nunu these sound incredible omg.... even if not on the holiday proper we gotta do a friendsgiving sometime

oh those looks gorgeous, excellent job!!

dragon quest is already fairly lenient with death - you lose some money, and then more reviving your party members, but keep items, levels, and other forms of progress. it's just enough of a punishment to keep you playing a bit cautious, but gentle enough to encourage you to not give up outright.

what the game gains from this versus its more modern incarnation is a tenser, more rewarding experience. a couple times now i've finished a dungeon with one party member remaining and a fraction of their health. i barely got out of the pyramid with 8hp, making for a tense, memorable moment.

the gbc release is a nice middle ground - also a remake (a port of a remake), it does change the feel of the nes original with some major adjustments like introducing the bag to soften the inventory limit, but generally keeps the itemization and balancing very tight.

i was picking at the hd-2d release again and enjoying it enough, but some of its balancing changes and "qol" features (healing on level-up, ability to load from frequent autosaves for zero consequence death) fundamentally remove the friction that makes a simple rpg like dq3 tick for me