Lucas and Will’s Dragon Quest adventures

Skybox Editor-in-Chief Will Borger and Managing Editor Lucas White attended PAX East 2025 together, and played a crapload of video games. One of them was Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake from Square Enix, which came with a small taste of Bravely Default Flying Fairy HD Remaster as a bonus. Since we’re on opposite ends of the Dragon Quest sicko spectrum, we decided to have a little back and forth about our experiences instead of the usual hands-on preview coverage style.

Lucas:

Will,

You have a complicated relationship with RPGs like Dragon Quest. You call them “DVD Menu” games, which is both funny and infuriating, especially because you’re right, and especially-especially because I’ve started saying it too by brain-worm-osmosis. Dragon Quest is my soul food, though. It’s like baked mac ‘n cheese on holidays, like the kind my wife makes and I get annoyed watching relatives eat because it means less for me. Weirdly, we’re here right now because you took a Dragon Quest appointment at PAX East 2025 this year, and told me you had a good time. What the hell. Tell me about why you walked into the DVD Menu Thunderdome.

Will:

Lucas,

Well, part of it is I’m always looking to be surprised, and I don’t have a ton of background with Dragon Quest. You and I are both Wizardry sickos, but Dragon Quest’s combat has always felt off to me, which is… weird because it’s basically just Wizardry but with more slimes? I also saw Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake at PAX West last year, so I figured I’d see Dragon Quest I & II HD Remake, too. The DVD Menu Thunderdrome called, Lucas, and I answered. And… I had a good time? I didn’t really expect to, because III didn’t grab me right off the bat. But these did? I’m not sure why. 

I know you’re a True DVD Menu Sicko, so maybe you can help me figure it out. What draws you to Dragon Quest? Maybe understanding what you love about the series will help me learn why I vibed with these games more than III off the bat.

Lucas:

These grabbing you when III didn’t is definitely confusing to me, not gonna lie. One of Dragon Quest’s defining characteristics is consistency, especially these early ones. For me it’s the soul food thing. There’s no nonsense in these games, no gimmicks to the combat. Attack, Defend, Spells, Items. I’m not watching meters, locking in for timed hits and parries, managing turn orders, nothing like that. I can relax, throw in my commands, and move on. It’s not quite a “podcast game” thing, because that vibe generally isn’t for me. I like absorbing my surroundings, listening to the in-game music, appreciating the environment, and getting to know the enemies.

Speaking of enemies, there’s no denying part of the charm is Toriyama’s art. These goofy critters define what Dragon Quest is, from the vacant, smiling evil of the slimes to the bulging eyes of Robbin’ ‘ood. Just seeing the silly drawings from the GOAT (rest in peace) in super high detail and wriggling around in the battle screen is a big appeal factor for these remakes. Especially considering I’ve already played five different versions of Dragon Quest I. The art gives these games a sense of humor you don’t see in games like Final Fantasy.

Is it the art for you? The humor? Have you unlocked the appeal of relaxing when aerial raves aren’t on the table? 

Will:

You… you can have fun without aerial raves? I don’t know about that one, chief. 

But seriously, I did enjoy the combat, probably because I was in a dark room and could just vibe. I also love that you can speed up the combat here. I’m not against turn-based systems, but I need them to move faster than a slow walk, you know? A brisk jog. Something to get the blood pumping. The older I get, the more I realize I have a limited time with my reflexes for action games, so I tend to prioritize that stuff because one day I’m just not going to be able to Play Ninja Gaiden Like That™ anymore, which keeps me up nights. I can hit the DVD Menus when they ship me off to the retirement home, and my hands don’t work no more. But I was having fun.

I also really enjoyed the art. Toriyama’s stuff is always strange in the right ways, and it’s very fun to watch these weird little dudes do their weird little dude things. And there’s always another weird little dude around the next corner. It’s like you’re trapped in the Weird Little Dude Store, except it’s a whole world of weird little dudes, just waiting for me. Travel to exciting new lands, meet weird little dudes, and kill them, right? That’s Dragon Quest. Or maybe the US Army? I haven’t slept in a week.

I’m glad you mentioned the humor, because one of the things I liked about Dragon Quest I HD was this bit where you’re searching for this tablet Erdrick, the hero of Dragon Quest III, left behind for his heir, and you run into this other group of adventurers with names like Mediocre Mage or Woeful Warrior, and they’re looking for the tablet, too. They’re mooks, right? But they wanna be heroes. They try to get you with the old “Look behind you!” gambit to get a head start, but it’s funny because they’re sitting there debating whether or not they’re real heroes for using dirty tricks. It’s a very minor stakes “are we the baddies?” moment, but they’re struggling with it. Stuff like that is fun.

And as you go on, they get stuck in the dungeon for various, very silly reasons. One’s super afraid of a slime who’s just kind of Standing There Menacingly, things like that. And you do beat them to the tablet, which ends up telling you what you’re after, and says something like “be brave and believe in your friends” for them. And they apologize and kinda feel bad about the whole thing, though they never figure out who you are. So we both got what we needed, but I like that the tablet looked at them and basically said, “you are not ready to go to the mountain, boy.”

It’s a great sequence, and I’m pretty sure it’s new to the remake. So I hope there’s more stuff like that, because I was sitting there with this enormous shit-eating grin on my face the whole time.

Lucas:

It’s funny you mention that story beat, because I didn’t get far in my demo. I was moved on while I was still taking my time outdoors fighting slimes, because I don’t play these games fast and I needed time to play Bravely Default. It’s nice to have an example of the new stuff to chew on, because I’m so dang curious about what Square Enix is adding to the first Dragon Quest. It’s such a… “bare bones” sounds reductive for a foundational game like the original DQ, but it’s very simple. You do a kind of loop around the world map, find some important items, get through some dungeons, save the princess, fight the bad guy, save the world. What could you possibly add to that without it coming off as forced? 

But another thing the series has come to be known for is little, contained story vignettes, almost anthology-style storytelling. So putting little pieces of that in there sounds perfect. Adding more meat to Dragon Quest II makes more intuitive sense, as there’s more substance there to begin with to expand on. But the first game just doesn’t have much going on.

That being said, you’re new here. Playing both games without any prior context, what was it like to jump from one to the other? And is it weird to sit down for ten-minute chunks of big RPGs like this in the first place, with the purpose of having something to say about them somehow? I can’t imagine playing the pieces of these games I did and having to digest them professionally, without all the background I walked in with.

Will:

It’s a little weird. I did spend some time with Dragon Quest II. I traveled to Moonbrooke, which is this town that gets wiped out in the prologue, so I spent a lot more time getting story beats instead of doing more combat stuff, though I was fairly compelled, even if these plots are very simple. These are still NES games at heart.

Gameplay-wise, it was pretty similar, so it wasn’t like I was having to learn new things. You’re right that the gameplay is traditional DVD Menu, so it’s not that jumping around was hard, but it is one of those things that just comes with a preview event. Because JRPGs are big, right? And they’re complex, systems-wise. So when you only get to play for a little while, you’re really only seeing what the moment-to-moment gameplay looks like, and not character progression or the behind-the-scenes systems that make a game like Dragon Quest tick. 

I guess what I’m trying to say is the point of view I’m writing from is very, very limited, but I saw enough to make me interested in both games, which is kind of the point of something like this. And it’s beautiful, and it sounds fantastic, and I liked the new voice acting (what I heard was in Japanese, but I thought the performances were good), so this is one of those remakes that feels like it adds something to the base experience that you’re not getting from previous versions. As a newbie, I came out of it wanting to try Dragon Quest again. It seems relaxing.

I also got to play one of the new rhythm games in Bravely Default Flying Fairy HD Remaster, which controls super well on the Switch 2’s Legally Distinct Mouse. Apparently, I did the best anyone had done at PAX? One of the PR reps told me that they didn’t know the score could go that high (SSS rank). Smokin’ Sick Style, baby. And you thought we wouldn’t get a Devil May Cry reference in here. 

Was there anything that stuck out to you as a sicko in the time you had? What does a Learned Man of Dragon Quest think of these remakes? And how did you do on the Bravely Default mini-games?

Lucas:

It’s tough with these games, and the third one, because it’s hard to find that excitement for a new remake on the level of, say, Romancing SaGa 2. Because I’ve been here already, several times. NES, SNES, Game Boy, Mobile, Switch… these games were getting remakes before remakes were cool. And when the part I’m interested in (the new stuff) I’m not actually able to see, well, it’s awkward. Plus, hearing voice acting come from these old-ass games gives me an uncanny valley response. The worst parts of remakes as a thing we have to deal with in this medium stick out with these games at first glance, especially in the environment we saw them in.

And yet, I still found a way to be excited from the sicko perspective. It was just neat to be in a dark room and play a new Dragon Quest for the first time, with the silly banners stood up by the tables and the PR folks excited to show this thing off. That’s where some of the magic is, which is weird from a critical perspective, too.

My main takeaway feels like curiosity. I want to see what a Dragon Quest I with new stuff crammed in looks like. I want to see what Dragon Quest II, a game notorious for navigational issues and difficulty balance problems, plays like with waypoints and tinkering under the hood. My experience could change my view on remakes depending on how this goes, because of how much or how little these specific games might change in the rear view.

Also for Bravely, I was stupid and chose the normal gameplay demo instead of the minigames. So I basically got to be like, yup, that’s the game I remember running in HD now. I loved the original Bravely Default, but playing the intro instead of fiddling with the Switch 2 mouse mode was perhaps the wrong move from a work perspective. Oh well! It was funny how they had to hide the console itself under threat from Nintendo. I’ll probably never forget that part.

It’s pretty cool to hear you’re excited about Dragon Quest, something I never thought I’d see. There’s something about these games that is special, something that’s easy to overlook when you add 35 years of history on top of them. Maybe my true biggest takeaway is actually just fascination with your final take once these bad boys finally come out later this year.

Will:

Shame about Bravely Default. I wanted to judge my prowess in the mini-games against a worthy opponent.

We represent the cross-section of the ideal audience Square Enix is looking for, right? This is like your fifth rodeo for these games, but it’s all pretty new and fresh for me. And I think most people who are coming to these games will share one of those perspectives. They’ll either be me, sitting here like “Man, what’s this whole Dragon Quest thing about?” or you, where you’re really digging into the new stuff and seeing how that changes your opinion on these games. And that’s cool.

You called Dragon Quest foundational earlier, and I think that’s the best way to describe it. A lot of the genre exists as a response to these games, so going back to them is like returning to Lord of the Rings or Neuromancer or Citizen Kane or Super Mario Bros. because we’ve seen other things take what these games did first and run with it. If you’re coming to it way later, it’s hard to appreciate how important the things these games did were because for you, it’s always been this way, and this stuff seems basic in comparison.

I get why Square Enix would want to do remakes like this. Dragon Quest is such a huge part of its legacy, and it wants people to appreciate what makes the series special. And tie the first three games, which form a trilogy, together more tightly. At the very least, Square Enix is the most interesting publisher out there when it comes to remakes. It tends to take it slowly and think about what tweaking things means for each game. The changes made feel very deliberate. I appreciate that because it means everyone’s going to have a different experience with what Dragon Quest is and what it means to them.

So I guess, in the end, I join you in being curious. Obviously, I want to play these games and see how they land for me, but I also want to see how more long-term fans think of the changes, and what works and doesn’t for lapsed fans and new players, too. When they’re done right, remakes allow us to recontextualize what a game is and what it means. They start a conversation, and that’s maybe the most interesting thing a game can do. So I’m interested to see where we end up with Dragon Quest. Maybe we can compare notes again once we’ve both had time to dig into them. 

Lucas:

For sure. All this said, as a longtime Dragon Quest enthusiast, it’s awesome to see the series doing so well after decades of relative obscurity. And seeing people react in earnest to the original game, instead of hand-waving away the most recent series of ports, will be interesting to see play out in real time. I’m looking forward to it, for better or worse. Hopefully not worse!

It was great to talk about this with you, especially for something we’re running on Dragon Quest Day! The first game will be a whopping 38 years old when we play this remake, which we can confirm is officially launching on October 30, 2025. There’s a Switch 2 version coming too, on top of what was already announced. Perhaps by the time Dragon Quest turns 40 in a couple more years, we’ll both be sickos. 

And hopefully Dragon Quest XII will be around by then, but that’s a different matter entirely.

This article was written based on access to pre-release builds of Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake and Bravely Default Flying Fairy HD Remaster, provided by the publisher behind closed doors at an event.