Graphics appear to be an updated HD type version of the Super Famicom version of the game.  Loving having me some portable Dragon Warrior.  All separate purchases of course.

DQ1 is $4.99
DQ2 is $6.49
DQ3 is $12.49

Physical from playasia is coming too btw

That is good to know, thank you!

I'm holding out and getting the physical, not wery keen on the direction they went with the graphics but then again still a bit better than 8bit nes/fc I suppose. (I would had much rather they went like they did with the mobile ones personally)

Now they need to release IV,V & VI and I would't be opposed to VII and VIII as well and the Monsters series..and rocketslime....hell bring em all over!

Dang got me all excited. I thought you said dragon quest monsters. Still waiting on the announcement for dqmj 4 or whatever they decide to call it

I personally prefer the NES style graphics, but I can get used to this one in time.  The names of some characters are different as well which much be how they were named in the Japanese version.  The map seems a bit smaller, I'm getting to towns somewhat faster than usual.  Also, even with the fastest text speed option every battle still takes awhile to spam through the post battle dialogue.  Overall it is Dragon Warrior/Quest which I like, but it is definitely different.  maybe more akin to the Game Boy version where the characters had different values in xp/gold.  In the NES version for example the Gold Golem was only worth up to 200 gold pieces.  In this version he is worth up to 650 gold, although I think he has more health as well.  So it's faster to get the good gear.

Kind of different overall, kind of the same, worth the five bucks for me since i like DW so much.  I will probably pick up DW2 as well since it's only $6.49, but I'll have to see how I feel about DW3 since it's double the price of DW2.  Then I'm still debating on getting the physical release too.  So many choices...

I'm really contemplating getting the physical of this.

On the one hand I own all the NES games and have never actually played any of them aside from the original. I bought em to one day give em all a go, but the quality of life updates for Switch may actually make them not such a huge time sink for me, making it a bit more appealing.

On the other hand I really hate the art style of the updated versions. Looks like a mobile phone RPG (basically what they are). Square has released most or all of these on phone and at least at a glance that looks to be what we have here. Not mu cup of tea if so. I much prefer the 8bit graphics.

Is there any way to play with the original graphics?

None that I have seen so far.  It was the first things I looked for.

After you select Venture Forth (new game) and pick your name, it goes right to the king at the start.  I went through all the menus after his speech and found nothing about graphics changes.

I really hate the graphics as well. It looks absolutely terrible, like fanmade flash games from the early 2000s. I'm really surprised by how often SquareEnix, despite all their ressources, fails to deliver a great port of their old games. Couldn't they just have ported the Super Famicom versions of these games and just translate them? They still look gorgeous and are decently balanced without being too easy.

But SquareEnix has recently announced that they're planning on making ALL of their back catalogue available on modern platforms. So I am sure that there will be many more ports or maybe even remakes of older games from them.

As for the high price of DQ III I have to point out, that this game is huge! It's at least as big as DQ I and II combined if not even longer. My first playthrough took me well over 40 hours. In this game your only fixed character is the hero, i.e. your avatar. Instead you can recruit up to 3 characters each of which has a different class, like warrior, brawler, priest, mage, sage, merchant and thief iirc. They all have different stat gains obviously and learn different abilities as they level up. However, what made this game much more interesting was that your supporting characters can change their classes later on in the game! You can't do it as freely as in FF III and V, but it still offers a bunch of combination possibilities. Because after changing the class that character retains all of his previously learned abilities, his/her stats are halved and the level set back to lvl 1. Furthermore every character has a different personality that affects their stat growth and so on. It is a really deep and long game that is definitely worth more than the previous two games, imho.

Apparently they are marketing these as mobile ports, these are NOT like the ones I have on my android tablet as those are basically 16bit akin to the SFC versions and not the artstyle presented in the switch port.

Graphics are a no go for me. Hard pass.

Yeah, I was hoping for proper NES, SNES, or GBC ports... That's definitely not what these are! *projectile vomit*