A feature has been added whereby pressing the menu button while flying with Ramia allows the player to switch between automatic and manual flight modes.


Vocations


• Critical hit rates for the Hero and Martial Artist have been increased.


• The Hero’s Falcon Slash and Gigaslash abilities have been made more powerful.


• The Warrior’s Cutting Edge ability has been made more powerful.


• The Priest can now equip the Duplic Hat.


• The Monster Wrangler’s Monster Pile-On ability has been changed to have reduced power until all friendly monsters have been found, and to carry out a random number of attacks between 3 and 5.


• The amount of MP used by the Monster Wrangler ability Wild Side has been changed to 30.


Battle


• A limit has been placed on the number of times that some monsters can perform certain actions within one turn.


• Some monsters have been adjusted so that they no longer use Defending Champion in the next turn after they become the last remaining monster.


• The status-ailment resistance of boss monsters has been increased for Draconian Quest difficulty.


• Adjustments have been made to make it more difficult for both enemies and party members to be successively afflicted with the same status ailments.


• Some monsters (Metal Chimaera and Hardy Hand) now yield more experience points when defeated.


• Defense has been lowered for all monsters except for metal monsters.


• Minor adjustments have been made to the way that damage is dealt.


Miscellaneous


• Once the Mini Medal Manor has been visited, it will be added to the list of Zoom destinations.


• A new “short-cut button” feature has been added that allows spells and abilities to be assigned to specific buttons. For more information, please refer to Traveller’s Tips in-game.


• In the Temple of Trials, the number of Elfin Elixirs required to be handed over to the guard has been changed to 10.


• A treasure chest has been added to the Temple of Trials, allowing players to acquire one more Gringham Whip.


• Fixed a bug whereby levelling up after using the Seed of Life or Seed of Magic items would cause the status increase value to be calculated twice.


• Adjustments have been made so that if trophies and achievements have not been acquired correctly, selecting Misc. > Info in the menu allows some of them to be reacquired.


• Miscellaneous fixes for minor bugs.

[Diesel]

Originally Posted by Donl1282

Release date is so close to Black Friday. Is it worth holding out and see if there’s a sale on it in less than a month?

Very possible with Square. It’s also not like the supply will sell out in that short of a time.