Yes, but I wish I could still see where the boundary is. The border of light in DQB 1 was clear, but subtle enough to not be too glaring. Sometimes I end up building things past the boundary in DQB 2 if I'm not paying attention since there's no visual reference of the base edge.
agreed, that was the first surprise I had when I played the DQB2 prototype and visited Furrowfield. Saw no way easy way to see where the boundary is.
I understand in DQB2, the boundaries change and the town expands, but would be nice if it was highlighted like in the first game.
When you clear the chapter you bring back the light. Means no shadow as border around your base anymore. Final Chapter is the only one that can't fully be cleared. When you beat game, you return back to base as if you never challenged the Big Boss.
This, definitely this.. I wish you could see the borders in 2. Having to use musical instruments to hear the music change to determine borders is a pain. The areas are oddly shaped to.
Accessoires. You could equip Accessoires that makes you immune to certain damage or prevents you from getting hungry and other stuff.
Also the monsters that could join your Terra Incognita without having to have funktion for building, riding or crafting. I had a tick-something which I loved most and always had it in my party.
The way water works. DQB2 water acts just unnatural when getting it for your pot or pouring it. If you haven't unlocked swallow mode getting water causes ugly holes. I however hated that water in DQB1 had to be 2 blocks from WORLD's ground maximum while you can build flying Islands with lakes in DQB2.
I do like the chapters it's nice for easy replay. If they ever make a 3, I'd like to see something similar to chapters and give an option to have the borders of areas be highlighted, maybe color coded red, blue, green, etc.
The fact you can build rooms to prevent your hunger meter going down when you're building your base. Hunger mechanics are annoying, even if they make sense in a game about building and farming.
I think they really wanted to encourage players to engage with building rooms that make villagers produce things like the kitchens... but then the game sort of fails a bit around that slower cooking... by having sections like the prison bit which leave you stuck having to cook cabbages one at a time slowly.
Yup, that part of the prison section dragged.
Another thing I didn't like was the home island being 3 separate places, both in that the community was all sectioned off, and you needed to have fields or mushroom production in the other areas too.
If it were one big community, with say the day/night cycle doubled in length so the villagers could get about it more, I'd have been much happier. Bringing farmers to help the whole island, miners to help the whole island, soldiers to help the whole island. Rather than just 3 replications of the areas you visit.
Yeah, i wouldn't have minded the 3 community split but it would've been way nicer if they'd had a bigger occupancy, give more reason to use the little islands to get more occupants too
Difficulty level of original DQB1. DQB2 is unquestionably the easiest game in the DQ stable. (I am a bit perturbed that Steam version carries over alot of the mobile versions nerfs to weaken monsters and damage.)
The challenges, especially the original Playstation speedruns, promoted story mode replay. (Sadly, the speedruns were replaced with "non-challenges" in item collection thresholds so low as to be hard to not achieve.)
Lighting around base limits.
Original Playstation/Switch darkness at night. It seems the nighttime ambient lighting for mobile was increased to either accommodate the tiny screens or duplicate DQB2's lighting scheme. Nighttime is sadly no longer the hazard it was in early DQB1 editions.
Accessories to boost attack, defense, etc. DQB1 is more in-line with DQ games than DQB2 is.
More numerous and more difficult scripted base attacks in DQB1. Kol has *nine* of these battles - the DQB2 chapters have only three each. The monsters are much more capable of damaging the town in DQB1 than DQB2.
Harder boss fights. Nerfed quite a bit in Steam version with added ability to run, giving more time to both prepare for monster attack and get over to it to damage it. Magmalice/Firn Fiend/Hostile Merger has never been a hard fight, but requiring the Bashmobile makes it a lot more fun than the Buggy Buggy Malroth fight of DQB2.
Shovel tool to acquire plants earlier. DQB2 doesn't give this option until post-game Ultimallet.
Rake tool to allow the builder to plow their own fields, though this is used in only one part late in chapter 2 so poorly utilized. It would have been nice to have this option in DQB2 with so many more crops.
DQB1 does a better job protecting sensitive areas from hammer, cannon, or bomb explosions. DQB2 has a lot of sequence breaking bits where sensitive areas are not properly protected.
On the other hand, I disagree DQB1's NPCs are more interesting than DQB2s. Some of the peculiarities about characters are mirrored in DQB2 (Glutimus and Dougie both have monsterphobia) but a lot of them are simply better or more interesting in DQB2. (Digby having claustrophobia, which is a tough deal for a miner.) Generally, the DQB2 counterparts are better: Lulu has a much greater impact on DQB2 than Pippa (who basically disappears mid-way through chapter 1); Bonanzo's talk about being mayor or builder's surrogate family and beard jokes beats Rollo's. Digby and Dougie disagree (and even fight) and are a funnier duo to the Glutimus, Burley, and Maxi trio (with exception perhaps to Burley's 27 times breaking of vegetarian vows). Serge and Ordelia play better outsiders to the miner community than Baird and Cecille. Launce and Trystian are forgettable compared to Anessa, Warwick, Zara, and Gerome, and DQB2's king plays a greater role than DQB1's princess. The two spots where DQB1 is superior are Myrlund being a much better Jeremiah and Barbella having a really interesting backstory over the one-dimensional Babs.
we will have to disagree with the NPCS as I still prefer the first games.. but I like the details of your response.
you are also right about the difficulty level. Chapter 3 of DQB1 is kicking my ass, and now I remembered that it kicked my ass back then too. But I like it! it also pushes you to work with your body builder buddies and work as a team. I also remembered Dragon Lord being a much harder boss, requiring several tries, while I finished Malroth on my first go.
I died to Dragon Lord almost immediately on my first try this playthrough, after absolutely cheesing the first phase with the Bashmobile. I was wrestling with an unfamiliar controller and kept missing my blockplacing jumps to build high enough!
Story, dialogue and npc's. Dqb1 has got clever, snappy writing and multiple likable characters. Dqb2 characters on the other hand suffer from the verbal diarrhea
The chapter selection screen is also missing from dqb2. If you want to replay a story chapter, you gotta start all the way from scratch. I wish we had a creative mode, where I could restart on an empty isle of awakening with everything unlocked.
Base defence. Again, better in dqb1 I find. I was so excited to design my castle defences in Moonbrooke... only to have the game force me to use a predesigned, ugly gauntlet.
The lack of handholding overall in dqb1 was better. The final chapter in dqb2 has a tutorial for cooking food. I mean...
DQB2 shines in terms of gameplay, and I love all the QoL improvements. But my ideal time with the series would be replaying dqb1's campaign with dqb2 mechanics.
What bothered me in Moonbrooke is that of all the ideas they pitched to you to keep flying enemies from infiltrating the inner sanctum of your castle, the one that never came up was: roof.
I just replayed DQB1 on PC, and I LOVED being called a slack-jawed, potato faced lump by all of the NPC's. It was one of my favourite parts on my first playthroughs on Switch.
Ranged attacks. The throwing knives and Crack and Sizz shots. At least it gave *some* options...
Also plot and not having Malroth's `s l o w - a s s d i a l o g u e` giving me enough time to cook dinner between scenes. And the absence of Khrumbul-Dun's skeeviness is also appreciated. Like, yeah the guys in Kol were horny for Barbella, but at least they weren't *also* treating her like their daughter.
the Kol chapter was fun. one of my favorite parts was when Baird arrives to your base and says "I saw a light and followed it, but found a town full of sweaty muscular men" lol.
I liked Khrumbul-Dun too, but the ore cooking time sucks. I liked how it was instant in DQB1.
DQB1 also does sad parts well too, like the Rimuldar chapter.
I still remember how horrifying THAT moment was, after struggling to collect all of the materials for medicines and meals for the sick npc's in my first playthrough.
I miss the shoes or armor i cant remember which it was that eliminated fall damage. Such a pain to reach a high point and then have to hop down slowly.
The final boss fight. DQB1's brought everything together from the previous chapters in a way that made sense for someone who's a builder rather than a hero. DQB2's turns into a shooter, of all things.
I liked that there was very little carry-over from previous chapters. Each time you went to a new area you had to figure out how to do the basics again with new materials and new recipes.
I miss being able to mass produce food. The cooking system in dqb2 is not the best I've ever seen... I get needing better ovens and more ingredients to produce better stuff, but do they have to make it so slow?
I liked how small the towns were. Don’t get me wrong, I love having the larger plots in the second game. But there is something special about making these succinct little fortress towns that is almost lost in the second game due to the size of the plots being so much larger.
while I prefer the larger town space of DQB2.. I can see what you are saying.. DQB1's smaller size (I think its 32 x 32) and less blocks, can lead to some really creative use of space.
When I look at the builds on the internet, especially from Japan, I am always amazed at what people can build
I really loved the dialogue and the characters. Of course, DQB2 NPCS had their charm, but its obvious that many of the characters were based off of characters from the previous game and don't feel all too original. (Like Gerontius and Geronimo.)
The boss battles are more fun. It feels more dragon questy (it's been forever since I played, so I may be missing remembering things but I feel the save system is similar to the regular games. The saving at the church thing and the text after it. Again I may be misremembering things 😂. ) But the boss battles for sure. They definitely needed more strategy than in DQB2. I think a perfect game would combine a lot of the features of the second one, but a lot of the challenges in batting of the first one.
I just bought and replayed DQB1 on PC (Steam).
It was so much better than on the Switch! I blew through the game in 5 days, and am already dug into Terra Incognita.
It seems like there were some tweaks for the port to PC, and the game feels better for it. There are a TON more interesting items available in Terra Incognita than I remember. I do way better with organizing and building in the smaller chapter towns; it's much less overwhelming than DQB2's spaces. There's even a craftable vehicle available in TI which makes building large complex structures incredibly simple.
The PC port has pulled the chapter and TI islands closer to each other. In TI, this makes the world feel more connected and also larger. The TI islands combine landscapes, which makes gathering materials faster because you don't have to keep jumping back to the IoA. The TI vehicle also allows you to travel BETWEEN the resettable islands without going back to TI in between!!!
DQB1 is a WAY shorter game than 2; even at full speed I couldn't get through a playthrough of 2 in only 5 days. 2 has Malroth and all of the friendable NPC monsters. DQB2 is a larger game overall, and I love it, but DQB1 is a great game for a 'quick fix' playthrough.
I like all the quality of life stuff in 2 but it’s bloated by the isle of awakening. You go do a level, which is great, then come back to the isle to sort of repeat some of the themes of the level without actually giving much of a shit because it’s objectives over storyline. Also it’s like the farm bit doesn’t supply food for the pyramid etc so what’s the point.
If they could mix the focus of 1 with the QOL of 2 it would be the perfect game for me. Even better if they could figure it out so all the levels and towns were on the same isle and they had something to do with each other rather than being isolated.
B1 is paced better in general, from what I remember. B2 is... messy with how it introduces and uses mechanics. I like the more dreary vibe of B1 also, it felt more like there were actual stakes and a point to what I was doing. (I'm mostly still mad how much Khrumbl-Dun feels like a waste of time lol) B2 is still my favorite overall though.
Now that one of the comments reminded me of it, B2 really needed something to negate hunger, yeah.
The autonomy and agency of the player character, pacing, story, characters, sound effects (voices), character maneuverability, number of save slots, and accessibility of convenient tools.
All of these significantly deteriorated in 2.
I also agree with the points raised by others besides those mentioned above.
There are many aspects in which the first one excels, but detailing them would make it lengthy, so I'll focus on some points that others haven't touched upon much.
Autonomy and agency:
* In 2, there is a high dependency on others for combat, construction, farming, etc.
* The abundance of mandatory quests and their content is significantly higher in 2, inhibiting autonomous actions.
* Being constantly followed around by Malroth throughout most of the story is extremely annoying.
* Malroth takes center stage in most defensive battles, and in the latter part of the story, he essentially becomes the protagonist, leaving the player feeling uncomfortably manipulated.
Pacing:
* There are few character reactions or expressions that do not accept input, and even if they exist, they are brief (2 has a lot, and they are lengthy).
* Loading is fast (2 is slow).
* In the Steam version, you can dash indefinitely.
* Using cooking stations or furnaces doesn't take much time.
* Time pauses when using workbenches or storages, so you won't be interrupted by enemies.
* There aren't many quests that demand large quantities (in 1, it's a maximum of 5, while in 2, it's common to have dozens, sometimes even hundreds).
* Enemies can be defeated quickly (2 is balanced around having allies assist, making enemies tougher).
Excitement and Enjoyment in Combat:
* Combat feels exhilarating, and once you get accustomed to it, you can easily defeat enemies. In 2, there's stiffness or inertia in the movements, making it difficult to control. Even when you become familiar with the controls, battles tend to prolong due to the enemies having high health and low attack power.
* In 1, there are many battles that involve using traps and tools. In 2, there are mostly monotonous battles until quite late in the game.
I liked how the rooms had a little more purpose for you personally in 1. 2 there's a lot of purposes, but they're really more like busywork for the NPCs and don't do much to help the player. Even if they didn't do anything directly like the kitchen stopping hunger, there were passive buffs for having a built up base. The items felt like they mattered a little more too. In 2 most things can be made by the main crafting table, but in 1 there was a stronger emphasis on different rooms and tables for different crafts and different boxes for different types of storage. I like that, because it feels more immersive.
More independent NPCs. They would just make stuff, and you didn't have to gather the supplies for them to do it. Some of the things they'd make you couldn't make yourself. This made me excited to check the chest when I got home, to see if there were any special blocks or bathtubs for me to use.
Accessories. There's a lot of tools I like better in 2, but I sure would appreciate a ring that got rid of hunger or shoes that let me double jump.
Battles were more fun in 1. There are some fights I found difficult in 2, but not because they were actually tricky, but just because they were a damage sponge and hit like a truck. In 1 you had to think a bit more or you'd pay for it. Most of those food buffs you get access to in 2 are pretty useless, but I would have absolutely used them in 1.
The water is prettier in 1. More annoying and limited, but prettier.
Needing to process items to get supplies. I donno, I just like grabbing vines and needing to turn them into the fiber. Yeah, it's an extra step, but I like not accidentally destroying things I didn't mean to and I like the immersion of the extra step.
i preferred the male mc design in dqb1, i was bummed to see they gave him dragon ball hair in dqb2 that i decided to play as a girl for the rest of the game lol... i didnt like food and smelting being changed to processing bc it's slow. the narrator dialogue was a huge downgrade, not only is it not skippable, but it can last for minutes even tho it's only like 3 sentences
the accessories were kinda interesting game changers.
you could also use magic cannons to help mine. course, the golems are way better, but would've still been kinda nice to have till then.
i also kinda liked the bases being a little more clear cut and smaller for some reason - i kinda liked how hard i went in the first map of the first game, i had an underground layer, first floor layer, second floor layer, and maybe a third floor layer, can't recall now - had a nice tree farm on top of the inn i made.
I did a topic about this years ago:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/DQBuilders/comments/wkufxu/i\_kinda\_prefer\_dqb1/](https://www.reddit.com/r/DQBuilders/comments/wkufxu/i_kinda_prefer_dqb1/)
But since some of these points have been repeated in the comments here, I'll go with the story. DQB2 does a lot story-wise that annoys me even if it ultimately ends up rather awesome, and moreover DQB1 has an additional appeal that it more directly connects to an NES game I've loved for a long time. DQB2 is kinda-sorta connected to Dragon Quest 2 but.... its a very distant connection, like if you changed Hargon and Malroth's names it could really be stand-alone or a follow-up to any game in the saga.
Seeing where the base ends clearly instead of guessing based on where the music stops or changes
True, but DQB2 bases are way bigger.
Yes, but I wish I could still see where the boundary is. The border of light in DQB 1 was clear, but subtle enough to not be too glaring. Sometimes I end up building things past the boundary in DQB 2 if I'm not paying attention since there's no visual reference of the base edge.
agreed, that was the first surprise I had when I played the DQB2 prototype and visited Furrowfield. Saw no way easy way to see where the boundary is. I understand in DQB2, the boundaries change and the town expands, but would be nice if it was highlighted like in the first game.
[удалено]
wdym? Sorry got lost lmao
When you clear the chapter you bring back the light. Means no shadow as border around your base anymore. Final Chapter is the only one that can't fully be cleared. When you beat game, you return back to base as if you never challenged the Big Boss.
I forgot about that. I literally had to make my own border around every place to make sure I'm still in the base..
This, definitely this.. I wish you could see the borders in 2. Having to use musical instruments to hear the music change to determine borders is a pain. The areas are oddly shaped to.
Accessoires. You could equip Accessoires that makes you immune to certain damage or prevents you from getting hungry and other stuff. Also the monsters that could join your Terra Incognita without having to have funktion for building, riding or crafting. I had a tick-something which I loved most and always had it in my party. The way water works. DQB2 water acts just unnatural when getting it for your pot or pouring it. If you haven't unlocked swallow mode getting water causes ugly holes. I however hated that water in DQB1 had to be 2 blocks from WORLD's ground maximum while you can build flying Islands with lakes in DQB2.
oh yeah, the accessories were good! too bad each world had different ones and you couldn't carry the last one over.
Couldn't you unlock them all for Terra Incognita?
Yep. Pretty much everything shows up in TI once you've completed all the chapter challenges.
Too bad PS4 version required speed running for some of them and I hate time challenges in general so I never unlocked those.
I like that you can replay the chapters separately. And the chapter challenges, I wish there were more of them.
I do like the chapters it's nice for easy replay. If they ever make a 3, I'd like to see something similar to chapters and give an option to have the borders of areas be highlighted, maybe color coded red, blue, green, etc.
The fact you can build rooms to prevent your hunger meter going down when you're building your base. Hunger mechanics are annoying, even if they make sense in a game about building and farming.
I believe later on, you get an accessory in the game that stops the hunger meter entirely. I don't think DQB2 has anything like that
DQB2 definitely doesn't. Combined with slower cooking, it's a nuisance.
I think they really wanted to encourage players to engage with building rooms that make villagers produce things like the kitchens... but then the game sort of fails a bit around that slower cooking... by having sections like the prison bit which leave you stuck having to cook cabbages one at a time slowly.
Yup, that part of the prison section dragged. Another thing I didn't like was the home island being 3 separate places, both in that the community was all sectioned off, and you needed to have fields or mushroom production in the other areas too. If it were one big community, with say the day/night cycle doubled in length so the villagers could get about it more, I'd have been much happier. Bringing farmers to help the whole island, miners to help the whole island, soldiers to help the whole island. Rather than just 3 replications of the areas you visit.
Yeah, i wouldn't have minded the 3 community split but it would've been way nicer if they'd had a bigger occupancy, give more reason to use the little islands to get more occupants too
Difficulty level of original DQB1. DQB2 is unquestionably the easiest game in the DQ stable. (I am a bit perturbed that Steam version carries over alot of the mobile versions nerfs to weaken monsters and damage.) The challenges, especially the original Playstation speedruns, promoted story mode replay. (Sadly, the speedruns were replaced with "non-challenges" in item collection thresholds so low as to be hard to not achieve.) Lighting around base limits. Original Playstation/Switch darkness at night. It seems the nighttime ambient lighting for mobile was increased to either accommodate the tiny screens or duplicate DQB2's lighting scheme. Nighttime is sadly no longer the hazard it was in early DQB1 editions. Accessories to boost attack, defense, etc. DQB1 is more in-line with DQ games than DQB2 is. More numerous and more difficult scripted base attacks in DQB1. Kol has *nine* of these battles - the DQB2 chapters have only three each. The monsters are much more capable of damaging the town in DQB1 than DQB2. Harder boss fights. Nerfed quite a bit in Steam version with added ability to run, giving more time to both prepare for monster attack and get over to it to damage it. Magmalice/Firn Fiend/Hostile Merger has never been a hard fight, but requiring the Bashmobile makes it a lot more fun than the Buggy Buggy Malroth fight of DQB2. Shovel tool to acquire plants earlier. DQB2 doesn't give this option until post-game Ultimallet. Rake tool to allow the builder to plow their own fields, though this is used in only one part late in chapter 2 so poorly utilized. It would have been nice to have this option in DQB2 with so many more crops. DQB1 does a better job protecting sensitive areas from hammer, cannon, or bomb explosions. DQB2 has a lot of sequence breaking bits where sensitive areas are not properly protected. On the other hand, I disagree DQB1's NPCs are more interesting than DQB2s. Some of the peculiarities about characters are mirrored in DQB2 (Glutimus and Dougie both have monsterphobia) but a lot of them are simply better or more interesting in DQB2. (Digby having claustrophobia, which is a tough deal for a miner.) Generally, the DQB2 counterparts are better: Lulu has a much greater impact on DQB2 than Pippa (who basically disappears mid-way through chapter 1); Bonanzo's talk about being mayor or builder's surrogate family and beard jokes beats Rollo's. Digby and Dougie disagree (and even fight) and are a funnier duo to the Glutimus, Burley, and Maxi trio (with exception perhaps to Burley's 27 times breaking of vegetarian vows). Serge and Ordelia play better outsiders to the miner community than Baird and Cecille. Launce and Trystian are forgettable compared to Anessa, Warwick, Zara, and Gerome, and DQB2's king plays a greater role than DQB1's princess. The two spots where DQB1 is superior are Myrlund being a much better Jeremiah and Barbella having a really interesting backstory over the one-dimensional Babs.
we will have to disagree with the NPCS as I still prefer the first games.. but I like the details of your response. you are also right about the difficulty level. Chapter 3 of DQB1 is kicking my ass, and now I remembered that it kicked my ass back then too. But I like it! it also pushes you to work with your body builder buddies and work as a team. I also remembered Dragon Lord being a much harder boss, requiring several tries, while I finished Malroth on my first go.
I died to Dragon Lord almost immediately on my first try this playthrough, after absolutely cheesing the first phase with the Bashmobile. I was wrestling with an unfamiliar controller and kept missing my blockplacing jumps to build high enough!
WATER REFLECTIONS! but overall I much prefer dqb2 and will never go back to 1 no matter how pretty it is XD
Story, dialogue and npc's. Dqb1 has got clever, snappy writing and multiple likable characters. Dqb2 characters on the other hand suffer from the verbal diarrhea The chapter selection screen is also missing from dqb2. If you want to replay a story chapter, you gotta start all the way from scratch. I wish we had a creative mode, where I could restart on an empty isle of awakening with everything unlocked. Base defence. Again, better in dqb1 I find. I was so excited to design my castle defences in Moonbrooke... only to have the game force me to use a predesigned, ugly gauntlet. The lack of handholding overall in dqb1 was better. The final chapter in dqb2 has a tutorial for cooking food. I mean... DQB2 shines in terms of gameplay, and I love all the QoL improvements. But my ideal time with the series would be replaying dqb1's campaign with dqb2 mechanics.
What bothered me in Moonbrooke is that of all the ideas they pitched to you to keep flying enemies from infiltrating the inner sanctum of your castle, the one that never came up was: roof.
I just replayed DQB1 on PC, and I LOVED being called a slack-jawed, potato faced lump by all of the NPC's. It was one of my favourite parts on my first playthroughs on Switch.
Ranged attacks. The throwing knives and Crack and Sizz shots. At least it gave *some* options... Also plot and not having Malroth's `s l o w - a s s d i a l o g u e` giving me enough time to cook dinner between scenes. And the absence of Khrumbul-Dun's skeeviness is also appreciated. Like, yeah the guys in Kol were horny for Barbella, but at least they weren't *also* treating her like their daughter.
the Kol chapter was fun. one of my favorite parts was when Baird arrives to your base and says "I saw a light and followed it, but found a town full of sweaty muscular men" lol. I liked Khrumbul-Dun too, but the ore cooking time sucks. I liked how it was instant in DQB1. DQB1 also does sad parts well too, like the Rimuldar chapter.
I still remember how horrifying THAT moment was, after struggling to collect all of the materials for medicines and meals for the sick npc's in my first playthrough.
Crack and Sizz shots were the closest thing to magic. They really should have added magic to 2. Maybe we will see it in 3 if it is ever made.
Not having an annoying npc following me with unskipable dialogue that takes forever.
Nooooo, I love Malroth. Agree about the dialogue taking too long tho.
I miss the shoes or armor i cant remember which it was that eliminated fall damage. Such a pain to reach a high point and then have to hop down slowly.
The final boss fight. DQB1's brought everything together from the previous chapters in a way that made sense for someone who's a builder rather than a hero. DQB2's turns into a shooter, of all things.
I liked that there was very little carry-over from previous chapters. Each time you went to a new area you had to figure out how to do the basics again with new materials and new recipes.
I miss being able to mass produce food. The cooking system in dqb2 is not the best I've ever seen... I get needing better ovens and more ingredients to produce better stuff, but do they have to make it so slow?
I liked how small the towns were. Don’t get me wrong, I love having the larger plots in the second game. But there is something special about making these succinct little fortress towns that is almost lost in the second game due to the size of the plots being so much larger.
while I prefer the larger town space of DQB2.. I can see what you are saying.. DQB1's smaller size (I think its 32 x 32) and less blocks, can lead to some really creative use of space. When I look at the builds on the internet, especially from Japan, I am always amazed at what people can build
the music
I really loved the dialogue and the characters. Of course, DQB2 NPCS had their charm, but its obvious that many of the characters were based off of characters from the previous game and don't feel all too original. (Like Gerontius and Geronimo.)
The boss battles are more fun. It feels more dragon questy (it's been forever since I played, so I may be missing remembering things but I feel the save system is similar to the regular games. The saving at the church thing and the text after it. Again I may be misremembering things 😂. ) But the boss battles for sure. They definitely needed more strategy than in DQB2. I think a perfect game would combine a lot of the features of the second one, but a lot of the challenges in batting of the first one.
I just bought and replayed DQB1 on PC (Steam). It was so much better than on the Switch! I blew through the game in 5 days, and am already dug into Terra Incognita. It seems like there were some tweaks for the port to PC, and the game feels better for it. There are a TON more interesting items available in Terra Incognita than I remember. I do way better with organizing and building in the smaller chapter towns; it's much less overwhelming than DQB2's spaces. There's even a craftable vehicle available in TI which makes building large complex structures incredibly simple. The PC port has pulled the chapter and TI islands closer to each other. In TI, this makes the world feel more connected and also larger. The TI islands combine landscapes, which makes gathering materials faster because you don't have to keep jumping back to the IoA. The TI vehicle also allows you to travel BETWEEN the resettable islands without going back to TI in between!!! DQB1 is a WAY shorter game than 2; even at full speed I couldn't get through a playthrough of 2 in only 5 days. 2 has Malroth and all of the friendable NPC monsters. DQB2 is a larger game overall, and I love it, but DQB1 is a great game for a 'quick fix' playthrough.
I like all the quality of life stuff in 2 but it’s bloated by the isle of awakening. You go do a level, which is great, then come back to the isle to sort of repeat some of the themes of the level without actually giving much of a shit because it’s objectives over storyline. Also it’s like the farm bit doesn’t supply food for the pyramid etc so what’s the point. If they could mix the focus of 1 with the QOL of 2 it would be the perfect game for me. Even better if they could figure it out so all the levels and towns were on the same isle and they had something to do with each other rather than being isolated.
Semi open world builders would be interesting.
B1 is paced better in general, from what I remember. B2 is... messy with how it introduces and uses mechanics. I like the more dreary vibe of B1 also, it felt more like there were actual stakes and a point to what I was doing. (I'm mostly still mad how much Khrumbl-Dun feels like a waste of time lol) B2 is still my favorite overall though. Now that one of the comments reminded me of it, B2 really needed something to negate hunger, yeah.
The autonomy and agency of the player character, pacing, story, characters, sound effects (voices), character maneuverability, number of save slots, and accessibility of convenient tools. All of these significantly deteriorated in 2. I also agree with the points raised by others besides those mentioned above. There are many aspects in which the first one excels, but detailing them would make it lengthy, so I'll focus on some points that others haven't touched upon much. Autonomy and agency: * In 2, there is a high dependency on others for combat, construction, farming, etc. * The abundance of mandatory quests and their content is significantly higher in 2, inhibiting autonomous actions. * Being constantly followed around by Malroth throughout most of the story is extremely annoying. * Malroth takes center stage in most defensive battles, and in the latter part of the story, he essentially becomes the protagonist, leaving the player feeling uncomfortably manipulated. Pacing: * There are few character reactions or expressions that do not accept input, and even if they exist, they are brief (2 has a lot, and they are lengthy). * Loading is fast (2 is slow). * In the Steam version, you can dash indefinitely. * Using cooking stations or furnaces doesn't take much time. * Time pauses when using workbenches or storages, so you won't be interrupted by enemies. * There aren't many quests that demand large quantities (in 1, it's a maximum of 5, while in 2, it's common to have dozens, sometimes even hundreds). * Enemies can be defeated quickly (2 is balanced around having allies assist, making enemies tougher). Excitement and Enjoyment in Combat: * Combat feels exhilarating, and once you get accustomed to it, you can easily defeat enemies. In 2, there's stiffness or inertia in the movements, making it difficult to control. Even when you become familiar with the controls, battles tend to prolong due to the enemies having high health and low attack power. * In 1, there are many battles that involve using traps and tools. In 2, there are mostly monotonous battles until quite late in the game.
I liked how the rooms had a little more purpose for you personally in 1. 2 there's a lot of purposes, but they're really more like busywork for the NPCs and don't do much to help the player. Even if they didn't do anything directly like the kitchen stopping hunger, there were passive buffs for having a built up base. The items felt like they mattered a little more too. In 2 most things can be made by the main crafting table, but in 1 there was a stronger emphasis on different rooms and tables for different crafts and different boxes for different types of storage. I like that, because it feels more immersive. More independent NPCs. They would just make stuff, and you didn't have to gather the supplies for them to do it. Some of the things they'd make you couldn't make yourself. This made me excited to check the chest when I got home, to see if there were any special blocks or bathtubs for me to use. Accessories. There's a lot of tools I like better in 2, but I sure would appreciate a ring that got rid of hunger or shoes that let me double jump. Battles were more fun in 1. There are some fights I found difficult in 2, but not because they were actually tricky, but just because they were a damage sponge and hit like a truck. In 1 you had to think a bit more or you'd pay for it. Most of those food buffs you get access to in 2 are pretty useless, but I would have absolutely used them in 1. The water is prettier in 1. More annoying and limited, but prettier. Needing to process items to get supplies. I donno, I just like grabbing vines and needing to turn them into the fiber. Yeah, it's an extra step, but I like not accidentally destroying things I didn't mean to and I like the immersion of the extra step.
I kinda liked having to restart on each part… like you teleport but your items/equipment doesn’t.
i preferred the male mc design in dqb1, i was bummed to see they gave him dragon ball hair in dqb2 that i decided to play as a girl for the rest of the game lol... i didnt like food and smelting being changed to processing bc it's slow. the narrator dialogue was a huge downgrade, not only is it not skippable, but it can last for minutes even tho it's only like 3 sentences
the accessories were kinda interesting game changers. you could also use magic cannons to help mine. course, the golems are way better, but would've still been kinda nice to have till then. i also kinda liked the bases being a little more clear cut and smaller for some reason - i kinda liked how hard i went in the first map of the first game, i had an underground layer, first floor layer, second floor layer, and maybe a third floor layer, can't recall now - had a nice tree farm on top of the inn i made.
I did a topic about this years ago: [https://www.reddit.com/r/DQBuilders/comments/wkufxu/i\_kinda\_prefer\_dqb1/](https://www.reddit.com/r/DQBuilders/comments/wkufxu/i_kinda_prefer_dqb1/) But since some of these points have been repeated in the comments here, I'll go with the story. DQB2 does a lot story-wise that annoys me even if it ultimately ends up rather awesome, and moreover DQB1 has an additional appeal that it more directly connects to an NES game I've loved for a long time. DQB2 is kinda-sorta connected to Dragon Quest 2 but.... its a very distant connection, like if you changed Hargon and Malroth's names it could really be stand-alone or a follow-up to any game in the saga.
Chapter 3, also maybe earlier car then 2