Topic: Dragon Quest HD-2D

It's been a few years since Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D was revealed in the anniversary livestream in 2021.
Now Square has finally dropped some major news for it on twitter, announcing the platforms it'll be on and surprise, surprise, the switch is one of them! I was holding off on making a thread for the longest time since I'm not sure it was going to come to the switch or not.

I'm so excited, hopefully it comes out relatively soon, preferably at the end of this year or early 2025.

What are y'all thoughts?

I still haven't played the original dragon quest III after buying it on Switch. Now I'm trying to decide if I should bother or just wait for the remake.

The only Dragon Quest I've played through was XI on Switch. I remember enjoying it...could I tell you what happened? Not really. Just vague parts from the story.

H2-2D though? I've actually really enjoyed these games. Even if it's more of an art style than a type of game, they have been the video game equivalent of comfort food for me.
So this has been on my radar, will probably pick it up at some point

Anyone played the original? Any idea why they picked DQIII and not any other entry?

@Kimyonaakuma There are reasons, gameplay is better than 1 and 2 and stuff like that, but I think there's one big reason and it would be a spoiler to anyone not familiar with the Erdrick story.

The timing of this announcement makes me think it's in the June Direct with a release month of December like in some recent years for DQ (December 2023 was Dragon Quest Monsters The Dark Prince, December 2022 was Dragon Quest Treasures). The PS/Xbox versions of DQXIS also released in December (2020).

@Grumblevolcano I doubt timing has any bearing towards it being in a direct or not, the series anniversary is May 27 after all.

I'm definitely looking forward to this one and am glad it's still in the works. I've held off on buying the mobile Switch port for this.

In addition - and I realize this is speculation - the logo in the teaser didn't specify Dragon Quest III. I wonder if they're indeed doing this to the entire Erdrick trilogy? I know the first two games were teased at one point, but at the time the comment was based on if the DQ III remake does well.

THE LEAKS WERE RIGHT!! I'M SO EXCITED!!

Looking forward to it, but it's odd that the official title is "HD-2D Remake".

...seems to stray a bit from that original style. Gives me more "HD, but with sprites and some blur"

I have those DQ I, II, and III mobile-to-Switch ports from a few years ago in the collection, so I'm only...mildly excited for this.

Really glad they're doing a full trilogy remake. I've only played a couple of Dragon Quest games (and have yet to play VII and VIII despite owning them on 3DS) but I'll probably pick this up at launch, it looks amazing.

Does anyone else feel that the characters' sprites almost have too many pixels? I think HD-2D looks better with more SNES era pixel art for characters. The male gadabout in particular gives me the creeps a little

@chiiizu I can see what you mean.

@chiiizu That's my main issue with the visuals of this remake, and what makes HD-2D so hard to pull off properly.

For me, there are too many pixels in each element. It's supposed to represent sprite based tiles, but a lot of this looks like low resolution textures.
I understand that in 3D we can adjust textures to whatever scale we want, or what looks realistic and "correct". But HD-2D relies on the fine details.

There was an interview when the first Octopath Traveler came out (I think?) and the director was talking about how this style is actually really expensive to develop with. So I'm not surprised. Check out any fan project of an "HD-2D" Pokémon/Final Fantasy game and you can see why everyone isn't doing it.
I've only seen one creator do it successfully, but he isn't churning these out regularly.

This aged surprisingly well. XD While I do have a couple reservations regarding the visuals, I'll still take this style over the mobile ports. I'm glad I didn't buy the current Switch offerings.

That Collector's Edition though....No way am I dropping $200 on it.

There's a preview event for the upcoming Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake in half an hour.

I'll probably toss this on the Xmas wishlist since I'm only in the early hours of M&L.

I wish they did this like the FF collection, release all three of the NES Dragon Warriors with upgrades in one collection.

Meh, as long as we're getting remasters for DQ IV-VI as well, I don't care how they're delivering them to us.

I'm also tossing this one on the Xmas list. Not that I don't want it, but I have more than enough games to contend with for now. Especially since my current IRL situation means I'm likely gonna end up spending some money towards my house very soon...Not to mention I still need to do most of my Christmas shopping.