By far, if you’re going to play Dragon Quest 1 and 2, this is what you need to play. The game has been completely rebalanced, and the graphics and sound are so much more merciful on your eyes and ears than either the NES or GBC versions.

I can’t promise that you’re going to have loads of fun. It’s actually kind of astonishing how little there is to do in either game. However, you won’t be playing very long, and you’ll be able to say that you played the grandfather of the modern console RPG.

Now, onto the bugs.

I noticed a few text box glitches in Dragon Quest 1, the mot noticeable being an odd dialogue glitch that happens when fighting the Dracolord. Right after you defeat his first form, he makes some nonsensical remark which appears to be taken from the King’s dialogue.

The only problematic bug in Dragon Quest 1 is that once you cap at level 30, you can no longer save the game. Not a big deal if you have save states, but still kind of annoying.

In Dragon Quest 2, I noticed a lot more dialogue bugs, which added random characters to the end of my hero’s name when certain NPCs spoke to him. It seemed to happen at random, though.

I did not encounter the leaf of the world tree bug. My copy seemed to go through that event without any issue. However, I was using the DQ-based translation as opposed to the DW-based one, and I was playing on an emulator as opposed to actual hardware, so the bug may still be there.

I’m pleased to report, however, that the bug only occurs if you sleep in one particular town, and the event can be avoided.

If some kind soul wouldn’t mind giving this game a lookover, then maybe some of these minor glitches can be cleaned up.

As is, this compilation is completely playable, and I’d still recommend it to anyone.